Pastors – live in the text (Willimon)

I am enjoying reading William Willimon’s Pastor in preparation for the leadership and Scripture course I am teaching this fall (class begins tonight, actually!).

Here is a truly inspiring and challenging word from Willimon about the pastor’s role as Biblical interpreter

We must live in the text, keeping it constantly before us. This is not so difficult for pastors who preach on the text each week. However, we must read Scripture as more than a source for sermons, something to be explined and delivered to the congregation. We must read, allowing Scripture to have its way with us, to change us, to remake us, call us, embarrass us. Regular, prayerful, playfully meditative reading of Scripture is perhaps the most important pastoral spiritual discipline.