這本書的英文版Under the Unpredictable Plant：An Exploration in Vocational Holiness，作者畢德生牧師隱喻自約拿書的結局；
耶和華神安排一棵蓖麻，使其發生高過約拿，影兒遮蓋他的頭，救他脫離苦楚；約拿因這棵蓖麻大大喜樂。次日黎明，神卻安排一條蟲子咬這蓖麻，以致枯槁。日頭出來的時候，神安排炎熱的東風，日頭曝曬約拿的頭，使他發昏，他就為自己求死，說：我死了比活著還好！(4:6-8)
約拿自詡反應敏捷、聰明盤算、口才便捷，忘了服事神的先知、牧師，當知神才是主角。
We are supposed to be doing as a pastor (i.e., providing spiritual direction to and for a congregation) and not something else, like managing an organization).
Vocational holiness, in deliberate opposition to career idolatry, is my subject.
Personal holiness, the lifelong process by which our hearts and minds and bodies are conformed to Christ, is more often addressed. But it is both possible and common to develop deep personal pieties that coexist alongside vocational idolatries without anyone noticing anything amiss.
If the pastor is devout, it is assumed that the work is also devout. The assumption is unwarranted. Sincerity in a carpenter does not ensure an even saw cut. Neither does piety in a pastor guarantee true pastoral work. My impression is that the majority of pastors are truly good, well intentioned, even godly. But their goodness does not inevitably penetrate their vocations.
校園出版的中文本書名是；不情願的呼召：跟著約拿學牧養、工作與召命。”跟著約拿學”這的確是讓人眼睛一亮的標題。
畢德生是很有智慧的學者，他的書常常是貼著聖經的書卷來呈現，一種活潑新鮮的解經和現代詮釋。他認為約拿的故事根本上就是 the story of Jonah is “sharply evocative of the vocational experience of pastor” (6).In this account we see a story which closely resembles that of what many who are called to the pastorate do:
they hear the call of God to pastor a particular church or to plant one in a particular area;
they are not sure they like that call (or that place), it looks too hard;
they run from that call, either to the business world or in some direction opposite of where God is leading them (they get on a ship and head to Tarshish);
they get caught up in the storm of God’s discipline; they then repent and change their attitude (they get thrown off the ship, or they jump ship);
they go to that place God has directed them and pastor the church with passionate vocational holiness, whether they like the results or not (they go to Ninevah and pastor).
和約拿書的結尾是很突然、意猶未盡一樣，畢德生牧師的最後一章，也留給我們許多未盡、尚待完成的自省和接續發展的空間。一切都可以to be continue ，只要你懂先知約拿。
本書提醒我們，牧者的日常該是:
1)contemplative prayer—-Just as Jonah’s being caught up by the fish and then praying a prayer – so too should prayer be at the center of one’s pastoral vocation, be it a prayer of repentance or prayers for God’s direction and help to do his will and purpose. In particular the prayers of the Pslams are especially useful for helping one make prayer the center. The Psalms are where we learn to pray and can live out our pastoral vocation for the Psalms, according to Peterson, are “the graduate school of prayer.”
2)Scripture reading-—畢牧師說“Every true gospel vocation is a resurrection vocation that arrives after a passage through the belly of the fish.
All “word of God” vocations are thus formed. There can be no authentic vocation that is not shaped by passage through some such interior.”
3)faithful obedience to the call of God-–畢牧師說“There are a thousand ways of being religious without submitting to Christ’s lordship, and people are practiced in most of them. We live in golden calf country.
Religious feeling runs high but in ways far removed from what was said in Sinai and done on Calvary. While everyone has a hunger for God, deep and insatiable, none us has any great desire for him.
What we really want is to be our own gods and to have whatever other gods that are around to help in this work.”
4)to care for a congregation spiritually, among other things. It means getting involved in people’s lives, listening to and hearing their stories; respecting them as people and fellow Christians and servants of the Lord; it means caring for them like a farmer cares for his field (a comparison Peterson makes).
你心繫的是西班牙的他施，還是即將被毀滅尼尼微
畢德生說；
“Somehow we American pastors, without really noticing what was happening, got our vocations redefined in the terms of American careerism.
We quit thinking of the parish as a location for pastoral spirituality and started thinking of it as an opportunity for advancement.
Tarshish, not Nineveh, was the destination. The moment we did that, we started thinking wrongly, for the vocation of pastor has to do with living out the implications of the word of God in community, not sailing off into the exotic seas of religion in search of fame and fortune.”
地域和終末 geography and eschatology–願你的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上(當你的教會在擴張版圖時，你該在哪裡設點呢?)
畢德生說；
all theology is rooted in geography, that is, the place where you pastor, and that true and authentic pastoral work is eschatological to the core in that it helps the congregation know and understand the goal and purpose of the Christian life, that it is, well, eschatological!
where you pastor is as important as who you pastor; they are interrelated. The people, the culture, and the locale are all going to be related and have an effect on how we pastor them. Jonah going to Tarshish was indeed a vast contrast to his going to Nineveh.
It’s much the same with eschatology – it is the tool we use to keep our spiritual lives and the the spiritual life of the congregation fresh and open to the coming of the Lord both in our present lives and in the future consummation of all things. It helps us teach our congregations how to live.