Low in the Water
a good word for pastors
The Podcast
The Poem
by Eugene Peterson
“QUIET”
Our latest guest, a common loon,
arrived this winter unannounced
and bringing gifts – guests do that,
bring gifts – filling heart and home
with beauty: wild, elusive, sleek,
low in the water, this contemplative
loon is an icon for living present
but detached. I rarely see him fly
but he can fly. This loon dives, dives
long and deep. No mere surface
bird, he goes for the depths. When he dives
I think he prays, searching deep waters
for what keeps him and us alive,
grace and quiet, buoyant with Presence.
The Poem and The Podcast
What is the podcast about?
Low in the Water offers a benediction. A good word for those who are called to speak a good word. We hope this podcast will be a weekly blessing to ministers, but we imagine (and hope) that it blesses anyone who longs for a good word from God. The common lectionary will help give focus to the weekly conversation, both scripturally and seasonally. Then monthly, when Mandy Smith and Winn Collier join in, the conversation will be more wide-ranging.
How did we get the name – Low in the Water?
Eugene Peterson wrote a poem about one of the many guests who showed up to Flathead Lake – a common loon (Holy Luck, 40). In that loon, Peterson saw something intriguing and important:
Low in the water, this contemplative
loon is an icon for living present
but detached.
This common loon is a window into the unseen angles that give integral shape to the pastoral vocation. One of those angles is spiritual direction, “living present, but detached.” Pastoral life is being present with people, but detached from managing, fixing, controlling, or manipulating them.
I rarely see him fly
but he can fly. This loon dives, dives
long and deep. No mere surface
bird, he goes for the depths.
Another angle is paying attention to the Scriptures: diving deep, going for the depths – low in the water. The common loon is not a flashy flyer or a mere surface bird. The loon spends a fair amount of time diving, exploring, hunting, and hidden under water. Other birds (or congregants) might be suspicious, “What are they doing down there for so long?” The contemplative loon (and pastor) know that there is treasure down there.
When he dives
I think he prays, searching deep waters
for what keeps him and us alive,
grace and quiet, buoyant with Presence.
The final angle is prayerfulness – searching, deep crying out to deep. The vastness of God’s grace in the quiet waters is the life of the pastor and the life of the church. Daily provision is found underneath our surface identities – down, down low in the water to our most basic baptismal identity: beloved.
Meet Nathan (PASTOR & HOST)
Nathan Hoff
Nathan Hoff was born at San Pedro Hospital, two blocks from where he now lives. He has lived in Seattle (where he graduated from High School, then college at Trinity Lutheran College formerly Lutheran Bible Institute), Dubuque, the Texas panhandle, Peterson (MN-269 population), Minneapolis/St Paul (where he graduated from Luther Seminary in 2002), Portland, Stavanger (Norway), Orange County, and boomeranged back to San Pedro when he received a call to serve as pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in 2005.
In 2019, in the same parish, Nathan and a small group of friends, began a Benedictine-inspired neo-monastic community of young adults that share a rule of life and a rhythm of prayer called the Theta Community. Participating in the first Holy Presence cohort (2021-2024) at the Eugene Peterson Center at Western Theological Seminary was restorative and reinvigorating to Nathan’s pastoral vocation. Nathan is married to Joy and they have four kids named Christian (married to Molly), Annika, Samuel, and Peter.
Nathan’s writing can be found at: nathanhoff.substack.com or trinitysanpedro.org/nathanhoff
Meet Jonathan (MUSICIAN & PRODUCER)
Jonathan Gabhart
Jonathan Gabhart is a musician and pastor from Holland, MI. He is married to Anna and shares the joy of raising two children together. Jonathan grew up amid the corn fields of Iowa, but came to Michigan as a student at Hope College where he studied vocal music. He then studied at Western Theological Seminary, graduating in 2015. Since then he has served as the Pastor of Worship Arts at Pillar Church. He journeyed with the Peterson Center in the Holy Presence Doctor of Ministry cohort from 2021-2024. And participates in other local arts endeavors with Cardiphonia, Bellwether Arts, and a rag-tag folk music group called Michigan-IO.
Music and Production Reflections:
All the music has been originally composed and recorded for this podcast by the band Michigan-IO, a group of musicians in Holland, MI. The music has been written and produced to give a sense of spaciousness, mostly with acoustic instruments, and you may even notice the space of the world around us through field recordings and found sounds that evoke the “wild, elusive, and sleek” (from “Quiet” by Eugene Peterson) beauty we are all seeking.
