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Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness
 
 
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Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness [Paperback]

Eugene H. Peterson (Author)
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Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness + The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Director + Working the Angles: Trigonometry for Pastoral Work
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Product details

  • Paperback: 206 pages
  • Publisher: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co (31 Dec 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0802808484
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802808486
  • Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 239,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Eugene H. Peterson
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Product Description

Product Description

Like Eugene Peterson's other books on pastoring,Under the Unpredictable Plant is full of stimulating insights, candid observations, and biblically grounded prescriptions. Yet this book emanates with a special poignancy out of Peterson's own crisis experience as a pastor. Peterson tells about the ''abyss,'' the ''gaping crevasse,'' the ''chasm'' that he experienced, early in his ministry, between his Christian faith and his pastoral vocation. He was astonished and dismayed to find that his personal spirituality, his piety, was inadequate for his vocation - and he argues that the same is true of pastors in general. In the book of Jonah - a parable with a prayer at its center - Peterson finds a subversive, captivating story that can help pastors recover their ''vocational holiness.'' Using the Jonah story as a narrative structure, Peterson probes the spiritual dimensions of the pastoral calling and seeks to reclaim the ground taken over by those who are trying to enlist pastors in religious careers.

About the Author

Eugene H. Peterson, author of the best-selling contemporary translation of the Bible titled The Message, is professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Pamela B. Garrud VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Unlike the other reviewers, I am not a minister although I read this book because I am thinking of candidating.

Briefly looking at the content of the book, Peterson uses the book of Jonah as a story-metaphor for what he sees as the ideal way of being a minister. It seems to me that he has two main points: 1) that a minister must first and foremost be grounded in a spirit-filled life through prayer and; 2) to achieve that, the minister must stay in one church throughout his or her whole ministry to really be rooted in the lives of people in the congregation.

He develops other points such as the idea that American culture wants the minister to be first and foremost a "program director" rather than a "spiritual director". He believes that the expectation of the church hierarchies as well as congregations is that ministers will whip up the action and make things happened as if they were PR executives rather than healers of souls. In contrast, Peterson advocates a ministry of waiting and watching for the God who walks before all of us so that the minister does not interfere with the work of the Holy Spirit.

This book is written almost as a series of images, metaphors, stories and parables rather than as a propositional treatise, which is hardly surprising given the author's literary background. While this allows the reader to make of some of the messages what he or she will, I found myself thinking "I KNOW the church hierarchy will try to push me to be a glorified PR executive if I'm successful in candidating for the ministry, but what steps can one take to avoid that happening in the first place?" I don't think this book answers that question and I think it's one of the main questions he poses. Perhaps we are to figure out the answer ourselves?...?

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I am pastor of a United Methodist two-point charge. Two churches. Many headaches. I've been here three and a half years. I am told numerous pastors "start-out" in smaller, typically rural or town churches as mine are. Then we get noticed and we get moved on up the ladder. Better appointment--better pay--more prestige--better location. How many pastors buy into "the ladder"? More than you think. But Peterson does not. This book planted my feet deeply within my call. I wanted to move into bigger, better, different pastorates. Peterson would tell me, "You wanted to go to Tarshish instead of Ninevah." His book forced me to recognize that the grass is not greener in a different parish. Comparing me to Jonah, Peterson left me no excuse of any theological integrity to leave my two-point charge. So here I stay. But Mr. Peterson, if you read this..."Under the Unpredictable Plant" is a horrible title. Few of the dozens of people to whom I have recommended your book can remember that crazy thought.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have been in lay leadership for over 20 years and this is the most accurate description of Christian ministry I have ever read. How can we avoid being shaped by a congregation's longing for comfortable religiosity yet value lay spirituality? Peterson poses the question then gives us his story, his guts and his heart. I was deeply moved by his challenge to all Christian leaders to form a rule of life equal to our vocations. I plan to read this book again and again.
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