Jon Acuff's Blog, page 183

3 things Christians say about pop culture scandals.

Recently I had the chance to write an article for the Washington Post. If you've got a chance, check it out here.

Feeling embarrassed for VBS programs that don't have bouncy things.

If your church doesn't get a bouncy, jump jump castle or slide thing for your Vacation Bible School this summer, that's the equivalent of charging money for the tortilla chips at Chipotle.

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Seriously, the first time I ordered chips and they asked for money I thought it was some sort of ground corn based joke. I kind of laughed a little, reached for the chips and then noticed the awkwardness that was building like a tower of ill placed jenga blocks. I briefly thought about knocking over the...

Brad Pitt & Hott Wives.

Every time I go to Wal-mart I feel bad for Brad Pitt. Not horrible, I don't feel all that bad. Just like when John Mayer sings on his most recent song about his heartache I think about his $20 million watch collection and string of models and I don't feel all that miserable for his troubles. But Brad Pitt, jeez.

Apparently Angelina Jolie cheated on him. Or not. Tabloid magazines have to get things right like the weather man. There's no degree of accuracy required to write a headline like...

Consoling pastors now that the best sermon illustration generating television show of our generation is over.

Flowers? Cards? Perhaps a casserole of hope? It's a tough season for pastors right now with Lost finally ending and the greatest source of television flavored sermon illustrations fading into glory. Have a heart and remind them that the show didn't "leave," it just "moved on." (Plus, they may take our Lost, but they will never take our Braveheart!)

Pretending you're looking up Bible verses on your iPhone during church.

Oh stop, you're embarrassing both of us.

Let's be honest, we both know you're not using your iPhone strictly to look up Bible verses during the sermon. It might have started that way, but it never stays that way.

You started by taking a few quick notes during the "margin moments" of church. You know those, the few minutes while men and women in black are magically changing whatever is on stage or they're preparing for baptism or giving the ushers the offering plates.

Those are perfect little...

Secretly believing in the magical power of the number 777.

My church tags our kids like whales when we drop them off at Sunday School

They might not use radio frequency ear tags, but when you give them your kid, they give you a laminated number and immediately attach that same number to the back of their shirt. Then, you sit in church and hope your number doesn't come up, thus signifying you are the winner of the "horrible kid lottery."

Yesterday though I looked at my number and got pretty excited. Why?

My daughter L.E.'s number was 7177.

Christians...

Win an iPod Shuffle or come see Conan O'Brien with me.

These two prizes have nothing to do with each other. They really don't have anything to do with this particular moment in time, it's just fun to give stuff away. And after the fun of yesterday's Stuff Christians Like CNN adventure, and the kindness of everyone from SCL who commented their support (man, some other people were hatin' on me and Jesus) I thought it was a good time to say thank you. So here are two cool things we're giving away today:

1. An iPod shuffle.[image error]

500 songs, in your pocket...

SCL on CNN.

I wrote a new Stuff Christians Like post on CNN.com. Please read it and comment on it. Thanks!

Click here to read SCL on CNN.

Taking Stuff Christians Like way too seriously.

("Start thinking you're a big deal." That's the answer most leaders give me when I ask them how leaders wreck their ministries. Ego, pride, thinking you've got mad skillz with a z not an s, that's what happens. Which is why I will always welcome guest posts that poke fun at me and the Stuff Christians Like book. It's a great way to not take everything so seriously. It's also a great way to laugh, especially since today's guest post created 4 new SCL based spin off sites. Seriously, 4 new...

Thinking about the Lost finale more than the second coming of Christ.

Do you think Walt is going to come back in the finale of Lost? You remember him, Michael's little boy? And if he does, do you think it will be all awkward because he's grown up, kind of like the first time you saw Haley Joel Osment from the Sixth Sense when he was in his early 20s? You wanted him to be a little kid saying, "I see dead people," but he wasn't. He was a young man saying things like, "I see light beer" and that's just not right.

But if he doesn't come back, if there's no return...