My new book is almost out. It’s available for pre-order on April 4th and comes out officially on May 10th!

Here is the cover and the title:

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The other day I had the opportunity to grab coffee with Al Andrews. Al runs Porter’s Call, a non-profit counseling center that provides free counseling for musicians and their families in Franklin, Tennessee. It’s an incredibly beautiful ministry and the only way I was able to get some time with Al is because he finds my breakdancing skills so lyrical.

Actually, it’s because he was college roommates with my dad and has been a fixture in our family for years. I was overwhelmed by the hour we spent together and when I tried to capture it, there was only one way to properly tweet it:

“Had coffee and an amazing conversation with @itsalandrews yesterday. It felt like stopping at Rivendell in the midst of a big adventure.”

Without even thinking about it at first, I rolled out a Lord of the Rings reference, which is quintessential stuff Christians like. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what we really like is to create obscure Lord of the Rings references.

They can’t just be standard. They can’t just be obvious. They need to come from a deep place of Christian nerddom. They have to be layered. Confused? Don’t be, here are 5 ways to make an obscure Lord of the Rings reference:

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I am not one to throw around the word “bonanza.” In a lot of ways I respect that word too much to just bandy it about casually. So it is with no small degree of seriousness that I say today is a “book bonanza.”

We’re giving away six different books today. Three people will have the chance to win a bunch of books. Here’s what is included:

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Easy Jon, easy. This is one of those subjects that could get you on the couch. It’s true, my wife has a stack o’ Christian romance fiction. It’s right next to her bag of knitting on our bedside table. And should I open up one of those books and poke the genre a little on Stuff Christians Like, I’d be in a world of trouble.

So I’m not going to. I’m not going to write about the books. But what I am going to do is create one. Instead of picking on Christian Romance Fiction, I created my own. It’s called “Lonesome Crick” and I’m debuting it today.

Best part? It’s a choose your own adventure. I went back through the Stuff Christians Like site and hid parts of “Lonesome Crick” at the bottom of old posts. When you choose a path for the characters to take, you’ll get to a page that has the next section of content on the very bottom of the page.

Ready to roll? Ready to fall in love with “Dalton McCoy?” (He’s the main character and spoiler alert, he’s just moved into town and he’s got a troubled past but a heart of gold.)

Lonesome Crick

A novel by Jonathan Acuff

Chapter One

The sun rose high and strong, the way it always did on main street in Lonesome Crick. A small Western town that was barely a footnote on the journey to California, Lonesome Crick was a quiet sort of place. Kids played in the street, chickens ran free on farms, apples tasted sweet and crisp in trees that were tall and generous. It was simply one more fall day in 1869, with simply one more sunrise lighting up the dirt covered streets, until …

Click here if a stranger with a mysterious past rides in on a horse.

Click here if a man who used to live in town but went off to find his fortune only to realize that what he always truly wanted was right there in Lonesome Crick.

Click here if some sort of orc or other mythological creature walks into town for an epic battle.

I need your help. I’m not a good interviewer. And by “not good” I mean, “horrible.” And by “horrible” I mean “dolphins die when they read my lame interview questions.”

So when Zondervan offered me a chance to interview Rob Bell as part of his new tour, I immediately thought you should help with that.

If you don’t know who Rob Bell is, you can check out one of his books or video series:

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality

Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile

Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering

Nooma

I’m going to ask him about Church Marketing, dealing with haters, and make sure he’s OK with the satire we did about his glasses in the upcoming Stuff Christians Like book.

What do you want to ask Rob Bell?

Comment until Tuesday, December 15th. Best five questions will be answered by Rob Bell and you’ll win a free copy of his new book, Drops Like Stars. (It’s a $35 book, score!)

What should we ask Rob Bell?

The contest is finished. Thanks so much for the great comments. The winners will be announced on November 17.

Dang, Margaret Feinberg rocked the casbah at Catalyst.

In a bright red coat that made her look like a super hero and a book that sounds awesome, she just tore it up when she was handed the mic.

Her new book was years in the making and has perhaps my favorite subhead ever:

“Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey.”

She basically spent time with a shepherd, a beekeeper and vintner to try to bridge the gap between the ancient world and her own as she pursued the mystery and beauty that lurks within the Bible.

She said I could give away five copies of the book to readers of Stuff Christians Like.

Let’s do a comment contest.

Post a comment to the question:

“Where do you find God?”

It could be at the ocean, at the grocery, at the moment when you read your kids a bedtime story. He’s everywhere so I imagine the comments will go all over the place too.

Respond until Wednesday, November 11 and I’ll pick five winners at random.

Where do you find God?