pastor || writer || speaker
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]"
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"
If we are going to move toward Revelation 7:9-10 as the church of Jesus Christ, then we must pursue growth as disciples - both through developing new disciples and going deeper in life as existing disciples. If we are going to become a Revelation 7 type of church, then we must reach out as a …
Bringing my reflections on Parker Palmer's five 'shadow-casting monsters' from his book Let Your Life Speak, I want to bring our attention to the fourth and fifth of that list today. Shadow-Casting Monsters #4: 4. "Fear, especially our fear of the natural chaos of life" (89). Don't we fear the chaos of things? Having participated in …
Continue reading "Shadow-Casting Monsters: Parker Palmer on dealing with our souls, part 3"
Continuing my reflections on Parker Palmer's five 'shadow-casting monsters' in the life of a leader from his book Let Your Life Speak, I turn now to numbers three, which is: "'Functional atheism', the belief that the ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us" (88). Here's a bit more from Palmer on this one: This is the unconscious, …
Continue reading "Shadow-Casting Monsters: Parker Palmer on dealing with our souls, part 2"
Matthew Erickson 