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.
- There’s always been a campus version of The Alpha Course, but now a Canadian group has completed Alpha Youth, scheduled for January release across North America.
- So exactly what can be extrapolated “just because the bloggers of the Gospel Coalition happen to be in agreement with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe and authoritarian Russian boss Vladimir Putin“?
- Considering we usually think the ethnic churches have it all covered, it’s interesting to read an article concerned with the ‘white church’ looking for a Latino evangelism game plan.
- Carlos Whitaker has five or six things he wishes worship leaders would stop saying, followed by 200 more reader suggestions. (Somewhat related quotation.)
- It’s small group start-up time again, making this the link you should most want to forward this week.
- Flashback – One year ago: Psalm 42 in the Pirate translation.
- Jamie The Very Worst Author talks about a book project that is apparently having trouble getting off the ground.
- Niche blogging reaches new heights of narrowcasting (Oops! Mixed visual image) with the blog edition of Bearded Gospel Men. Possibly related piece at Christianity Today.
- Interview of the Week: A Vancouver, Canada journalist talks to Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove about intentional, New Monasticism communities.
- A Mormon websites trumpets the new stat that a majority of Latter Day Saints now live outside Canada and the U.S, where the religion began.
- The artist who gave us the 2011 song “Blessings” (and “Indescribable”), Laura Story has a new album on the way.
- Here’s a blog archive ‘find’ from earlier this year at Adorate: You hear a lot about ‘sheep stealing,’ but not so much about ‘shepherd stealing,’ or ‘pastor prostitution.‘
- It’s a frequently covered topic, but if you’ve got time, this is one of the better articles on taking a social media fast.
- At a blog for pastors’ wives, a book promo video for Speak Love also becomes a lesson in journalism for Pete Wilson’s son Gage Wilson. (The Zondervan book by Annie Downs sounds good, too.)
- Just in case you’ve never heard the music of Johnnyswim, enjoy Heartbeats.
- We leave you with this weekend Tweet from Church Curmudgeon: “Headed over to the seminary barbecue this afternoon. Otherwise known as casting a pig into a herd of D. Mins.”
Hope you enjoyed today’s selection. Our goal is to celebrate people you know and people blogging in relative obscurity. Suggestions accepted by 5:00 EST through the contact page at Thinking Out Loud.
