Westmont Magazine A Pastoral Presence

The Rev. Ben Patterson, contributing editor to Christianity Today and the Leadership Journal, comes to Westmont as campus pastor in January 2001. He will plan college chapels and convocations, speak frequently to students, and serve as pastor of the community.

He spent six years as dean of the chapel at Hope College in Holland, Mich., where attendance at the voluntary chapel program grew from 50 students to more than 1,000.

Previously, he was senior pastor for two congregations, and was the founding pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, Calif. He has written three books: “Serving God (The Grand Essentials),” “Waiting,” and “Deepening Your Conversation with God.”

As campus pastor, he says he will seek revival and spiritual awakening in the church and in society.

“There seem to be three incontrovertible facts about our times: The world is in a mess, the church in North America is impotent, and we need desperately for the Spirit of God to do a new and mighty thing,” Patterson said. “Who better than students to catch that vision?”