Maybe it’s just our growing older, but each year, September seems to arrive more quickly than anticipated. Suddenly, our vacation is a receding memory, the kids are back in school, Labor Day is upon us, and we are left to wonder, “What happened to summer and all the plans I made? Where did the time go?” One item that occupies much of our time is work.

Yes, print remains a significant means of communication (in spite of numerous premature obituaries); yet new tools increasingly play important roles in the ways in which we hold conversations with one another.

In many ways, this is a “family” issue. Our cover story focuses on fathers and sons. A second story highlights a
strong sense of family and vocation in the vineyards of California, while a third uncovers a bit of “family” history as it pertains to our Synod and its early years.

As with the past few May issues of The Lutheran Witness, you hold in your hands a magazine dedicated principally to the topic of pastoral formation and education, and to the important work our pastors do
among us.

The son of the widow of Zarephath, the son of the Shunammite woman, the young man of Nain, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus. What do they all have in common? All of them, by the grace of God, were brought back from death to life. Imagine the celebration, the joy, the wonder.

Normally, in this section, we highlight the stories we feature in the current issue of The Lutheran Witness. However, this month we encourage you to visit the Web site of our sister publication, Reporter, where you will find…

In many respects, the issue of The Lutheran Witness you hold in your hands offers an international perspective. In these pages our authors range from Palestine (Bethlehem and the West Bank) to Brazil, Iran, and finally back to our own U.S.

Peculiar. Today, when we use that word in conversation, our implication is
often pejorative. But as Dr. Lawrence Rast Jr. points out in our cover story, there is an older tradition regarding the use of peculiar, too, a sense that means special, unique, and yes, different in a good way.

December. It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another. That with Advent upon us, we have embarked on another journey of faith through the church year.

For many of us, 2008 has provided a roller-coaster ride: the cost of gas has been up—way up! Our stock portfolios (and job prospects), down—way down.

As with last month, we are overflowing with feature stories, beginning with our Reformation cover story by Dr. Robert A. Kolb and Dr. Charles P. Arand.

As you can see from this contents page, we’re bursting at the seams this month—with stories about Katrina, the flooding this summer in the Midwest, and Mission Central, to name just a few.