Eugene H. Peterson Quotes
The role of the pastor is to embody the gospel. And of course to get it embodied, which you can only do with individuals, not in the abstract.
I think pastors are the worst listeners. We're so used to speaking, teaching, giving answers. We must learn to be quiet, quit being so verbal, learn to pay attention to what's going on, and listen.
Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness gets headlines.
One of the reasons that Christians read Scripture repeatedly and carefully is to find out just how God works in Jesus Christ so that we can work in the name of Jesus Christ.
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be - you get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean. Count yourself lucky - God holds nothing against you and you're holding nothing back from Him.
The Spirit works through community. Somebody will have a stupid, screwy idea. That's okay. The point of having creeds and confessions and traditions is to keep us in touch with the obvious errors.
I cannot fail to call the congregation to worship God, to listen to his Word, to offer themselves to God.
Cross and resurrection are the South and North polls, true gospel polarities, of a single, undivided, salvation world. Remove either Paul and you've got salvation.
Parables release the adrenaline of urgency into our bloodstream.
Without stories we end up with stereotypes -- a flat earth with flat cardboard figures that have no texture or depth, no INTERIOR.
We need alert listeners to give dignity to those stretches in our lives when we are not aware of participating in anything we think might be embraced by the kingdom of God.
There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to.
Preaching reveals God in action here and now -- for ME.
Unlike mere action, prayer is not subject to immediate evaluation or verification. If we are addicted to "results" we will quickly lose interest in prayer.
God uses language to create and command us.
Spontaneities offer one kind of pleasure and taste of sanctity, repetitions another equally pleasurable and holy.
Prayer is a way of language practiced in the presence of God in which we become more than ourselves while remaining ourselves.
I had escaped the snare of certitude that I welcomed so avidly at first and entered, via the name of Jesus, the wide and comprehensive company of Jesus.
The church is the primary arena in which we learn that glory does not consist in what we do for God but in what God does for us.
The end is where we start from. T.S. Eliot
Money and machines anesthetize neediness. They put us in charge, in control. As long as the money holds out and the machines are in good repair, we don't need to pray.
When it comes to doing something about what is wrong in the world, Jesus is best known for his fondness for the minute, the invisible, the quiet, the slow – yeast, salt, seeds, light. And manure.
The temptations that use the raw material of good for evil can continue unrecognized for a long time without awareness.
We learn the language of prayer by immersing ourselves in the language that God uses to reveal Himself to us.
Self-justification is a verbal defense for restoring the appearance of righteousness without doing anything about the substance.
My uncle Ernie didn't believe in God.At least that's what he said. But he alwaysWent to church on Christmas. Which I thoughtSeriously compromised his atheism.
Language consists in equal parts of speaking and silence.
Apart from childhood and crisis, prayers have a way of being abstracted from the homely and distinctive details that are part and parcel of our ordinary and daily life.
