Have Protestants failed to teach/model "the priesthood of all believers"??

This post is about something that has bothered me for years and recently has been only been highlighted/underlined even further.

500 years ago the Protestant Reformation was partly about the "priesthood of all believers"! The clergy/laity distinction had gotten to a place where ordinary believers were viewed as "second class" - having less access to God. Only special believers, the ordained priests, and bishops were able to pray for people.

And don't get me wrong - I believe in the ordained ministry. I am ordained. 

But here is my PROBLEM.

I pray for a lot of people. My wife prays for a lot of people. The people in our community pray for a lot of people. And I get the most annoying question asked to me all the time.

When I offer to pray for people, and they are Christians (or from a Christian background), the next question I inevitably get is this, "Are you a pastor?"

WHY in the world would a Christian ask another Christian if they are a pastor for offering to pray?  Have we learned NOTHING since the Protestant Reformation?  Has much of the Church, and I am thinking here of the Evangelical and/or Charismatic Church, failed to teach and model "the priesthood of all believers"???

I understand in a Catholic or Orthodox context that people might ask that question when I offer to pray (and I am fully aware of many Catholics and Orthodox followers of Jesus who are not priests who pray for people all the time!).

But WHY are Evangelical and/or Charismatic Christians asking me if I am a pastor for offering to pray for them? Are only pastors praying in their churches? Are only the "clergy" those who would be reaching out to others? What in the world have we been doing for the past 500 years???  

This is an embarrassing failure of the Church that boldly stood/stands against elevating the ordained clergy to some kind of super-spiritual, ultra holy category.

WAKE UP CHURCH - we are all commanded to pray for people - to pray without ceasing...to heal the sick...to encourage other believers...to give them prophetic words...or whatever else the Lord will lead you to do!  This is NOT the sole responsibility of the pastors! Pastors are commanded to train and equip the saints to do what?? To do the works of the ministry! And that includes PRAYING for others wherever you happen to be!