Eugene H. Peterson, translator of The Message Bible, authored more than thirty books, including the spiritual classics Run with the Horses and A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He earned a degree in philosophy from Seattle Pacific University, a graduate degree in theology from New York Theological Seminary, and a master’s degree in Semitic languages from John Hopkins University. He also received several honorary doctoral degrees. He was founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, where he and his wife, Jan, served for twenty-nine years. Peterson held the title of professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, British Columbia from 1998 until his death in 2018.
“As Kingfishers Catch Fire covers it all, the A to Z of Christian
spirituality. It is filled with the kind of wisdom that can only
come from long obedience in the same direction! It’s more than a
book; it’s a gift. Thank you, Eugene!”
—Mark Batterson, New York Times best-selling author of The Circle
Maker and lead pastor of National Community Church, Washington,
DC
“There is no one who has done more to shape my ‘pastoral
imagination’ than Eugene Peterson. Now, through this extraordinary
collection, we see how words become pastoral work. An exegete and a
poet, Peterson opens up to us not only the text but its world,
welcoming us to walk with Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter,
Paul, and John. And as we do, we find ourselves keeping company
with Jesus. Read it devotionally; read it as a study in sacred
storytelling; read it to come alive along the Jesus Way.”
—Glenn Packiam, associate senior pastor, New Life Church, Colorado
Springs
“Eugene Peterson is brilliant and the gift he has given the church
is huge. This is a man who has the mind of a scholar paired with
the heart of a grace-filled pastor. The main thing is that he loves
God’s word and that is so apparent in every word that he
writes.”
—Liz Curtis Higgs, best-selling author of "The Women of Easter" and
Bad Girls of the Bible series
“I can hear Eugene Peterson’s warm and gravelly voice in each
well-crafted chapter of As Kingfishers Catch Fire. I wish I could
have been in a pew listening to the Word spoken for a particular
time, place, and people, but reading this collection is the next
best thing. Peterson’s attention to biblical texts, theological
concerns, and earthy applications for real people are the same
threads we find in his many books. Reading just the introduction to
each section is time well spent, but I promise you won’t stop
there.”
—Dan Baumgartner, senior pastor, First Presbyterian Church of
Hollywood
"As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a collection of 49 sermons Peterson
first preached at Christ Our King Presbyterian Church during nearly
30 years of ministry there (1962–1991). The sermons are divided
into seven groups, each grouped together with the formula,
“Preaching in the Company of _____,” where the fill-in-the-blank is
Moses (the Law), David (Psalms), Isaiah (the Prophets), Solomon
(Wisdom literature), Peter (the Gospels), Paul (the Epistles), and
John (the Johannine literature). Throughout, Peterson strives to
"enter into the biblical company of prototypical preachers and work
out of the traditions they had developed under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit." The result is a master class in what Scripture
says about the pastoral care of souls. Peterson eschews the notions
that spirituality can be pursued apart from everyday life or that
it can be sought without the company of others. Instead, as he
writes in a characteristic passage:
"It is somewhat common among people who get interested in religion
or God to get proportionately disinterested in their jobs and
families, their communities and their colleagues. The more of God,
the less of the human. But that is not the way God intends it.
Wisdom [literature] counters this tendency by giving witness to the
precious nature of human experience in all its forms, whether or
not it feels or appears ‘spiritual’” (emphasis in
original). This isn’t to deny that spiritual disciplines such
as prayer, Scripture reading, and corporate worship are vital. But,
Peterson is saying, unless those disciplines make us better
workers, family members, neighbors and friends, we haven’t yet
achieved the congruence of life to which Scripture bears witness:
persons who act in God’s eye what in God’s eye we are, that is,
“Christ who lives in [us]” (Gal. 2:20).
This is not a book I would recommend to some pastors. For example,
if you’re looking for a book that gives you a fool-proof three-step
process to ______ (whatever it is that you’re trying to do), skip
this one. Or if you’re looking on Saturday night for a three-point
sermon you can preach the next morning, don’t read this. Peterson’s
sermons are ongoing conversations, not plug-and-play
outlines. However, if you’re tossed about by the winds of the
times or you’re tired of slapping Bible verses on business
principles or if your ministry lacks congruence between the means
of discipleship and the ends of Christlikeness, please read this
book. It will feed your soul, and through you, the souls of your
congregation. Then read it again."
—George O. Wood, Influence Magazine
"Unlike many sermons that barely make it out of the pulpit,
Peterson’s soar out and draw in throughout this fantastic book. His
words, written for speaking, are sure, intimate, and trustworthy.
Peterson (The Message) admits that preaching is a “corporate act”
that requires a congregation in common worship. For 29 years, he
preached at the church he founded, Christ Our King Presbyterian
Church in Bel Air, Md., and this anthology of sermons welcomes
readers to join that company. He intends these 49 sermons, undated
but for one, to be used in conjunction with communion. Following
his gracefully instructive introductions to each chapter, Peterson
preaches “in the company” of Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter,
Paul, and John of Patmos. What he says about Paul applies to him,
too: he’s “totally at ease in this richly expansive narrative of
God’s Word.” Peterson mixes storytelling with exegeses, the rare
sermon (on Psalm 110) with the annual, history with geography,
language lessons with a skosh of mathematics, and wisdom with
wit—all in tuneful, God-fed language.
—Publishers Weekly
"For nearly three decades, members of Christ Our King Presbyterian
Church in Bel Air, Md., enjoyed a rare privilege. Week by week,
they listened to wordsmith Eugene Peterson preach. Over his 29
years as the congregation’s founding pastor, those worshippers
undoubtedly heard some of the most skillfully crafted sermons
delivered in the past generation. In the process, they learned what
God had to say to them as a specific group of Christ-followers in
their unique context. Peterson has described the sermons as a
collaborative effort—an ongoing conversation between the pastor and
his people, as they collectively listened for a word from God.
Those of us who did not have the opportunity to hear the sermons
delivered now have access to the next-best thing. As
Kingfishers Catch Fire collects 49 sermons—seven each grouped
under the names of Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Peter, Paul and
John. By Peterson’s reckoning, each biblical personality offers a
distinctive approach, and sermons preached in their company
together help to constitute “the whole counsel of God.” The sermons
span his three decades at the Maryland congregation, and glimmers
of the congregation’s personality appear.
After all, Peterson consistently refused to accept God’s
self-revelation simply as a set of high-flown propositions. Rather,
he insisted on the Mystery of Incarnation—God taking on flesh and
blood and moving into the neighborhood. And that means the church,
the Body of Christ, likewise must live out its faith in the common
day-to-day routines of the workplace, the home and the streets.
So, the sermons seem simultaneously directed to a specific
congregation in Bel Air and universally applicable to all God’s
people, wherever they live. And they do it with poetic sensitivity.
Peterson writes: “Poetry is not the language of objective
explanation but the language of imagination. It makes an image of
reality in such a way as to invite our participation in it.”
As any reader of The Message translation of Scripture
knows, Peterson has a love affair with well-chosen words. Few use
language with the grace and skill he exhibits. At the same time,
the sermons collected here make it clear Peterson’s preaching was
not mere performance art. Instead, they grew out of a pastoral
sensitivity to the people in the pews. The book takes its title
from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which Peterson reads as a
series of metaphors about congruence. The poem describes the
rightness and wholeness found when what one is and what one does
are seamless. This collection of sermons by pastor-poet Peterson
has that sense of congruence."
—The Baptist Standard
Ask a Question About this Product More... |