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We practice weekly communion in my congregation, and one of the unexpected benefits has been the spiritual empowerment of my elders. They are becoming active ministers within the context of our services each week. When I accepted the call to this congregation eight years ago, I was up front with my desire that I wanted to institute weekly communion. My predecessor had prepared the way with seasonal weekly communion, such as every Sunday in Lent. The consistory went along with…

A few weeks ago the third volume of the Collected Works of A.A. van Ruler arrived in my mailbox. It was an important moment for this pastor/theologian. My excitement, though, hardly compares with how a leading Dutch theologian greeted the appearance of the first volume in that country. He called it an "event of national importance." While van Ruler is hardly unknown in North America, his name would find little recognition beyond a relatively small circle of Reformed thinkers. Nonetheless,…

If you doubt Broadway's cultural capitol, just spend some time in Times Square swimming in it. Broadway is the center of America's cultural center. (For many, the pinnacle of the American theatre sits on roughly ten blocks in the middle of a crowded island named Manhattan. As a loyal Midwesterner and devotee of the wonderful work of America's non-profit, regional theatre, I might gently debate this premise. I do recognize, however, the alluring pull of Broadway.) Millions of audience members…

Your great-grandma says I talk like an old preacher, which is to say, too much. Maybe she's right. She's right about a lot of things. Of course, she knows all the stories, too. We've been married for sixty-seven years. It wasn't the time to tell the one I could have on Christmas Eve. Wasn't the time because nobody around that tree wanted to hear an old man go on and on, not with all those presents calling out. The only…