Thomas F. Fischer, M.Div., M.S.A.
Number 157

"One by one, men and women are making their moves, beginning to
move against the stream, refusing to be contemporary pastors, our lives
trivialized by the contemporary, and are embarking on the recovery of
the contemplative." Eugene Peterson, Under the Predictable Plant,
(Eerdmans, 1992), p. 112

His boldness is unmistakable. To some, it is repulsive. To others,
it is prophetic. One thing for sure: once considered, it cannot easily
be ignored.

But, whether speaking directly or parabolically, Eugene Peterson’s
prescription for ministerial health lies not in numbers, administrative
techniques, leadership training, or in pastoral career advancement.
Instead, it lies in the recovery of the contemplative.

Soul Wreckage

For Peterson, the proof of the need to recover the contemplative is
two-pronged. The first–and most urgent–proof of the need to recover
the contemplative is the wreckage of souls. "The soul-wreckage
among those who work with souls is appalling" he states (p. 112).

Though Peterson offers no statistics, reports from ecclesiastical
organizations such as "Safety Net" indicate that 1300 pastors
were forced out of their congregations in 1997. There is no denying it.
The church landscape is littered with "soul-wreckage."

Why is it that pastoral work is so hazardous? Because, Peterson
explains, "the very nature of the work is a constant temptation to
sin. The sin is, to put an old word on it, pride. But it is often nearly
impossible to identify as pride, especially in its early stages. It
looks and feels like energetic commitment, sacrificial zeal, selfless
devotion" (p. 114).

As we minister, Peterson continues, "it seldom occurs to us
that in work that is so purely motivated and well-intended anything
might go wrong. But something almost always does go wrong. In our zeal
to proclaim the Savior and enact His commands, we lose touch with our
own basic and daily need for the Savior.

At first it is nearly invisible…[but] Along the way most of us end
up so identifying our work with Christ’s work that Christ himself
recedes into the shadows and our work is spotlighted at center stage.
Because the work is so compelling, so engaging–so right–we work with
what feels like divine energy. One day we find ourselves (or others find
us) worked into the ground" (p. 115).

Wanted: Contemplative Pastors

Peterson’s second proof of the need to recover the contemplative is
the gross lack of contemplation among ministers. Citing the rarity of
truly contemplative American pastors, Peterson reflects on a
"strange indeed" phenomenon.

"Priests, gurus, prophets, medicine men, shamans, in all the
religious groupings that we have knowledge of have, without exception,
understood themselves primarily as pray-ers. Their business is with God
and spirit and soul. Responsibly connected with everything natural,
their reach is toward the supernatural" (p. 111).

Though he remarks that "it is no more difficult to pursue the
pastoral vocation that any other," (p. 4), the greatest pitfall of
ministry is that the pastoral vocation in America is embarrassingly
banal.

Furthermore, the ministry in America is banal because it is
"pursued under the canons of job efficiency and career
management." With stunning directness, Peterson gives the final
reason for the need to recover the contemplative. There is a
"widespread idolatry of a religious career that we can take charge
of and manage" (p. 4).

Peterson’s Ministerial Maladies

Throughout his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Peterson
outlines the roots of the ministerial health crisis. Some of the
maladies that he suggests plague American ministry are…

1) Vocational Lip Service. "Pastors commonly give lip service
to the vocabulary of a holy vocation," he writes, "but in our
working lives we more commonly pursue careers" (p. 5).

2) Inadequate Institutional Spirituality. "I do not find the
emaciated, exhausted spirituality of institutional careerism adequate. I
do not find the veneered, cosmetic spirituality of personal charisma
adequate. I require something biblically spiritual–rooted and
cultivated in creation and covenant, leisurely in Christ, soaked in
Spirit" (p. 5).

3) Hostile Cultural Conditions. "The conditions in which we
must acquire a spirituality for our vocation…are, it must be admitted,
not friendly. Our vocations are bounded on one side by consumer
appetites, on the other by a marketing mind-set.

Pastoral vocation is interpreted from the congregational side as the
work of meeting people’s religious needs on demand at the best possible
price and from the clerical side as satisfying those same needs quickly
and efficiently. These conditions quickly reduce the pastoral vocation
to religious economics, pull it into relentless competitiveness, and
deliver it into the hands of public relations and marketing
experts" (pp. 3-4).

4) Ecclesiastical Pornography. "Parish glamorization,"
says Peterson, "is ecclesiastical pornography." "Anyone
who glamorizes congregations," says Peterson, "does a grave
disservice to pastors….On close examination…it turns out there are
no wonderful congregations.

Hang around long enough and sure enough there are gossips who won’t
shut up, furnaces that malfunction, sermons that misfire, disciples who
quit, choirs that go flat–and worse. Every congregation is a
congregation of sinners. As if that weren’t bad enough, they all have
sinners for pastors" (p. 17).

5) Propagandists. "Propagandists 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
[programs] indicates pastoral gullibility in these matters is
endless" (pp. 17-18)

6) Pastoral Boredom And Abandonment. When the propagandist’s
"sure-fire" program fails, "Pastors, faced with the
failure of the purchased procedures, typically blame the congregation
and leave it for another. The devil, who is behind all this smiling and
lacquered mischief, so easily makes us discontent with what we are doing
that we throw up our hands in the middle of it, disgusted, and go on to
another parish that will appreciate our gifts in ministry and our
devotion to the Lord. Every time a pastor abandons one congregation for
another out of boredom or anger or restlessness, the pastoral vocation
of all of us is vitiated" (p. 18).

Peterson’s Prescription

What are some ways to recover some of the contemplative aspects of
ministry? Peterson suggests the following.

1) Begin Ministry In God’s Presence. Begin the ministerial vocation
delighting in the presence of the Lord. Unlike Jonah, we must not flee
away from the presence of the Lord. We must not turn away from our
uncomfortable calling to the pagan Ninevites for a more illustrious
calling to Tarshish where we can develop pride and acquire power. We
must be drawn toward, be attracted to, and go where God calls us. It is
there we will find joyful fulfillment of our calling.

2) Stay Where You Are. Citing that it was not unusual for monks to
leave one monastery to set our for another "more challenging"
monastery, Peterson wonders, "Was it really more of God they were
after or were they avoiding the God who was revealing Himself to
them?" (p. 20).

Apparently, Peterson is not the only one with valid suspicions. So
was Saint Benedict. To those who were "sure" that if they just
got into the right monastery, things would be better, Benedict said,
"stay where you are." Hence, the Benedictine "Vow Of
Stability." The "norm for pastoral work is stability,"
Peterson notes. "Twenty, thirty, and forty year-long pastorates
should be typical among us (as they once were) and not exceptional. Far
too many pastors change parishes out of adolescent boredom, not as a
consequence of mature wisdom. When this happens, neither pastors nor
congregations have access to the conditions that are hospitable to
maturity in faith" (p. 29).

3) Think "Vocation," Not "Advancement." Citing a
parallel between the monastery and the congregation, Peterson urges
pastors to "detach themselves from the careerism mind-set that has
been so ruinous to pastoral vocations" (p. 21). Begin to see your
congregation as a location–the location–into which God has placed you
so that you might have a "spiritually maturing life and
ministry….The congregation is not a job site to be abandoned when a
better offer comes along" (p. 21).

4) Think "Transformation", Not Just "Results."
God may not be so much interested in the numbers, growth, and
institutional success of a given congregation as he is in the spiritual
transformation which the numbers, growth and institutional success
hopefully reflect. The focus, however, is always the spiritual
transformation of each individual, encouraging the process of spiritual
growth, and helping the people in the pew find God in their suffering.
This transformation must start with the pastor.

5) Think "Imperfect Church" Not "Perfect
Church." Peterson has much to say of the imperfect groupings of
people in God’s church. Of the ancient Israelites Peterson remarks,
"Nothing in Israel strikes me as terrifically attractive….A bare
sixty or seventy years after Pentecost we have an account of seven
churches that shows about the same quality of holiness and depth of
virtue found in any ordinary parish in America today. In two thousand
years of practice we haven’t gotten any better. You would think we would
have, but we haven’t. (p. 24)

6) Think "Christ"…First And Always In Everything. That
was St. Paul’s advice to the Colossians. "Christ first in
everything!" For Peterson, this means that "every time we open
up a church door and take a careful, scrutinizing look inside we find
them there again–sinners. [But we also see] Christ. Christ in the
preaching, Christ in the sacraments, but inconveniently and
embarrassingly mixed into this congregation of sinners" (p. 24).

7) Recover The Contemplative Monastic Disciplines. Perhaps this is
Peterson’s most radical–but insightful–key for recovering the
contemplative ministry. In Subversive Spirituality, Peterson espoused a
fifth theological discipline, "Ascetic Theology" to be taught
in seminaries alongside the disciplines of Historical, Exegetical,
Practical, and Systematic Theology. In Under the Unpredictable Plant,
Peterson espouses a return to "contemplation," a word derived
from templum, meaning a "place for observation."

In order to develop this penchant for spiritual
"observation" (i.e. "contemplation"), Peterson
suggests two things. First, he suggests a rediscovery of prayer
("askesis") based on the Psalms. Second, he suggests a return
to the fourteen disciplines to develop spirituality in monastic life.
These include "Spiritual reading, spiritual direction, meditation,
confession, bodily exercise, fasting, Sabbath-keeping, dream
interpretation, retreats, pilgrimage, almsgiving (tithing), journaling,
sabbaticals, and small groups."

"Each of us," he continues, "must develop expertise
so that we can call up any one of the disciplines as it is needed and
set it aside when it is no longer needed….there is no
one-size-fits-all askesis" (p. 108).

.

Reflections And Comments

1) Certainly, the basic spiritual and contemplative aspects of the
ministry calling need to be recovered. Peterson is right. The ministry
crisis is a crisis of an understanding of what the calling really
entails. As long as both pastors and congregations fail to understand
God’s plan for the ministry, the ministerial health crisis will continue
its apparent rampant proliferation.

2) Peterson’s focus on pastor as seelsorger (i.e. one who cares for
souls) is illuminating, accurate, and traditional. The caring of souls
does occur when "we preach the Word and administer the Sacraments,
[when] we give pastoral care and administer the community life, [when]
we teach and [when] we give spiritual direction" (p. 21).

In many congregations, the caring of souls in a personal way goes
far beyond what the pastor can personally do. The challenge for pastoral
seelsorgers is to develop other seelsorgers to serve under the pastor’s
guidance in an auxiliary manner to the pastoral office. It this there is
a great opportunity for the mentoring of spirituality to others.
Visitation ministries of caring, small group fellowships and evangelism
programs are some examples of such ministries. Indeed, these and other
such programs can provide a marvelous setting to embark on an enriched
and deepened spiritual journey.

3) Sometimes the church needs to be purified, enhanced, fine-tuned,
and given direction. Especially with larger churches, more
organizational programming may be warranted to address the diversity of
spiritual needs. Such changes, however, should not be done simply for
the sake of change. Instead, they should be directed toward specific
spiritually transformative goals related to nurturing faith and trust in
the Gospel.

4) Contrary to Peterson’s suggestion, denominational and para-church
resources should not automatically be discounted and discarded.
Certainly there are those organizations which are frankly, wealthy. Many
are professional and have been successful. They have brought results.
The danger is that wholly unawares, these outside influences may build
budgets but not spirituality. Especially when ministry is required from
outside sources, congregations need to carefully consider and discern
the spiritual aspects first.

Important questions need to be asked.
* "What spiritual
transformations can be expected if such an such organization or
consultant assists us?"
* "Are these helpful–or
hurtful–in our greater understanding of God’s plan for this
congregation?"
* "Are the principles suggested in
conformity with a proper understanding of the Law and Gospel in our
midst?"
* "Does the Gospel pre-dominate?"
*
"Is the Law used to provoke guilt-motivation?" and
*
"Will this program glorify Christ in the immediate presence, the
short-term, and the long-term?"

Once agreed on, any program ought to be genuinely promoted first and
foremost for its value for the spiritual transformational development of
individuals, not for sheer institutional advancement.

5) Pastors need to quit moving around unnecessarily. Certainly, God
does call pastors to different churches. Increasingly however,
interviewing congregations are checking pastoral resumes. They are
looking for various things…including tenure. Many healthy
congregations want and seek a long-term pastor. Conflicted
congregations, accustomed to a new face in the pulpit every couple years
(or less) may need one badly!

Until quality pastors can stay long term in these difficult
congregations, the "disposable pastor" syndrome will continue
to dominate their agenda and congregational life. By changing pastors
every 2-5 years, there may be lots of change, but no transformation.
Congregational spirituality needs time and pastoral tenure to lead the
necessary spiritual transformations.

Since pastors are change agents, and since change takes time, it
follows that healthy change is not likely when pastors keep changing.
For this reason, today’s pastors need to counter cultural expectations
of "instant results" with a strong dose of good old patience.
A poster at the University of Michigan’s Cancer Center is certainly
applicable to pastors. Numquam decadamus, that is, "We never give
up!

6) Though Peterson’s view of the ministry may over-emphasize the
spiritual, ascetic side of the ministry, the emphasis is not bad.
Indeed, Peterson may have struck a major key to recovering the
contemplative. If pastors would implement those items in the fourteen
monastic disciplines which are doctrinally and vocationally appropriate
to their respective denominational heritage and scriptural position,
perhaps a very necessary spiritual transformation of American ministry
might occur.

7) Recovery of spirituality begins with a recovery of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. It exudes the joy of being forgiven "in Christ."
Such Gospel-centered message is the inextricable basis and motivation
for everything the Christian does.

8) Recovering the spiritual is not a panacea. It also avoids
potential extremes of spirituality which may also threaten the church.
Whether it be pride of buildings and programs or pride of spirituality,
the common factor is still pride. Thus a balanced ministry for Jesus
Christ balances Law and Gospel, buildings and relationships, corporate
congregational development and personal spiritual development.

9) As the Law encourages the external and mechanical and the Gospel
flows from the cross of Christ through the internal heart, soul and
mind, perhaps the need for the recovery of the spiritual is a sign of a
church infiltrated with and dominated by the Law.

10) By recovering the Gospel and elevating it to its appropriate
predominance the Church, through the Spirit’s working in Word and
Sacrament, may develop a renewed focus which looks to the spiritual
relationship of the believer exercised through spiritual disciplines
such as worship, prayer, receiving the sacraments, meditation, et al.

In Closing…

Properly balanced with a Scriptural understanding of ministry,
Peterson’s call for a spiritual perspective of pastoral vocation is
refreshing. It is inviting. Most of all, it gives rays of hope and
encouragement to a vocation so severely battered in our contemporary
Western society.

If you want to challenge your understanding of ministry, read Eugene
Peterson’s Under the Predictable Plant or other of his books (e.g.
Subversive Spirituality, et al). If you do, you’ll probably never see
your ministry–and your vocation–quite the same again.

Thomas F. Fischer

Copyright 1998–All Rights Reserved
Thomas F. Fischer, M.Div., M.S.A., Editor
Ministry Health Web Site
http://genesis.acu.edu/ministryhealth
Support For Your Ministry In Jesus Christ!