Dear Partner in Preaching, On the nightstand beside my childhood bed stood a plaster statuette of two children kneeling, hands folded and heads bowed. Beneath them, raised in gilt-edged letters, ran the old English prayer, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Not too long ago, I happened to glance upon a similar item, tucked away in the corner of a display window of a bright, cheerful shop of books and collectibles, but this time made of plastic and with a slightly altered prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Guide me safely...

I’ve just one thing to say to you this week, Dear Partner. Just one thing. And that’s…that it’s about freedom. The story about Bartimaeus, I mean. He won’t shut up. Even though people tell him to. And that’s hard. We are so quick to fall into silence in general, worried about offending or hurting feelings or being rejected or whatever. And so when folks tell us to shut up, we’re all too quick to oblige. But Bartimaeus won’t. He is free. Free to defy his neighbors. Free to call for help. Free to make his needs known to Jesus. Free. Perhaps he’s suffered enough, or feels like there’s nothing left to lose, or just doesn’t...

A quick note, Dear Partner, that it’s not too late to register for this year’s Preaching Days with five fabulous presenters and lots of great workshops. It’s going to be great. I hope you can join us!   Dear Partner in Preaching, Who will you serve? I don’t know if you got a prickly feeling when reading that question or whether you read over it quickly enough not to notice how much it runs against our grain. Either way, I’ll ask it again: who will you serve? As a culture and species, we tend to prize freedom…and accomplishment…and autonomy…and self-determination…and… And the list could go on. Which is...

Calling all preachers! Are you looking for some inspiration, something to stir your creativity and soul, a chance to gather with others charged with proclaiming the Word? Then come to The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia – yes, this is a shameless plug! – on Oct. 19-21 for Preaching Days. A staple of LTSP summers in the 80s and 90s, Preaching Days faded away over the last two decades but we are reviving it – dare we say resurrecting it? – at the request of our alumni and area leaders who have asked that we provide more opportunities for professional development with a particular focus on preaching. Toward...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know about you, but as I kid I found these verses just terrifying. And, to be honest, my reaction as an adult hasn’t changed all that much. Here they are, just to focus our conversation: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ And when he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Let me suggest a totally different way to approach this text. I’ve written it on it from the perspective of how Mark’s “divorce text” relates to questions of marriage before, and there are certainly excellent commentaries available on this theme. But what strikes me this time around is that perhaps we don’t need to read this as addressed to individuals but rather as something descriptive of, and helpful to, a community. Bear with me a moment while I explain. When this passage is read at church, we tend to hear it in an intensely personal way. This is particularly true, of course, if you have gone through...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Who are you? Really. Take a moment to ponder that question…and then ask yourself how you came to that answer. Do you, that is, define yourself by your accomplishments, or your history, or particular critical experiences, or your relationships, or some combination of the above? Another way to get at this question might be to ask, who gets to tell you who you are? Who, that is, has the most influence in shaping your self-image? Is it your parents, your partner or spouse, your friends and colleagues? Or perhaps it’s the world of advertising, which constantly tries to overwhelm us with ads picturing perfect people...

If you haven’t seen Dave Isay’s TED Talk on how his project StoryCorps got started in Grand Central Station in NYC, you need to watch it. It’s 21 minutes that will rush by as we learn again the power of story and, more than simply story, of simply listening to each other. StoryCorps is a project that invites people to interview other people they know and love and archive those stories so that they are preserved. Isay shares excerpts of several interviews. They will make you smile, cry, and laugh. They are, in a word, amazing. Stories are powerful because through our stories we make sense of our lives, share our selves,...

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Good is the enemy of great.” I don’t know where it originated, but I know I first came across it in the book that made it famous: Jim Collin’s Good to Great, a fascinating study of how some companies came to dominate their fields. The basic logic is simple: if you’re satisfied with being pretty good, there’s no reason to work harder to become great. True enough, and important to remember. I’ve seen the “good is the enemy of great” phenomenon almost everywhere. In students who decide a B- isn’t that bad. In teachers content with their familiar lecture or syllabus, changed very little...