i’m not a walmart hater. i have many friends who are, but i’m not. at all. in fact, i think walmart is actually good for communities. there’s certainly some negatives that come with its presence, but ultimately, i think offering products at lower prices is good for lower income families.

i say that simply to establish that i’m not the type who looks for reasons to bash walmart.

but yesterday, as i entered a local walmart, i was greeted with a large sign that hung above the entrance. here’s the sign:

why am i blogging about penn jillette? moreover than that, why am i blogging about penn jillette again?

i pastor a church primarily comprised of 20- and 30-somethings. amongst that group, a relatively large percentage have come back to the church after a period of time away. generally speaking, like many, at some time after high school, they drifted away (or just made a decision to leave) and had a difficult time reconnecting. hearing their stories of why they left and why they’ve returned is always fascinating to me.

certainly, the people at our church aren’t an exception. barna group president david kinnaman, in his new book you lost me: why young christians are leaving church and rethinking church, presents his findings of an extensive research project that included interviews with teenagers, young adults, parents and pastors. kinnaman focused on 20-somethings who were regular churchgoers during their teenage years but disconnected at some point after the age of 15.

every now and then, it’s a good practice to point the finger at myself and my fellow christians. the truth is that we often believe we’ve monopolized, well, the truth. but to quote rob bell, truth is everywhere, under every nook and cranny. and i think he’s onto something.

trivia time.

what’s the most common phrase in the bible?

[insert annoying jeopardy music]

[sorry, there's no prize except the pride of winning…]

[well, we could probably arrange for an awkward side hug…]

[stringing this out way too long…]

people are often surprised to learn that “fear not” (or “do not fear” or some other iteration) is, in fact, the most common phrase in the bible. with nearly 400 uses, it appears far more than any other phrase throughout scripture.

the question, naturally, is why that is so common.

so, um, yeah. the whole rob bell thing.

you know the whole rob bell thing, right? i’m way too over it to type out a lengthy explanation, so if you don’t know about it, you can read a relatively brief overview here. over the last couple weeks, i’ve literally written two separate blog posts about it that i ultimately decided not to publish because i was sorta sick and tired of the whole thing (the first one was a doozy, titled when calvinists attack: the social media crucifixion of rob bell…yeah, that would’ve been fun…).