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Reviewed by: Marilyn Zehr

What the title doesn’t tell you?  This entire book is a type of commentary on the Book of Ephesians.  Unlike many commentaries that examine text and context systematically, verse by verse, instead in this book Eugene Peterson has a conversation with his sister and brother Christians about the importance of “growing up in Christ.”  The voice of St. Paul in Ephesians is his primary conversation partner. He notes at the beginning that Ephesians formed and transformed his own experience as pastor and his life with and understanding of church – the church you see “this mixed bag of humanity that is my congregation,” and the church you never see. “Ephesians is a revelation of the church we never see. It shows us the healthy soil and root system .... out of which the church that we do see grows.”  This is a book to be savoured as Eugene invites us to practice resurrection in the company of Jesus.

This is an important book for any pastor or congregation asking the questions of formation and transformation and how it is that we mature as Christians.  The resurrection life is not a system to be applied but a life to be practiced in participation with our Trinitarian God.   It is not specifically geared to groups and I found that it was best savoured over time - not read too quickly.

Marilyn Zehr

Meet the Reviewer:

Marilyn has been the lead pastor at Toronto United Mennonite Church (TUMC) since October 2009.  She has also served as a chaplain at St. Clair O'Connor Community, an intergenerational Mennonite housing project in east Toronto. Marilyn holds a master of divinity degree and is completing a master's in theology at Regis College, part of the Toronto School of Theology, as well a diploma in spiritual direction. She has lived and worked in Toronto for 24 years, where she raised three sons. Her love of the natural world regularly takes her to a little cabin in the woods near Bancroft.