Eugene Peterson

I just read Eugene Peterson's "Under the Unpredictable Plant" and I can't say enough good things about it. I connect with what Peterson says in the same sort of way I connect with Nouwen or Merton. You can just tell that Peterson knows what he is talking about and there is depth behind it. I'm not sure there is another pastor/writer alive today that I have as much respect for. Anyway, if you have not read this book, or Working the Angles for that matter, you should pick them up. It is a very refreshing refocus on what it means to be a pastor.

Here are some quotes that stuck out. It is for these reasons particularly that I struggle with my profession. This is exactly what I don't want out of being a pastor.

“Why do we have such a difficult time keeping this focus? Why are we so easily distracted? Because we get asked to do a lot of things other than this, most of which seem useful and important. The world of religion generates a huge market for meeting all the needs that didn’t get met in the shopping mall. Pastors are conspicuous in this religious marketplace and are expected to come up with the products that give customer satisfaction. Since the needs seem legitimate enough, we easily slip into the routines of merchandising moral advice and religious comfort. Before long we find that we are program directors in a flourishing business. We spend our time figuring out ways to attractively display god-products. We become skilled at pleasing the customers. Before we realize what has happened, the mystery and love and majesty of god, to say nothing of the tender and delicate subtleties of souls, are obliterated by the noise and frenzy of the religious marketplace.”

"Propogandists are abroad in the land lying to us about what congregations are and can be. They are lying for money. They want to make us discontent with what we are doing so we will buy a solution from them that they promise will restore virility to our impotent congregations. The profit-taking among those who market these spiritual monkey glands indicates that pastoral gullibility in these matters is endless."

"North American religion is basically a consumer religion. Americans see God as a product that will help them to live well, or to live better. Having see that, they do what consumers do, shop for the best deal. Pastors, hardly realizing what we are doing, start making deals, packaging the God-product so that people will be attracted to it and then presenting it in ways that will beat out the competition. Religion has never been so taken up with public relations, image building, salesmanship, marketing techniques, and the competitive spirit."

"My pastor-crisis was concurrent. In the course of organizing a new congregation in the suburbs, I felt pressure to get a lot of people together as quickly as possible in such a way that they would provide financial resources to build an adequate sanctuary for the worship of God. I found that gathering a religious crowd was pretty easy, provided I didn’t get too involved with God. My ecclesiastical superiors sent me to workshops that showed me how to do it. I observed the success of other pastors who did it. Religious consumers are like all other consumers, easily attracted by packaging and bargains. But I also knew that to follow this route I would have to abandon the very thing that gave the life of a pastor its worth: a passion for God."

How do we fight consumerism in the church? I think this is one of the worst consequences of the "seeker" church. We've catered to consumerism to where we can't even separate ourselves from it. We have given people what they want and didn't think about what they need. Is there a way where we can truly become counter-cultural in the sense that we fight against consumerism in all it's ugly forms in the church instead of just continually giving into it because that's what draws the largest crowd? Is that even possible anymore?