Pauline Letters to the church.

[Brakeman]

The Pauline epistles were letters to the church from Paul telling them what to do on orders from god.

Weren't the church members praying already?

Most church member do not pray now. ..

Citation needed! When I ask christians, they universally claim to pray and not just petition. (Of course they could be lying )

Wasn't god already talking to them?

God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. But so does satan. The only way we know who is speaking for sure is to verify what is said scripturally. Paul's letters were the verification we needed to sift out un-Godly messages.

Good grief! The church members would have had to figure out the truth of the message either way as they would know that there was nothing special about this author claiming to be Paul that Satan couldn't counterfeit.
Church members don't ignore the responses of god in their prayers until a wandering prophet comes along now do they??

Why the need for a stranger's claims of god messages?

Because without a standard the 'stanger' you hear maybe the words of God. Meaning if you do not learn to hear or identify God's voice then the message you are accustom to hearing may not be of God.

So how was this author who claimed to be Paul any different? Why would a congregation assume that some guy claiming to be Paul was the real deal? If they knew they couldn't trust themselves to verify the words of the holy spirit directly, how does adding a middleman help?

One can only conclude that the prayers from the church people were going unanswered and they were just talking to themselves during prayer time.

Why must one conclude this?

Because your answers are illogical and my default conclusion is sound.

What else fits?

See my answers above.

I saw them, and they did not answer the question well at all.