Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work (Peterson)--Introduction

Reading Peterson on the run has usually been like a quick cup of refreshing water. After washing it down fast, I usually wish I could linger in his words slower. Now I get to do just that. I will start with his first book in his pastoral imagination series published in 1980. Unfortunately, I am reading and quoting from Kindle, so I will be unable to give a page number to my quotes. Instead, I will makes quotes from one chapter per post, and if you want to find the actual page numbers, you will have to get the book for yourself and look it up! The introduction to this book diagnosis precisely (and frequently painfully) our (my) current disintegrity between biblically-formed Sunday and worldly-formed Monday.

"The Bible we use on Sundays is quickly replaced on Monday by the current organizational manual or counseling handbook or editorial insight. But pastoral work gathers expertise not by acquiring new knowledge but by assimilating old wisdom, not by reading the latest books but by digesting the oldest ones." 

When did the Bible become Sunday-necessary, but Monday-not so much? Why is my primary text the Bible for preaching and teaching, but I'm tempted to other primary texts for counseling, leadership, care, discernment, and direction? 

"But we are not the first people to stand over the rubble and wonder which stone to put where in the rebuilding work. The "tell" of pastoral work is a considerable mound on the plain of ministry. And the strata of occupation are clear: there is an Augustinian layer, a Benedictine layer, a Franciscan layer, a Lutheran layer, a Calvinist layer, a Wesleyan layer, a Kierkegaardian layer-all using biblical stones. The one thing we must not do is wander off and try to find a new building site. The rebuilding must be done on the biblical site, using the biblical foundation stones."

There are ruins all around us. Many will only be able to grieve over the loss of the last structure of the Church. The last structure was proud, impressive, and had influence in the surrounding society. Though the church is built on the Rock and the gates of hell can't prevail against her, that doesn't mean the structure of the Church will always look the same. She will always be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. She will always be beloved and elect and royal. She will NOT always be proud or even above-ground. She will not always be impressive. Sometimes she will be persecuted. She will not always have influence. Sometimes she will be scorned. Sometime she will suffer through no fault of her own, but often she will falter because of compromise or assimilation. Peterson uses a hopeful phrase for when there is rubble and ruin, "the rebuilding work." The rebuilding work must have many discernments and decisions, but one thing we do not need to ask is "where should we rebuild? What material should we use?" "The rebuilding must be done on the biblical site, using biblical foundation stones."

"All pastoral work originates in this act of worship. Each Lord's Day the pastor speaks the invitational command, "Let us worship God." But the work does not terminate an hour later with the pronouncing of the benediction, for pastoral work also accompanies the people as they live out what they have heard and sung and said and believed in worship. Pastoral work takes place between Sundays, between the first and the eighth day, between the boundaries of creation and resurrection, between Genesis 1 and Revelation 21. Sunday worship establishes the life of the community of faith in and on the word of God; weekday pastoral work unfolds the implications in the ordinary lives of people as they work, love, suffer, grieve, play, learn, and grow in times of crisis and times of routine. Worship calls a congregation to attention before God's words, coordinates responses of praise and obedience, and then sends the people out into the community nity to live out the meaning of that praise and obedience. But they are not only sent, they are accompanied, and pastoral work is the ministry of that accompaniment. Pastoral work begins at the Pulpit, the Font, the Table; it continues in the hospital room, the family room, the counseling room, the committee room. The pastor who leads people in worship is companion to those same people between acts of worship."

All quotes in bold are from Peterson's introduction.