pastor || writer || speaker
If we are to hold onto our identity and calling as pastors in North America, then we must resist the consumer-driven impulses that have infested our culture and even the church. We must become, as Eugene Peterson suggest, more than religious shopkeepers who keep the budget growing, the building improving, and the congregation busy. We …
Continue reading "Learning to Pay Attention [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 2]"
In reflecting on the ways Eugene Peterson shaped my pastoral ministry after his passing (see "Remembering Eugene Peterson") on Monday, October 22, I took a look through his writings again. I asked myself a number of questions, amongst them being: what was it about Peterson that helped me so greatly as a pastor? I saw a …
Continue reading "Abandoning Our Pastoral Calling [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 1]"
In response to our MissionsFest focused on multiplication with messages from me and Dr. Paul 'Bobby' Gupta, I mentioned four words that I think are helpful for us in applying what we have learned this past week. Befriending: Become friends with those around us, inviting them into our lives and homes that they might come to know …
My first introduction to the work of Eugene Peterson was through one of my college roommates, who often read from Peterson’s paraphrase of Scripture, The Message. In his own idiosyncratic style, Peterson’s work with the words of Scripture helped me remember God’s word was a relational word to us here and now. Roughly five years …
Continue reading "Ten Ways Eugene Peterson Shaped My Pastoral Ministry"
Matthew Erickson 