Customer Reviews

The Pastor as Minor Poet: Texts and Subtexts in the Ministerial Life (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies)

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Craig Barnes' new work, The Pastor as Minor Poet, says things that all pastors know, experientially and intuitively, but are afraid to say out loud! He pries open the interior life of the pastor as well as the life of the 21st century North American congregation. And the entrails of both seemed inflamed and in need of cure. The cure, for Dr. Barnes, is in the Word of God, the redemptive life of Jesus Christ, offered through "portals" from Scripture. Through these portals the pastor, the Minor Poet, seeks the cure. He connects the story of his life and the people' lives to the story of Christ's life as told, inspired by God, by the Major Poets, the Bibles' writers. Craig Barnes offers a hope and a vision for ministry that is at once vocationally satisfying and Scripturally faithful. I read it and smiled as I found the common places of ministry shared. I then repented as I saw where I had taken wrong approaches in treating the wounds of the flock of Christ. Sometimes I even paused and asked for courage to go on. In the end, I then thanked God for the calling to speak forth the Major Poets' words into this oftentimes dreary, verse-less world. I have been blessed by Barnes' books in the past, but I like this one the best. It is now a required reading for my students in pastoral theology class.

Clearly based in real parish work, Barnes gives a thoughtful and creative image of the pastoral task. Of all the descriptions of pastoral work available out there (CEO, leader, shepherd, teacher, administrator, therapist, theologian, etc.), this is the only one I have found which simultaneously knows the deep frustrations and even deeper joys of pastoral work, and gives a image which can withstand them both. I would highly recommend this for any pastor, particularly those newly ordained or seeking a lasting and powerful understanding of the task.

I read this book in almost one sitting. I was braced by it, finding many of its insights both instructive and helpful. I would recommend it to any pastor or aspiring pastor.

There are several of these insights worth pointing out. The phrase "it's just church" stood out to me. Barnes is right, it seems to me, in reminding us not to expect too much from the church, as if the church is Christ. He helped me in this connection to see the value of the distinction between the "visible" and "invisible" church, a distinction that in my opinion ecclesiology needs to recover.

I was especially impressed by his observation about the contemporary obsession over identity. I determine who I am by what I do; I cannot have a secure identity unless I find a profession that fulfills me. Whenever ones see the language of "calling" or "vocation" in the NT, it is always in reference to belonging to Christ. Our calling is to enjoy communion with Christ. This recognition could relieve the pressure under which many people labor in their pursuit of that spouse or that profession they believe constitutes their "calling."

The idea of pastor as minor poet is very helpful. When Barnes describes the task of the pastor as discerning the grace of God in the ordinary routines of people's lives, I found myself concurring with him. He's right in stressing that a pastor connects with people when he is able to participate in their mundane conversations about concerns which strike the idealistic recent seminary graduate as petty. The grace of God is found in the "petty." Christ is at work in the ordinary routines of people's lives, sanctifying them precisely in and through their routines. The examples he gives from his own pastoral experience were moving. I found myself almost moved to tears when he narrated the experience of the single working mother in one of the early chapters.

I do have a few points of criticism. It is important to acknowledge that there are legitimate human needs and that there is a legitimate place for their fulfillment. We shouldn't relegate them to "presenting needs" or dismiss them as "symptomatic" of a deeper need (communion with Christ). I don't think Barnes would disagree with me here, but I do find the use of this language problematic. It seems to draw more inspiration from popular psychology than the New Testament. Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar--sometimes a desire for a spouse and family is just that. Sometimes what a person needs most urgently is a job. A related point is that to view legitimate needs through this lens can reflect and perpetuate a status quo politics. High unemployment or dissatisfying work can be a call to institutional and structural reform to which we respond because we are concerned about justice in the here and now. To respond to this call by saying something to the effect that regardless of what are the real conditions of our lives we can always be be content that we are loved by God in Christ can be a form of escapism, against which the church and its leaders need to be vigilant.

I've known Craig Barnes as an excellent preacher, holding audiences at multi-day conferences spellbound for 45 minutes or more each time he spoke. He now teaches pastors the art of pastoral leadership while continuing to serve as preaching pastor of one of the great Presbyterian churches in the United States. He practices what he teaches and preaches. This is a book for pastors about pastoring - not so much about pastoral skills as about the pastor as person in the daily work of pastoring. He writes (as he preaches) with great humor and wit, but never for its own sake. His stories focus his point making it real in the pastor's life. Dr. Barnes lets us in on his very human feelings about difficult parishioners, but he never leaves it at that. The "minor poet" is enabled to artfully move beyond personal feelings to healing relationships. This book will encourage every pastor. It is highly recommended as a gift to the pastor you love.

An easy to read, insightful look at the way a pastor does his work. Good mix of anecdotes and practical advice and application of ideas. Pastors as minor poets ? He explains quite well. Engaging and thoughtful.

This is a hard book to review. I thought it was great while I was reading it, but now that I've finished it, it's hard to express what it was really all about.

Perhaps the first thing that needs to be explained is the title of this book. In what way is the Christian pastor a "minor poet". It means that the pastor seeks to find depth, complexity and meaning in conversations, in the details of everyday life, and, of course, in the text of Scripture.

The book picks up on the distinction between major poets (who "provide enduring expressions of the deep truths of life") and minor poets (who "have the more modest goal of inculcating that truth to particular people in particular places"). For the pastor, the major poets, says Barnes, are the writers of Scripture, and thus we have a robust metaphor for the pastoral ministry: communicating the deep truth of Scripture to a particular set of people.

But it goes further than this - being a minor poet involves being sensitive to the subtexts in Scripture, in the congregation and in himself. In other words, the pastor needs to be able to discern what's really going on.

The only time Barnes launches into an extended biblical exposition is in looking at John 4. Here he argues that a preacher can assist people identifying with the woman at the well: even if people have not been married five time, they may have "tried five weight-reduction plans, five moves, five jobs, five degree programs, or five churches - and the system isn't working for them either" (p. 84).

Barnes helpfully takes us through a day in his life to demonstrate how these ideas come out in the everyday life of the minister. My favourite quote from the book comes from this sort of interaction: "Mr Jefferson's life was not going to be reduced by a pathology report any more than it had been amplified by a prestigious job description" (p. 61).

In my perfect world the kinds of books ministry majors in Bible colleges and seminaries would read are exemplified by this offering by Barnes. Instead of the corporate style leadership models and the slick gimmicking of church growth seminars, future pastors would soak in views of pastoring that begin and end with biblical influences and remain solidly against the reigning cultural models. Barnes has written such a book.

The goal, it seems, is to clarify a confusion pastors live with right now - what it means to be a pastor. It seems to be a great problem if men and women are entering professions they can't properly or deeply define, but I think he is right. We have simply let the role of pastor be defined for us in recent decades and we need to work to recover its true meaning.

The image Barnes uses to control the book is that of pastor as a "minor poet." Major poets are the larger-than-life biblical and historical figures who change almost everything, but the vast majority of us fit into the "minor poet" role as we work on translating the truths of God into a fuzzy and broken world. All in all, I think the metaphor is a helpful one. From time to time it seems a bit stretched, but it really comes home in some of the final chapters as Barnes uses T.S. Elliot's "The Three Voices of Poetry" to help define the pastoral vocation. I was surprised at how helpful that rubric was.

The book is short but important. If you are a pastor, I challenge you to pick up this book and others like it to re-ground your vocation and break away from the definitions placed on you from the outside. If you know someone wanting to be a pastor, give them this book and see how it strikes them. I found it encouraging, helpful and needful at the same time.

The other reviewers have said plenty. This book is just incredible. What a vision of ministry! This should be required reading in every seminary. It practically makes you want to get up and preach!

This is a rare book.

Rarely do I read a book in its entirety on my weekly Sabbath. Rarely do I identify so strongly with an author or book. Rarely does a book make me feel less alone, even hopeful, as a pastor. Rarely do I finish a book with the intention of reading it again.

But The Pastor as Minor Poet, by M. Craig Barnes, is that book.

Subtitled "Texts and Subtexts in the Ministerial Life," the book is divided into two sections: The Call of the Minor Poet and The Craft of the Minor Poet. Although I was disappointed when the first section ended, because I had gotten so much out of it and wasn't ready for it to end, the second section quickly dispelled my disappointment, finishing the book just as strongly as it had begun--which is something else that makes this book relatively rare.

If this is the first M. Craig Barnes book you read, it will be quickly obvious that he knows the joys and frustrations of the pastor's life (he is currently senior pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA). It will be equally clear that he knows preaching. And people. And pain.

As one reviewer has written, it "offers a hope and a vision for ministry that is at once vocationally satisfying and Scripturally faithful." It is honest, entertaining, captivating, timely, and deep. And rare.

Being familiar with Barnes' unique writing ability I was curious about this one. I wanted to read the book before giving it to my pastor. It should be required reading for everyone who attends church. You will have a new appreciation for these men/women that have received the calling to "feed" His "sheep." I will be praying more regularly for pastors everywhere and will be delighted to hand a copy of The Pastor As A Minor Poet to my own pastor -- with a thank you and, of course, a poem.