pastor || writer || speaker
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]"
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"
Matthew Erickson 