Haphazardly Intent: An Approach to Pastoring
An interview with Eugene Peterson
Harold Myra, Terry Muck and Dan Pawley
January 1, 1981
In his eighteen years as pastor of Christ Our King Church in Bel Air, Maryland, Eugene Peterson has done a lot of thinking about successful pastoring: What is it? Who does it? How is it done?
The answers? Gene doesn't know if there are hard and fast answers, but he agreed to talk about the problems in LEADERSHIP's interview. In the process we get glimpses of his successes and failures, his frustrations, satisfactions, and, yes, the continuing struggles. In short, we get a picture of the way he does it.
Gene developed his approach to pastoring from scriptural study (his new book, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, John Knox, illustrates his method) and personal experience.
Publisher Harold Myra, Editor Terry Muck, and Assistant Editor Dan Pawley found Gene particularly enlightening, not only for his ministerial strategies, but also for the personal aspects of his life. He's a man who reads mysteries, extracts theological insights from classic novels, runs marathons, and goes for long hikes in the woods with his wife.
You see yourself as a pastor, not an administrator. How did you develop that view of your pastoral role?
One of the worst years I ever had was in the early days of this church. Our building was finished, and I realized I wasn't being a pastor. I was so locked in running the church programs I didn't have time to be a pastor. So I went to the session one night to resign. "I'm not doing what I came here to do," I said. "I'm unhappy, and I'm never at home." The precipitating event was when one of my kids said, "You haven't spent an evening at home for thirty-two days." She had kept track! I was obsessive and compulsive about my administrative duties, and I didn't see any way to get out of the pressures that were making ...
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