by Rev Nate Collins
I’ve grown to enjoy biographies in recent years. Whether I’m reading about C. S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, the band Heart, Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Leonardo Da Vinci, reading the stories of their lives, what drove them, what they were aiming at and why, how they got there, what the struggled with along the way helps me think more creatively about my own life and vocation. A Burning in My Bones, the biography of Eugene Peterson by Winn Collier, has been one of the most impactful for me.
Like many pastors, I’ve read a number of Peterson’s books and found them helpful in understanding my job. Reading about Peterson’s life was helpful on a whole new level. As I struggle to pastor my church well, wondering what exactly a pastor is supposed to be and do, what my priorities should be, and how I should approach them, it was encouraging to read about Peterson’s similar struggles and see what conclusions he came to and how he went about his ministry.
The biography traces his life from his early years in Kalispel, Montana, to his university years at Seattle Pacific University, seminary at New York Theological Seminary, and further studies at Johns Hopkins University. It then details the 29 years he spent founding and pastoring Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, his subsequent tenure at Regent College as James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology, and his eventual retirement. Through it all, of course, we hear about his process writing a small library of books, including his famous translation of the Bible: The Message.
What I love most about his life is that he never gave up striving to fulfill his vocation the way God wanted. Peterson wrestled, especially in his early years, with the internal drive and external pressure to achieve as a pastor: to grow the church, to spend large portions of time running the church administratively, and to show something tangible and measurable to justify his salary. Deeply as Peterson’s competitive streak ran, he had a conviction deeper still that that wasn’t what pastoring should be about. He kept coming back to prayer and studying the scriptures as central to a pastor’s vocation, things congregations often fail to value on their pastor’s time card.
One thing readers will have to wrestle with is how much Peterson was enabled to pastor and write the way he did by his wife, Jan. The book opens with an account of how Peterson spent two hours studying the scriptures and praying in the mornings before breakfast. There’s no question that it’s admirable. But while he was praying and studying, Jan was getting the kids up, ready for school, and cooking them all breakfast. In the evenings, Peterson was often off at meetings, giving himself to the work of pastoral ministry. Again, Jan was at home, running the house and taking care of the family. The pattern is apparent throughout Peterson’s life and Collier deals with it well. He doesn’t gloss over it, but writes frankly about Peterson’s own journey in learning to balance his family with his work and devotional life. To be fair, it was a different time. We can hardly hold him to the standards of the 2020s, when he was pastoring in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Peterson’s approach to pastoring needs some adjusting for those pastoring in a time when parental duties are often shared more equally, wives often have careers, and pastors are often women. We need to do the work of learning from Peterson without simply imitating him.
All in all, I recommend A Burning in My Bones to anyone who is trying to faithfully live out the vocation of a pastor. I’m thankful to Peterson for the life he lived and to Collier for taking the time to write such an excellent biography.
CBWC Church Planting 