The Pastor by Eugene H. Peterson

Author:Eugene H. Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

20

BEZALEL

The day was overcast with a light drizzle of rain. I and Simon, the architect we had chosen to design and supervise the building of our church, were getting acquainted. We were the same age. The year before, he had returned to his hometown to open an architectural practice. And I was just eighteen months into being a pastor. He had never designed a church. And I had never been a pastor. It seemed a little risky—two newcomers to this church business pooling our inexperience. But we had both grown up in the church, Simon right there in that small town and I in a town of similar size in Montana.

We were having our conversation while strolling over the six acres of farmland that had only recently been a cornfield and was now the site for building a new church. The land had been purchased by the Presbyterian Church four years earlier, anticipating population growth as the city of Baltimore spilled out over the surrounding beltway that contained it.

Simon had suggested the six acres as a good place to get acquainted. “Let’s get a feel for that land together. For the next couple of years it is going to be common ground for us.”

“So, Simon, what is it going to be like for you to build a church? Isn’t it a little scary? You know, don’t you…that you are going to have to please a lot of people? Wouldn’t an office building be a lot safer when you are just getting started?”

“Maybe safer, Eugene, but not as interesting—or challenging. You know what First Presbyterian in town is like. I grew up in that church. It was built a hundred and fifty years ago—a fine piece of architecture to center and anchor a small town and farming community. When I was in high school and thinking I might like to be an architect, more times than not during the sermon I would sketch a church, both inside and out, a church that would fit the times I live in. I imagined and sketched hundreds of churches. Believe me, I’m no newcomer to this. Later while studying architecture, I learned that building a church is the most interesting task there is to set before an architect. It brings the best out of us—so many things working together, everything you see but at the same time, everything you don’t see. But not many architects get to do this anymore. Especially today, when everything else has become so functional, church is still a work of art. I can’t wait to get started. And how about you?”

The rain had picked up and there were no trees for refuge. We drove back into town for coffee in the shelter of a local diner.

“Unlike you, I didn’t have that long, imaginative preparation going for me. But about three years ago several things converged for Jan and me, and the pastoral vocation became both clear and compelling. I realized that a lot of what I had been experiencing

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