Looking back on almost three years of writing Stuff Christians Like, it’s easy to see one thing I’ve always been clear on:

I love Cadbury Crème Eggs.

Like tiny grenades of happiness and sugar, these delightful chocolate orbs blow up my head and my heart every spring.

Although I refuse to acknowledge sequels like the Orange Crème or Caramel Crème versions (Did “Starship Troopers Part 2” teach us nothing?) I’ve always welcomed the springtime arrival of my favorite Easter related egg.

But I recently took a photo of what happens when the real reason for Easter and candy collide. And it is not pretty.

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You’ve never done this. You’ve never moved to a new town or visited a new area and formed some instant opinions about a church based on the quality of their website. In fact as soon as you read the title of this post you started to pray for the people that struggle with this. If that’s the case, please add me and my friend Trevor to the list because we both have.

I didn’t mean too, it just sort of happened. I’m always looking at websites with a fairly critical eye so when it came time to visit a new church, I found myself analyzing their site. Or “pre-judging,” if you will, deciding I knew exactly what type of church they were based on their site. In order to pay penance for that ridiculousness I thought I might write a list of 5 things churches need to remember when creating a website and what you need to remember when you get all judgy:

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Today’s short Saturday question is simple

“What would you tell a few hundred students at a Christian college about sex?”

That’s what I’ll be doing on April 12 and 13 for the first time ever. Greenville College, established in 1892, and located in Greenville, Illinois is bringing me up to speak as part of their “Sextravaganza” series.

I know what you’re thinking, it’s because I talk about the music of Prince a lot and there’s nothing sexier than a blogger who has a unibrow. Actually, they’re bringing to campus to talk about a post I wrote about 4 ways we Christians mess up sex. CNN.com picked up the post which prompted friends who we hadn’t heard from in years to email my wife and say, “I think I saw your sex life on CNN.com today.” Which in turn prompted Jenny to say, “Thanks for writing that article Jon.” Go figure. (You can read the post here.)

But if you were going to talk to a bunch of college students about sex, what would you tell them?

What do you think are the misconceptions about it?

What are mistakes you wish you didn’t make in college?

What would you say?

(I took piano lessons for about three weeks when I was a kid. I bought a really nice guitar and played that about four times. I have absolutely no skills when it comes to musical awesomeness. But fortunately, guest poster Philip Aguinaga does and is about to point out something musically at church that I know you’ve experienced.)

The Power Key Change – by Philip Aguinaga

Christian worship services sometimes use a defining feature that my friend and I have for years called “The Power Key Change” (It doesn’t matter whether the worship is contemporary or otherwise (What is otherwise, you ask? Use your imagination (and yes, this is a side note within a side note within a side note. I saw Inception recently. Can you tell?))).

I know you’ve heard it, most likely in a Power Ballad. The song will suddenly shift a half step or so higher in pitch to a different key for much more dramatic effect. The Power key change happens when the worship leader (using piano, guitar, or maybe even a harmonica) wants to really let you know that “Yes, we are worshiping Holy God, Mighty and Everlasting”. I guess the intent is to mirror His power by kicking the entire worship session up a notch (Yes, like Emeril. You just know the leader is thinking “BAM!” in his/her head every time the key change happens).

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We’ve got a bunch of fun stuff to giveaway today. If you see your name below, please email your mailing address with “Winner” in the subject line.

Here are the winners of the Find It VeggiesTale game:

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“The trick to removing your clothes in a bathroom stall is to start with your shirt.”

That’s the very first line of my new book Quitter.

And you can read the entire first chapter for free. If you like it and want to check out the whole book, you can order on Amazon, get  it on DaveRamsey.com (and get audio book for free) or pick it up on Books-a-Million. Inside this chapter, I’ll answer the following questions:

Why is quitting your day job often the best way to kill your dream?

Why do people with jobs tend to have more creative freedom than people without?

What’s one word you have to fight to hang on to when you chase a dream?

Click here to read the first chapter.

“I need to make a copy of this document before I fax it because I only have one copy and don’t want to lose it.”

I wish that was a quote I got from the show “Matlock” or perhaps an episode of “Murder She Wrote,” or a website called, “Crazy things old people who don’t understand technology say.”

But it’s not. That’s something I said ten years ago when I was about to send one of my first faxes.

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I do not remember the day that I got my rejection letter from the University of North Carolina. That moment did not crystallize, me standing at a cold Massachusetts mailbox with a much too thin envelope clutched in my teenage fist as I cursed the clouds above. That would have been dramatic, but I am not sure that’s how it happened.

My father went to UNC. My mother went to UNC. My uncle went to UNC. My younger brother went to UNC. My little sister went to UNC. I was supposed to go to UNC. I grew up loving the UNC basketball team, throwing frisbee on the Carolina campus and dreaming about wearing that shade of blue for four perfect years. But then I got rejected.

Situations like that force me to deal with a harsh reality—there are some things I want that I will simply never have. Experiences or possessions or friendships that will for a host of reasons never really be mine. And I have a hard time rectifying that limited reality with my limitless God.

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Last week, the alarm system in our house started going off at 5 in the morning. It was still dark out or otherwise I would have been fine. Let’s get that straight right now. If it was bright out, I probably would have just rolled right out of bed onto the massive pile of pillows my wife insists belong on our bed when we’re not in it and then just punched whoever set off the alarm right in the face.

Then I would have kicked him for telling me I write run on sentences like that last one, which would have been an oddly specific thing for a cat burglar to know about me.

But it was dark, so here, in a rambletastic list are the things that went through my head:

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Yesterday was awesome! You guys were incredibly supportive of my new book Quitter and it actually reached #89 on the bestsellers list of Amazon. Thank you for pre-ordering it!

There were a few questions people asked:

1. Will it be on Kindle?

Yes! It will be and I’ll announce that on SCL when it’s up. It will be on iBooks too and should be on the Nook as well.

2. Where can I pre-order to help you most?

Really kind question. Big thank you to the folks who asked it. The truth is, anywhere you preorder the book is awesome. Whatever is easiest for you is great for me. For some people, that’s Amazon. For folks who want a free copy of the audio book, ordering on DaveRamsey.com makes the most sense. For other people, Books-A-Million or Barnes & Noble. Really, it’s up to you.

3. Would you describe your hands as Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid or a mime in the Quitter trailer?

Both.

4. Is it OK if I buy 10 copies so that I can give them to my friends who need this book?

OK, no one asked this question. But some folks did buy 5 copies for that very purpose. If you’ve got the question in your heart and are debating whether it’s OK to buy 10 or a case for that matter, I’d like to be the first one to say, “yes, yes it is OK to do that.”

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this year with Quitter. Thank you again for the constant support and encouragement.

Side hugs and Jesus Jukes,

Jon