In a messy world marked by untimely death and stillbirths, racial injustice and relational ruptures, we all wrestle with the problem of evil and suffering. Does God mean anything or a pastor have anything to say in such situations? Eugene Peterson thinks so. Among other things pastoral work is a decision to deal, on the …
The Pastoral Work of Story-Making: Ruth [Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work by Eugene Peterson, part 3]
The work of the pastor each weekend moves from the place where God's Word is proclaimed and prayers are offered to the ordinary places and relationships of people’s lives met immediately after the service. Eugene Peterson describes it this way: The people having received the benediction, now make a disorderly re-entry into a world of …
The Pastoral Work of Prayer-Directing: Song of Songs [Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work by Eugene Peterson, part 2]
As I continue my journey of re-learning and recovering what it means to be a pastor, I am blogging my way through Eugene Peterson's Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work. In this book, Peterson seeks to recover a sense of pastoral practice and integrity based on the Megilloth, the five scrolls connected with five key …
Recovering Pastoral Practice [Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work by Eugene Peterson, part 1]
I first stumbled into the work of Eugene Peterson in the 1990s through his translation work with The Message. It was not too much later, however, that a pastor and mentor introduced me to his writing on pastoral ministry, sometimes referred to as Eugene Peterson's Pastoral Library. About three years ago, I re-read and steadily …
Recovering Prayer [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 4]
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 …
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Matthew Erickson 