Friday Fun: A town called “Bissett”

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Although the Bissett’s are Scots by heritage, apparently this beautiful little place in England is distinguished from other towns named “Prestons” by the suffix, Bissett, for the Lords of the Manor there. (See the brief Wikipedia article here).

I’m honored.
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PS: I discovered this ‘accidentally’ while checking the background of a major author and professor of the history of the church at Oxford, Diarmaid MacCulloch. His newest book, A History of Christianity: the first three thousand years, has just hit the American market. He mentioned Preston Bissett on the first page of his book on the Reformation, which I have not (yet) read.
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From “Happy-Clappy” to hungering for theology

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Dr Michael Horton recently made this observation in discussing what this generation wants from a local church…

A lot of younger evangelicals were reared in “happy-clappy” churches with theater seating, a praise band, singing off the wall (both literally and figuratively). They are looking for reverence, history, mystery and transcendence. A lot of them are looking for doctrine, too, oddly enough. According to one Wall Street Journal study, in fact, the number one element that young urban professionals in New York said they would look for if they decided to go back to church: theological discussion groups! I guess I’m getting older.

To me, the megachurch movement was contemporary, but now it’s old news and the generation that was raised in it is now looking for something more serious, meaningful, beautiful, and truthful. Of course, “mystery” and “transcendence” can be a dangerous drug as well, if the object is something other than the Triune God and His revelation in Jesus Christ.

From:
RISKING THE TRUTH, by Martin Downes (Christian Focus, UK: 2009), page 48.