It’s become tradition for me to end the year with a look back at some favorite posts from the preceding year, and the end of 2009 should be no exception. Not only does it allow me to highlight some good content that others may have missed, it lets me reflect on the year just passed to outline some of the pertinent topics of conversation and what may (or may not) have changed over the last twelve months.

So I took my oldest daughter down to the Christian bookstore to buy an “Adventures in Odyssey” CD for my youngest daughter’s birthday. The first store, subtitled a “Christian Store” (Er, I’d like to buy a Christian, please) didn’t have any, so we went downtown to the second, a much older long-established store. It’s the largest such store in the city.

Is that “Remiss-age”? I have to beg forgiveness, but every 122 weeks or so, I need the freedom to miss a “Random Acts of Linkage” post. I’d cobble one together even now (a little late, but better than never, right?) except I’ve don so little reading this week that there still wouldn’t be much to link… barely enough to make a post of, in fact. But I do have some random thoughts.

Sometime back around 1993, my brother and I made a wine kit together — a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Not being sticklers for correct translation based on our high-school French, we printed labels off on the old dot-matrix printer that said “9 Houses of the Pope”. (In case you don’t know, that’s not the correct translation, which we knew at the time.) It turned out to be one of the best wine kits I recall producing, and my wife even liked it despite not being overly fond of red wine. That was about 16 years ago now, and my wife has begun to enjoy more red wines, though that one always stands out in our memory, particularly after we had aged it for a year or so. It was kind of sad to drink the last bottle and know there wouldn’t be any more. I made another kit of the same type a couple of years ago. We enjoyed that wine, but it didn’t quite hit the same level as that original one. And over all that time, we’ve never had a real Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But I’m going to fix that, real soon. Last week I picked up a bottle of La Fiole du Pape: it’s perhaps not the best Chateauneuf out there, but the bottle definitely stands out. And the occasion warrants something noteworthy.

I think my blogging mojo must have got up and went. Like I said, my blogging frequency has dropped a bit over the past several weeks so that I’m no longer hitting my daily quota. I realized this morning that I only had one post separating my weekend posts, and yesterday I fizzled on my regular hymn series. I started writing the post this morning, but partway through I decided to hold it for next Sunday rather than publish it right away. It’s part of my Sunday series after all, and this isn’t Sunday. Saturday’s linkage was a bit lighter than usual as well, as I headed outdoors to get some work done in the yard. The new fence looks great by the way — thanks for asking.

This week saw the start of the summer series of Theology by the glass, now meeting at Confusion Corner Bar and Grill, just around the corner (sort of) from our most famous street sign. Our first conversation of the season began with a CBC podcast of The Age of Persuasion where Terry O’Reilly discusses church marketing and related matters.

Because I enjoy Sara’s posts, even if she’s no longer putting them on Missional Tribe… because it’s about the voice first, and hers should be heard. But that’s incidental.

A week or so ago I had one of those waking dreams where you’re not completely asleep but you’re certainly not awake yet. I was in a meeting with an unlikely assortment of people, and we were going around the room with everyone offering an opinion on something-or-other to do with the church and its nature… what exactly, I don’t recall. Dreams are like that. Anyway, I was the last to speak, and it seemed that I was somewhat at odds with some of the people in the group. This, of course, is nothing new to me. The strange part is what I said — I forget most of it, but it played off some things that others had said and then drew a conclusion that stuck with me, plus a further explanation that did not. I remember thinking how profound it was and that I’d have to remember it when I woke up so I could write it down. This, as you know, is a sure sign you’re about to forget some part of your dream.

Warning: the following post is an April Fool’s post… it isn’t true. Unfortunately, many who originally read it hoped so much that it were so that the realization it was fake was a rather strong letdown. For that, I’m sorry. Others, of course, found it quite funny.

Monday morning after logging my menu selection and discussing Bosnia with my waitress, I began to dig into Reggie McNeal’s Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. I’ve not had much time with it this week, so I’ve only ingested the introduction and chapter one… but I found myself jotting down an inordinate number of notes and quotes for so brief a sample, and yesterday when I tweeted “Those who miss the missional renaissance will find themselves rendered irrelevant to the movement of God in the world. — Reggie McNeal” it proved to be good retweet material. (Paraphrased from p.17 for the sake of a 140-character limit.)

I’m sitting with a fine glass of of Unibroue 17, a special edition celebrating the 17^th anniversary of the brewery. Turns out it’s a fairly nice Belgian-style strong ale (10% alc.), sweet with fruity dark cherry overtones and a dry lingering finish. Rich, the kind of beer that you can slowly nurse for an extended period of time. I picked it up a while ago when I really wanted a Chimay Red, but the price was a little steep. Now Chimay is a very fine Belgian ale from a Trappist brewery. Proceeds from the sale of the beer go to the monastery, but so much of the price when it gets to me is transport and taxes.