HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: With All Boldness: A Collection of Sermon Outlines from Patrick Farish
Author: John Welch, editor
Publisher: Faith and Facts Press, 2020
ISBN-13: none
Language level: 1
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Teens and adults
Rating: ***** 5 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Category: Bible study
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
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Welch, John, editor. With All Boldness: A Collection of Sermon Outlines from Patrick Farish (published in 2020 by Faith and Facts Press, 6530 N. Michigan Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46268). This is a book of 168 sermon outlines from Patrick Scott “Pat” Farish, who was born on July 20, 1936, in Columbus, MS, the son of Robert and Virginia Farish. After attending Florida (Christian) College in Temple Terrace, FL, from 1954 to 1958, during which time he preached his first sermon in 1955 for the old Gary church in Tampa, FL, he married Frances Torricelli of Birmingham, AL, in 1960, and they subsequently had three children, Sharon, Rob, and Scott. His father was a gospel preacher before him, and Pat also became a gospel preacher, with his first full time work in Concord, NC, from 1960 to 1962. Then in1962, he moved to labor with the Parkway church in Corpus Christi, TX, where he graduated from the University of Corpus Christi with a B.A. degree in 1965. After that, all of his local preaching work was in the state of Texas.
In 1969, Pat relocated to Ft. Worth, TX, where he labored with the Castleberry congregation. When I was growing up, we received the Castleberry church bulletin in the mail. The bulletin itself was mimeographed, but the bulletin head was printed professionally. When Pat came there, the printer misspelled his name in the first run of new bulletin heads. So for a while, the Castleberry bulletin identified the evangelist and editor as “Tat” Farish. Through the years, I was familiar with his name as a result of the articles which he wrote, not only for the bulletin but also for magazines such as The Gospel Guardian and the Preceptor. In addition, he was a regular contributing writer for Faith and Facts Quarterly, as I have been for a number of years.
By 1980, Pat was working with the Southside church in Mount Pleasant, TX, and spoke that year at the Florida College lectures. I first met Pat in November of 1991 when he held a gospel meeting with the High School Rd. church in Indianapolis, IN. We drove over from Dayton, OH, so that I could see and hear the preacher named “Tat.” Following that, we became good friends. In 1992, when Pat was with the Pleasant Run church in Lancaster, TX, he became editor of an excellent magazine known as With All Boldness, taking the reins from Keith Sharp. As I was also a regular writer for With All Boldness, we kept in close communication. He even asked me to edit three special issues of the magazine—one on the nature of Jesus Christ with all the articles by Ohio preachers and two with articles by me on song writers of the Restoration Movement.
Pat spoke at the Florida College lectures again in 1998. With All Boldness ceased publication in 2002, by which time he had moved to labor with the Westside church in Stephenville, TX, although he returned to the Pleasant Run church in Lancaster at some later time. After that, we would see Pat occasionally at both the High School Rd. and the Florida College lectures. In fact, the last time I ever saw Pat was at the 2015 Florida College lectures. I did not realize that he was there. We were with some friends attending the Wednesday night midweek service of the Temple Terrace church. After it was over, I was standing in the vestibule talking with someone and turned around—and there was Pat! He was hard to miss. I believe that he told me that he had just gotten in that afternoon. He also traveled to Ethiopia on multiple occasions, teaching and training local preachers there.
Pat continued preaching full time up until he had to retire in 2017 due to ongoing health issues. After a lengthy decline during which time he suffered for a good while from various diseases, Pat Farish, long time gospel preacher and our dear friend and brother, passed away early Monday morning, March 16, 2020, at the age of 83 in Red Oak, TX. John Welch first notified me of his death. Pat’s son Rob said, “He was at home on hospice care and went peacefully in his sleep.” Preceded in death by his parents, he was survived by his widow, Frances, who is also in ill health and living in their home in Waxahachie, TX; their three children; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and three brothers. Keith Sharp well summarized Pat’s life. “He didn’t have a political or mean bone in his body, and he preached and taught the truth, all the truth, whether it was popular or not.”
Obviously, a volume of sermon outlines is going to have an extremely limited appeal. However, I am a preacher, and Pat was my friend, so this book greatly appeals to me. I heard Pat speak only a handful or so of times, but looking through With All Boldness, I found that Pat and I evidently thought much alike and were quite similar in our way of organizing ideas. Many of his outlines look amazingly like some that I had worked up on my own long before I knew him. If you are a preacher, especially a younger one or someone just starting out, or are merely called upon now and then to deliver an occasional lesson, you will find in this book a treasure trove of material that can serve as starters to help you develop beneficial sermons. Thank you, brother Pat.
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