This is another conversation with Peterson. It's taken from Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality. Edited by Jim Lyster, John Sharon, and Peter Santucci (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Vancouver: Regent, 1997), pp. 236-244.
Peterson mentions that he didn't attend committee meetings in his pastorate. I think it worked for him, but it doesn't work for most pastors, including myself. I believe that pastors need to attend or lead committee meetings. But we have to be selective, for we are not omnipresent. The matter is not that we go to committee meetings or not. Rather, it's about whether or not we pastors consciously know the intrinsic nature of different meetings
In my pastorate, I tend to take committee meetings secondary. They are important, but I don't priorize my ministry around them. Rather, I pay more attention to teaching, preaching, and disciplehsip. I don't consider committee meetings as fellowship even though we do have fellowship with one another in the meetings. But having fellowship with one another is not the primary focus. In committee meetings, what we need to do is to discuss related matters with efficiency and come up with relevant solutions. In meetings, I try to be effective and less personal. In fellowship, I try to be relational and more personal. I have no intention to dichotomize fellowship and committee meetings. But I think one of the reasons why we are so not efficient is because we mix up the two. Every gathering has its nature. We must know and respect it.
No matter what, I like Peterson's ideal concept not to attend committee meetings. The reason behind it is that, as a pastor, he likes to devote more time to pray, to study the Bible, and, most importantly, to spend more quality time with his congregants. I admire that. I try to follow that. Spending time with different individuals can be more tiring than attending committee meetings. But the end result is immeasurable, for it's about knowing, building, shaping, sharing, and forming the life of His people in a way that both pastors and congregants will always cherish on earth and in eternity.
Here is Part 1:
How does busyness affect our spiritual lives?
Peterson: Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions. It is taking charge.
There is an old Russian proverb that says “Pray to God and keep rowing to shore.” It implies that life is both busyness and spirituality. Life doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, does it?
Peterson: It is an either/or situation. Busyness has nothing to do with activity, and spirituality is not the absence of activity. You either enter into what God is doing or you don’t. A busy person is a lazy person because they are not doing what they are supposed to do.
What does that mean?
Peterson: It means that the elder in your church who goes to all the meetings, runs all the committees, and, as a result, doesn’t take care of his kids or his wife, is not doing what he is supposed to be doing. Everyone, including the pastor, thinks this elder is wonderful, but his wife and children don’t think it’s so wonderful.
It seems like most pastors we know are just like you have described. Busy, busy, doing the work of the church.
Peterson: Most pastors want to run a good church and they will do just about anything to make that happen. We pastors have a good nose for the market. We sense when people are getting a little bored and we jazz things up a bit, challenge them with a new project, and we use Sunday morning “worship” as the stage to do that. I’m convinced that most pastors don’t give two cents about worship. They really don’t. And there’s a good reason for it. True worship doesn’t make anything happen. It is a losing of control, a weaning from manipulative language and entertainment. It’s tough to practice that reality because, given the choice between worship and dancing around the golden calf, pastors know people are going to dance. Pastors sense that if they really practice worship they are going to empty out the sanctuary pretty fast.
We agree that pastors should not be in the entertainment business, so what should they be doing?
Peterson: The pastor’s primary work is leading people in worship on Sunday morning, proclaiming the word of God, being knowledgeable in theology and scripture, and being committed to pastoral care which does not have the therapeutic model for its structure. The pastor is the one who is available one-on-one through the week to personalize, to customize, and to deal with the uniqueness of everyone’s situation. Pastors pray a lot. Prayer is hard work, but prayer should be the distinctive about us. We should have a deliberate or a conscious, intelligent, personal relationship with God which is articulated in prayer.
It’s a lot easier to be busy instead.
Peterson: I hate this professionalization of the church’s ministry where the pastor hogs the show all the time. The laity should be committed to doing the real ministry of the church and the pastor should be committed to the spiritual direction of the laity.
We’re shocked because we didn’t hear you mention a word about the pastor going to committee meetings.
Peterson: I don’t go to them.
That’s heretical.
Peterson: I had a friend—he’s dead now—and committee meetings were his forte. He was a pastor at committee meetings and it was his best structure for working. So I don’t want to be dogmatic about this, but if a pastor complains about the committee meetings, then he ought to quit going to them. I haven’t been to a single committee meeting in 25 years.
This is amazing. We hear a lot of ministers complain about all the committee meetings they have to attend.
Peterson: The reason they are going to all those committee meetings is that they don’t trust their laity.
They don’t trust their laity?
Peterson: No. It’s an ego problem, really. We have a thousand euphemisms for our ego—spiritual concern, theological wisdom, equipping the laity. All of those phrases can be a euphemism for not trusting the laity.
Don’t the people in your congregation get a little irritated that you never attend a committee meeting?
Peterson: They love it. They understand that they are in charge. It gives them dignity. Now, understand, I didn’t do this cold turkey. People don’t know what a pastor does. They know what their doctor does, they know what their lawyer does, so I help them understand what their pastor does. The reason I don’t go to committee meetings isn’t because I’m too good for them; I don’t go because I believe in them. Their ministers have just as much validity as mine. I don’t think the pastor is the most important person in the church, but the task we are given is very important and we had better do it.
You mentioned earlier that your model for ministry is spiritual direction. Wouldn’t most pastors describe their model for ministry as administration or management?
Peterson: Unfortunately, that is the predominant model for the American pastor.
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