Jon Acuff's Blog, page 175

Recently U-Haul sent my youngest brother, who like me moved last week, an email.

It was about 40 hours before he was supposed to pick up a truck for 12 hours on Saturday from 4AM until 4PM. With an 8 month old and a young wife he was excited and nervous about their first big move. What did U-Haul's email say?

It confirmed for him that he would be picking up a truck on Friday for 6 hours, instead of Saturday at 12 hours. My brother, a lawyer, instantly recognized this trick. Instead of calling s...

(I've hung out with Greg Darley a lot. Whenever I'm at a conference and feel like I don't know anyone, Greg will magically appear and everything is right with the world. He's got a great heart for ministry and a great sense of humor. I thought his post today was funny and true. I hope you do too.)

The obvious and most chosen route is to go with in a small group setting is the book option. You all choose a book, which the first one brought up has to be the 5 Love Languages. But in every...

Last week, I made the brief mistake of getting into an argument with author Donald Miller on Twitter about the concept of "story."

I say "mistake" because Donald Miller is an expert on story. Arguing with Donald Miller about storytelling is like arguing with Billy Graham on running a Crusade or arguing with the Situation on the Gym/Laundry/Tan approach to life. (A Billy Graham reference and a Jersey Shore reference in the same sentence? I should be so simile ashamed of myself.)

I say the...

On Sunday afternoon, my wife sent me to Costco to "buy a mattress," with my brother Will. That is exactly what we did. We bought a mattress. Hours later, back at the house, she said, "Where's the box springs?" I, having not been told to purchase box springs, said, "What box springs?"

This discussion went round and round, finally settling on the decision that no adult in their early 30s could possibly believe that a bed could be complete without a box springs. Although I tried to tell my wife i...

Christian blogging law requires that you write a post about what world famous author Anne Rice recently said about Christianity.

I wasn't going to, but Cornelius, the white dove who brings me official Christian blogging rules, made it pretty clear I had little choice.

So what did Anne Rice, who wrote about vampires long before it was all twilighty and cool, say? Here is what she posted on Facebook:

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I...

Two days ago, the Acuff family packed up our things in Atlanta and moved to Nashville.

Why?

Two words: Dolly Wood.

Not really, although being in Tennessee does increase our proximity to the DW. (And I don't mean Arthur's punk sister.)

The real reason is that we moved to Nashville so that I could join Dave Ramsey's team. And although this weekend was a blur and the last two weeks felt fast, this is actually something that has been in the works for about two years.

Starting on August 9th, I'm going ...

A long time ago, we were going to do an interview with Rob Bell but for a number of reasons it didn't work out. (Most of them because I'm not good at that kind of thing.) But recently, the Newsboys offered to stop by Stuff Christians Like and talk about  their new album Born Again, their 400 previous albums and what it's like to make music. (The crazy thing is that their new album was their biggest release ever. That's a big deal considering they've made music for 25 years.)

I really dig the N...

I've got a post I'm working on for Monday that I'd love your feedback on. It's a pretty simple question. Jump in the conversation on my Facebook page. Click here to friend me.

And if you're around on Twitter, I'm @prodigaljohn. Let's connect.

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(Recently we held a contest through Blog Tour Spot to find a new guest post. We got some great entries and this was my favorite. Fun stuff from a sharp writer named "Korin." Enjoy!)

Stuff Christians Like: Baby Sunday School

In the church nursery, babies are expected to eat, drink, and be merry. This is in stark contrast to the expectations of Baby Sunday school attendees that include activities such as listening intently to lessons, producing hand crafted items with speed and accuracy, and...

Christians don't casually recommend books. When we read a book about faith that we like, we say things like:

"This book changed my life."

"That book spoke to my heart."

"That book taught me how to be a man."

We make wildly powerful statements about the wisdom shared between the pages of a book. And that's great. Passion is a good thing, but it does create a potential problem. What do you do if you read the book too and didn't have the same experience?

My middle brother is experiencing that right n...