Synopses & Reviews
In
The Pastor, Eugene H. Peterson, the translator of the multimillion-selling
The Message and the author of more than thirty books, offers his life story as one answer to the surprisingly neglected question: What does it mean to be a pastor?
When Peterson was asked by his denomination to begin a new church in Bel Air, Maryland, he surprised himself by saying yes. And so was born Christ Our King Presbyterian Church. But Peterson quickly learned that he was not exactly sure what a pastor should do. He had met many ministers in his life, from his Pentecostal upbringing in Montana to his seminary days in New York, and he admired only a few. He knew that the job's demands would drown him unless he figured out what the essence of the job really was. Thus began a thirty-year journey into the heart of this uncommon vocation—the pastorate.
The Pastor steers away from abstractions, offering instead a beautiful rendering of a life tied to the physical world—the land, the holy space, the people—shaping Peterson's pastoral vocation as well as his faith. He takes on church marketing, mega pastors, and the church's too-cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to present a simple, faith-filled job description of what being a pastor means today. In the end, Peterson discovered that being a pastor boiled down to "paying attention and calling attention to 'what is going on right now' between men and women, with each other and with God." The Pastor is destined to become a classic statement on the contemporary trials, joys, and meaning of this ancient vocation.
Review
“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
Review
“A gift to anyone who has tried answering the call to pastor, and to a church that needs true pastors. . . . It is a subtle manifesto of hope for our time.” Christianity Today
Review
“Peterson found writing as a way to pay attention, and as an act of prayer. Its our privilege to have his words, full of insight and truth. This book might be considered a long prayer for pastors.” Englewood Review of Books
Review
“If you are hoping to be a pastor, or just to understand what that is, get this book and soak in it for at least three full days with no distraction. It may save your life and make you a blessing.” Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy
Review
“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
Review
“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
Review
“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
Review
“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
Review
“Peterson is a master storyteller. . . . The Pastor is a profound and important meditation . . . serves as a necessary reaffirmation of the true nature of a calling that in current American religious life seems largely lost.” Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
Review
“A book full of much needed wisdom that is written with eloquence.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Synopsis
“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
An inspiring memoir of faith, humility, and the joys and struggles of answering Gods call, from the most well-known pastor in the world—Eugene Peterson, translator of the internationally bestselling The Message. In this humble, personal chronicle, Peterson tells the story of how he stumbled into his vocation, and recounts his difficult journey to discover just what being a pastor really means. William Paul Young, author of The Shack, writes that “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.”
Synopsis
In The Pastor, author Eugene Peterson, translator of the multimillion-selling The Message, tells the story of how he started Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland and his gradual discovery of what it really means to be a pastor. Steering away from abstractions, Peterson challenges conventional wisdom regarding church marketing, mega pastors, and the churchs too-cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to present a simple, faith-based description of what being a minister means today. In the end, Peterson discovers that being a pastor boils down to “paying attention and calling attention to ‘what is going on now between men and women, with each other and with God.”
About the Author
Eugene H. Peterson, author of The Message, a bestselling translation of the Bible, is professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, British Columbia, and the author of over thirty books. He and his wife, Jan, live in Montana.