Thanks for this review Scot. Love the metaphor. Looking forward to getting hold of this book.

Does Craig Barnes tip his hat toward Eugene H. Peterson? I ask because Peterson has been offering this idea of pastor as poet for years. Thanks for this review, Scot. I am going to get this book. I have a “poetry” folder over at *Jesus the Radical Pastor.*

Great review, Scot. Thank for bringing this book to my attention. I love its message.

I had many, many years of experience in the ministry. Churches do everything in their power to kill poets. They prefer an MBA with good bedside manner.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding — as a poet, and a pastor, I take exception to this statement:
How can the pastor get beyond the ordinary, the routine, the boring, the mundane, and the concrete realities that (sometimes, often) numb the joy out of life?
My kind of poetry realizes and reveals the joy and the glory IN the ordinary, the routine, the boring, the mundane, and the concrete. Frederick Beuchner says that as Christians we are called to really SEE the world around us — the beauty and truth in every old face, in every hand holding on to a subway pole. He says, “If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for God in what is happening around us and inside us.” The pastor as poet, in my opinion, is not one who gets beyond, but one who is able to really SEE what’s there.

Thanks Scot – another book I need to read! Just got it in yesterday, looking forward to digging in…
Christina – unless I am missing something – your point is exactly what the author is talking about – a call “to search for a deeper understanding of what they see – bot in the text of Scripture adn in the text of their parishioners’ lives.” Reading your comments – you already see this poetry, and bring it out.
I think your exception is the point of the book…and I look forward to reading it. Thanks, Scot, for your recommendation.

Of course you KNOW I would love this, yes? (Funny, I was even thinking today, “I wish Scot M. would do a post on poetry and I could link to it.”)
Anyway, if a pastor wants to be a poet of sorts, it might be a great excuse to start reading poetry… and, oh boy do I have some good suggestions for anyone who wants to dip in…

i like this idea, pastors as poets – i know many who are poets and don’t even know its – i’m glad L.L. linked to this post for Poetry Friday!

so thankful to l.l. for linking to your post. i like your thinking!

This post instantly made me think of Walter Brueggemann’s book on preaching “And Comes the Poet” Great preaching book

Maybe sometimes I weary of the theological debates… I just want to get down on my knees with someone and wonder in Him…
‘Poets don’t make arguments, they reveal mysteries.’
Yes. I read this and I hurt.
Thank you…

Beautiful. I think of a priest I met once. He was a young monk with an earring and modern haircut, and he seemed a little awkward up there infront of us all, but there was something about the way he smiled that was like unspoken poetry to me. He made all kinds of things open to contemplation. Not in anything he told us, but the way he was with us.