I once heard someone liken a pastor to a CEO of a big corporation. To pastor is to run the church like a well-oiled machinery where everything works and flows, and glows, and steps on no one's toes. And for many this has been the model - the ideal.
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But then, I read this:
"The pastor is a poet. He uses words in new ways, making truth right before our eyes, fresh in our ears. The way the pastor uses language is a critical element in the work. The Christian gospel is rooted in language: God spoke creation into being; our Savior was the Word made flesh... The poet is the person who uses words not primarily to convey information but to make a relationship, shape beauty from truth. This is every pastor's work... I do not mean that all pastors write poems or speak in rhymes, but that they treat words with reverence, stand in awe before not only the Word, but words, and realize that language itself partakes of the sacred." Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pasto
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