If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastors heart and a pastors art. Take and read!; (Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline ) Ive been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness. (Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God ) A good book for folks who like pastors. And a good book for folks who dont. The Pastor is the disarming tale of one of the unlikely suspects who has helped shape North American Christianity.(Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution ) More than a gifted writer, Eugene Peterson is a voice calling upon the churches to recover the vocation of the pastor in order to experience the renewing of their faith in the midst of an increasingly commercialized, depersonalized, and spiritually barren land. (Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary ) Eugene Peterson excavates the challenges and mysteries regarding pastors and church and gives me hope for both. This a must read for every person who is or thinks they are called to be a pastor and for every person who has one. (William Paul Young, author of The Shack )
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If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastor s heart and a pastor s art. Take and read! (Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline ) I ve been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness. (Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God ) Eugene Peterson excavates the challenges and mysteries regarding pastors and church and gives me hope for both. This a must read for every person who is or thinks they are called to be a pastor and for every person who has one. (William Paul Young, author of The Shack ) A good book for folks who like pastors. And a good book for folks who don t. The Pastor is the disarming tale of one of the unlikely suspects who has helped shape North American Christianity. (Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution ) More than a gifted writer, Eugene Peterson is a voice calling upon the churches to recover the vocation of the pastor in order to experience the renewing of their faith in the midst of an increasingly commercialized, depersonalized, and spiritually barren land. (Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary ) --(Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary )
About the Author
EUGENE H. PETERSON is a writer poet and retired pastor. He has authored more than thirty-four books (not including The Message). He is Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver British Columbia. Eugene also founded Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air Maryland where he ministered for twenty-nine years. He lives with his wife Jan in Montana.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you Pastor Peterson,
By David Kenney (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pastor: A Memoir (Audio CD)
I picked up this book because I saw Eugene Peterson speak at the Catalyst Conference; and being at the very beginning of my own pastoral career, I knew I could do well with having some outside voices speak into my situation.
And you could argue that Eugene is Presbyterian and I am not, that he grew up in a different culture and generation than I did and that the world of ministry looks very different today: all true. But, I don't know if that means that the role that the pastor plays is any different - and I think Eugene would agree. The Pastor is not so much a book as it is a story, what I mean is... it's a journey of how Eugene planted a church, grew a congregation, built a sanctuary and traveled through the "badlands" of ministry. And as a memoir goes, it had all of the things I was hoping for, funny stories about growing up and being a pastor, how he met his wife, the journey of starting and growing a church, some of his weekly practices, good books he recommends, and some really great biblical application. But to read this book is really to read Eugene's story, so it wouldn't be right for me to tell it here, but there are a few of the things that resonated with my own story: First, Eugene talks about the role of pastor being a vocation and not a "job." I've said it a million times, the job of being a pastor is one of the weirdest careers of all time. From the outside it doesn't look like any other nine to five on the planet. But Eugene would rather you think of it as a vocation. With a job, you can walk away from it, you can separate your work life from your home life, and certainly Eugene talks about having a Sabbath rest and "getting away" now and then - but a vocation is a calling - it's a lifestyle of living with a community of people. How does one do that? Second, Eugene talks about being a "contemplative pastor" and not a "competitive pastor." What's the difference? A competitive pastor is always looking to the next project, and is constantly "measuring up" their church activity and the spiritual growth of its members. A competitive pastor has an agenda; has goals and is pushing their way towards those goals. But in the end, these are still people's lives... and while we (as pastors) might feel called to "change people" and perhaps feel like a failure if people don't rise to the occasion, tithe more, become prayer warriors, volunteer, help, join in, memorize, or in any other way mature into the mile marker we have set for them... we have to be able to live comfortably within the space God calls us to. A contemplative pastor is a pastor who is able to be with people "without having an agenda for them, a pastor who is able to accept people just as they (are) and guide them gently and patiently into a mature life with Christ but not (getting) in the way, (by letting) the Holy Spirit do the guiding." page 211 And the life of being a pastor is finding the balance of merging these two things together - you and the congregation. Eugene talks about how this merging sometimes breaks. "I had been shifting from being a pastor dealing with God in people's lives to treating them as persons dealing with problems in their lives. I was not being their pastor. I could have helped and still been their pastor. But by reducing them to problems to be fixed, I omitted the biggest thing of all in their lives, God and their souls, and the biggest thing in my life, my vocation as pastor... I was trading in the complexities of spiritual growth in congregation for the reduced dimensions of addressing a problem that could be named and understood." page 140 Everyone has their own idea of what a pastor should be, but rather than listen to the congregation define the "job," Eugene embarks on listening to scripture define the "calling." How does worship and work come together? How is a pastor fulfilling his biblical calling on a typical Tuesday? This is a wonderful book and a helpful resource for the new, the tired, the experienced and the retired. I highly recommend it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a worthy read,
By Peter Dubbelman (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pastor: A Memoir (Audio CD)
At times, The Pastor has valuable insights. Each chapter, for the most part, is a self-contained story; some helpfully unpack who is Eugene Peterson, others the pastorate or at least pastoral life for Peterson, and some were just enjoyable reading. The book, because it is a memoir, strongly presents a picture of Peterson's pastoral shape and formation--his journey, his temperament, his flavor, and his gifts: Among other dynamics, Peterson is in his element when in one-on-one relationships, nature, solitude, and with pen in hand or a thought in mind; he's contemplative, theological, an academician, a writer-pastor, an `unbusy pastor', poet-craftsman, Montana nature lover, compassionate, collegial, brilliant yet not stuffy, having left a big footprint in God's kingdom yet not taking himself too seriously. No one can fill Eugene's shoes, and only some pastors have a similar temperament and gift mix.
Some of his perceptions are biblically astute and justifiably critical of the American Church that is too often obsessed with programs, numbers, activity, usefulness, consumer religion, and the next big thing. The book's largest section, Shekinah, could have been called `badlands', a term Peterson uses repeatedly to describe a stretch of nomadic land on the way to Montana as well as his desert, formative pastoral years. Here, the Great Shepherd, uses circumstance's in Peterson's life to bring him into his own land--shepherd-writer-theologian.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the Pastor's Soul,
By T.C. Robinson (CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pastor: A Memoir (Audio CD)
An Overview
Following its Introduction: Pastor Pete, the book is divided into four parts, with each sort of building on the other. The book is also held together by well-placed stories, with each story serving as a pivot. Part I. Topo and Kairos. In New York, Peterson meets Pastor John of Patmos who will play a critical role in Peterson's life as a pastor and later as a writer. Part II. "Intently Haphazard." Meet the people, the circumstances, that will both sow and water the seeds the will eventually give birth a pastor. And it was during his seminary days, Peterson met Barth, through his Epistle to the Romans. "I've been reading him ever since." Part III. Shekinah. Along with his wife, Peterson plants a new church in Baltimore. This is where a young pastor will be shaped. The reader will be appropriately encouraged by the few years spent in the "Catacombs Presbyterian Church." This is also where a young pastor will have to clarify his vocational call as a pastor. But following the construction of their promising worshiping facility and sanctuary, disappointment and discouragement would set in the life of this pastor. But Nietzche's phrase A Long Obedience in the Same Direction would steady the ship, so to speak. Part IV. Good Deaths. A now season pastor begins to make the transition, through "Wind Words," as were. What were a pastor's translations of parts of the New Testament and the Psalms in the American vernacular, for his flock, give birth to what we now know as The Message. Ironically, after making the decision not be a professor earlier in life, choosing rather to be a pastor, Peterson, after a few stops, would be installed in the James Houston Chair of Spiritual Theology at Regent College, in Vancouver, Canada. Concluding Thoughts In the nearly thirty years at the church he founded in Baltimore, Maryland, Peterson had a faithful, supportive pastor's wife, who went along for the journey from the get go. This was crucial for Peterson. Though I have issues here and there, especially with Peterson's liturgical approach to his church building project and so on, what I've taken away from reading The Pastor: A Memoir is far more rewarding by contrast. In fact, Peterson has even helped me to clarify my own call as a pastor.
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