Pastors as Friendless Leaders??

In one of my classes yesterday we were talking about role identity issues and boundaries in the pastorate. How do you know when to say what? When you give advice, it is always as the pastor? Or can it sometimes be simply as a friend? Is there a difference?

I was surprised at the division in opinion amongst the class. Some people were extremely adamate about the fact that pastors should not make friends within their own congregations. Other people couldn't understand how a pastor couldn't make friends in his own church.

Those who argued against friendship said that a pastor may lose all respect if she tells people her true struggles and thoughts. They said that they would rather be friendless than chance breaking up a healthy congregation if information of their "true life" got out.

Those who argued for friendship couldn't imagine how a pastor could encourage community in his/her congregation without being in true community themselves. Granted, this would look different in various size churces. However, a pastor who has no genuine friends in a church seems vulnerable to burnout and the sinful dangers which accompany isolation. If the church is called to exist as a community of individuals who are together learning to live like Christ, then how can a pastor not be friends with anyone?

What do you think? Is it possible to not have friends in your congregation? It is possible to have friends and still retain some personal boundaries? Where do you draw the line between professional and personal?

Or should there even be a line at all??