Over the years I have benefited immeasurably by the writings of Eugene Peterson. I think just about any dedicated Christian can pick up just about any work by Eugene Peterson and spiritually benefit from it. But this is especially true of pastors, of whom I am one.
Eugene Peterson understands pastors like no one else! The truth is that God has exalted the role of pastor, and yet men continue to demean it, undermine it, or ignore it. Peterson's "The Pastor: A Memoir" is therefore a very welcome work to a man who has become a pastor to pastors. In this work, Peterson hopes to restore the dignity of the role of the pastor. I highly recommend it to all who are called to serve in God's Church, and especially to those who may have lost their way or feel inadequate to the great vocation to which God has called you. It will bring rest to all who are weary and heavy laden.
But Peterson goes about his task in an unusual and refreshing way. What is perhaps most striking about Peterson's work is something suggested by the titles of his chapters. What you don't find is a list of theological themes or pastorals roles but what looks like experiences from Peterson's life. This is because "The Pastor" is the story of the formation of Eugene Peterson as a pastor. Telling his stories is his way of teaching us how to be pastors, for, as he says, there is no one blueprint for how to become and be a pastor. "The Pastor" is a wonderful look at the formation of one pastor, Peterson, told through the stories and experiences by which God formed him as a pastor. Peterson's story, while unique, is also therefore the story of every pastor. There is such a depth of personal wisdom made meaningful to all that "The Pastor" teaches in a way that few other books do.
Another gift that Peterson gives us, in addition to his stories, is an incarnational point of view. The reason why he names his first section "Topos and Kairos" is that the work of the pastor is not an abstract work but is always a call to a specific place (topos) and time (kairos). This is also why Peterson must imbed his advice on how to be a pastor in the real-life stories of his experience as a pastor. In this, we might say that he's following the lead of his Master, Jesus Christ, who presented his theology in terms of the real places, times, and things of the people whose lives He shepherded. Montana will always have a special place in Peterson's life, just as the places of the Bible where God met man became sacred places. We all have such places in our lives, and I regret that in my own life I have too often dedicated myself to the "spiritual" tasks at hand and haven't always appreciated the importance of the precise place and time where God has placed me.
As Peterson recounts the way his mother used to sing and tell Bible stories with a musical incantation, we realize that it's no wonder that Peterson writes with the ear of a poet and has the sense of a master storyteller. I think Peterson is trying to tell us that among everything else a pastor must be he should have a poetic spirit and be a storyteller. Interestingly enough, Peterson also relates that "I had learned much in my father's butcher shop that gave bone and muscle to my pastoral identity." One thing he learned for sure was some of the deeper meanings of the Levitical sacrifices of the Old Testament! From his father's hard work, Peterson also learned the liturgical rhythm of life that served him so well as a pastor.
From these humble beginnings, Peterson shares with us, step by step and story by story, how God led him to be a pastor, including the astounding revelation that to be a pastor meant that you have a congregation. This, in turn, led to the further revelation that not everyone who comes to a church comes for the best or most zealous of reasons! In Chapter 16, Peterson makes explicit what he's already been telling us all along: that a large part of Christianity is getting caught up in the story of Jesus Christ. Stories, Peterson tells us, are unpredictable, and so we get caught up in them. When the gospel is told as a story, we are, Peterson discovered, encouraged to see our own life and church in terms of God's story as well.
I find it interesting as well that Peterson found both his pastoral and authorial identity in John of Patmos, the disciple whom Jesus loved. In this way, Peterson also imaginatively envisions both his life as a pastor and the life of any pastor who is looking for a new and better vision of his sacred ministry.
Peterson closes his meditation on being a pastor with a letter to a young pastor. Like the entirety of the book, it's not at all what you might expect it to be. There's no encouragement that the young pastor is someone special or unique, only that his calling is unique. Instead, Peterson directly states that to be a pastor is to be someone who makes more professional mistakes than other professionals and to be someone who doesn't always have it all together. But that's OK because in the end the life of the pastor (as the life of any Christian) is to be one that is based on a complete trust on God and not oneself.
If you're looking for a different kind of book on pastors and pastoring that just might help you to see what God has been asking you to see for a long time - this just may be the book for you!
Here's an outline of "The Pastor":
I. Topos and Kairos
1. Montana: Sacred Ground and Stories
2. New York: Pastor John of Patmos
II. Intently Haphazard
3. My Mother's Songs and Stories
4. My Father's Butcher Shop
5. Garrison Johns
6. The Treeless Christmas of 1939
7. Uncle Sven
8. The Carnegie
9. Cousin Abraham
10. Mennonite Punch
11. Holy Land
12. Augustine Njokuobi and Elijah Odajara
13. Seminary
14. Jan
III. Shekinah
15. Ziklag
16. Catacombs Presbyterian Church
17. Tuesdays
18. Companies of Pastors
19. Willi Ossa
20. Bezalel
21. Eucharistic Hospitality
22. Appreciation and Tomfoolery
23. Pilgrimage
24. Heather-Scented Theology
25. Presbycostal
26. Emmaus Walks
27. Sister Genivieve
28. Eric Liddell
29. "Write in a Book What You See . . . "
30. My Ten Secretaries
31. Wayne and Claudia
32. Jackson
33. The Atheist and the Nun
34. Judith
35. Invisible Six Days a Week, Incomprehensible Seventh
IV. Good Deaths
36. The Next One
37. Wind Words
38. Fyodor
39. The Photograph
40. Death in the Desert
Afterword: Letter to a Young Pastor
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