pastor || writer || speaker
Over the past several weeks, I have been reflecting on Eugene Peterson's book Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. I am doing this in part as a way to honor the numerous ways that Peterson shaped my approach to pastoral ministry, but also as an attempt to reconsider - and perhaps recover - the …
Continue reading "Hearing with Our Eyes [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 6]"
Following his reflections on the shortcomings of modern pastoral ministry in regard to prayer, Eugene Peterson turns his attention to how a pastor develops the life of prayer. In a world of quick fixes and shortcuts, Peterson's starting advice on prayer is perhaps more necessary than ever: "Be slow to pray" (43). Why should we …
Continue reading "Praying by the Book [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 5]"
For the majority of the Christian centuries most pastors have been convinced that prayer is the central and essential act for maintaining the essential shape of the ministry to which they were ordained. With this strong word, Eugene Peterson begins his exploration of the first of the three angles of pastoral ministry: prayer. Peterson suggests …
Continue reading "Recovering Prayer [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 4]"
In his attempt to recover the essence of pastoral ministry and help pastor's hold onto their essential vocation, Eugene Peterson takes an image from an unlikely source: mathematics. I have found a metaphor from trigonometry to be useful in keeping this clear; I see these three essential acts of ministry as the angles of a …
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]"
Matthew Erickson 