This post continues my reflections on Eugene Peterson’s book Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, which began as an attempt to honor Peterson's influence upon me while also reconsidering the essential aspects of pastoral ministry that Peterson affirms. The book explores what he calls the holy trigonometry of pastoral ministry, built around three angles of ministry: …
Real Shepherds: Thomas Oden on pastoral leadership as service
In Thomas Oden's Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry, he takes one chapter to reflect on the analogy of pastor as shepherd. In the midst of that chapter, he strikes at the heart of what I think is missing within much of pastoral ministry as it is currently practiced in North America: pastoral authority approached as service. The …
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Hearing with Our Eyes [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 6]
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 …
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Praying by the Book [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 5]
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 …
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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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