Headers and footers not appearing on list messages

I think the following has something to do with sendmail's security features, 
but am not sure:

In the $list.config files for some of my lists, there are both headers and 
footers that are intended to be included in each e-mail.

However, if I set ALL files in the majordomo/lists director to mode 644, 
neither the header nor the footer appears on any list message.

The above leads me to believe that the $list.config files are not even being 
used at all with the present mode.

Shouldn't some of those files be executable?

Which ones? Executable by whom?

If I do not set at least the $list file to mode 644, I get an error message from 
sendmail that the file is group writeable and it won't read it.

Thus, none of the list administrators can edit their $list files unless they su 
majordom, or unless I make all the files associated with a particular list 
owned by the list administrator.

The first method has, to my mind, security issues. The second is somewhat 
"unhandy" to root.

I have added majordom to the list of Trusted users in my sendmail.cf, which 
allows sendmail to read the $list files at all, but what do I do about the other 
files, especially the $list.config files?

Solution(s)?

Ken Gordon