Eugene H. Peterson
Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness

Summary
Eugene Peterson draws on his thirty plus years of pastoral ministry to
explore the story of Jonah and what it has to offer to pastors as they
work at their vocation. We travel with Jonah as he flees God’s
instruction to go to Nineveh, as he seeks the greater glories of
Tarshish, as he encounters the storm and finds his calling again in the
belly of the fish. Reaching Nineveh at last, Jonah fails again even as
he is obedient to God’s command. He delivers the message, but argues
with God about the outcomes. Through all this Peterson weaves his
experience as a pastor, issuing the challenge to pursue vocational
holiness rather than vocational idolatry – the idolatry of a career that
we can take charge of and manage.

Critical Evaluation
Peterson has an easy flowing writing style that conveys much in its
simplicity. I enjoyed his use of images, his personal stories, and his
exposition of the story of Jonah. His style captured my attention with
its artistry, and then he delivered some hefty points that are deeply
challenging: “Every congregation is a congregation of sinners. As if
that weren’t bad enough, they all have sinners for pastors.” His
description of his congregation’s response is sobering to all of us who
fancy ourselves as preachers who make a difference in the lives of
people; Preaching to these people was like talking to my dog – they responded to
my voice with gratitude, they nuzzled me, they followed me, they showed
affection. But the content of my words meant little. The direction of
my life was meaningless. And they were as easily distracted, running
after rabbits or squirrels that promised diversion or excitement.

Peterson also offers appropriate warnings about the temptations that
pastors are vulnerable to in their work. We can be guilty of seeking
glory and status, climbing the religious career ladder of success
towards the bigger, brighter, better churches. We can be guilty of
presenting our desires, our word, our action, as God’s desire, God’s
word, God’s action. “[O]ur vocational identification with God’s cause
and God’s word make us vulnerable to mistaken god-identities. . . The
condition works its way underground and requires strenuous vigilance to
detect.”

I was moved and encouraged by the artistry in his descriptions of what
the call to pastoral ministry is truly about.
What pastors do, or at least are called to do, is really quite simple.
We say the word God accurately, so that congregations of Christians can
stay in touch with the basic realities of their existence, so they know
what is going on. And we say the Name personally, alongside our
parishioners in the actual circumstances of their lives, so they will
recognise and respond to the God who is both on our side and at our side
when it doesn’t seem like it and we don’t feel like it.

I found Peterson’s book not a “how to” book, but a book that explores
what it might be like to live the life of a pastor in humble and
ordinary circumstances, circumstances are nevertheless shot through with
the glory of God. His book is an encouragement to keep working out our
salvation, in our vocation, in fear and trembling (Phil 2:12).

What I am not quite satisfied with in the book is the failure to address
wider questions of vocation. For example, what is the place of
aspiration – of seeking (or being called) to leadership in a wider or
larger setting? The concern for me is related to gender issues.
Speaking in very broad terms, it may be appropriate for men to avoid the
sin of pride and be content with a humbler calling, but women can often
succumb to the sin of false humility and fail to live into the fullness
of their potential.

Personal Response
I am challenged by Peterson about location. I have chosen to live at
some distance for my parish, and I commute three or four days a week to
minister to a group in a particular location. I recognise I am not as
accessible to people as if I lived in the manse. But the choice for me
was originally based on the needs of my family and their work and study
locales. It also provides me with a safety zone, with thinking and
internal processing time as I drive across the city. I can see though
that there may be point when I need to be located more centrally to the
congregation.

I appreciate Peterson’s gift of images, but more particularly his words
in his introduction about the power of images. “Willpower is a
notoriously spluttery engine on which to rely for internal energy, but a
right image silently and inexorably pulls us into its field of reality,
which is also a field of energy.” Recognising the truth of that
statement challenges me to be careful about the images of myself that I
feed, the images of ministry I aspire to, and the images of God I
worship. Get the images right, and the willpower will follow.

I found Peterson’s work to be quite appropriate to our Australian
context. When pastors gather together we still have questions like,
“How big is your congregation?”, “What programs are you running?”, “What
plans have you got for making the church grow?” We have in many cases
swallowed the American programs and large church models of success.

Action Response
I am affirmed by Peterson in my desire to live out the contemplative
model of ministry.
A contemplative life is not an alternative to the active life, but is
its root and foundation. True contemplatives are a standing refutation
of all who mislabel spirituality as escapism. If pastors do not
practice the contemplative life, how will people know the truth of it
and have access to its energy? The contemplative life generates and
releases an enormous amount of energy into the world – the enlivening
energy of God’s grace rather than the enervating frenzy of our pride.

I therefore will keep working towards this not by willpower, but by the
careful cultivation of my images of self and ministry. Peterson makes
one simple suggestion that can help encourage this mindset.
There is a text for this work in St Mark’s Gospel: ‘He has risen, . . .
he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told
you’ (16:6-7). In every visit, every meeting I attend, every
appointment I keep, I have been anticipated. The risen Christ got there
ahead of me. The risen Christ is in that room already. What is he
doing? What is he saying? What is going on?

Questions for discussion
. Peterson states “the norm for pastoral work is stability.
Twenty-, thirty-, and forty-year-long pastorates should be typical
amongst us (as they once were) and not exceptional.”(p. 29) What
difference would this make to the relationships we might build and the
ministry we might exercise?

. “We run all over town, from committee to committee, conference
to conference, organisation to organisation, doing all manner of good
work, scattering seed in every body’s field but our own.” (p. 137) How
are we to define our ‘field’ of ministry? What is the place of
involvement in our wider community?

___________________
Roslyn H Wright