- Through Perils Unknown: Thoughts of a Seasoned Pastor in a New Call
Co-missioners,
Lori Cornell, longtime editor of our Crossings text studies, reflects today on her opening months of service as Lead Pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Spokane, Washington. She took a call there last summer. We thank her for the abundance of insight, both theological and pastoral, that she shares with us here.
Peace and Joy,
The Crossings ...
- The Terrifying Promise of Love (A Response to Chris Neumann)
Co-missioners,
We launched the recent Advent season with a startling reflection by Chris Neumann on everlasting life, a bedrock Christian promise that most all of us look forward to with delight. Chris found it terrifying. This brought a response from Bruce Martin, a longtime member of our Crossings Community and the author of many of our ...
- Who Will Save the Neighborhood?
Co-missioners,
On this final Thursday in the current Advent season, we send you a challenging reflection by Karen Clapp, a member of Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois. It’s a sequel of sorts to a presentation she made at the Crossings conference in 2020. Those remarks are available on our website in both written and audio ...
- “The Jesus Vaccine.” A Year-Old Christmas Sermon
Co-missioners,
Last year’s Christmas was the bleakest any of us have lived through. The pandemic was raging. Vaccines were not yet. Seniors stayed home. Their dear ones kept a distance for fear of making Grandma sick. A lot of churches were closed on Christmas Eve. Those that dared to be open kept attendees thinly spaced. The ...
- Christ’s Two Advents
Co-missioners,
Today’s post is both late and timely. Late, because it discusses a text we heard in church two weeks ago on this year’s First Sunday of Advent. Timely, because the issues God pushed us to face that day are issues we deal with every day. “How are we judged?” “Who does the judging?”
Our thanks to ...
- When the Ultimate Promise is Terrifying
Co-missioners,
Kudos to writer Chris Neumann for today’s one-of-a-kind post. We urge it on you for three reasons.
First, Chris raises an issue that has never surfaced in Crossings. We know of no prior writer who has addressed it. That includes Bob Bertram and Ed Schroeder. We doubt that it has ever crossed your own minds as ...
- Facing the Sin of Racism
Co-missioners,
There is an endless list of gifts to thank God for this Thanksgiving. Among them is the simple fact that more Americans than usual will take a break from the crabbiness of the times to express some thanks of one kind of another. Not that all of these thanks will be directed to God. We ...
- “What If?” as a Tool for Law/Gospel Discernment
Co-missioners,
Today’s guest writer is the Rev. Dr. George C. Heider, a Senior Research Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University. Dr. Heider is a product of the system that trained many of us who connect with Crossings these days. He graduated from Concordia College, Bronxville, from Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, and finally, in 1979, from ...
- Replaying A Swan Song
Co-missioners,
Atop the sounding board of the imposing pulpit in Cape Town’s Strand Street Lutheran Church—the oldest church building in South Africa—there sits a swan; or to be more accurate, the carved and painted figure thereof. From the floor of the nave it appears like a white dot incongruously marring the rich dark wood the pulpit ...
- A Review of Richard Lischer’s The End of Words
Co-missioners,
Today’s contribution is about preaching. It comes in the form of a book review by Bruce Modahl for which a bit of background might be helpful.
In 1871 Yale Divinity School inaugurated an annual series of lectures on preaching named after a famous Yale alumnus, Lyman Beecher. Beecher was one of America’s superstar Protestant clerics in ...
