I am happy to announce that Kristen Freeders is the winner of the Chris Tomlin unnecessary scarf. I hope she wears it with great joy and metrosexuality. Email me Kristen!

Recently I saw an ad for Camel Cigarettes. The headline was “Break Free” which seemed ironic to me. I don’t have a problem with that phrase or the 78 Christian books that use it in the subtitle, it’s just that I’m not sure it fits for a cigarette. I mean after all, cigarettes are addictive. There’s nothing “break free” about smoking. It’s more “Get tangled” or “Get enslaved,” although I suppose those headlines wouldn’t move many cartons. But as a Christian, in addition to mocking cigarette ads, what’s our opinion supposed to be on the whole idea of smoking?

It was so much easier in college. There was absolutely no debate about whether or not God was OK with smoking cigarettes. There were only a handful of smokers at my small Baptist school and everyone knew who they were and where they’d be. Unlike Motley Crue, they rarely smoked in the boy’s room, but instead chose to light up outside of the mailroom at Samford University. Smokers, how dare they!

(more…)

Recently, business guru Seth Godin, wrote guest posts on about 40 blogs to support the release of his new book Linchpin.

I thought that was a great idea, but wondered what would happen if for the release of my book Stuff Christians Like instead of 40, I just wrote a guest post for everyone who wanted one? What if I wrote 100 or 200 or maybe only 10 if that’s all anybody wants? I think that would be fun.

(more…)

A few weeks ago at church, my pastor Andy Stanley shared one of his parenting techniques. He didn’t say it was for everyone. He didn’t say it was perfect. He wasn’t really recommending it, but it still sounded good to me.

When Andy finds a mess somewhere in his house, he calls his kids to the room. Instead of telling them to clean up or fix everything, he says something like this:

“Please ask me to clean up this room for you. Please tell me, ‘Dad, I’ve created a mess that I’d like you to clean up.’ Or you can call your mom and ask her.”

Instantly, his kids get the point and understand what he’s telling them. When they create a mess they act like it doesn’t impact anyone else, so he does his best to show how their actions have consequence for everyone in the house. And a few days ago I tried this technique with my own kids to some less than stellar results.

My kids had made our playroom, or ‘dining room we can’t dine in,’ a disaster. It was hard to tell exactly what happened but I think the American Girl Dolls got into some sort of turf war with the Bitty Twins. There were doll shoes and purses and barrettes everywhere. Real street fight. I could have CSI’d the scene and figured out what happened, but it didn’t matter. I needed my kids to clean it up.

So I called in my 6 year old daughter L.E. and my 4 year old daughter McRae. I sat them down, explained to them that I wanted them to ask me to clean up their mess for them and then I waited.

L.E. looked at her sister with a face that said, “Crae, is this really happening? Is dad volunteering to clean up after us? This is fantastic.” Then she looked at me and said, “OK, dad, will you clean up our mess?” Then my wife laughed out loud.

It didn’t work. My kids weren’t phased by it. There were happy to let me clean up after them. My scared straight tactic didn’t work. It failed. But that’s OK because I know a scared straight tactic that always works and so do you – the “marriage is difficult” tactic.

It’s almost Christian law that a minister must give you the “scared straight marriage speech” during your wedding. Usually crammed between the opening comments and the repeat after me statements and hopefully not a pastor sex joke, the scared straight marriage speech is pretty simple. Here are the pieces:

(more…)

My brother Will recently submitted an idea he calls “Clean East” to Pepsi about cleaning up East Nashville. Hoping to live out the deed part of the gospel in the neighborhoods he lives in, Will’s idea actually got accepted by Pepsi. Let’s vote it into the top 10 today if we can.

Click here to vote for Will Acuff.