The interwebs were moving slower over the Labor Day weekend – and we stepped outside our rolling 30 day window – but hopefully what we lack in quantity this week we make up for in quality...

• A pastor leading a Financial Peace University course realized that along with everybody he was teaching, he and his wife urgently needed to create a budget.
• "In the Church..." is the definitive blog post for anybody who finds themselves planted squarely in The Church, but at the same time wanting to distance themselves.
• In most jurisdictions, kids need to be vaccinated to attend public school, but if they're home schooled... Furthermore, if immunization is dismissed for fear of autism, is spreading measles a valid trade-off? (Also, a related opinion piece at Religion Dispatches.)
• Yes, you can write a song. Here's a primer on the form and structure of modern worship compositions.
• Essay of the Week: Perhaps instead of looking at the five points of Calvinism as dry doctrine, we should think of TULIP as a narrative.