Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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In Defense of Christian Ritual is now available for purchase from 1517 Publishing
So, what do we pray? What do we say? In times of fear, in times of chaos, in unprecedented times, we pray and say the words that have been written on our hearts.
Rituals resist domestication and confront us with a world and worldview brought forth from the Bible and through twenty centuries of Christianity for the purpose of arresting our contemporary worldview through its self-sameness.
I love the liturgy of my church, and ache for its full return. When all the world is changing, and everything is disrupted, what comes to mind is what is unchanging: the grace of God.
This post contains notes on orders of service, texts, and hymns for your midweek Lent services.
We sing, and in so doing, we are blessed as we are instilled with the word of God in word and song.
The minister’s clothing represents his office of service, derived from the ministry of Christ, and never himself.
The majority of churches still use the traditional eight-sided font. The question I’d like to explore in this post is, “Why?”
“In a culture that promotes self-interest, children in church learn that something much bigger and more important than themselves is going on in their midst."
Many Christians (including preachers) have succumbed to the idea that good preaching must be about practical living, and so most sermons are geared to scratch this pragmatic itch.
I once heard an old, retired Lutheran professor give in interview on a podcast. He was asked by the interviewer why people should bother going to church if they could just be saved through a personal relationship with Jesus?
We are continuing our summer series on a theology of worship through the lens of language. Before moving forward, let me highlight a few points by way of review.