Andy Stanley has written a nice book, but it is not a motivational book or really even a paradigm shifting book. In short, it is a good read, funny and insightful at points, but in the end there is no overarching feeling I have learned anything new.

What I took away from this book is that your direction determines your destiny, not your intentions. If I were a 5th grader that would be a profound statement, but I am not. We all know this already.

I found his chapter about being lost in Europe amusing, and it was a good metaphor for what he was talking about. I also found the story and the beginning of the book about his friend and the highway to be poingant, but they just dont advance his overall intentions for the book. At least I dont think they do. I am not sure because I am still trying to understand his intention for the book.

I was also turned off by the fact that in just about every chapter he uses his personal finances in some way to prove the point. I find that quite arrogant and unnecessary for the rest of us. I am glad he is debt free, I am planning to be there one day too. But today, I pay bills.

The Pastor as Minor Poet

“In Jesus Christ, God became flesh to restore being into our non being by reconciling us to the one “in whom we live and breathe and have our being.” When the word that was with God, the Word that was God, became flesh ad dwelt among us, being was restored into the nothingness we made of our lives in the world (John 1: 1-18). As the Holy Spirit binds us to this word allowing us to live “in Christ,” we recover the life we were created to enjoy (Eph 3:14). So, to be clear, we don’t make a living. We receive it through our participation in the Christ, who has brought us home to communion with the Creator.”

This resonates with me still and I finished the book a few weeks ago.

This book is divided into two sections. The first section is called The Call of the Minor Poet and the second is called The Craft of the Minor Poet.

The Call of the Minor Poet

In these first 5 chapters Barnes goes through several scenarios that set up who the minor poet is and gets us comfortable with the term. He does a masterful job of using scenarios, both real and made up, that he has come across in his years as a pastor to illustrate his points. This makes what he is discussing both tangible and attainable in my mind. So often I get overwhelmed with the idea of being a Pastor that I quake in my boots. By gently guiding us towards what he does and how a Pastor should walk with patience and endurance in these situations he gives my soul much peace.

In his chapter on The Poetic Community he probes us with the question not “what would Jesus do?” But “what is Jesus doing?” In doing so he invites the pastor to remember that God is incarnate and that He is active and working in the now. It seems to be elementary, but it is something that Christians sometimes forget. God is not depending on us to “do our ministry thing” to usher his will in. It is already here, our job as the leader of the congregation is to enter into what he is doing and to lead the congregation into that “creative tension” that sometimes ensues.

The Craft of the Minor Poet

This section gets much more into the meat and potatoes. How do you treat the word as the Minor Poet and do it justice? He opens this section with going through asking some questions of the scripture you will teach on.

What are the hard parts?

How does translating help?

What stands out?

What are the conflicts?

What obvious thing is new to you?

These questions are just a few questions he encourages you to ask of the scripture in order to get to the “poetic sub text” and how to share it.

Barnes rounds out the book by leading us through T.S. Elliot’s “The Three Voices of Poetry” and how it is helpful to the Parish Poet.

I want to strongly encourage you to take your time and soak in this book. I intend to read it again and absorb the great amount of pastoral wisdom this book provides. I highly recommend it to aspiring “pastoral poets” and seasoned veterans of the pulpit.

As an aspiring Pastor I have watched with great interest the changes that are going on in relationship to a post modern culture vs. a modern culture and how modernism has affected our church life, and for the worse in most cases. You could use the term “Emergent” to explain it if you wish. There is more, very much more to it though.

This book is part spiritual memoir and a lot of practical advise on how to ask better questions. As spiritual leaders we are expected to have answers to every life question no matter how mundane or how complex. The beauty of this book is that it teaches and encourages the pastor to allow creativity to flow and allow questions to go unanswered, or to allow the congregation to go in search of the answer via any number of ways.

This book is broken up into 3 sections. What follows is some highlights and thoughts from each section.

Entering Story

In this section we see Tim introduce the ideas of narrative and seeing ourselves as partakers in the grand narrative that God is weaving in church, in life, and in history. He uses several examples from the Bible where Israel (among others) relied on tradition and the way it has been in order to dictate the way forward and how it often led to disastrous consequences. He recognizes where we have been over the last several hundred years as a church and why relying on the way it has been will not move us forward into the next great cultural awakening.

Engaging Context

The meat of the book falls in this section. Tim does a astute  job of categorizing the culture and providing an indictment of what is wrong with it. Where he has his brilliance is that he not only indicts it, but then he begins to provide remedies and potential solutions. In Chapter 6 he talks about engaging with “The Holy Other God” and the conceptual idolatry that has insidiously worked it’s way into the modern church. Tim dives into the New Testament church and how they had to engage in the cultural context of the day in order to survive. They not only survived, they thrived.

Embracing Possibility

The most meaningful portion of the book for me comes in the final chapters. In Chapter 9 he talks about postures of engagement and possibility. Postures of vulnerability, surrender and trust are just a few of the ideas he cultivates. If there is any shortfall in this book is that I feel he should have taken more time to develop these ideas. All through the book though Tim makes it clear he does not want to provide a formulatic 1 + 2 =3 leadership model and I believe he gave the basic idea and is leaving the rest to imagination purposely. I know that I finished reading this book several days ago and I am still meditating on the possibilities of these postures and how I have been, or should be better engaged in each of these postures.

Overall I find this book is very readable, and it should be read by a very diverse audience. I can see post moderns reading it and having their heart strings resonate with what is said. I definitely am in that category. I can also see an open minded leadership team in a modern church environment reading it and engaging with some of the ideas. I believe it can be of great benefit to many many people in leadership or not.

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