Pastor in the Present Tense

Your place and essential identity. Interview with Eugene Peterson

Is calling a one-time thing, or something that evolves over a lifetime?
For me it evolved.

As pastor, what is your essential role?
to show how the Bible got lived.
to embody the gospel

For a pastor who's trying to live the gospel and see that it's lived among the congregation, where does your authority come from?
The authority of the pastor comes from immersion in a community, from giving witness to the fact that this is livable stuff.

Someone once observed that the pastor does not serve the sheep; the pastor serves God by guiding the sheep. Would you agree?
We do this in community not through a line-of-command approach. The way we understand our authority, and the words we use to convey it, have to be thoughtful and accurate.

Since you entered the pastorate, how have perceptions of pastoral authority changed?
People are not problems to be solved. They are mysteries to be explored. I'm not saying there are no problems to be solved. But we don't merely fix things. We're not therapists. The way the pastor goes about things has to do much more with relationship, with forgiveness, with grace, with healing, with understanding, with redemption, with patience. These are the virtues that we should be cultivating.

Should pastors have goals for their people? Like wanting them to know Christ, to come to a living faith, to grow in and share that faith?
To run a marathon well, you have to stop thinking about the goal. You try to understand your body, the weather, the training. This business of being a Christian is a marathon. It's "a long obedience." I tell pastors, "Be patient. You're in too much of a hurry."

What is the role that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish? And what is the role that God asks pastors to play in that process?
The Holy Spirit is the center of it all in terms of communicating, bringing energy, a sense of repentance, of love. As a pastor I want to be there, to be able to assist, to speak at the right time, and pray the right prayers. But I don't think we do much. What we do is sometimes clarify, sometimes rebuke. I'm not against rebuking, telling people they're doing something wrong, and giving them directions on how to do it right. But I think we're co-receivers. We're doing this together.