Do you think contentment means having a bureaucratic job? Do you find the most attractive part of pastoring is a possible move up the denominational ladder? Then forget Eugene Peterson's book. But if you are open to a redefinition of pastoring and want to renew your passion for your work, Peterson will challenge and delight you.
The third in a series (Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, 1980, and Working the Angles, 1987), Under the Unpredictable Plant sharpens the spiritual definition of pastoral work.
Determined to resist modern business values and marketing ploys (which consume pastors' time with management instead of spiritual leadership), Peterson rallies a cry for "pastoral vocation" rather than "religious careerism." In the process he fans the flame of pastoral passion, painting a picture of what might be if we give more attention to contemplative prayer than idolized careers.
From his fundamentalist church up bringing in rural Montana to seminary teacher, Peterson could not identify with pastors. But need for a part-time job led him to a church assignment and a pastor he wanted to emulate. Later he pastored a Presbyterian church in Maryland for 29 years.
Long assignments fit Peterson's theoretical model. With the book of Jonah as a backdrop, he uses metaphors, stories, and concepts that depreciate quick moves to escape church storms. For example, he says, "A successful pastor will dis cover a workable program and repeat it in congregation after congregation to the immense satisfaction of parishioners. The church members can be religious without praying or dealing with God. Prostitute pastor." Instead, he values long-term commitment with all its boredom and constraints for the joy of seeing familiar people hearing God speak to them.
Peterson's preference for long pastorates is unfamiliar to many of us. But the principles are applicable. He acknowledges that all pastors won't be able to stay forever with their first assignment. He has now returned to teaching at Regent College, Vancouver, in British Columbia. But he challenges us to search our reasons for going else where. "It is necessary from time to time that someone stand up and attempt to get the attention of the pastors lined up at the travel agency in Joppa to purchase a ticket to Tarshish."
Peterson gets at the heart of our Christian dilemma when he describes pastoral work as geographical as well as eschatological. We must make the mes sage of God's plans (eschatology) relevant in present circumstances (geography). "Pastoral work devoid of eschatology declines into a court chaplaincy—sprinkling holy water on consumerist complacency and religious gratification. Geography without eschatology be comes mere religious landscaping."
But, he says, "Eschatology without geography degenerates into religious science fiction." We must state God's message so it makes sense in a certain place and time. Geography and eschatology go together and link our contemplative insights with real life. We are of neither this world nor the next, but of both at the same time.
Worth more than a quick glance, this story/sermon/appeal can stimulate us to a new vision of who we are, where we are, and why we are here.
