Teaching that shapes our thinking, Loving, and Doing
Sundays & Sermons
For City Parish, preaching/teaching is essential—but not in a way that eclipses the rest of our life as disciples of Jesus—in Petaluma, Sonoma County, and in every other arena we inhabit. We believe that the preached Word holds a unique place in the life of the Church, a moment when God’s story confronts, comforts, and forms us as a people… a familyh… “the household of God.” Yet we also recognize that in much of American church culture, preaching has at times been overly emphasized, treated as the primary or even solitary engine of spiritual formation. For City Parish, we honor preaching as vitally important, but we refuse to let it become a substitute for shared life, apprenticeship to Jesus, and the slow, relational work of discipleship within community.
Our sermons aim to do more than teach ideas or reinforce values. Preaching must be prophetic—not merely in tone, but in purpose. Each sermon should call our church family to increasingly find joy in submitting every area of life to the empowering presence and lordship of Jesus, and then to teach others to do the same. We want our preaching to awaken hunger, stir imagination, and cultivate a deep desire for transformation—not just for our personal lives, but for the renewal of our city. As James K.A. Smith often reminds us, we are not simply “thinking things”; we are lovers shaped by our habits and our stories. Good preaching, then, doesn’t aim only at the mind—it reorders our desires around the beauty of Jesus and His kingdom.
We also believe that preaching works best when it serves the formation of a whole church family, not just individuals. Jon Tyson once said that the goal of preaching is to “build people into a community of depth and passion that the world cannot ignore.” At City Parish, our teaching is meant to do just that: shape us into a people who know God’s story well enough to live it together in the ordinary and difficult places of life. Our sermons are crafted with theological depth, pastoral sensitivity, and everyday clarity—not to entertain, but to form a people who increasingly resemble Jesus in our character, practices, and mission.
Ultimately, preaching at City Parish is a weekly invitation: to hear the voice of the Shepherd, to practice the way of Jesus, and to become a family shaped by His presence for the sake of our city.
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