Random

~ Terry Mattingly's column Hitting the 500-year wall reports on Phyllis Tickle's thesis that every 500 years there is a major transformative shake-up in the church and it's that time again. Thus we're living through "The Great Emergence."

She says, "We could end up with something like a new form of Pan-Protestantism. ... It's all kind of exciting and scary at the same time, but we can take some comfort in knowing that Christianity has been through this before."

~ Scot McKnight is doing a very fine job of summarizing Robert Webber's Divine Embrace -- the latest installment

~ T.F. Torrance, the Scottish theologian, historian, and church leader died yesterday. He studied under Karl Barth but was a great Reformed theologian in his own right. My doctor of ministry dissertation supervisor, Ray S. Anderson, did his doctoral work under Thomas Torrance. It's fun to trace my academic linage back to Barth through these two outstanding scholars -- but that's all it is -- good fun. Here is a link to a biography of T.F. Torrance

~ "8 Lessons I Learned from the Cheapest Family in the Nation" -- a family of 7 living well on $35,000 a year -- Link (via)

~ One of the great things about Advent is getting to sing Cheryl's song Come, Messiah, Come which we did during worship yesterday. It's one of my favorites of her songs. -- Link