Parish Poet

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.