Eric E. Peterson - Letters to a Young Pastor: Timothy Conversations Between Father and Son

Eric Petersons Letters to a Young Pastor is a must-read for every person in ministry... really, every Christ follower. In this collection of heartfelt letters from Eugene Peterson to his son, we get a look behind the curtain, a glimpse at the heart of one of our generations most esteemed pastors. The letters reveal Eugene Petersons passion for ministry, contemplative nature, and longing for authentic worship. He eloquently addresses the balance required of young pastors trying to maintain a strong family and marriage while dealing with the never-ending demands of clergy. Each turn of the page is filled with fresh insight and candid advice for the challenges every pastor faces from the changes in society and technology to dealing with difficult people. Peterson has left behind a treasure chest of wisdom dont miss out!

PALMER CHINCHEN, PHD, speaker; author of Justice Calling, True Religion, Barefoot Tribe, and God Cant Sleep

Letters to a Young Pastor is an amazing opportunity for you to be personally mentored by Eugene Peterson, one of the most significant spiritual leaders of our time. In this must-read book, Eric Peterson gives us a peek into the very special relationship he had with his father, Eugene, and in the process allows us to access to the wisdom that was passed down from one generation to the next. Every pastor and church leader, young and old, needs to read this book!

DAVE FERGUSON, lead pastor at Community Christian Church; author of Hero Maker

Preserving the words between a father and a son is priceless, especially when they are pastoral, brilliant, graced, and insightful. Herein we have Eugene the elder speaking to Eric the pastor, unlocking the keys to personal and pastoral identity with relational, theological, and incarnational wisdom. How kind of Eric to preserve these intimate and trusting letters for a wider audience. Im refreshed by their authenticity and blessed by their depth.

STEPHEN A. MACCHIA, founder and president of Leadership Transformations; author of fifteen books, including Legacy, Crafting a Rule of Life, and Becoming a Healthy Church

From the days of Aaron, the Lord has preserved a priestly line. Such lines are always preserved by the transference of wisdom from one generation to the next, so having Eugene and Eric Petersons letters in our hands is a gift. They are tender and thoughtful, witty and wise, and you will be the better for reading them. This family continues to shape the pastoral imagination in America.

DANIEL GROTHE, pastor at New Life Church; author of Chasing Wisdom

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Letters to a Young Pastor: Timothy Conversations between Father and Son

Copyright 2020 by Eric E. Peterson. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-64158-111-0

ISBN 978-1-64158-113-4 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-64158-114-1 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-64158-112-7 (Apple)

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Dedicated to the women and men who
carry on the noble work of pastoral ministry.

I T WAS A BIG SKY DAY in the summer of 1980 as my dad and I made the round-trip drive from Lakeside, Montana, to Spokane, Washington. Ostensibly, the purpose of the trip was to visit Whitworth University to see if it might be a good fit for a liberal-arts education. (It was, and I spent three delightful and deeply formative years on its campus.) However, as is often the case, there were purposes beyond purposes; the presenting opportunity to check out a college led to something much more significant and durable. Namely, it was the seed for a deepening relationship that would develop between a father and a son.

The eight hours we spent in the car together created an undistracted container for continual conversation that spanned a broad range of topics. I forget many of the details of that day from many years ago, but I do recall that we talked about geography, particularly the glacial carvings from the last ice age and the Great Missoula Flood, both of which shaped the topography of that area slowly in the former case, rapidly in the latter. We spoke of love and relationships; I was in love with a beautiful girl who had just moved away, and I was feeling the sting of separation. And we talked about the prophet Jeremiah, with whom I had come to identify, both because he was called by God as a young man and because his dad was a pastor. That part of the conversation led Eugene to preach a sermon series the next fall which later developed into Run with the Horses, the book he dedicated to Eric, also the son of a priest.

The next morning, while swimming together in Flathead Lake, I told him how much I had enjoyed the previous day and asked if we could find a way to continue the conversations when we got home. Once we returned to Maryland that fall, we had a standing date. Every Tuesday afternoon during my senior year of high school, I rode my bicycle to his study at our church. The pattern was simple: We read a paragraph from one of the Pastoral Epistles, using it as a springboard to reflect on our respective ministries (I was involved with Young Life at the time), and we prayed. Our Timothy conversations, we called them.