American - Clergyman | November 6, 1932 -
If people don't know their pastor, it's easy to put the pastor on a pedestal and depersonalize him or her. It's also easy for pastors, who don't know their congregations, simply to classify congregants as saved or unsaved, involved or not involved, tithers or non-tithers.
Eugene H. Peterson
PeopleEasyKnowHimHerPedestal
Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people's lives, and you ruin your own life.
LifePowerReligionPeopleYouOwn
I believe God takes the things in our lives - family, background, education - and uses them as part of his calling. It might not be to become a pastor. But I don't think God wastes anything.
FamilyEducationGodBelieveThink
I cannot fail to call the congregation to worship God, to listen to his Word, to offer themselves to God.
GodListenWorshipFailCallCannot
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.
CommunityStupidWillSpiritOkay
When you are part of a megachurch, you have no responsibility to anybody else.
ResponsibilityYouPartAnybodyElse
Spirituality is no different from what we've been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly. It's just ordinary stuff.
LearningReadingChurchDoingTwo
I get asked, 'What do you miss most about being a pastor?' I think it's the intimacy, the incredible gift of intimacy. You go through death with somebody, with their families, and there's an intimacy that comes through that that is just incomparable.
DeathGiftThinkYouGoIntimacy
People learn to shop for churches; there is no loyalty to the church. They're consumers being attracted to one product or another. I think it's sacrilege, to tell you the truth, it really is.
TruthLoyaltyPeopleThinkChurch
In high school I was very much involved in poetry. You cannot read a poem quickly. There's too much going on there. There are rhythms and alliterations. You have to read poetry slow, slow, slow to absorb it all.
SchoolPoetryHigh SchoolSlowYou
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.
ThinkLearnGivingAttentionQuiet
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Eugene H. Peterson quotes