Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness

While I was looking for a closer examination of the story of Jonah, I was left thinking about things I never thought about before. However, there were many times I found myself having to google things because I didn't understand connections made to literature that's not on my radar. I did enjoy the connections Peterson made to real-life, everyday, situations.

Eugene H Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 1992) Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw In Under the Unpredictable Plant, Eugene Peterson charts the subversive story of Jonah and how it can help pastors develop a spirituality adequate for their calling. He writes with personal honesty and with biblical insight, drawing on decades of pastoral ministry and thoughtful reflection on spiritual theology. I am encouraged by his pastoral heart beating through. His passion for seeing what God is doing in ordinary people and reading and teaching the Bible with awe is contagious. Yet he begins this book describing a pastoral crisis when he was 30 years old, ordained for 4 years, when he encountered a chasm between his faith and his vocation; his life as a Christian and as a pastor. In similar circumstances, many let go of their faith or of their vocation. Peterson determined to hang on to both. He did not want to merely hold on to his religious job, but retain the integrity of his calling as a pastor. He charts his prayerful journey into and out of the depths, following the subversive story of Jonah. Buying passage to Tarshish Jonah was my son Ben's favourite Bible story. We sang almost every second night: `Uh oh Jonah, you should've gone to Ninevah'. It's a story retold in Sunday Schools and dissected in theological colleges everywhere; the prototypical journey of the unwilling missionary. It also has lessons for pastors. When Jonah is called to Ninevah, he responds by going - but in another direction towards Tarshish. Peterson comments Tarshish or any glamorous ministry can be a lie that draws pastors away from their calling. Pastoral work is not an idealised exotic role but more like farming full of modest daily routines. Congregations are not normally ideal and glamorous workplaces. Some of the best advice I received was not to expect congregational life to make sense. But the talks of `successful' pastors and the profiles of `attractive' churches looking for a new pastor make pastors wonder. Sometimes this `ecclesial pornography' (pictures of churches without spot or wrinkle) urges pastors to leave one church in search of a more attractive Tarshish. Peterson, though a long-serving pastor, was tempted to leave the church he served several times. But early in his ministry he had committed to stability, inspired by the Benedictine vow. At a time when monks were free to go from monastery to monastery, seeking the best feed, Benedict expected monks to commit to finding God in one place and working through any challenges there. When I told my partner Jen about the Benedictine vow of stability, after moving with me 18 times through 8 different churches, she responded instantly: `Where do we sign?' For me who often looks forward to the next challenge, and in a society that encourages moving for career, stability is a countercultural discipline. I have often, like Jonah and Peterson, gone to

This was my first Eugene Peterson book to read. I must confess that I haven't even read his translation of the Bible, "The Message." Under the Unpredictable Plant was an assigned text for a Master's class I took and it proved to be a gem. It is an excellent source for pastoral theology, written by a pastor with a rarely found balanced perspective in ministry; intelligent, spiritual and technical. It has been helpful for my 'blind spots,' my preaching and my vision. I highly recommend this book.

"Parish glamorization is ecclesiastical pornography -- taking photographs (skillfully airbrushed) or drawing pictures of congregations that are without spot or wrinkle, the shapes that a few parishes have for a few short years. These provocatively posed pictures are devoid of personal relationships. The pictures excite a lust for domination, for gratification, for uninvolved and impersonal spirituality."Want to read more? Buy the book! This book is practical, has theological depth, and is just plain fun to read. What more can you ask for? Few books are as exciting as this.

I am pastor of a United Methodist two-point charge. Two churches. Many headaches. I've been here three and a half years. I am told numerous pastors "start-out" in smaller, typically rural or town churches as mine are. Then we get noticed and we get moved on up the ladder. Better appointment--better pay--more prestige--better location. How many pastors buy into "the ladder"? More than you think. But Peterson does not. This book planted my feet deeply within my call. I wanted to move into bigger, better, different pastorates. Peterson would tell me, "You wanted to go to Tarshish instead of Ninevah." His book forced me to recognize that the grass is not greener in a different parish. Comparing me to Jonah, Peterson left me no excuse of any theological integrity to leave my two-point charge. So here I stay. But Mr. Peterson, if you read this..."Under the Unpredictable Plant" is a horrible title. Few of the dozens of people to whom I have recommended your book can remember that crazy thought.

If you are: (a) a minister, (b) considering becoming a minister, (c) preparing to preach through the book of Jonah and/or(d)make up any combination of the preceding, this book should be required reading for you. As you read, prepare to be challenged ("The religious leader is the most untrustworthy of leaders: in no other station do we have so many opportunities for pride, for covetousness, for lust, or so many excellent disguises at hand to keep such ignobility from being found out and called to account." - page 15). As you read, prepare to glean insights ("The primary task, the pastor's primary task, is not communication but communion." - page 192) As you read, prepare to add substantially to your quote file ("Prayer is the most deeply human action in which we can engage. Behavior we have in common with the animals. Thinking we have in common with the angels. But prayer - the attentiveness and responsiveness of the human being before God - this is human." - page 111) As you read this book, prepare to be shaped by it!