Catalyst West 2011: Eugene Peterson

From interview with Eugene Peterson:

• on starting a church: “I want to make sure these people know about God and know each other.”
• “I had an adrenaline problem. I loved adrenaline.”
• on faking it as a pastor: “I made motions that I was doing something.”
• “How can I expect them to know what a pastor does when I was trying to figure it out myself?”
• on resigning to become a “pastor”: “I quit because I didn’t want to run the damn church.”
• on the elders running the church: “They made stupid decision sometimes.”
• “I stopped looking at people as problems to fix.”
• “Being a pastor is a pretty modest job. We’re not very important in the economy of the world. But we’re pretty important in the economy of the Kingdom.”
• “Don’t let the culture define our position.”
• on reading about previous pastors: “We need to pay attention to the people who have done it well.”
• on the church: “We’ve never been successful. Yet, all through this, salvation is being worked out.”
• on being a pastor: “It’s not glamorous… It’s hard, but it’s glorious.”