I have read two pastoral autobiographies lately. You would say they could not be any more different:
1. Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor is about him starting a family-oriented home town church in suburbia at a time when his baby boomer generation was just moving into their starter homes.
2. Nadia Bolz-Weber found her call to ministry later in life and is kind of a poster child for the postmodern, meaning-making, downtown hipster church culture.
To me the secret to their successes in ministries has more in common than meets the eye. Behind the obvious cultural differences they do the exact same thing: They open their lives not only to friends and parishioners but the broader public. They are low-boundary people.
I cringe when church functions are invited into their homes. I get uncomfortable when the privacy of church members is at risk when pastor talks too much. I worry about the example they set for colleagues to the left and to the right. If this model of doing pastoral ministry were the norm most pastors, including myself, would not be any good. People who open up that much intimidate me.
Wow, did you see what just happened? I opened up! All I set out to do was to write a book review for Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. And now here I am becoming more like her. At first I was appalled by the book, but reading what I write about it, I must admit: You cannot argue with its transformational power. I guess I am one of those Accidental Saints, too. I guess everybody is to a certain extent.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
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