the object of this game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. if you can go longer than 18 seconds you are phenomenal. you can start to see a bit of a pattern after a few tries, which helped me get to about 15 seconds so far.

james cotten, a youth worker at “FBC in copperas grove” (don’t know where that is), sent me this great promo video idea. it’s a website that allows you to use campy tv footage from idea and add your own text as a fake translation. they made two videos and got permission to show them consecutive weeks in ‘big church’ to recruit a teacher for their middle school guys sunday school class.

video #1

video #2

would be fun for use in promoting anything in your youth ministry, or even as a wacky teaching point.

i must be tired, because these actually made me laugh…

A little silliness to get you through monday morning:

Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.

A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, “I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything.”

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: “A beer please, and one for the road.”

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: “Does this taste funny to you?”

“Doc, I can’t stop singing ‘The Green, Green Grass of Home.’” “That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome.” “Is it common?” Well, “It’s Not
Unusual.”

An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, “Doctor, doctor, I can’t feel my legs!” The doctor replied, “I know you
can’t - I’ve cut off your arms!”

I went to a seafood disco last week…and pulled a mussel.

A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about
an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why,”they asked, as they moved off. “Because”, he said, “I can’t
stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very
little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ..(Oh, man, this is so bad, it’s
good)…. A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

this has lots of cool potential for use in youth group rooms. it’s a cheap way to get cool writing (or a type-treatment logo) on the wall. or various slogans or scripture passages. i just made this sample, with 5″ high copper-colored vinyl letters — it would be about two feet high by four or five feet wide.

(ht to bob carlton)

the other day i posted about the botanical metaphor used in the name of the ‘friendship’ called emergent. i mentioned that it would be great if someone would do a bit of a history as to how the two terms (emergent, and emerging church) came into wide useage. and good ol’ dan kimball has effectively taken up the challenge, with two hlepful posts:

the history of the useage of emerging church

the history of the useage of emergent

only an idiot like me would leave the following link to the following jesus drawings in his inbox after receiving it from a friend, tormented over whether or not to give it a “jesus junk of the month award”.

in the mean time, i posted a ‘jjotma’ (that’s got a ring to it, huh?) the other day for $75 scripture sports jerseys. and i got ‘called out’ on my qualifications for the jjotma, with the fair question, “is anything that you can buy jesus junk? or is there a certain qualifier needed?”

i thought about it. darn it. hate it when that happens. and answered with this:

i think for it to qualify as “jesus junk” there has to be one or more of these qualifications:
a. a complete tackiness to the item, or
b. a desire, on the part of the makers, for the item to be evangelistic.
c. a rip-off of a regular product (that’s the kind of non-creative church products that just bugs me the most).

these $75 shirts qualify on the second and third points.

yes, i’ve had worse jesus junk win the award — these are, at least, high-quality products!

so why am i hestitant to give the award to these drawings of jesus with various professions and hobbiests? i mean, really, they seem to qualify on both points a and b of my explanation.

but here’s the rub: i have (this will be a shock to you all, i’m sure) a real propensity to snarky sarcastic condescending mean-spirited belittling diminishing dismissive cocky brashness. i know, i know — you would have never guessed. i guess it’s an ok thing when i can keep it in check. but when it gets a bit rampant, i can quickly do destruction to myself and plenty of others.

AND THESE DANG PICTURES (i mean, did you SEE the one with the juggler and jesus????), they were created by some sweet-looking older dude who believes god called him to do this. and art or not, calling or not, I AM CALLED to honor the fact that this sweet-looking older dude believes god called him to do this. and he’s NOT selling them, so i gots to tables to overturn with righteous courtyard bustin’ anger.

sigh.

at the end of the day, i will not be awarding the uncoveted jjotma to the drawing of jesus with the welder, or jesus with the vetrinarian, or jesus with the clown, or jesus with the barber, or even — EVEN — to the (”new!”) drawing of jesus with the bodybuilders.

but did you see the juggler?

how did i miss this guy all these years? “half-handed cloud” is the solo act of one of sufjan steven’s touring band members. my friend dave palmer writes:

John Ringhofer ( a member of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band) records and tours under the name Half-Handed Cloud. It’s an almost unexplainable mixture of toy instruments, Brian Wilson meets Flaming Lips with no budget, and as much pure joy as The Polyphonic Spree - all from one guy. HHC’s new record, HALOS & LASSOS, is out now and he’s on tour as I type. I can’t recommend this enough - particularly the live show.

i find great delight in danielson (in all their various incarnations: danielson familie, danielson family, tri-danielson, danielson). and half-hearted cloud has a similar vibe to me (though is more accessible than danielson): great jesus-y lyrics full of oddity and creativity, over some of the quirkiest music beds you’ll find anywhere. i found that iTunes has FIVE half-hearted cloud cds, going back to 2001. again, i ask, how did i miss this guy?

(ht to dave palmer)

actual, word-for-word string of comments from my 6th grade guys small group this past wednesday night:

me: …so potipher’s wife…

“oh! i’ve heard this! isn’t she the one that said joseph raped her?”

me: yeah, that’s right. she wanted joseph to have sex with her…

“we’re starting sex ed next week in school!”

“we did it in our class a few weeks ago”

“you did it in sex ed?”

“that must be a new teaching method!”

“ha! no, i don’t think our teachers have a license to do that!”

(joking hyper kid gets serious): “you need a license to have sex?”

me: yeah

“really?”

me: you have to apply for one down at the dmv.

“really?”

me: no. back to potipher’s wife…

for about 3 minutes you will not be able to stop playing this game. then you will find yourself suddenly furiously sick of it. i got 13, after about 2.5 minutes of trying. i don’t have it in me to keep at it.

thanks to stephen at faithmaps/emergesque blog for compiling two incredible resources:

this massive (and constantly evolving) list of links for resources and articles and opinions about the divinci code.

and

this massive (and constantly evolving) list of links for resources and articles and opinions about the gospel of judas.

such helpful tools for youth workers and ministers of all sorts — shoot, and thinking christians of all sorts.