1. Bonhoeffer’s Advent preaching was carried out under the dark shadow of war yet within that night the word of promise sounds forth with radiant clarity. There is much in his preaching to inspire, deepen, and sharpen our proclamation in Advent 2020.
  2. What is essential and non-essential in an age of crisis? Ringside meets the Craft of Preaching with Dr. Peter Nafzger in a discussion about preaching to specific people in a specific location. Half of the Seminary may be from Nebraska, but what does your hyper-local world need to hear? Maybe the preacher’s task is to start a crisis.
  3. The biggest point Luther makes about the descent is not that Jesus triumphed over hell idle and unaffected, but that Jesus defeated hell by suffering hell away.
  4. Bonhoeffer’s simple little book makes clear how privileged many of us are to enjoy the Communion of the Saints here on earth.
  5. When Luther's barber, Peter Beskendorf, asked him how to pray, Luther wrote him an open letter that has become a classic expression of the "when, how, and what" of prayer. It is as instructive today as when it was first penned it in 1535.
  6. Cheap Grace, a monument to compromise. Gillespie and Riley continue their conversation about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship. This episode, more talk about grace, Nazis, and why the Gospel “but” is so important.
  7. Cheap grace... some people would pay top dollar for that kind of breakthrough. Gillespie and Riley take a listener request and discuss Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship. Grace, discipline, Nazis, and why context matters in this episode.
  8. The real power of his hymn comes from the fact that Bonhoeffer does not offer a rosy picture of life or any of the tropes so typical of cheap piety that tell us that everything is always right, that things happen for a reason, and that we should try to stay positive.
  9. I’d like to offer a short reflection on the theme of “worldliness” as it appears in his later work and how that’s connected to an item of his Lutheran heritage: the theology of the cross.
  10. When bishops err we must not follow...We must obey God before man.
  11. We believers are those who have been called out for a special healing mission in the world because we’ve caught a glimpse of the heavenly city.