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Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness, by Eugene H. Peterson (Eerdmans). Peterson remains the wisest person I know when it comes to understanding the pastoral life and gaining a pastoral heart. His insights into pastoral hubris and spiritual immaturity are sterling, and his appreciation for the beauty of a congregation is as rich as Iowa topsoil. Using the book of Jonah as a backdrop, Peterson distinguishes between religious careerism and vocational holiness in unforgettably honest ways.

Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, by Eugene H. Peterson (Eerdmans). This book, along with Peterson’s The Contemplative Pastor, reminded me again and again of my responsibility to guard my heart well, “for from it flow the springs of life,” as the proverb says. I was surprised when I left higher education to become a pastor that it was actually harder in the pastorate to keep my devotional life alive than it had been in the secular world.

Eugene Peterson writes often and clearly about spiritual theology, which has helped greatly to define a discipline that can be vague and fuzzy. He did this particularly well in his previous book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. But as needed as that book was, Peterson is never better than when he is writing out of a specific biblical text.