A few weeks ago, Curtis wrote a guest post about dressing like a youth minister. While reading it, I realized that we’ve done roughly 42 posts about worship leaders and only a handful about youth group ministers.

Time to fix that.

Today, let’s do a book giveaway focused on youth ministers. In classic “scorecard style” lets list out all the youth minister stereotypes that exist. For instance, “You drive an old Volvo station wagon that has more dodgeballs than one adult should own in the back = + 2 points.”

Three comments will win an autographed copy of the new book, “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die,” from David Crowder and Michael Hogan.

So, if we were going to write a massive “here’s what a youth minister is” post, what would you add?

Tonight, my friend Shaun is helping with a free concert. You can check out:

Big Kenny, Alison Krauss and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, Jars of Clay, Jon Foreman, Mat Kearney, Brandon Heath, Matt Wertz, Dave Barns

When: Saturday Feb 27th 7:30 Central

The concert is to support Haiti and you can watch it right here: HelpHaitiLive.com

(Hooray, a female preacher’s kid has checked in. For years I have been writing very guy slanted pastor kid tales of woe. But thanks to Janna and this guest post, the ladies are about to have their time in the sun. And I’ve got another great guest post from a female pastor’s kid coming in a few weeks, enjoy.)

Nearly everyone knows Dusty Springfield’s hit, “Son of A Preacher Man,” but the song that speaks a bit more personally to me is called “Preacher’s Daughter,” by a little band known as The Refreshments. I first heard the song when my husband put it on a mix CD he made me when we were still dating. I liked it because it was loud and rocky, and the idea of some guy falling for a girl before he knew “the lady was a preacher’s daughter,” was a notion I could appreciate. In fact, more than once during my high school career, I wished for that same thing to happen to me.

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If you vote for my little brother Will in the Pepsi charity challenge, you’ll be eligible to win a free autographed, advanced copy of the Stuff Christians Like book. Voting takes less than a minute and if Will gets in the top 10, he’ll win $5,000 to buy trash bags and other supplies to clean up the streets of East Nashville.

Click here to vote.

When you’re done, simply comment “I voted” on this post to be entered. The Pepsi challenge ends Sunday, and you can vote multiple times until then. Let’s do it!

Come hang out this Saturday, February 27th in Birmingham, AL at 4:00 at the Garage Cafe. The Garage was rated one of the top ten bars/cafes in the world worth flying to by GQ magazine. It’s an old set of horse garages turned into a cafe/antique store. Me and author Chad Gibbs will be there from about 4-5:30 hanging out talking about God and blogs and satire and other such things. Come get a free Booty, God, Booty button. Here is the Garage’s website if you need directions. Hope to see you there.

“The ceiling must be leaking.”

That’s what my orthodontist once said to me when I was in the seventh grade because I was crying in his chair. I forget what exactly he was doing to my mouth at that exact moment but I promise it was whack. He was just horrible. At the end of the whole experience I went to a different orthodontist and he looked in my mouth with shame and sadness. “Who worked on your teeth before me?” my new orthodontist said, but I could hear what he really wanted to ask,

“Did you get your orthodontal work done in prison in exchange for a carton of smokes? Seriously? Did a really big guy inexplicably named ‘Slim Jim’ try to straighten your teeth out on the yard with perhaps a sharpened shiv of some variety?”

My mouth was a mess and so was Dr. S. which is why he’s on my “people I don’t want to be stuck in an elevator with” list. It’s a short list compromised of people who challenge my ability to “love my neighbor.” And recently I thought of one more person that needs to be on there.

The Christian Stranger who asks you inappropriately intimate questions.

If you’re not familiar with this person, then congratulations, you my friend are very fortunate. But if you’re like me, you’ve got at least one person in your life who asks way too intimate questions out of nowhere. This is the friend who sees you in a group of people in the church lobby and walks up to say, “How’s that thigh rash, and did you work out the issues with your father, the father wounds if you will?” But because I believe we’re supposed to ask each other big real questions as Christians, it’s important to detail exactly what qualifies as a “Weirdly Awkward Question.” Or WAQ as it were.

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(I wrote this a year ago for people like me who have made mistakes and hold out hope that it’s not impossible to return. It’s probably one of my favorite examples of a mess up coming back. It’s from Genesis 43)

In Genesis chapter 43, the tension with Joseph is building. As you know, he’s in charge of Egypt and his brothers, who sold him into slavery, have come to unknowingly ask for food. His plan to study and forgive his brothers is unfolding and Benjamin arrives, breaking Joseph down into a private moment of weeping. But what’s interesting to me happens before Benjamin shows up in Egypt.

Listen to the speech that Judah, the man who impregnated a prostitute/daughter-in-law and condemned her to death before being exposed, says to his father in verses 8-9:

Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.”

That makes a nice paragraph but it is beautiful when you dissect it and see the words a man once known for shirking family responsibilities actually uses:

Send the boy along with me

We will go

I myself guarantee his safety

You can hold me personally responsible

If I do not bring him back

I will bear the blame before you all my life.

Judah, is that you? Can that be? Could that paragraph be more jam packed with words indicating a man of serious responsibility is about to step up to a dangerous situation?

I love it. I love that the Bible is full of mess ups that come back. Abject failures of human beings that through God’s grace are pulled from the pit and do some tremendous things.

We are created to change. I don’t care if you’re a bad dad, a fired employee, a divorced parent that feels like life is an island right now. Within you beats the song of change. It may be quiet right now. You might feel like it will never sing again, but just like Abraham, just like Judah, we are all capable of change in the eyes of the Lord.

“We found a family of mice that nested inside the cushions of your couch, so we need to throw it away.”

That was what a woman on a recent television show said to a homeowner. This is the moment where the homeowner says, “Wow, I had no idea. Gross, a whole family? Ugh, let’s throw that out.” But because the show I was watching is called “Hoarders,” that wasn’t the response she gave. Instead, the old woman whose home was on the borders of being condemned said simply,

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I’m speaking this Saturday night at the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. It’s a benefit event for Hope for Vietnam. If you’re in town, come stop by and let’s hang out. Maybe before the event we could do a meet up and I could give you Booty, God, Booty buttons and what not. If you live in Birmingham, please suggest locations for a short get together.

Click here to learn more about the event.

If your name is on the list below, then congrats, you won a free copy of Matthew Paul Turner’s new book, Hear No Evil. Just email me with “winner” in the subject line. Thanks for playing!

Jared Young

Lisa Fredricks

Shana Denise Watson

Marcus Hathcock

PantherHart