Psalty, Skittles and the best moment of the year.

Ready for part 2 of the Stuff Christians Like Year End Wrap Up? (If you missed part 1, check it out here.)

And so we continue

13. Favorite Moment Number #5 – Pastors Throwing Skittles
My friend Will in Mongolia tells me he could possibly make my dream of training an eagle to enhance worship services come true, but until that happens, I’ll always be able to fill the air with Skittles. This year I wrote a post about that magical Sunday before a major holiday when the church will let anyone speak. Sunday July 3rd for example. That’s usually the Sunday when loads of people are gone on vacation and the lady that wants to do a rain stick solo gets her shot at the mic. I offered a few suggestions for spicing up that service. One of them involved Skittles:

Skittles
Why not throw Skittles out during the service? Instead of saying, “watch this” or “listen to this” or another phrase that is designed to get people’s attention, why not throw handfuls of Skittles at them? Wouldn’t you love to be hit in the side of the head with a bunch of fruit candy delightfulness? I would.

Little did I know that a few pastors would be given the “anything goes” speaking slot and would employ the Skittles toss during service. Here’s what a guy named Chrisdliu said after he did it:

i did throw skittles at the congregation AND the response was fairly positive which was cool because our church is fairly conservative (that means no kicking old grandmas in the face and no leg-drops for the Lord). when i started pouring the skittles in my hand and explaining that i was the farmer and the skittles represented God’s Word, people gave me the “oh no you wouldn’t” look. it was great. i tried to throw the skittles especially at those people. anyway thanks for the idea and encouragement and above all, praise God for using something a silly as skittles to make an impression about the importance of responding to God’s Word

I thought that was hilarious and actually took my own advice and threw Skittles into a crowd at a speaking engagement in Oklahoma. I thought it went well until I googled myself (never a good idea) and read a review of the speech that included this line in the play by play description:

(Jon throws Skittles out to audience and nails a guy in the head)

Regardless, I still plan to throw candy in 2009.

14. Gold medal hate mail.
I was tempted to go with the lady that mentioned that I might be bringing down a plague on myself, because that one legitimately shook me up a little, but at the end of the day, my heart still beats true for the first real hate mail I got. Here it is:

You are one of the most boring writers I have ever read in my entire life. Your attempts at humor are almost as pathetic as your grammar (especially in many of your other ramblings). Personally, I think you should kill yourself. I attempted not to use profanity in an effort to encourage you to leave this comment up, but you probably don’t have the self esteem to accept a critical analysis such as this. Whether you delete this or leave it up, please let it be known that you are as boring as Ben Stein on lithium. Please refrain from ever wasting your time writing again. Love, Those with a brain.

I chose this one because it’s funny. It has an element of truth (I do suck at grammar). It was left on a post I wrote about Veggie Tales, which seems like an odd subject to get on fire about. It’s signed with love, which is great and to top it all off I read this as the opener for a conference I spoke at which is like turning lemons into a lemon colored Bentley sitting on dubs.

15. Favorite Moment Number #4 – Mercy Wins Tattoo Contest
More than a 100 people entered the first annual Jesus tattoo contest and at the end, a beautiful piece of art you could barely see took home first place. Here is the story behind the tattoos and a picture of each one:

I used to be a ‘cutter’ to use the today’s terminology. By God’s grace alone I have been free from self-harm for nearly three years. For a long time, though, I was ashamed of my scars. Then the idea for the tattoo’s came. My left arm, my spot of choice for cutting, is where I have the word ‘mercy.’ As it is His mercy that keeps me from getting all that I deserve and now those scars serve as a reminder of all He has kept me from. I have the word ‘grace’ on my scar free arm because that is what grace is all about. A clean slate, completely undeserved, no blemishes, no spots, no scars. It may be strange to some, I’m sure it is, really. But, more importantly to me, it is the Gospel spelled out on my arms!

16. Three FAQs
Isn’t this like that site, “Stuff White People Like?”
That’s kind of you, but I would describe it more as a “direct rip off.” But sometimes I pretend it’s an homage. Mostly because I want an excuse to pretend I use the word “homage” regularly.

When did you launch Stuff Christians Like?
March 21, 2008. Instead of cramming the first 40 posts on one day that would never have been scrolled through, I went back and started it on January 1st. That way the days are all evenly laid out and when you click on “March” you don’t just see one thick day trying to carry 40 posts like some sort of exhausted donkey.

What happened to 97secondswithgod.com?
I wrote a 59 day devotional on my site 97secondswithgod.com that went day by day, chapter by chapter from Genesis 1 to Exodus 9. Given that I had planned to do that with the entire Bible, I failed pretty miserably. My hope is that when I’m able to get a “writing patron” to sponsor me (come on Testamints, pick up the phone already) and can do this full time, I’ll have more time to dedicate to that site. I really enjoyed writing it and greatly appreciate the encouragement people have given me to bring that site back on a more regular basis.

17. Favorite Moment Number #3 – Old Hymnals and Friends are Friends Forever
Stacy, of Stacy From Louisville, and her super cool husband Dan posted a challenge to readers. They asked folks to send me birthday cards, but not just regular cards. Here is what she said:

Got a leftover sympathy card in the bottom of a junk drawer? Perfect! Have a Christmas card you just got in the mail? Scratch out your friend’s name and write yours in.

In addition to an old hymnal, a box of skittles and a card that plays “Friends are Friends” forever when you open it, I got the funniest parade of randomness ever in my P.O. Box. Big thanks to Stacy and all the readers that sent me a birthday card.

18. Favorite Moment Number #2 – Psalty
Sure, I might have broke into a cold dork sweat when I met Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv and fumbled out a fistful of whatever religious sounding words came to mind at that exact moment, but my greatest brush with a famous Christian has to be the comment Psalty, the big blue singing song book left on Stuff Christians Like. (Wow, what a long sentence.) I posted the spoof behind the music video Saddleback did and he actually commented. It’s a long comment or I would repost it, but here’s the intro:

HI everybody! I’m new at this blogging thing. I hope you don’t mind the epistle-length blog. I ‘m wanting to respond to all of you who made comments about my video from Saddleback Worship Conference 2008. They were a lot of fun to read. From the emails I receive on my own website www.psalty.com, and from a few on the PSALTY:Behind the Music clip, I see that many of you want to pass on the experience you had as a child. I’m thrilled to hear that.

If you want to read the rest of the comment, it’s on this post.

19. Something I am excited about in 2009
The Stuff Christians Like Book Club, or SCLBC. We’re reading Crazy Love
by Francis Chan and I think it’s going to be really fun. You can learn more here.

20. Favorite Moment Number #1 of 2008
If I was good at flash or other web programming skills I would do some sort of drum roll, but since I’m just a writer, a smattering of dots will have to suffice:
…..
…..
…..(Feel those old school drums? This is tense!)
…..
And my favorite moment of the year is …

The readers. I promise I’ll be less effusive in 2009 but for now, let me say thank you. A thousand times thank you. You guys made this site what it is, not me. It’s been read in 190 countries, which is like 96% of the world. And I tried to remember if I told 300 friends in Singapore to read this blog and nope, it turns out I don’t know 300 people in Singapore. I mean 250, 275 tops, but not 300. That’s all you.

I’m going to keep writing this site, do my best on the book and be honest about everything that happens along the way. God loves us. He loves us to laugh and He doesn’t care for mimes. I didn’t want to end the year with that last bit, because I’m OK with mimes, but when God wants you to say something, what can you do? He actually wanted me to mime that sentence and not type it, He’s got a huge sense of irony like that, but I’m not good with video and He seemed alright with the compromise.

Here’s to a funny 2009.

Side hugs, leg drops and razzle dazzle my friends, razzle dazzle indeed,

Jon