It's not easy these days to figure out what it means to be a servant of the Word in the church. Anti-servant models are promoted daily among us as pastors, teachers, and missionaries. In the crisscross of signals and voices, I pick my way.

William Faulkner once said that writing a novel is like building a chicken coop in a high wind—you grab any board you find and nail it down fast. Being a pastor is also like that. Recently I came across Jonah, and grabbed on. He has turned out to be useful in this vocation-clarifying task.

The Jonah story is a favorite everywhere. Children commonly love this story, but adults are also fascinated with it. Outsiders who have minimal knowledge or interest in our Scriptures know enough about Jonah to laugh at a joke based on the story. And scholars, stuffed to the gills with erudition, write learned articles and books on it. Its influence can be seen in such diverse progeny as Pinnochio and Moby Dick. I got the book at both ends of my educational ...