The Pastor, My Pastor

Eugene Peterson’s new book The Pastor: A Memoir (New York: HarperOne, 2011) finally arrived today. I can’t wait to read it, digest it, talk to it, and engage with this remote pastor of mine. He always helps me gain a better perspective to see things. He helps me understand a pastor’s dignity and integrity. He places pastoral role in a place where it’s respected, but it’s not authoritative and hierarchical. His art of pastoring is that a pastor is church-oriented but not driven by church business. What it means is that a pastor gets involved with the Word of God and the life of His people. The essence of any pastoral work should be grounded in the presence of God and centered in the community of God. Running the church is not what a pastor does day in and day out.

“In the process of realizing my vocational identity as pastor, I couldn’t help observing that there was a great deal of confusion and dissatisfaction all around me with pastoral identity. Many pastors, disappointed or disillusioned with their congregations, defect after a few years and find more congenial work. And many congregations, disappointed or disillusioned with their pastors, dismiss them and look for pastors more to their liking…I wonder if at the root of the defection is a cultural assumption that all leaders are people who ‘get things done,’ and ‘make things happen…’ But while being a pastor certainly has some of these components, the pervasive element in our two-thousand-year pastoral tradition is not someone who ‘get things done’ but rather the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to ‘what is going on right now’ between men and women, with one another and with God—this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerful ‘without ceasing.’”

Then he said,

“I want to give witness to this way of understanding pastor, a way that can’t be measured or counted, and often isn’t even noticed. I didn’t notice for a long time. I would like to provide dignity to this essentially modest and often obscure way of life in the kingdom of God.” (p. 5)

A new way of understanding pastor should be introduced. I want to show that a pastor is not someone whom can be easily bypassed by Christians. Rather, a pastor functions as a priest and shares as a prophet in the life of Christians. A pastor is not the center of any Christian community: Christ is. However, a pastor’s main task is to point other Christians to this great Center. This is a pastor’s prophetic voice and priestly role among Christians. Throughout the years, Peterson has helped me live up to this pastoral dignity and integrity. He is my pastor.