A Metaphor in Need of Cultivation
A Review of
The Pastor as Gardener: A Renewed Vision for Ministry
Matthew Erickson
Paperback: Eerdmans, 2026
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Reviewed by Betsy King-Macdonald
In The Pastor as Gardener, author and pastor Matthew Erikson suggests that the classic metaphor for pastoring, pastor-as-shepherd, lacks resonance in the urbanized modern West. After all, when was the last time you interacted with a sheep? Since our culture no longer recognizes the reference that traditionally distinguished pastoring from other callings, Erikson says that pastors now face pressures from within their churches or themselves to be “communication experts, fundraising wizards, public health specialists, wise CEOs, capable public speakers, seasoned counselors, mindfulness gurus,” and more. He credits this burden of confusion with inspiring the “Great Resignation” of pastors in 2020 and beyond. Erikson’s solution to this confusion is to suggest a new metaphor with potential for greater modern accessibility: the pastor as gardener. Erikson provides a rich bibliography full of wise writers and scholars and joins an ongoing conversation at the nexus of nature, culture, and spirituality.
Perhaps his most potent contribution to the discussion is his comparison of trends toward increasingly mechanized agriculture and toward increasingly mechanized pastoring. While it is possible to purchase sermons, songs, and systems from distant, uninvolved “professionals,” the church, like the garden, is its own microclimate with distinct needs requiring distinct solutions. “The church in North America and its pastors need to pursue a different way,” he says, “detoxing from corporatized industrial approaches to ministry and the practices connected with them.” In the same way that agriculture has lost connection with its purposes and its place, so too have many churches, prioritizing not the growth of their own people, place, and spiritual calling but growth for growth’s own sake. Erikson rebukes the tendency to “become more like businesspeople than pastors” in the service of “bearing good fruit.”
The book’s premise is sound, and its main proposal is full of potential. However, while The Pastor as Gardener presents many valid precepts for pastoring, such as humility, “moral formation,” and awareness of broader cultural trends, the book neither delves into nor seems to trust its dominant metaphor to guide its observations. With a few exceptions, the work devotes little attention to botany, plants, or gardening but rather draws its inspirations and wisdom from other sources like cultural theorists, theologians, and pastors. As such, much of the metaphor’s generative potential is unfortunately unexplored. Norman Wirzba (I recommend Agrarian Spirit) and Ellen F. Davis (Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture), while quoted sparingly, could have been fruitful conversation partners for supporting Erikson’s overall argument for an agrarian ethos for pastoring and may be enjoyable sources for further reading. While undeniably a source of worthwhile meditations, The Pastor as Gardener’s strong premise and generative guiding metaphor deserve further exploration, preferably by a plant lover.
Betsy King-McDonald
Dr. Betsy King-McDonald directs worship at First Baptist Church of Ypsilanti, MI. A graduate of Western Theological Seminary, her doctoral work (Communion from the Ground Up: Responding to Agricapitalism using Christianity's Eating Ritual) explores how agricultural economics unexpectedly collide with Christian worship . Betsy is a certified Master Composter and co-director of the Worship Writers' Publishing Group.
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