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The Matthew Challenge: Living Beyond Religion, Christ Beyond Christianity
Do you think you know Jesus? Think again.
Do you think you want to follow Jesus? Better count the cost.
Do you think Jesus is the answer? Jesus will ask the questions.
The Book of Matthew will show us a Jesus we never saw coming, but one whom the poor, marginalized and dispossessed can't wait to arrive.
Matthew's Jesus challenges ...
•The moral hypocrisy of a power-hungry church
•The common addiction to power and wealth
•The avoidance of sacrificial generosity for outcasts and outsiders
•The aversion to radical inclusivity of all those deemed unclean
•The idea we should just check our minds at the door
•The marginalized, poor and those deemed sinners to see their worth to God
With a doctoral degree in ministry and a lifetime inside and outside the church, Rick Patterson melds biblical expertise with his own real-world experiences, confessions of his own failures, and insider views of both the churched and unchurched life to show us a version of Matthew's Jesus we may not be hearing about in church or our newsfeeds.
This bold work exposes the moral hypocrisy and failure of politicized evangelical Christianity while arguing that Jesus's message was never meant to justify power, wealth, or exclusion but to upend them. To be a Christ follower is to embrace all the people the church often pushes aside.
The Matthew Challenge arrives at a time when the loudest voices in American Christianity have traded the cross for a flag and the Beatitudes for talking points. Against this backdrop, The Matthew Challenge dares to reclaim the sharpest edges of the gospel with a call to radical inclusivity and sacrificial generosity.
With theological insight and prophetic fire, this book calls readers back to a Messiah who blessed the poor, challenged the religiously corrupt, and condemned those who only talk the talk.
Building on Rick's original work (Shame Disarming the Hidden Driver Behind Our Destructive Decisions), this effort exposes how shame, living inside each of us, has infiltrated today's complex relationship between politics, power, and the person of Jesus Christ. It will inspire those kicked aside by the church to see their value to God while insisting the rest of us pick up our own cross instead of handing crosses to others.
This is not a comfortable read, but it is a necessary one for anyone who believes that faith should speak truth to power, and that the way of Christ begins in our own heart and mind.
Do you think you want to follow Jesus? Better count the cost.
Do you think Jesus is the answer? Jesus will ask the questions.
The Book of Matthew will show us a Jesus we never saw coming, but one whom the poor, marginalized and dispossessed can't wait to arrive.
Matthew's Jesus challenges ...
•The moral hypocrisy of a power-hungry church
•The common addiction to power and wealth
•The avoidance of sacrificial generosity for outcasts and outsiders
•The aversion to radical inclusivity of all those deemed unclean
•The idea we should just check our minds at the door
•The marginalized, poor and those deemed sinners to see their worth to God
With a doctoral degree in ministry and a lifetime inside and outside the church, Rick Patterson melds biblical expertise with his own real-world experiences, confessions of his own failures, and insider views of both the churched and unchurched life to show us a version of Matthew's Jesus we may not be hearing about in church or our newsfeeds.
This bold work exposes the moral hypocrisy and failure of politicized evangelical Christianity while arguing that Jesus's message was never meant to justify power, wealth, or exclusion but to upend them. To be a Christ follower is to embrace all the people the church often pushes aside.
The Matthew Challenge arrives at a time when the loudest voices in American Christianity have traded the cross for a flag and the Beatitudes for talking points. Against this backdrop, The Matthew Challenge dares to reclaim the sharpest edges of the gospel with a call to radical inclusivity and sacrificial generosity.
With theological insight and prophetic fire, this book calls readers back to a Messiah who blessed the poor, challenged the religiously corrupt, and condemned those who only talk the talk.
Building on Rick's original work (Shame Disarming the Hidden Driver Behind Our Destructive Decisions), this effort exposes how shame, living inside each of us, has infiltrated today's complex relationship between politics, power, and the person of Jesus Christ. It will inspire those kicked aside by the church to see their value to God while insisting the rest of us pick up our own cross instead of handing crosses to others.
This is not a comfortable read, but it is a necessary one for anyone who believes that faith should speak truth to power, and that the way of Christ begins in our own heart and mind.
236 pages, Paperback
Published September 26, 2025
About the author
Rick Patterson
4 books5 followersRick received his Bachelors degree in paper engineering from Western Michigan University and went to work out of school in sales, sales management, and business development for an international chemical firm serving the paper industry. While with this company, he returned to school to receive his Master’s of Divinity degree and became an ordained minister. He and his wife adopted a sibling group of 4 children, which facilitated his departure from corporate America and into ministry full time. Rick spent the next 10 years in new church development for his denomination during which time he received his doctoral degree in ministry also from Western Theological Seminary. In 2011, Rick returned to Corporate America where he’s employed as a Platform Launch Manger responsible for new product introduction.
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