More from Craig Barnes’ ‘The Pastor As Minor Poet’ (Eerdmans, 2009).
Craig Barnes seeks to describe what poetic leadership looks like in a culture of anxious worry seeking immediate solutions for every problem.
So it is not surprising that the pastors’ continued devotion to great and holy ideals would put them out of step with the nervous reactors is a congregation. but that is part of what it means to lead them as poets. It’s why we are there. Anyone can service anxious complaints, but it takes a parish poet to inspire and conflict a parish with eternal truth.
(page 67)
Barnes illustrates the difference between a ‘nervous reactor’ and a ‘non-anxious presence’ by contrasting the actions of the biblical figures Aaron and Moses. While Moses is preparing to bring God’s words for the people and meet their needs, Aaron seeks to meet their worried desires and gives them what they want in the form of a golden calf.
There is a tremendous amount of concern among pastors these days to make the Gospel relevant. Typically what they mean by this is that the church must do all that it can to address the felt needs of people as a way of attracting them to church. So worship services, musical offerings, and sermons are constructed in such a way as to scratch the itch of those in the pews. Programs are developed in the church to provide responses to human needs and are marketed in such a way as to make them superior to the products of the nonreligious competitors. The youth clearly need their own program, everyone assumes, but now so do the singles, the young married couples, the men and the women – and we dare not forget about the elderly, who have given so much to the church. Pastors knock themselves out not only to run this ever-growing enterprise but also to fulfill the insatiable needs of those who believe the church just isn’t doing enough. The danger of all this relevance is that as soon as the church begins to respond to felt needs, it isn’t too long before the pastor is making a golden calf. And as I have learned the hard way, it’s a lot easier to make a golden calf than to get rid of one.
(page 68)
mgpcpastor's blog 
Enticing quotes.
Do you recommend this book?
Is it very evangelical?
Is it more like Eugene Peterson or John Calvin?
Thanks,
Wayne
ps: I enjoy this blog
Wayne,
I do recommend the book.
It is only 140 pages long and currently booko.com.au says that copies can be purchased and delivered to your door for under $16, so it doesn’t represent a huge risk in time or money to read it.
Barnes writes the book for those who have some experience of pastoral and preaching work, and I have taken it as a diagnostic tool and course correction for those who need encouragement to be committed to proclamation of the truth that all of human yearning can only be met in God through Christ as revealed in the Word and not by the alteration of their current circumstances and relationships. (Though circumstances and relationships may change as a result of that yearning being met in Christ.)
It is not meant to be a comprehensive text on pastoral or preaching life, but a supplement.
There are some references to circumstances (such as women pastors) and theologians (such as Henri Nouwen) that will be jarring to some Christian readers, but these are incidental and don’t diminish the overall reading.
On top of that, Barnes is a very, very skillful writer. His material is a pleasure to read.
Gary.