Reading Christ-centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon as collateral reading for my preaching class. Great book. This paragraph by Dr. Chapell struck me: "In some ways, the entire process seems ridiculous. Common sense rebels against claims that eternal destinies will change simply because we voice thoughts from an ancient text. When Paul comments the foolishness of preaching — not foolish preaching — he acknowledges the apparent senselessness of trying to transform attitudes, lifestyles, philosophical perspectives, and faith commitments with mere words about a once...

On Sunday I was privileged again to preach in Wilsonville at Canyon Creek Church . This time the text was  Philippians 3:1-11 , and my title: "Worthless Doing and Priceless Knowing ." Asked to give a little synopsis for the church bulletin, this is what I wrote: We have natural bent towards religion. That is, we tend to find our identity by what we do, rather than in Who God is. It is easy to think we have done so much on our own, for our "gains" are clearly seen by looking at our own religious resumes and feeble good works — especially by comparison with others. Yet, in...

Yesterday we were given a great opportunity to worship with Canyon Creek Church, a small congregation in Wilsonville seeking gospel renewal and outreach in that community. Their pastor Travis asked me to preaching in his stead, and I am thankful for the opportunity. (Listen to a recording of the message below, if you wish. Note that the audio quality isn’t the best.) Message: All of Life is Preparation   AudioPlayer.embed("pod_audio_2", {soundFile: "http%3A%2F%2Fwww.detheos.com%2Fmedia%2Fmp3%2FAll-of-Life-is-Preparation-jeff-patterson.mp3"}); [download mp3 ] Primary...