Book Review: "Stuff Christians Like" by Jonathan Acuff

Using the same humor and honesty that galvanized 450,000 online readers from 199 countries, blogger Jonathan Acuff brings his insightful take on Christianity to the book world with Stuff Christians Like. From prayer shot blocks to Metro Worship Leaders, no stone is left unturned in this hilarious look at faith.

This has got to be THE funniest book I have read all year. Seriously, it took me about two hours to read this book and I was dying with laughter throughout the entire read. This book is based on the website, Stuff Christians Like, which is like Stuff White People like, but about Christians. If you ever thought that Christians are serious all the time and cannot make fun of themselves with actual humor, then you need to either go to the website or read this book. While I will admit that there are certain essays that probably only Christians will get, it's a hilarious look into how there are so many things that we take seriously.

If you are a Christian you will more than likely GET what is going on in this book. Whether you grew up in a mostly conservative church or now attend a contemporary megachurch, both sides will find this book funny without finding it insulting. And this book is ACTUALLY funny. And it has nothing to do with me being polite because Acuff is a Christian too. Christians DO know how to be funny. For some reason we just choose not to (read the chapter on BEING NOT FUNNY FOR THE LORD)

I could go through almost the entire book and point out everything I found hilarious and true but that would be almost the entire book. Instead I will point out my absolutely favorite essays.

These are the actual titles of the essays too, btw.

-Ranking Honeymoon Sex Slightly Higher than the Second Coming of Christ - I need not say anything else.
- Watching R Rated movies...but only if they are violent. - This is SO true of my parents!!! They will only watch R rated movies like Saving Private Ryan or Braveheart because even though the violence is graphic is much better than sex and language. My dad is a HUGE Stallone fan and watches every Rambo film even though they are all R rated. In fact, he has no problem watching someone get gutted with their intestines falling out and being eaten by animals, but if two people start kissing, he fast fowards through the movie! I kid you not.
- Occasionally Swearing - Acuff states that Christians will occasionally let out a swear word to let others know that we know that the words do exist. And that they are more powerful when a Christian says them, because the earth will tremble. This is hilarious because this is EXACTLY why I curse sometimes!!!!!
- The Seven People You Meet in a Prayer Circle: The Opener, The Almost-er, The Rambler, The Cave-in, The Gunslinger, The Shot Broker, The Closer - Holy Geez! The Almost-er is the person who inhales so that you think they are going to pray, and then they don't. I SWEAR this happens everytime I'm in a group of people praying!! And then the Gunslinger - when it's down between you and someone else to be next to last to pray and you wait it out like a showdown and then the person finally just blurts out something. SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!
- The Metrosexual Worship Leader - LOVE this. There is a check list where you can rate your worship leader on how metrosexual he is. Ours (who is super hot btw, is this wrong to think that, as he is married with kids, and I am married myself) ranks at Tomlin Curious, but that's simply because I'm not quite sure the brand of jeans he wears.
- Raising Our Hands in Worship - I nearly died during this chapter as Acuff goes through the five different types of hand raising from the Ninja (very very very subtly raising hands at pocket level) to the YMCA (well you can imagine what that is). It's SO TRUE!!!!
- Finding Typos the in the Worship Music - my sisters and I would do this EVERY Sunday! We would get so excited when someone spelled a word wrong!
- Mid Prayer Music that Materializes Out of Nowhere - You know, when the pastor is praying at the end and then you start hearing the worship leader play guitar music and you open your eyes to find out where he is and wonder how he knows when to start playing and what to start playing and if he and the pastor rehearse this beforehand to know when and where to do it, and you find yourself completely distracted from the actual prayer. Yep, story of my life.

Believe me, I could go on and on and on. There are just so many essays that I could completely relate with and just laugh at the craziness as to why we do this things. The only minor qualm I have with the book is that I have no idea who to recommend it to. While it's hilarious, I can't really see myself recommending it to non Christian friends as they won't get a lot of things mentioned. On the other end of the spectrum, highly conservative people are likely to be offended because they are the type of people who take all this stuff seriously (Somber Christian Syndome as mentioned in the book). However, Acuff has already covered this topic in "Developing Subtle Signs to Let People Know You're a Christian" so hopefully I should be all set.

This book is going down as one of my top 10 reads of the year and one of THE funniest books I have ever read in my life. If you read this book, PLEASE let me know what you think, whether you are a Christian or not. VERY HIGHLY recommended.

Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff is published by Zondervan (2010)

This review copy was provided by the Amazon Vine program