Eugene Peterson on "Why Pastors?"

Eugene Peterson continues to surprise and amaze me. Not only is his literary journey astounding (over 30 books NOT including the Message edition of the bible) but his pastoral sensitivity, spiritual depth and prophetic ministry impacts my heart and professional awareness on a regular basis. I've read most of his work...his latest series of books on spiritual theology is excellent. Below is a quote that means something to me...it seems to pierce through the confusion and the multiplicity of voices that are always out to define our lives and work in the Kingdom. See what you think!

Why pastors? by Eugene Peterson

"We are there for one reason and one reason only: to preach and to pray (the two primary modes of our address). We are there to focus the overflowing, cascading energies of joy, sorrow, delight, or appreciation, if only for a moment but for as long as we are able, on God. We are there to say 'God' personally, to say his name clearly, distinctly, unapologetically, in proclamations and in prayers. We are there to say it without hemming and hawing, without throat clearing and without shuffling, without propagandizing, proselytizing, or manipulating. We have no other task. We are not needed to add to what is there. We are required only to say the name: Father, Son, Holy Ghost. All men and women hunger for God. The hunger is masked and misinterpreted in many ways, but it is always there. Everyone is on the verge of crying out “My Lord and my God!” but the cry is drowned out by doubts or defiance, muffled by the dull ache of their routines, masked by their cozy accommodations with mediocrity. Then something happens — a word, an event, a dream — and there is a push toward awareness of an incredible Grace, a dazzling Desire, a defiant Hope, a courageous Faithfulness. But awareness, as such, is not enough. Untended, it trickles into religious sentimentalism or romantic blubbering. Or, worse, it hardens into patriotic hubris or pharisaic snobbery. The pastor is there to nudge the awareness past subjectivities and ideologies into the open and say 'God.'"