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"
Throughout our series, "Great Prayers of the Bible," we looked at passages of Scripture in which prayer is the central activity. Along with study of those specific Bible passages, I turned to the wisdom of many authors far more brilliant than me and from many different eras for help. At times people ask me whether …
Eugene Peterson is the pastor-preacher-professor who translated the Bible into the highly popular paraphrase, The Message. One of the most striking aspects of The Message is how Peterson used everyday language in it. The 'everyday'-ness of the wording is sometimes strange because we are used to using one set of words for our religious life …
Here is a brief overview of the form of lectio divina. There are four Latin words that outline the movements of lectio divina: lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio (prayer), and contemplatio (contemplation). Reading (lectio) Find a quiet place where you will not be distracted by what’s around you or what’s not around you. Find a …
Continue reading "Reading Scripture for Transformation (pt 3)"
Matthew Erickson 