The Pastor: A Memoir

Eugene Peterson never wanted to be a pastor. That's why in 1962, when Peterson was asked by the Presbyterian Church USA, to begin a new church outside Baltimore and he accepted–no one was more surprised than he.

And so was born Christ Our King Presbyterian Church. Peterson quickly learned that he was not exactly sure what a pastor should do. He needed to figure out a way to measure what the heart of the job really was and whether he was living up to his calling. And that was what he set out to do.

After twenty-nine years in that one pulpit, two decades as a professor and writing thirty books on the church, spirituality, and the Bible, Peterson decided to offer his life as an example and guide to others for what he discovered it means to be a pastor.

In The Pastor, Peterson challenges convention wisdom regarding church marketing, mega pastors, and the church's too cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to presents a simple, faith-based description of what being a minister means today. In the end, Peterson discovers that being a pastor boils down to "paying attention and calling attention to 'what is going on now' between men and women, with each other and with God."

"In our clamorous, celebrity-driven, entertainment culture, his life and words convey a quiet whisper of sanity, authenticity, and, yes, holiness." —Philip Yancey, New York Times–bestselling author of What Good is God

"A subtle manifesto of hope for our time." — Christianity Today