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Co-missioners,  For the next month, we are pleased to share with you the written version of one of the presentations featured in January’s Crossings Conference in four parts. Adam Morton’s presentations are always a hit in our community, probably because he …

Co-missioners,  Two weeks ago today I was getting home from the 2026 Crossings Conference still feeling stuffed. The conference fare had been rich to say the least. How could it not have been when the presenters’ lineup included Fred Niedner and Kit Kleinhans, Adam Morton and Glen Monson and Robin Lütjohann, all of this …

Co-missioners,  For the past two weeks, our Thursday Theology contributions have consisted of the first two parts of an essay by Dr. Robert Kolb on “Discipleship in the Lutheran Tradition,” originally presented as a lecture during the 2012 Crossings Conference. So far, …

Co-missioners, I was there to look and listen in 2012 when Dr. Robert Kolb, the Luther scholar and historian, graced a Crossings conference with a sweeping overview of how Lutherans, beginning with Luther, have thought and taught about matters that are these days discussed under the …

Co-missioners,    In anticipation of next week’s conference on “Christian Behavior” i.e. on the relationship between faith and works – much debated, yet ever requiring clarification – here is the first part of a lecture by Prof. Robert Kolb. It …

Co-missioners, Last night a lot of us joined the world in its annual New Year’s Eve exercise of hoping against hope. This morning we woke up to one of the Church’s annual celebrations of the Hope Worth Hoping, Christ Jesus is …

Co-missioners, This week, just in time for the season celebrating our Lord’s nativity, we have for you the manuscript of a sermon preached by our friend and fellow-Crossings traveler Fred Niedner at Valparaiso University’s Chapel of the Resurrection on Christmas Eve, 2014.  Reading this, …

Co-missioners, I haven’t preached on Christmas since 2021. That was halfway through my final year of fulltime pastoral ministry. Since then I’ve sat in pews on Christmas Eve listening to others preach. It’s been enough to prompt today’s screed, a few dollops of unsought advice to this year’s set of Christmas preachers. …

Co-missioners,  We are headed towards the Third Sunday of Advent. In the old lectionary (used by most Lutherans up until the retirement of the Service Book and Hymnal and The Lutheran Hymnal, and even today among some Missourians and Germans), this Sunday was …