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Fancy pulpits.

Sep 2nd by Jon
#847.

My wife is on her third iPhone 4 in six days.

The first one had a hardware and software failure.

The second one sounded like an old timey cotton gin. It was so loud she held it up to our landline at home when she was on the phone with Apple support and they urged her to bring it in. Immediately.

The third one? We’ll see.

The worst part is that she holds me responsible. Because I’ve had one for a year and like Apple, she assumes that I might have hand built these defective iPhones. She’ll call me in the middle of the day and say, “Guess where I am, the Apple store.” Then she’ll get a new iPhone and shake her head at home. Thanks Steve Jobs.

Experiences like this have probably jaded me a little about technology and all the advances in convenience and awesomeness we’re supposed to have reaped. (Although we still don’t have Back to the Future hoverboards.) That’s probably why when someone sent me something crazy that churches are starting to do, I got worried.

The question we all ask.

Sep 1st by Jon
#846.

Life is like a hurricane, here in Duckburg.

Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes, it’s a duck-blur.

Might solve a mystery or rewrite history …

If you grew up like I did, you know the next words that to gem of a song. It’s “DuckTales, ooohhh, ooohhh.” That’s the chorus to the show DuckTales. My wife bought volume 1&2 on DVD for the move up to Franklin, Tennessee and my kids have loved them. And why shouldn’t they? That song is the jam. I hope someday that Timbaland and Justin Timberlake will do a remix. Maybe even throw in Ludacris. He makes his own cognac now, how easy would that be to rhyme with the word, “Quack.” (Sippin on Luda cognac, while my books Huey, Duey and Louie say, “Quack, quack.” Phresh!)

Writing “open letters.”

Aug 31st by Jon
#845.

“Jonathan Acuff betrays America with Anti-Christian article.”

That was the title of a post that was written in response to a CNN article I wrote. In the post the author ripped me apart, questioning my love of democracy, apple pie and freedom.

But I think it was a joke. It has to be, it was so over the top and hateful that I have to assume they were just joshing. (I’m bringing the words, “joshing” and “no doy,” back by the way.)

My biggest clue that it was a joke was that they didn’t use the preferred way to express Christian angst … the open letter.

I was a big fan of Anne Jackson’s first book, Mad Church Disease. It was a gift to anyone who works in the ministry. That’s why I’m excited about her second book, Permission to Speak Freely – Essays and Art on Fear, Confession and Grace which releases today.

Where her first book was for pastors, this book is for everyone. Anne was kind enough to share one of the essays from the book. Anne decided to share seven essays on seven different blogs, this being the second. To read the rest of the essays, check out the links at the end. Anne is also giving away a copy of her book to two commenters, chosen at random, on Friday. So check out the question at the end and leave a comment to be entered to win.

You can pick up a copy of the book here.

The free essay is after the jump.

Sex.

Aug 30th by Jon
#844.

The other day, pop princess Katy Perry said something interesting:

“I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen.”

I disagree.

Chad Gibbs is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. A die hard college football fan, he recently decided to combine football, God and funny.

The result is his book, “God and Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC.”

Zondervan has been kind enough to donate 5 copies to readers of Stuff Christians Like.

To enter, simply comment with an answer to this question by Tuesday, August 24.

“What’s your favorite sports team?”

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Facebooking your mission trip.

Aug 27th by Jon
#843.

(My family is hoping to go on a mission trip next year. When we do, I’ll make sure I reference this funny guest post. Enjoy.)

Facebooking your mission trip

So you’ve carefully chosen your mission trip location. You may still be in the Latin America game and are thinking of trying to upgrade to something in the Africa ball park. Asian trips are also very in, especially when smuggling Bibles is involved. No matter where you go, mission trips are transforming experiences. Outlooks on wealth are transformed. Views on how God works are transformed. Prayer requests are transformed. Profiles are transformed. Of course by profiles, I am referring to social networking sites.

The power ballad worship song.

Aug 26th by Jon
#842.

I grew up reading Thrasher magazine, watching the movie “Rad” as many times possible and listening to the rap group, “Public Enemy.”

Why Thrasher? Cause I was a skateboarder.

Why Rad? Because the title says it all, it was rad.

Why Public Enemy? Because growing up on the mean streets of suburban Massachusetts really prepared me for hard laced, urban rap. Clearly.

Given my love for the hip hop, I’m lacking the musical background to truly appreciate something I’ve started to notice lately at church though.

The power ballad worship song.

#841.

I realized the other day, that at least six of my friends have had affairs.

And they’ve all told me the same thing:

#840.

When I was growing up, people asked me two questions because I am a pastor’s kid:

1. Is the song “Son of a Preacher Man,” true? Do pastor’s kids have some sort of otherworldly powers of woo?

2. What does your dad do on the other six days of the week when it’s not Sunday?

The answer to the first question is easy.

Yes. Yes we do.

The second question was a little harder.

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