A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Since Eugene Peterson first wrote this spiritual formation classic nearly forty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Christians have been inspired by Peterson's prophetic and pastoral wisdom and the call to deeper discipleship found in the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134). This special commemorative edition includes a new preface taken from Leif Peterson's eulogy at his father's memorial service.

Six studies, based on Eugene Peterson's classic on Christian commitment, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, encourage you to continue in the path Christ has set before you.

How do we learn to risk, to trust, to pursue wholeness and excellence—to run with the horses and live life at its best? In a series of profound reflections on the life of Jeremiah the prophet, Eugene Peterson explores the heart of what it means to be fully and genuinely human. This special commemorative edition includes a new preface from Peterson's son and a six-session Bible study guide.

Since Eugene Peterson first wrote this spiritual formation classic nearly forty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Christians have been inspired by Peterson's prophetic and pastoral wisdom and the call to deeper discipleship found in the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134). This special commemorative edition includes a new preface taken from Leif Peterson's eulogy at his father's memorial service.

God's Message for Each Day is a year-long devotional that gathers Eugene Peterson's best-loved, most powerful writing into a daily invitation to grow closer to God. As the creator of The Message Bible translation, which has sold more than 20 million copies, Eugene Peterson has helped us find surprising newness in confusing or overly familiar Bible passages. God's Message for Each Day is a dated 365-day devotional that brings together Scripture with brief excerpts from Peterson's most compelling writing from classic books, including Run with the Horses, Leap Over a Wall, A Long Obedience, and more. With its attractive two-color interior, God's Message for Each Day is a great gift for men and women alike, recent high school and college graduates, those starting a new job, or anyone eager to grow in their faith. Eugene Peterson's writing in God's Message for Each Day is for all of us looking for a way to understand the complexities of the Bible in clear language and apply those truths to our lives.

The Christian life calls us to be not tourists but pilgrims—disciples committed to a long journey of faith. These six studies, based on Eugene Peterson's bestselling A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, provide an accessible guide for growing in perseverance, featuring Scripture passages, reflection questions, application ideas, and a leader's guide.

In The Pastor, author Eugene Peterson, translator of the multimillion-selling The Message, tells the story of how he started Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland and his gradual discovery of what it really means to be a pastor. Steering away from abstractions, Peterson challenges conventional wisdom regarding church marketing, mega pastors, and the church’s too-cozy relationship to American glitz and consumerism to present a simple, faith-based description of what being a minister means today. In the end, Peterson discovers that being a pastor boils down to “paying attention and calling attention to ‘what is going on now’ between men and women, with each other and with God.”

Parents want their children to discover the value of God’s Word. My First Message is a one-of-a-kind Bible that transforms family devotions into interactive experiences. The great Message style offers a version of the Bible that is easy to read and understand. Children ages 4-8 are encouraged to learn to study the Bible through a “read, think, pray, and live” approach. Filled with lively illustrations and fun activities for parents and children, My First Message keeps in mind the short attention span of its readers and moves the stories along at a good pace.

The bestselling author of "The Message" challenges believers to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God's revelation, and to live them as they read them.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places reunites spirituality and theology in a cultural context where these two vital facets of Christian faith have been rent asunder. Lamenting the vacuous, often pagan nature of contemporary American spirituality, Eugene Peterson here firmly grounds spirituality once more in Trinitarian theology and offers a clear, practical statement of what it means to actually live out the Christian life. Writing in the conversational style that he is well known for, Peterson boldly sweeps out the misunderstandings that clutter conversations on spiritual theology and refurnishes the subject only with what is essential. As Peterson shows, spiritual theology, in order to be at once biblical and meaningful, must remain sensitive to ordinary life, present the Christian gospel, follow the narrative of Scripture, and be rooted in the "fear of the Lord" -- in short, spiritual theology must be about God and not about us. The foundational book in a five-volume series on spiritual theology emerging from Peterson's pen, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places provides the conceptual and directional help we all need to live the Christian gospel well and maturely in the conditions that prevail in the church and world today.

Peterson, who is translator of "The Message Bible," explores the free life in Christ that believers must both receive as a gift and practice as a skill. In an engaging, often passionate dialogue in which Paul's letter to the Galatians faces off against the crises of modern life, he offers both encouragement and challenge to men and women trapped in anxieties and determinism.

The renowned Christian pastor and author of The Message and Run with Horses shares his spirituality in a very personal collection of poetry. Eugene H. Peterson had long been known as a pastor, professor, and provocateur. With his first-ever collection of verse, Peterson became known as a poet, too. Holy Luck emerged over many years, initially as individual poems sent to family, friends, and church congregations. Now, the translator of the bestselling Bible paraphrase The Message has collected his poems into three thematic sections of verses—on the Beatitudes, the kingdom of God in the ordinary, and following Jesus everyday—here released as one transcendent volume.

Subversive Spirituality is a gathering together of articles written by Eugene Peterson over the past twenty-five years. Made up of occasional pieces, short biblical studies, poetry, pastoral readings and interviews, this book reflects on the overlooked facets of the spiritual life. Peterson captures the epiphanies of life with the pleasing pastoral style and inspiring depth of insight for which he is well known. Peterson describes his book this way: "The gathering of articles and essays, poems and conversations, is a kind of kitchen midden of my noticings of the obvious in the course of living out the Christian life in the vocational context of pastor, writer, and professor. The randomness and repetitions and false starts are rough edges that I am leaving as is in the interests of honesty. Spirituality is not, by and large, smooth. I do hope, however, that they will be found to be 'freshly phrased.'"

In this powerful new interpretation of the Book of Revelation, the late, revered author and translator of The Message Bible shows us how to live with profound joy and faithfulness--even when it feels like the end of the world. When John the Beloved Disciple penned the Book of Revelation, Christians lived in a time of oppression, violence, deception, and injustice. There were temptations from outside the church and divisions within. Some days, it felt like the end of the world. Two millennia later, the characters are different, but the story's the same. The life of faith is anything but easy. So how can we learn to live with truth and power when challenges seem to be everywhere? Through the dramatic symbolism of John's Letters to the Seven Churches, Eugene Peterson encourages us to see ourselves in these ancient communities as they are examined by the Risen Christ. As we do, we're forced to ask: What if the troubles that face us were intended to test our faith? What if the secret to deeper satisfaction in Jesus did not mean avoiding pain and trial, but living faithfully through it? In this powerful, never-before-published work, we are given a new and timely message from one of our most iconic Christian voices. Our anxious longings for peace and joy will be met as we learn to live with overcoming faith, even in the most turbulent times.

Concerned with the "unselfing" of our self-preoccupied, self-bound society, Peterson offers insightful, thought-provoking reflections on eleven select psalm-centered prayers that can help us to overcome such things as self-centeredness, self-assertiveness, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, self-pity, self-service, and self-love.

Arguing that the way Jesus leads and the way we follow are symbiotic, Peterson begins with a study of how the ways of those who came before Christ revealed and prepared the way of the Lord that became complete in Jesus. He then challenges the ways of the contemporary American church, showing in stark relief how what we have chosen to focus on--consumerism, celebrity, charisma, and so forth--obliterates what is unique in the Jesus way.

Living Out the Word Made Flesh “Sixty years ago I found myself distracted,” Eugene Peterson wrote. “A chasm had developed between the way I was preaching from the pulpit and my deepest convictions on what it meant to be a pastor.” And so began Peterson’s journey to live and teach a life of congruence—congruence between preaching and living, between what we do and the way we do it, between what is written in Scripture and how we live out that truth. Nothing captures the biblical foundation for this journey better than Peterson’s teachings over his twenty-nine years as a pastor. As Kingfishers Catch Fire offers a never-before-published collection of these teachings to anyone longing for a richer, truer spirituality. Peterson’s strikingly beautiful prose and deeply grounded insights usher us into a new understanding of how to live out the good news of the Word made flesh. This is one man’s compelling quest to discover not only how to be a pastor but how to be a human being.

The Psalms show you how to relate to God as you pray your doubt, fears and anger. They show you how to respond to God in praise. Here you find the best place to explore who you are and what God means to you.

God Made You for Resurrection Life Work. Food. Friendship. Does Jesus' Resurrection mean something for them? Eugene Peterson answers with a resounding YES. Dive deep with Peterson into the Gospel stories of the Resurrection. Experience the wonder through the eyes of the biblical witnesses. Discover how the practices and perspectives of resurrection life transform your daily job, your daily meals, and your daily relationships. Peterson's contemplations will move you from Easter Sunday to resurrection life. Living the Resurrection is perfect for reading and discussing with a group, where you can begin to share life--life to the full--the way God intended it.

Foreword Review's 17th Annual INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist (Religion) 12th Annual Outreach Resource of the Year (Culture) 2015 Christianity Today Award of Merit (Christian Living) 2014 Leadership Journal Best Books for Church Leaders (The Leader's Outer Life) 2014 Book of the Year from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Is it possible to know the world and still love the world? Of all the questions we ask about our calling, this is the most difficult. From marriages to international relations, the more we know, the harder it is to love. We become cynics or stoics, protecting our hearts from the implications of what we know. But what if the vision of vocation can be recovered—allowing us to step into the wounds of the world and for love s sake take up our responsibility for the way the world turns out? For decades Steve Garber has come alongside a wide range of people as they seek to make sense of the world and their lives. With him we meet leaders from the Tiananmen Square protest who want a good reason to still care about China. We also meet with many ordinary people in ordinary places who long for their lives to matter: Jonathan who learned he would rather build houses than study history Todd and Maria who adopted creative schedules so they could parent better and practice medicine D.J. who helped Congress move into the Internet Age Robin who spends her life on behalf of urban justice Hans who makes hamburgers the way they are meant to be made Susan who built a home business of hand-printing stationary using a letterpress Santiago who works with majority-world nations in need of capital George who has given years to teaching students to learn things that matter most Claudius and Deirdre whose openhearted home has always been a place for people Dan who loves Wyoming, the place, its people and its cows Vocation is when we come to know the world in all its joy and pain and still love it. Vocation is following our calling to seek the welfare of the world we live in. And in helping the world to flourish, strangely, mysteriously, we find that we flourish too. Garber offers a book for everyone everywhere—for students, for parents, for those in the arts, in the academy, in public service, in the trades and in commerce—for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.