Eugene H. Peterson (The Jesus Way; Practice Resurrection) thinks of himself as a scholar and a writer and certainly his bibliography of over thirty books supports that predisposition. On the other hand, he never sought to be a pastor. When, in 1962, that position was thrust upon him, he entered the job without metaphorical training wheels, learning step-by-step what he imagined that others knew instinctively. The Pastor is an anecdote-filled memoir of his nearly three decades of his hard-won education. Along the way, Peterson offers telling wisdom about human relations, church marketing, preaching in a mega-church world, and diluting the gospel message in a glitzy secular world.
Eugene Peterson excavates the challenges and mysteries regarding pastors and church and gives me hope for both. This a must read for every person who is or thinks they are called to be a pastor and for every person who has one.” — William Paul Young, author of The Shack
“If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastor’s heart and a pastor’s art. Take and read!” — Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline
“I’ve been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness.” — Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God
“A good book for folks who like pastors. And a good book for folks who don’t. The Pastor is the disarming tale of one of the unlikely suspects who has helped shape North American Christianity.” — Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution
“More than a gifted writer, Eugene Peterson is a voice calling upon the churches to recover the vocation of the pastor in order to experience the renewing of their faith in the midst of an increasingly commercialized, depersonalized, and spiritually barren land.” — Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary
“If you are hoping to be a pastor, or just to understand what that is, get this book and soak in it for at least three full days with no distraction. It may save your life and make you a blessing.” — Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy
“A gift to anyone who has tried answering the call to pastor, and to a church that needs true pastors. . . . It is a subtle manifesto of hope for our time.” — Christianity Today
“Peterson found writing as a way to pay attention, and as an act of prayer. It’s our privilege to have his words, full of insight and truth. This book might be considered a long prayer for pastors.” — Englewood Review of Books
“A book full of much needed wisdom that is written with eloquence.” — Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Peterson is a master storyteller. . . . The Pastor is a profound and important meditation . . . serves as a necessary reaffirmation of the true nature of a calling that in current American religious life seems largely lost.” — Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
A book full of much needed wisdom that is written with eloquence.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
I’ve been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness.
Peterson is a master storyteller. . . . The Pastor is a profound and important meditation . . . serves as a necessary reaffirmation of the true nature of a calling that in current American religious life seems largely lost.
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
Peterson found writing as a way to pay attention, and as an act of prayer. It’s our privilege to have his words, full of insight and truth. This book might be considered a long prayer for pastors.
Englewood Review of Books
A gift to anyone who has tried answering the call to pastor, and to a church that needs true pastors. . . . It is a subtle manifesto of hope for our time.
A good book for folks who like pastors. And a good book for folks who don’t. The Pastor is the disarming tale of one of the unlikely suspects who has helped shape North American Christianity.
Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution
More than a gifted writer, Eugene Peterson is a voice calling upon the churches to recover the vocation of the pastor in order to experience the renewing of their faith in the midst of an increasingly commercialized, depersonalized, and spiritually barren land.
Eugene Peterson excavates the challenges and mysteries regarding pastors and church and gives me hope for both. This a must read for every person who is or thinks they are called to be a pastor and for every person who has one.
If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastor’s heart and a pastor’s art. Take and read!
If you are hoping to be a pastor, or just to understand what that is, get this book and soak in it for at least three full days with no distraction. It may save your life and make you a blessing.
A book full of much needed wisdom that is written with eloquence.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Peterson, a pastor, is best known for his book THE MESSAGE. Here his memoir offers an inside look at his own life. In particular, he writes of his early years and how they impacted him in his ministerial life. Arthur Morey offers a respectable reading of this work though it won’t engage someone who is not interested in Peterson and his ministry. Expressing more emotion when called for by the text would have made this audio experience more enjoyable. The story of the often misunderstood author, not its delivery, is what engages, so one might be advised to experience the book in print. T.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
