Top 10 Zombie Apocalypse Survival Activities

Posted on: 10/15/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

The Walking Dead premiere broke all the records Sunday night, with 16.1 million total viewers, 10.4 million of those in the 18-49 demographic. That makes “Dead” the most-watched show in the demo on any channel, broadcast or cable, this fall, and that includes sports. No NFL game has drawn more viewers in that key age bracket this entire season.

Survival stories like this always stimulate creative conversations (that’s why I use the genre to provoke discussions with teenagers). What would you do if your water supply were shut off tomorrow? What if the grocery store shelves were empty? Where would you try to hole up and survive? Continue reading “Top 10 Zombie Apocalypse Survival Activities”

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Opening the Doors of Dialogue… with an Unusual Tool

Posted on: 09/25/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

A month ago my friends Adam, Marko and I launched an intriguing project with no clue as to how people would respond. I wrote an atypical little discussion-starting tool, in the guise of a fiction book titled, The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers. It released about 30 days ago now, and I’m truly amazed at the variety of ways people have been using the fictional premise within those pages to get kids talking about real life issues.

The shocker… I haven’t heard one complaint yet! (Even all of the reviews on Amazon are off the charts. Usually a few stink bombs are dropped.) Instead, we’re getting bulk orders from churches. The D6 Conventions and YS Conventions are even stocking the books in their stores.

My favorite part of this is hearing feedback from the front lines. Here’s just Continue reading “Opening the Doors of Dialogue… with an Unusual Tool”

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Boring Them to Death

Posted on: 09/19/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

“Long boring sermons just don’t work.”

It was the one common denominator on almost everyone’s paper. I just spent two weeks speaking to young people and training youth workers in Uganda… and their kids are just like ours.

The training workshops were particularly revealing. We started each session breaking up into groups, brainstorming ideas on a large piece of paper, listing ministry practices that were working… and also models that, sadly, weren’t working. Then we discussed each item in detail, speculating why, and learning from each others’ successes and failures.

Despite our many differences, I was amazed at the similarity between Uganda and American Continue reading “Boring Them to Death”

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5 Steps to Connect with Teens

Posted on: 09/11/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Youth Specialties recently released a 7 minute YouTube video with my 5 Steps for Connecting with Teenagers training as a part of their resourceful little YS Idea Lab videos.

This is the perfect little training video to show to your youth ministry team or other adult mentors who want to connect with teenagers:

As you watch this, I am teaching this to youth workers in Uganda. Please pray for my last few days here.

This teaching comes form my book Connect: Real Relationships in a World of Isolation. CLICK HERE if you’re interested in bringing me to come speak or train in your area.

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Video Interview

Posted on: 08/26/13 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Last week I did a few interviews about parenting, youth ministry and springboarding conversations with young people today.

Paul Turner posted his Google+ video interview up on YouTube already; some of you might find it fun to eavesdrop into our conversation about my new piece of fiction I wrote to start conversations with teenagers.

ALL OF JONATHAN’S BOOKS
ON SALE NOW

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Skeptical about Zombies

Posted on: 08/19/13 3:30 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Not a lot of people know exactly how many hurdles I encountered trying to publish a Christian book for teenagers with the word “zombie” in the title. I won’t name publishers, but I had several tell me verbatim, “Sorry, we can’t publish anything with the word zombie in the title.”

My Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers was officially released last Thursday, and by its release date we were already blessed with piles of pre-orders and even 18 reviews from youth workers and parents who gave it a try on Amazon. Many have approached the book with skepticism, but so far, anyone who has actually given it a gander (we provide the first four chapters as a free download here) has responded positively to its forthright approach using a fictional premise to provoke conversations with teenagers about real issues teens are facing today.

I ‘m humbled with the positive response. I’ve actually Continue reading “Skeptical about Zombies”

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Meme Contest

Posted on: 08/13/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

For any of you who have teenagers or work with teenagers, you know what a “meme” is. Those crazy little pictures with a funny caption that teenagers pass along to each other (often from iFunny, reddit, or even Google images).

That’s why we’re giving away a bunch of prizes (including a $100 gift card to Starbucks, Best Buy or Amazon) to the best zombie-themed meme, in celebration of my brand new book, The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers, releasing this week!

THE CONTEST IS SIMPLE Continue reading “Meme Contest”

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Students We Call “Orphans”

Posted on: 06/19/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I always enjoy hearing from youth workers who used the free “Connect” training we provide on the FREE TRAINING TOOLS page on our website. Also referred to as “The Sticky-notes Training,” this little exercise is a fun training where you hand each of your leaders a stack of sticky-notes, encourage them to write down the kids they know and then stick them up on a wall on my “Six Types of Kids” graph (a process I outline in my Connect book, and provide a free ppt and video demonstrating it on our website).

A youth worker named Dave just tried the “sticky-notes” exercise with his team and discovered a group of kids they called youth ministry “orphans.”

Dave writes:

I bought your book Connect a few years ago when it first came out and used the accompanying powerpoint training with my staff and interns back in 2010. It was very effective stuff. As you know it is so easy to get caught up in the “doing” part and underemphasize the relational part of stumin, and that’s where we found ourselves Continue reading “Students We Call “Orphans””

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shortest post ever

Posted on: 05/22/13 3:01 AM | by Jonathan McKee

On layover flight in LA… tired. Jet lagged.

Looking at my speaking schedule… really excited about teaching at all three STUDENT LEADERSHIP CONFERENCES with Doug Fields this Summer (Dallas, SoCal, and Philly)… check it out: http://slc2013.com/

Also excited about our new book for parents that just released: SHOULD I JUST SMASH MY KID’S PHONE?

Starting to book a ton of workshops already for this fall. See here: http://www.thesource4ym.com/speakers/default.aspx (still updating a few dates)

Must sleep… ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

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