I only make one announcement a the beginning of the podcast and that is about my new book The Youth Ministry Playbook available as a physical book, a pdf or a bundle of five. That’s it, onward.
Well, it only took 89 episodes but I finally get to use the word farts when talking about youth ministry. I mean, farts are almost synonymous with youth ministry, aren’t they? They come up at camp, in meetings, on var rides and in the Bible. What? Do farts really appear in the Bible?
Well, we know that that pee appears in the bible
So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. I Samuel 25:22 KJV
So does poop,
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, Philippians 3:8
It’s safe to say farts appear in the Bible too, even if there isn’t a specific scripture to go along with it. But, if you do not believe farts are in the Bible, do not tell my friend Steve Case, because he wrote a whole book about it called Great Moments In Biblical Flatulence. I interviewed Steve about the book and why he wrote this and other books with inappropriate humor.
Why don’t church people see faith as funny, sometimes?
One of the biggest oxymorons in the church is listening to them sing Joy To The World. I think there is a tendency to believe, in the church, suffering is its own reward.
Every youth pastor has heard some variation of “Quit laughing, you’re in church!” Why do I have to be sad when I’m in church? I don’t understand the lack of joy and laughter when God is the author of joy and laughter.
“The joy of the Lord is my strength” I mean there’s dozens of verses that tell us to be joyful.
This is not your first book about inappropriate humor, where did the idea for this series of books come from and why inappropriate?
You can’t tell me that Jesus and twelve guys roamed around the desert for three year and and never once did a farting contest break out. It may have sound like,
“Bartholomew, did you fart before the Lord?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was His turn”
I think inappropriate humor is necessary, especially now, because we are being suffocated by seriousness. Some people where their faith like a t-shirt that’s too tight and some like bunny slippers. You need that release in order to continue existing. Especially youth pastors who work with a crowd that no one else wants to deal with.
They are the scary one who sit in the corner and make noises, pass notes and say things like “Sucks!”
These books are essentially books of memes. I was doing a lesson with our youth and there was this artist, Gustov Dore’ who had these beautiful, wood carved stye drawings and many of them were gory as all get out and I thought, “these would be perfect for making memes”.
So, I took these serious pieces of art and decided they would be a great canvas for humor. I used them in The Funniest Guy In The Room where Jesus is telling dad jokes and Scott & Jesus: Lost Comedy Duo of the Scriptures.
What’s the difference between parody, satire and sacrilege and when is it ok to laugh?
Everyone has their own line. You can watch Bugs Bunny do Barber of Seville and the is a parody. You can watch Monty Python which is satire. IN their movie The Life of Brian, Brian is mistaken for a messianic figure and there is one scene where he is telling a crowd of people…
The point of, good, satire is that there is a message around it.
Sacrilege is subjective. What is sacrilege to one, is not to another. But when that line is crossed, to them it is sacrilegious.
There are those who say “Jesus did not do this” or “Jesus did not do that” but there is a quote attributed to Erma Bomback where someone said, “Jesus did not laugh because the scripture does not say he laughed”
Erma responded, “The scripture did not say that Jesus peed his pants, but if he was ever two years old, you can bet he did.”
Jesus was God and man. He got dirty, his beard needed trimming. He was one of us.
A friend of mine ran a pre-school and she had a plush Jesus toy the kids could play with and she got push back from parents. The parents issue was that Jesus was not a play thing. My friend said, “Would you rather have a Jesus they can hug and hold and tell their secrets to or a Jesus who sits on a shelf looking down in judgement and is breakable?”
Putting Jesus up high up on a shelf will not make Jesus more relatable to teenagers.
Who is Larry? And why is always making trouble in your book?
Well, I first thought of Craig but settled for Larry. Larry seemed like the most unbiblical name I could come up with. Larry is that kid in the back of the youth van who is always making noises.
*At this point in the interview, Steve and I exchange our best gas passing experiences and then I play three fart noises and let Steve name them (because he has names for different kinds of farts in the book)
Who are these books for? And how much trouble will a youth worker get into for leaving them around the youth room?
Youth Pastors, junior high boys and most grown men who have that junior high boy in them. It’s for people to have a chuckle. Jesus did not come so we could be morose. He came that we might have joy and joy more abundantly.
How can people connect Steve Case and get more inappropriate humor?
You can find me on my website at www.stevecasespeak.net
You can e-mail me at steve.case.speaks@gmail.com
You can also visit my Amazon author page for more books.
If you enjoyed the podcast, I’d love if you headed over to iTunes to leave a few stars and a review. Thanks.
Oh, and I can’t resist, one more fart joke.