The Crossings Blog

Co-missioners, We rummaged through our files this week and found a little piece that merits some mid-September attention, at least in North America. These are the days when congregations are returning to the regular rhythms of parish life. Summer vacations are a fading memory. Councils are meeting again. So are the other teams and groups and ...

Co-missioners, Our editor sends along a reflection occasioned by a recent and dramatic change in the way he spends his days, and his Sundays in particular. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ Will I Hear the Gospel this Fall?   Suddenly I’m spending a sliver of every Sunday looking at a pulpit instead of talking from one. That’s what happens when ...

Co-missioners, Twelve and a half years ago a number of us had the great privilege and equal pleasure of meeting a young Finnish expatriate named Jukka Kaariainen. He was one of three keynoters at our 2010 Crossings Conference, having been recommended for that role by Ed Schroeder. Raised in China by Finnish missionaries, Jukka at the ...

Co-missioners, Don’t think for a moment to skip today’s finale to the essay we started feeding you two weeks ago. We think you’ll wind up as refreshed as we were in the wonder of God’s will for humankind in Christ. Our thanks again to Kurt Hendel for his permission to republish this piece. It calls for the ...

Co-missioners, Here is the second installment of an essay by Kurt Hendel, first published by the journal Currents in Theology and Mission in 2008. If you haven’t worked through last week’s first installment, you’ll want to do that before you dig in here. And dig you should. Carefully. Thoroughly. For one thing, you’ll be refreshed in some ...

Co-missioners, Time was when would-be Lutheran pastors were required to learn a smattering of Latin on their way through school. Those who did will have encountered the following phrase at some point in their studies: Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” Later they ran into grief with their confirmation classes (or ...

Co-missioners, This past Sunday, July 31, was the final day of pastoral service for Jerry Burce, our distinguished chief editor here at Thursday Theology. He enters retirement this week at the end of a long and fruitful career as a parish pastor, the last twenty-eight years of which were spent at Messiah Lutheran Church in Fairview ...

Co-missioners, Our food for thought this week is a gift from the Rev. Dr. Steven Kuhl—a homily on the parable of the Good Samaritan from the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. As you’ll see, Steve focuses on the narrative sleight-of-hand that gives this parable its subversive power. When the self-justifying lawyer asks “Who is my neighbor?” he ...

Co-missioners, This week we bring you a review of James Runcie’s 2022 novel The Great Passion, which depicts Bach’s composition of his St. Matthew Passion against a background colored by grief and loss. The review is by another Matthew—in this case, Matt Metevelis, an ELCA pastor and chaplain in Las Vegas, Nevada, who has written many ...

Co-missioners, In the run-up to this year’s Seventh Sunday of Easter, our editor, Jerry Burce, was dreading the prospect of having to preach again on the high priestly prayer of John 17. He decided instead to invite his congregant Christopher Neumann—layperson and frequent writer for Thursday Theology—to embark on his first-ever adventure in preaching. The result, ...