The Pastor

“A book full of much needed wisdom that is written with eloquence.”–Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Peterson is a master storyteller… . The Pastor is a profound and important meditation … serves as a necessary reaffirmation of the true nature of a calling that in current American religious life seems largely lost.”–Religion & Ethics Newsweekly “A gift to anyone who has tried answering the call to pastor, and to a church that needs true pastors… . It is a subtle manifesto of hope for our time.”–Christianity Today “A good book for folks who like pastors. And a good book for folks who don’t. The Pastor is the disarming tale of one of the unlikely suspects who has helped shape North American Christianity.”–Shane Claiborne author of The Irresistible Revolution “Eugene Peterson excavates the challenges and mysteries regarding pastors and church and gives me hope for both. This a must read for every person who is or thinks they are called to be a pastor and for every person who has one.”–William Paul Young, author of The Shack “I’ve been nagging Eugene Peterson for years to write a memoir. In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness.”–Philip Yancey, author of What Good is God “If anyone knows how to be a pastor in the contemporary context that person is Eugene Peterson. Eugene possesses the rare combination of a pastor’s heart and a pastor’s art. Take and read!”–Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline “If you are hoping to be a pastor, or just to understand what that is, get this book and soak in it for at least three full days with no distraction. It may save your life and make you a blessing.”–Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy “More than a gifted writer, Eugene Peterson is a voice calling upon the churches to recover the vocation of the pastor in order to experience the renewing of their faith in the midst of an increasingly commercialized, depersonalized, and spiritually barren land.”–Dale T. Irvin, President, New York Theological Seminary “Peterson found writing as a way to pay attention, and as an act of prayer. It’s our privilege to have his words, full of insight and truth. This book might be considered a long prayer for pastors.”–Englewood Review of Books

Eugene H. Peterson was the translator of The Message Bible, which sold over 17 million copies. He authored more than 30 books, including the spiritual classics A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and Run with the Horses.

Peterson earned a BA in Philosophy from Seattle Pacific University, an STB from New York Theological Seminary, and an MA in Semitic Languages from John Hopkins University. He also held several honorary doctoral degrees.

In 1962, Peterson was the founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Bel Air, Maryland. He and his wife, Jan, served there for 29 years before his retirement in 1991. From 1998 until his death in 2018, Peterson held the title of professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College in British Columbia.

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