Jeremy L. Berg

At least 2 or 3 times in the past several years of pastoring, the following 4 lectures by Eugene Peterson have helped save me from drowning in the sea of vocational ministry. I, like countless other pastors, consider Eugene Peterson to be the Dean of Pastors and a voice of sanity in a culture of consumer religion where too many pastors-as-CEOs have forgotten their primary call is to shepherding souls and spiritual direction.

I’d like to commend these 4 “life preservers” taken from the story of Jonah to other pastors who may be weary and heavy laden, doubting their call, or being lured away from the primary pastoral task. May you rediscover your vocational identity as you listen to these sage words from the 1991 Simpson Lectures at Acadia Divinity College entitled “Journey with Jonah: A Vocational Spirituality.” (These lectures became the book entitled Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness.)