Featured Site: The Kretzmann Project

The Kretzmann Project is the online version of Paul E. Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible, first published in 1924 but now out of print. Kretzmann was a pastor and professor in the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod and later helped form the Orthodox Lutheran Conference, thus the conservative perspective of the commentary.

I have the four-volume set in my library and refer to it often, although it is brief and not as comprehensive as other academic commentaries. Having said that, in a busy week when there are many hospital calls and other family responsibilities, it's helpful to use in a pinch.

Featured Site: Let Us Pray

Well, it hasn't worked out so well for me posting once a week. Nevertheless, I'm still here.

Let Us Pray is a resource offered by the LCMS Commission on Worship. It offers suggested petitions for the Prayer of the Church for Sundays and other festival days. The link at the right takes you to the archives where you can download past and current prayers. You can also have current and upcoming prayers e-mailed to you by signing up with LCMS e-News and navigating to the proper page to sign up for Let Us Pray.

Featured Site: Crossings

Please note the disclaimer in the sidebar to the right. I don't endorse nor agree with all the theological statements on any of the sites I have linked.

Crossings is one of those sites. It speaks favorably of what came to be known as Seminex back in the 1970's. If you don't know what that's about, I would direct you to Anatomy of an Explosion by Kurt Marquart.

Having said that, I have found that Crossings' method of analyzing texts into Diagnosis and Prognosis can be helpful in sermon preparation. It's an interesting take on the Law-Gospel distinction. I have referred to some of the lectionary text studies posted when struggling with how to preach a certain text.

Featured Site: Pericope

Pericope is usually the first site I go to when I begin preparing for a Sunday service. Here's how the home page describes the site: "Pericope.org is a resource for pastors to use to assist in developing their sermons and bulletins for each Sunday based on the one- or three-year lectionary in Lutheran Worship." It also has notes for each Sunday which are keyed to Lutheran Service Book.

It offers "Service Notes Postings" for every day in the Church Year. These give an overview of the day, a summary of the propers for the day, and short summaries of each of the readings for both the 1-year and 3-year lectionaries. In addition, the readings are linked to BibleGateway.com and Logos Bible Software.

There are other helpful links offered, including the following:

• a reading schedule for the Book of Concord with daily readings formatted for inclusion as a bulletin insert
• an archive of sermons by LCMS pastors
• a year-at-a-glance Church Year calendar with readings linked to BibleGateway.com
• Buls' Notes (exegetical notes written by Dr. Harold Buls, late professor of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne IN)

Introducing "Rev at Work"

As you can see from the date on that post below, I've been thinking about starting this blog for a couple of months now. I'm finally getting around to doing something about it. I intend to add more links in the near future, as well as feature one site a week in a post.

I wanted to have a place other than my favorites list to see sites I've saved for sermon and Bible Study prep. If anyone else happens to find this useful, then dig in.

I can't and won't vouch for all the theology you find on all these sites. The internet is a wild and crazy place. Nevertheless, there certainly is plenty of food for thought out there. Some of it needs to be puked out, for sure. But there is an awful lot that is truly nourishing, too. "Eat" with caution.