Thank you, thank you, thank you. We had such a good time last Thursday celebrating our wonderful community and its commitment to diversity and integration and community partnerships. And the food was fantastic. While I didn’t win the coveted platinum spatula, I had a great time meeting many, many neighbors and community leaders. And, to be honest, I was really quite touched by the number of folks who contributed. Your gifts and your support made a difference to our community – all total we raised more than $10,000 for three great institutions – but it also made an impression on me. Thank you. I’ve left the original...

One of the delightful things about this new role I am playing at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia is to be a major promoter of the many wonderful things that happen on our campus. And so as I look ahead to a full and fruitful October, I want to call your attention to three in particular. If you are anywhere in the vicinity, I hope you will drop by. Even if you’re not, two of them will be live streamed as well as recorded for later online viewing, and the other has an online component as well. So, in order of date…. On Tuesday, October 7, Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union...

Okay, so the title of this post is a little more dramatic than I’d intended. When it comes to making predictions, I’m with Yogi Berra, who once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” 🙂 With that caveat in mind, I’d still like to offer two brief thoughts about the future of this blog. 1) I hope to continue posting here, even as I transition to a new call as president of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. I’ve been away from writing here for about a month, largely because of the need to give time to my interviews and conversations with folks at Philly; speaking at several Synod...

Just a quick blog update. Actually, two: 1) Late last week I somehow lost all my subscribers. I use Google’s Feedburner utility which allows folks to subscribe, emails the posts daily to subscribers, and manages those subscriptions. Somehow, all 4500 subscribers got wiped away last week. I’m trying to figure it out, but for now that means no daily blog updates are reaching anyone. I have, at the moment, no idea how to remedy this, but I’ll let you know when I figure it out. 2) I’ve got a crazy busy – and very exciting – week coming. This Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be on the campus of The Lutheran...

My heart going boom boom boom…. Yesterday official word began to circulate that the search committee at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia has decided to recommend me to their Board as their candidate for the position of president at that fine school. It is my alma mater, and I have always felt a debt of gratitude to the seminary and my teachers there for the excellent education I received. I’m very excited about both the challenges and opportunities that will come with that position, and honored and humbled by the trust of the committee. As the plans now stand, I’ll be on the Philadelphia campus the 13th...