How many men has Eugene Peterson influenced? I was recently at Catwest Conference (Catalyst West Coast) and I was humbled and encouraged by Eugene Peterson’s humility and deep ministry.  I asked myself “how many men has this man influenced.” He doesn’t have a church of thousands and doesn’t do satellite campuses. He doesn’t take the approach that I have to reach thousands so I can’t know everyone in my congregation. He wanted a church no bigger than 300 so he could know all personally.  I wondered if his small, humble stage influenced more men than the stages of men who are in a much bigger ministry context. Ok, my question is this: Has his humble, deep ministry to a few hundred each week in his church allowed him to minister more deeply and thus more greatly than a mega-church pastor who has a much bigger stage. Maybe.  Granted he writes books and like Rick McKinley half-jokingly said, he “wrote the Bible” which “was awesome,” in the Chris Farley sense. But I wonder if his small church stage all these years will have a greater impact than the mega-church pastor’s stage. There just seemed to be a weight his words had that perhaps others did not have.  Regardless, we know there are men who have had seemingly great ministries only to morally fail and fall from their stage.  I do have a feeling that God’s stage looks quite different than ours.  In fact His son’s stage had a bloody cross mounted on it. Our churches are too pretty for this, our stages too nice.