Eugene H. Peterson (The Jesus Way; Practice Resurrection) thinks of himself as a scholar and a writer and certainly his bibliography of over thirty books supports that predisposition. On the other hand, he never sought to be a pastor. When, in 1962, that position was thrust upon him, he entered the job without metaphorical training wheels, learning step-by-step what he imagined that others knew instinctively. The Pastor is an anecdote-filled memoir of his nearly three decades of his hard-won education. Along the way, Peterson offers telling wisdom about human relations, church marketing, preaching in a mega-church world, and diluting the gospel message in a glitzy secular world.