My brother and a friend volunteered to paint the church. They were all of 18. As they were painting, they got into a debate about Calvinism. I guess it got quite animated, because the ended up having a paint fight. My brother came home completely covered in paint.

Both my brother and his friend are Calvinists now.

My Son was working with the kids program at a local church and the youth pastor had an off-site bible study for the teens the same night. The youth pastor decided it would be fun to scare my son and had hid in the church. He had my wife phone my son and tell him there was an alert because an escaped murderer had been seen in the area. She told him to lock the doors and check to make sure no one was in the church. During the search, the youth pastor jumped out at my son and another leader, Matt, doing the search. Matt clocked the youth pastor in the head with the 2 by 4 he was carrying...twice.

This goes in the "fun" category.

I love talking theology with guys. I also enjoy the occasional drink and some of my friends enjoy the occasional pipe or cigar so we decided to start a theology pub to discuss Tozer's "The Knowledge of the Holy". I was excited, just out of college and ready to get down to business, so to speak, so I invited all the guys I knew that'd be interested (from several groups) and setup the first meet. My friend Justin and I decided to scope out the perfect place beside a local lake here and made it BOYM,etc.

The day came for the meeting and it was rainy all day, which was a bummer because I'd hope it would go well. We all met at the church to drive out together anyways and headed to the lake. We got to the lake and our particular peninsula and lo and behold it wasn't raining. We set up shop, started grilling meat, getting to know one another and getting to know God. After a little while, we started to notice something odd -- it was raining all around us. When we looked right above us though, we could see stars but not more than 50ft on any side of us: rain. We had a jolly good time it wasn't until we packed up to leave that it started raining where we had been.

It's cool to see God work in such a way -- really we have no other explanation for His provision of dryness than that he stayed the rain. And it made for an awesome and fun first theology pub.

I REALLY WANT THIS BOOK, but unfortunately I can't tell you any funny theology stories.

I can tell you something that I have been brewing on that I think will be pretty hilarious though. I currently live near Ohio State University. Usually, in the middle of the campus, there are these people we call the "Oval Preachers." They believe that it is possible to not sin anymore, and that they stopped sinning 20 years ago, or whatever. A year ago, I got into a theolgical debate with one of these guys, and he absolutely crushed me. They know their stuff, and I'm pretty young still. But, it really challenged me, and God used that to sharpen my mind and grow in my understanding of Him.

Then, one day it dawned on me... after reading CJ Mahaney's "Humility," where he says that God hates pride more than anything... I thought of the perfect question to ask these oval preachers.

So here's how it is going to go down. I'm going to get into a heated debate with one of these guys, and he's going to drop verse after verse explaining how he doesn't sin anymore, and after a few minutes of this, I'm going to quickly interrupt him and ask "are you humble?" Hopefully he'll be taken off guard, and he'll respond without thinking by saying "yes, I'm very humble!"

I don't know... that's how I envision it going down. But seriously, how would you answer that question if you believe you don't sin anymore?

I REALLY WANT THIS BOOK, but unfortunately I can't tell you any funny theology stories.

I can tell you something that I have been brewing on that I think will be pretty hilarious though. I currently live near Ohio State University. Usually, in the middle of the campus, there are these people we call the "Oval Preachers." They believe that it is possible to not sin anymore, and that they stopped sinning 20 years ago, or whatever. A year ago, I got into a theolgical debate with one of these guys, and he absolutely crushed me. They know their stuff, and I'm pretty young still. But, it really challenged me, and God used that to sharpen my mind and grow in my understanding of Him.

Then, one day it dawned on me... after reading CJ Mahaney's "Humility," where he says that God hates pride more than anything... I thought of the perfect question to ask these oval preachers.

So here's how it is going to go down. I'm going to get into a heated debate with one of these guys, and he's going to drop verse after verse explaining how he doesn't sin anymore, and after a few minutes of this, I'm going to quickly interrupt him and ask "are you humble?" Hopefully he'll be taken off guard, and he'll respond without thinking by saying "yes, I'm very humble!"

I don't know... that's how I envision it going down. But seriously, how would you answer that question if you believe you don't sin anymore?

We had a guy in one of our small groups (we are a Reformed church plant) who was surprised that we were Calvinist (he found this out after asking the group leader). After listening to his rant about Calvinism, and how John Calvin had never accomplished anything for the church, we moved on to tough issues that were brought up from the morning message. One of the issues, predestination/election, was brought up in the small group study, and the man who had ranted about Calvinism says this: "It was interesting about election this morning. I had never heard of it before"

Imagine that: a Calvinist hater who had never heard of predestination!

I was living at my mother's when we sold a house quicker than we could get into the other one and the Mormon's that were quite regular in her neighborhood (came there bimonthly) stopped while I was at home.
I invited them in and we had a great little talk (IMHO) and one of them was actually thinking about some of the points I was making. The other one was quite hot about his questioning partner. Got him out of there as fast as he could.
Anywho, they left and my mom's house got blacklisted. They ride through her neighborhood now with the same frequency, but none of them will stop at her house anymore.

Not sure how much this relates to theology, but I had a very difficult time as a child understanding why manna was such a blessing for the Israelites after an interesting experience at church one night. We were singing "Brethren We Have Met To Worship," and I must have been under the age of 7. Well, of course there is the line about "holy manna will be showered all around." I didn't know what manna was, so I asked a friend of mine who was a year older than me. Her eyes got really big and she said, "What? You haven't heard?" - and then she informed me that manna is the dust that people's bodies turn into once they die. To this day I have NO idea where that came from - unless she was just trying to freak me out!! But suffice it to say, I was greatly comforted to learn the true definition of manna some time later!!! (Also makes the song a little less sinister as well!)

Okay, so this was actually my husband, not me personally. We had a pair (man/woman) Jehovah's witnesses come to our door one evening. My DH had been lounging in basketball shorts and no shirt on, and that's how he answered the door. You should have seen the look on their faces! The woman saw his bare chest and wouldn't take her eyes off the tops of her shoes the entire (brief) conversation! We have not had anyone else come to our door since then... I guess they decided we were "too heathen"??? Hmmm...

On the bus ride to a youth retreat a bunch of rowdy middle school boys (my brother included) were swapping Korean demon-warfare stories. Suffice it to say they were spooked especially by this one story about a pastor's son who had a bedroom in the basement and was confronted by a demon with red glowing eyes. The pastor told the son to go back to his room and cast out the demon. ... yes, i know.
So anyway, the 7th and 8th grade boys were sleeping in the same cabin and although they were supposed to be asleep, they were awake, once again, swapping spiritual warfare stories (the Korean church is full of them). Two male teachers who were doing bed checks in their red staff t-shirts and flashlights noticed this was the second time the boys had been warned. so they got their flashlights, positioned it behind the red t-shirts and stuck it to the cabin window and knocked on the door.
A quivery voiced called out "who's there?" and they sent the youngest boy to open the door, but to no avail since one of the teachers was holding the door shut.
He then slowly opened the blinds to have TWO RED CIRCLES OF LIGHT glaring right back at him!

the cool boys began to scream (like girls) and apparently ran to the back of the cabin.

The two teachers left, and came back and decided to play the trick again. This time they simply just knocked and they heard my brother groan, "oh no, it's back!"

The boys were found the next morning, all four of them sleeping together in the bed furthest from the door. They didn't even know it was a trick until a male teacher shared about the story during breakfast.

The best part is how my "cool" brother who was going through puberty still found that he had his prepubescent girl squeal.

Matt clocked the youth pastor in the head with the 2 by 4 he was carrying...twice.

LOL!!!

I've known (and worked with) some very good youth pastors, but I found this hilarious. It is kind of a good righteous judgment upon the (far too many) who pull dumb stunts like that :-)

I don't want a book, but I do have a funny story...theology to a three year old is funny:

One day I ran through the house, as a three year old, with my hands in the air wiggling my fingers and giggling the way silly little three year old girls do. After much amusement, my parents finally asked what I was doing. My reply, "I'm tickling God because he's everywhere."

Ok when I was 5 and my big brother was 12, the whole family headed out to the annual Christmas decorating progam and celebration at Church called "the Hanging of the Greens." We stopped at a restaurant beforehand and while we were there, my brother totally convinced me that the hat boxes on top of the coat rack there contained the heads of all the members of the Green family, whom we were hanging that night at church.

A pair of Jehovah's Witnesses came to our door. After a cordial conversation they excused themselves, saying that our home was their first stop on our street and they had many of our neighbors yet to visit. That statement struck me.

I asked my wife to grab my bible in the other room while I rushed to put on my shoes--the ladies at my door wondering what I was up to.

"It just occured to me that you are going to go and talk to my neighbors about your faith. I have different beliefs. I will go with you, introduce you to my neighbors, tell them that you would like to share with them, and then I will tell them where I disagree with you."

As we walked down the sidewalk the ladies became very angry with me, telling me to leave them alone to their work. I assured them that I wouldn't interrupt their work, but that I had work of my own to do--and thanked them for helping me to realize it.

At one point they began to yell at me in the street, call me the devil, and on and on. I just replied calmly and courteously. A few of my neighbors saw the spectacle. I followed the ladies in circles, and eventually to their car--never having actually approached any of my neighbor's homes--and watched them drive away. As best I know, Kingdom Hall hasn't sent missionaries to my street since. And (best part), the whole episode gave me chances to get to know a few more of my neighbors who heard the yelling in the street, allowing me to talk about my faith with them quite naturally.

We have often done "servant evangelism," giving stuff away (free car wash, free dollar bills, free cleaning of restrooms of businesses etc).

Steve Sjogren often says when you do this,people are stunned and say, "WHAT kind if church did yiu say you are from!?"

My favorite was giving out free toilet paper door-to-door with lines like "Just in case your supply is 'wiped out'" or "it all comes out in the end"...or "Just in case we are in the 'end' times..".

Yes, they often asked the question Sjogren told us they would (:

My wife and I were driving somewhere with our then 2 year old son in the back seat when he yelled out, "I saw God"! I don't remember my most immediate response but a couple of blocks later I remembered that the church we had just driven past had a statue of Jesus in front.

When I was in high school, my best friend, Paul, punched me in the stomach as hard as he could because I was trying to tell him that Left Behind/dispensationalism was unscriptural. We were at a Taco Bell/KFC buffet.

A friend of my family and his family worked as janitors in a local Catholic church for extra cash one summer (Although they are not Catholic).

They were there alone in the church one weekday cleaning when, for some unknown reason, he decided to stick one of his fingers in the "Holy Water" and taste it. He tasted one drop of water off his finger. That is all.

The next day he came down with a raging sore throat and a terrible fever. He had to go to the hospital and was diagnosed with a really bad virus. A virus that lives in stagnant water. Several rounds of antibiotics later he was better. Apparently just because the water is labeled "Holy" doesn't make it germ or virus free. Be careful people.

in college three good friends and i used to go to "la bamba's" to get "burritos as big as your head." we rarely got there before 1am. we'd sit until 4am when they closed discussing everything from the latest john piper sermon to whether or not we should head up to michigan to personally confront some pastors up there (thankfully we never did that last one.)

one night, about three days after our senior year had ended, we decided to go out for one last big 'la bamba' hurrah. while sitting there, we decided that we needed to put our awesome thoughts down on something a little more permanent...something like a music album. so, i went home and got my guitar, my buddy got his, another got his jimbay and we all met up at another guys house.

after about 4 hours of recording music into a laptop on one of those cheap wal-mart mics we had done it. everything from oprah and social justice to calvinism vs. arminianism (which had a sweet whistling break.)

we named our band "sealed", called the album "tulip" and got a friend of ours to take pictures of us at the local museum. complete with several tulips from the gardens.

to really see the ridiculous nature: myspace.com/sealedtheband

and....alex costa should win, too.

-joe

When my oldest daughter was 2, I took her to her first movie at a theater. It was Disney's animated "Tarzan"

When adult Tarzan first appears, he is swinging on vines, surfing tree limbs, doing flips, etc. My daughter screamed out, "Mama, it's JESUS!"

Around the same time, she approached a rough looking dude with long brown hair and a beard at a fast food restaurant. She said, "Hi, Jesus!" He said hi back.

I know that some of you have thought about it but I actually did it. We keep fish in our Baptistry. The front is a half moon glass and you can see most of the interior. Since it is always full we decided to add some life to it. We introduced local river fish to it. Now here's the real funny part. Our church is in South America. So, the fish? Yep! You guessed it, Piranhas! We tell people we will take them out if they will tithe!

With that, Peter, you are in the lead. :-)

oh man! JOE'S COMMENT WAS HILARIOUS!!!

Alex, are you and Joe the same person? Is he your brother in law? :-)

just buddies from college...he's heading to Los Angeles soon to head up the Destino movement (Crusade for Latinos). i'm a youth/music pastor in indiana.

-joe

Joe, sweet.
---

ALL:

I'm gonna pick winners tomorrow morning, so you've got one more night to share your story . . .

Yeah, I can assure you we're not the same person... we're both subscribed to this blog, and we share stuff together on Google Reader.

So, from what I'm gathering here. Peter is in the lead, Joe is in second and I'm in third? Sweet!

When I was younger and my oldest son was about three years old, I went back to school to study for the ministry. My greek professor told us stories about his family as he taught us. He gave us ideas of how to make the Old Testament come alive to our children in a practical way.

At some bedtimes my son and I would play out the story of God calling Samuel from 1 Samuel 3. My son would go into his bedroom and get in bed. I would lay on the couch and call out his name. He would come running down the hall to the living room and say, "here I am, you called me?" I would tell him, "I didn't call you, go back to bed." Then I would call his name out again. He would come running down the hall and say the same thing.

The third time, I called out his name and he came running down the hall to me, and asked me if I called him. I told him that I did not call him but that the next time he heard his name called out, he shoud say, "speak Lord, for Your servent listens!"
He went back to his bedroom and I called out, Zachary, Zachary! My three year old answered, "Speak Lord, for your servent listens!" I went in prayed with him and told him that we needed to be ready to listen to the Lord and obey Him all the time.

Over the years I have continued to encourage him to listen to the Lord. I also played that game with my youngest son. I look forward to playing the game with my grandchildren too!

I attended a small Southern Baptist Church in SE Tennessee with my family, while growing up. The church was very, shall we say, acoustically alive! Wood everywhere, rubber runners down the aisles, and wooden pews with no cushions! We would have the Lord's Supper once a quarter on Sunday nights. Of course, it was always hushed quiet during the passing of the pieces of bread, and little grape juice cups, the organ softly playing in the background. This particular night, my mom had given my little brother a pencil and paper to draw on. He dropped the pencil, and when he bent over to pick it up, he let the loudest, bubbly poot that reverberated up that wooden pew! I was amazed and impressed, my parents were red! Every eye in the church was on us! I can only imagine all the other little boys his age were impressed too!

I have a short one. We've never played up Santa Claus at our house, and when our oldest was younger, we barely talked about him at all. So when she was four, I think, we were in HomeGoods and I saw a five foot Santa on the floor.

"Hey, look. Who's that?" I asked.

"Moses," she suggested casually, like she didn't care for another Sunday School question at the time.

Now, for the readers at home, it was not Moses because he didn't have horns on his head.

Okay, contest's over!

Here are the winners:

Runners up and winners of a free copy of Godology are:

SV -- Because I couldn't get the image of dead body dust floating around out of my head. I s'pose something about it appealed to whatever it is about me that prompts my zombie fixation. And zombies are cool.

Junia -- Because I remember too well "demon stories" when I was a church kid and getting freaked the heck out telling them to each other.

And first place, winner of Godology and Your Jesus is Too Safe:

Peter Mular -- Because piranhas in the baptistry is so stinkin' awesome.

Thanks, all, for playing. I'll do some more giveaways in the coming weeks for Your Jesus is Too Safe.

Winners, please email your preferred shipping address to jaredcwilson AT yahoo DOT com.

If you do it by this afternoon, I can probably get your stuff out today. Otherwise, I'm going out of town tomorrow morning and probably won't be able to ship it until midweek next week.

OK, the original 3 winners are AWOL and I've given plenty of time to contact me. So I'm picking new winners, as follows:

Grand Prize of "Godology" and "Your Jesus is Too Safe":
Darin - Because his engagement with the JW's was hardcore enough to get them to try to throw demons out of him.

Winners of a copy of "Godology":
Clinton - Because someone got injured in his story.

Joe - Because he and his friends wrote a song that included both Oprah and Calvinism (somehow). (Also, I think he won't stop bugging me until he wins something. He's like the persistent widow in Jesus' parable.)

WINNERS, PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR PREFERRED SHIPPING ADDRESS AT jaredcwilson AT yahoo DOT com