Jon Acuff's Blog, page 171

Crazy sermon props.

"We've assigned someone to help you if your book signing line gets too long or out of control."

That's what one of the staff members told me at the Assemblies of God Influence Conference in Springfield, Missouri last week. And my first thought was,

"That is adorable."

They were apparently not familiar with my Catalyst meet and greet, which was as successful as a relationship started on the show, "The Bachelor." (They should do the engagement and the breakup shows on the same night to save...

2 words that are shaping culture right now.

When I travel, when I connect with people online, when I talk with friends, these two words keep coming up.

And they're pretty normal words. This is no deep theory, just something I am running into over and over again. Simply put, when I talk to people about what they do in life, they often respond:

"I'm _____, but ______."

When they describe where they work or what they do, they say:

"I'm an accountant, but I want to be a painter."

"I'm a teacher, but I want to be a doctor."

"I'm a project...

Vietnam Update

As many of you know, last November we all pulled together and raised $30,000 in 18 hours to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. Realizing we weren't done, we doubled down and raised $60,000 to build two kindergartens in Vietnam. (You can read the whole story here.) That we did this through a blog about humor with thousands of people from around the world who will probably never visit Vietnam or know this children blew me away. God is big and crazy and good.

Construction on the school is...

Thinking the rapture has happened when you're alone.

(Curtis is like the Run DMC of Stuff Christians Like guest posts. He was one of the first people to guest post almost 2 years ago and he still knocks it out. I love this post and think you'll laugh too. Enjoy!)

Thinking the Rapture Has Happened When You're Alone

"The Son has come and you've been left behind."

-DC Talk

As I sit here writing this in my office on a Monday morning, I'm kind of wondering is this has actually happened. Fact: Monday mornings at a church can be a lonely place. It's like ...

Thinking God blocks you from the Internet sometimes.

Last week, a pastor told a congregation of around 10,000 people that he would destroy me.

This made me nervous for three reasons:

1. This pastor is from Texas, a state I rarely mess with.

2. This pastor has the wingspan of a pterodactyl.

3. He's close friends with John Piper and I'm afraid of that guy too.

Who was it that from the pulpit proclaimed his ability to destroy me?

It was Matt Chandler of the Village Church.

And it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. He actually said some incredibly kind...

Having a curious reaction to the prosperity gospel.

Selling your house is like continually getting punched in the neck. We've got ours on the market right now and I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's some sort of down economy thing going on. I know, weird right?

I had hoped that listing it as "the homestead where Stuff Christians Like was written," would really drive some foot traffic like Prince Edward Island and Anne of Green Gables, but alas, no luck. (If you want to see the house and freak out my real estate agent at the sudden influx ...

Church Names.

The other day, I went to a meeting to brainstorm a title for Dave Ramsey's new book. After 30 minutes of kicking around some ideas, Dave came in and sat right beside me.

Inside my head, I heard a panicky voice start to say, "Only say awesome things, only say awesome things!" It was the book equivalent of how people talk 42% holier when the pastor walks in the room. I started to try to come up with titles that were slightly better than "Mere Christianity" or perhaps shorter than Seth Godin's...

Joining a new small group.

Whenever we move to a new town, I feel obliged to find my wife new friends.

She does not ask me to do this. She has never said, "It is one of your husband duties to make sure I have lifelong friends within the first 10 minutes we live somewhere." But I still feel that way.

So when we go to a restaurant and have a polite waitress, I will say things like, "That girl had blonde hair too. You guys would probably be pretty good friends. You should go talk with her in between orders."

She does not...

Max Lucado proves me right.

Recently, I wrote an article titled, "7 ways working for Dave Ramsey is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory." Today, Max Lucado proved that my second point was true. Click here to read the article and see Dave talk about why he hired me.

I also wrote a guest post for my friend Bianca Juarez who just got married to a great guy. She wanted some marriage advice, so I told her about one of the most important things I've learned in nine years of marriage. to read that quick piece.

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How do you deal with haters online?

You can't be online for any extended period of time without running into someone who is contagiously unhappy. Most commonly called "trolls," pockets of the Internet are unfortunately sometimes populated with people who want to pass on the hot potato of hurt life they feel life has handed them.

How do you handle that?

I'm working on a post and I need your help. I feel like we created some good tips with the Twitter rules post and I'd like to do a similar kind of idea around how Christians can...