Finding the Eye of the Storm
An interview with M. Craig Barnes
January 1, 1998
In a town that thrives on crises, M. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., knows them too. In When God Interrupts (InterVarsity), he recounts how he discovered a lump on his throat—a cancerous tumor on his thyroid gland.
"Once the doctors found the metastasis," he writes, "everything changed for me. For the first time in my life it occurred to me that I would not live forever. … it became so clear to me that God doesn't need me. I need him."
Whether writing about medical or pastoral crises, Barnes traces well their impact on the soul and how to receive God's grace amid them.
A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago (Ph.D. in church history), Barnes has also written Yearning (InterVarsity). Leadership editors Kevin Miller and Dave Goetz visited National Presbyterian Church to discuss with Barnes how a pastor can enjoy God's grace even during ministry's storms.
The conversation began in an unlikely place—discussing Leadership's interview (spring 1997) with Eugene Peterson.
Craig Barnes: I have enormous regard for Eugene and his writings.
He is absolutely right. But I just can't make the "contemplative pastor"
model of ministry work. And that breaks my heart.
Why doesn't it work?
Craig Barnes: Pastoral ministry is like a vacuum that sucks me into
becoming a manager. I try to hang on to the vision that my job is to be the
shepherd, but it's pulled out of my hands every day. Every morning I renew
my commitment, and every night I go home feeling like I work for
IBM.
What pulls you into becoming a manager?
Mostly issues that involve less than 10 percent of the people yet take 90
percent of my time. That means 90 percent of my people ...
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