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{"id":32667,"date":"2012-09-21T05:05:20","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T10:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=32667"},"modified":"2012-09-21T07:36:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T12:36:19","slug":"from-the-shepherds-nook-the-unbusy-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/21\/from-the-shepherds-nook-the-unbusy-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Shepherd’s Nook: The Unbusy Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

John W. Frye<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>This Moby Dick episode pops up in a few of Eugene H. Peterson\u2019s books. Here it\u2019s from The Contemplative Pastor<\/a><\/strong><\/em>: \u201cIn Herman Melville\u2019s Moby Dick, there is a turbulent scene in which a whaleboat scuds across a frothing ocean in pursuit of the great, white whale, Moby Dick. The sailors are laboring fiercely, every muscle taut, all attention and energy concentrated on the task. The cosmic conflict between good and evil is joined; chaotic sea and demonic sea monster versus the morally outraged man, Captain Ahab. In this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn\u2019t hold an oar; he doesn\u2019t perspire; he doesn\u2019t shout. He is languid in the crash and the cursing. This man is the harpooner, quiet and poised, waiting. And then this sentence: \u2018To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.\u2019\u201d EHP adds, \u201cMelville\u2019s sentence is a text to set alongside the psalmist\u2019s \u2018Be still, and know that I am God\u2019 (Ps. 46:10), and alongside Isaiah\u2019s \u2018In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength\u2019 (Isa. 30:15).\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think of Peterson\u2019s marks of the \u201cunbusy\u201d life? What are its characteristics for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re attempting to grasp Eugene H. Peterson\u2019s taxonomy of pastor. The story by Melville vividly paints the value of the disciplines of solitude and silence for the pastor. I get more out of Melville\u2019s graphic paragraph than from the trendy books on spiritual disciplines. If you read the popular stuff on pastoral work these days, the pastor is to be Captain Ahab, an oarsman, the spotter, the cook and a frantic harpooner. Pastors who buy into our \u201csuccess\u201d culture have to appear busy and important. EHP traces this \u201cneed to succeed\u201d to two malignant motivations: vanity and laziness. Vanity shouts, \u201cI am important!\u201d and laziness reveals a pastor who is an empty suit, letting others direct his ministry. To put busy in front of the word pastor is like putting the word adulterous in front of the word wife. So, the question arises: what do unbusy pastors do? Three things.<\/p>\n

Pastors pray. Pastors cultivate their own first hand experiences with the living God. \u201cI want to awaken others to the nature and centrality of prayer.\u201d This cultivation of the art of prayer takes time. It cannot be rushed. EHP actually believes in a personal relationship with God. Many say they believe it; EHP lives it. \u201cI don\u2019t want to live as a parasite on the first-hand spiritual life of others, but to be personally involved with all my senses, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.\u201d What\u2019s so big about prayer? Well, what\u2019s so big about being personally involved in conversation with the living Creator, Trinitarian God of all?<\/p>\n

Pastors preach. \u201cI want to speak the Word of God that is Scripture in the language and rhythms of the people I live with.\u201d EHP isn\u2019t interested in \u201cdelivering\u201d bright, inspiring sermons from sound outlines with snappy illustrations. When pastors preach the Scriptures, EHP wants the people \u201cto hear its distinctive note of authority as God\u2019s Word, and to know that their own lives are being addressed on their home territory.\u201d EHP\u2019s admiration for the writings of Wendell Berry creates EHP\u2019s insistence that local church ministry is fiercely contextual.<\/p>\n

Pastors listen. \u201cI want the energy and the time to really listen to [others] so that when they\u2019re through, they know that at least one other person has some inkling of what they\u2019re feeling and thinking.\u201d I enthusiastically add here EHP\u2019s chapter on \u201cThe Pastoral Work of Story-Making: Ruth\u201d in Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. That one chapter helped me reimagine the nature of the congregation. \u201cPastoral listening requires unhurried leisure, even if it\u2019s only for five minutes. Leisure is a quality of spirit, not a quantity of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mark\u2019s Gospel, we read about one very long, busy day in the life of Jesus. Jesus serves late into the evening hours. Yet, here is what we read next: \u201cVery early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed\u201d (Mark 1:35). Why? Hadn\u2019t Jesus earned the right to sleep in? Why get up so early? Here\u2019s why: \u201cThe Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away\u201d (Isaiah 50:4-5 emphasis mine). The Gospels at one level present a passionate, kingdom-driven, needs-meeting, on-the-move Jesus. Beneath the flurry of his public ministry, however, was the subterranean, solitude-and-silence-life of Jesus the Pastor.<\/p>\n

Peterson denounces laziness in pastoral work; he also denounces busyness. He knows the demands on one\u2019s schedule; he knows of the tedious administrative dimensions of pastoral work; he knows the expectations to have \u201cpastor\u201d pray at the African Violent Ladies Guild; he knows the call to saturate his heart and mind in serious study of the Scriptures; he knows the pressures of budgets, buildings and bodies. Yet, he will not allow anyone or anything to sabotage his call to pray, to preach and to listen from the heart.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"