Eugene H. Peterson

Eugene H. Peterson
Eugene H. Petersonis an American-born clergyman, scholar, author, and poet. He has written over thirty books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, a paraphrase of the Bible...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth6 November 1932
CountryUnited States of America
Eugene H. Peterson quotes about
distance space enough
Sabbath is that uncluttered time and space in which we can distance ourselves from our own activities enough to see what God is doing.
jesus reality thinking
Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace. Repentance is the most practical of all words and the most practical of all acts. It is a feet-on-the-ground-kind-of-word. It puts a person in touch with the reality that God creates.
years world way
Pastors need to know what's going on in the world and what has been going on for 4,000 years. We need a way to read Scripture which is imaginative, interpretive.
jesus giving people
The minute the church and pastors start saying what do people want and then giving it to them, we betray our calling. We're called to have people follow Jesus. We're called to have people learn how to forgive their enemies.
teaching thinking giving
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.
worship failing offers
I cannot fail to call the congregation to worship God, to listen to his Word, to offer themselves to God.
grace way world
A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she acquires an appetite for the world of grace.
biblical interesting poet
Isn't it interesting that all of the biblical prophets and psalmists were poets?
reading years two
Spirituality is no different from what weve been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly. Its just ordinary stuff.
sunday imagination important
The most important thing a pastor does is stand in a pulpit every Sunday and say, 'Let us worship God.' If that ceases to be the primary thing I do in terms of my energy, my imagination, and the way I structure my life, then I no longer function as a pastor.
kicking attention want
I don't want to end up a bureaucrat in the time-management business for God or a librarian cataloguing timeless truths. Salvation is kicking in the womb of creation right now, any time now. Pay attention.
religious lace sound
You don't make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.
loyalty thinking people
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.
position-of-power people scary
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.