Books Archives - Page 14 of 19 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

The Wrong Speaker

Posted on: 02/23/12 8:04 PM | by Jonathan McKee

A few days ago we had a little contest where I provided you with my Top-10 list of How You Know You’ve Hired the Wrong Camp Speaker. Except, I only provided you with the top 9, and offered the new Skit Guys book for the best #1 answer. We received over 70 comments/entries… and my team has done the difficult task of choosing a winner.

I told each of my team members (David, Todd, Lori… the whole gang) to choose their 5 favorites. I then compared the lists.

Interestingly enough, people’s taste really differed drastically. But the final decision was easy, because only one answer made every single person’s list, and that was Joe Dore’s entry. So Joe… congrats! (email me with your address info so I can mail you your prize) You are the winner with this #1 answer:

Upon arrival he asks if there is time in the daily schedule to sign autographs for the little people.

There were some other great answers that made us laugh and appeared on a few of our lists of favs; these honorable mentions were:

Jon Forrest:
He proudly proclaims “this week we will cover all 3 commandments.”

Jesse:
He opens and closes his message using Klingon.

Brad Brimmer:
He asks you where his product table is so he can sell his “anointed” sweat rags.

Jack Hager:
He gives you a 2/12 page press release and tells you, “for clarity’s sake” to read it word for word as you introduce him.
(Good one Jack. I hate it when speakers do this)

Joe H:
He asks if any of the 18-year-old girls are available

Chico:
He keeps telling you that you REALLY need to let HIM make the Kool-Aid that will be used at the end of the message.
(Good one- my 14-year-old Ashley even knew the history behind this one)

It was also interesting to hear all the true stories from people… experiences that people have actually had with camp speakers. Here’s a few of those scary experiences:

He didn’t show up.

He preached on the budget shortfall of the camp and gave an offering.

The video clip he gave you to show during his talk turns out to be porn. You confront him and he says, oops wrong thumb drive. That one was for research on my porn talk.

The speaker starts out his message on the topic of jewish marriage rituals and the bloody sheet (this actually happened at a winter retreat).

Thanks for participating. I’ve got a stack of books on my desk we’ll be giving away soon. So stay tune for more contests and giveaways!

Posted in Books, Humor, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

Every Couple Should Know

Posted on: 02/14/12 11:44 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Kiss while stuck in traffic

Eat cookie dough in bed once a year

…both great ideas! (Mental note: try both with Lori today!)

These ideas are from the mind of Doug Fields. In the last year I’ve been getting to know Doug better and it’s been great getting to put a face to the “legend.” Lets face it… for those of us who have been in youth ministry for a while, Doug has been one of the trusted voices we could depend on.

Doug has started providing a lot more marriage and parenting resources in the last few years in cooperation with Jim Burns and their ministry at HomeWord.com; they even have an amazing marriage seminar coming up in California this weekend.

Here’s a fun little piece from Doug’s book, 365 Things Every Couple Should Know (ht to Mikey’s Funnies for posting this). After my blogs on marriage last week, I’m happy to pass on these fun tips that every couple should know.

EVERY COUPLE SHOULD KNOW…
By Doug Fields

…to not yell at one another unless the house is on fire
…it is easier to complain after a fault than forgive one
…the importance of having a “Do Not Disturb” sign
…the correct answer to “Do you love me?” is not, “I married you, didn’t I?”
…to have a regular date night
…the silent treatment was invented by a kindergartner
…to slow dance in your underwear…in private
…to kiss when stuck in traffic
…they need a weekend retreat at least twice a year
…to buy your spouse crazy underwear every year
…a man’s sex drive is similar to a drum solo
…a woman’s sex drive is similar to a finely tuned orchestra
…how to make your spouse laugh
…the game of Scrabble has been known to ignite major arguments
…major house projects may need to be followed by minor marital counseling
…when to break the diet restrictions and pig out
…sex begins in the morning by the way you talk to and treat one another
…to read Song of Solomon together
…to schedule your mid-life crisis
…the joy of making up after a lover’s quarrel
…it is fun to be spontaneous: tickle, dance, or join your spouse in the shower
…voice tone says it all
…to find humor in negative situations
…to eat cookie dough in bed at least once a year
…genuine love is valuing a spouse as God does

Posted in Books, Humor, Marriage | | Leave A Comment

Topography of Faith

Posted on: 01/26/12 5:29 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The subject of evangelism has been on my mind a lot this week and I’ve been playing with a lot of fun resources… you’ll like this one. It’s an interactive map.

You see, I’m always curious when I see studies about religious affiliation– what people believe, where they go to church, etc. Of course, what people say and do are sometimes two different things. When I worked with unchurched kids on a junior high and high school campus, I interacted daily with kids who had only been to church maybe once or twice in their entire lives. Funny… if you asked these kids about church, most said, “Oh, I go to that white church down the street.” They saw that church as “their church” because they’d been their once, or their grandma went there. Religion was more of a “heritage” to most of these teenagers.

I wrote quite a bit about this mindset in my book about reaching out to unchurched kids, DO THEY RUN WHEN THEY SEE YOU COMING? I’ve been looking at that book quite a bit lately because YS/Zondervan has an edit crew putting the final touches on my evangelism training DVD curriculum for students based off that book, titled, REAL CONVERSATIONS: Sharing Your Faith Without Being Pushy.

So this week I’ve been looking through a bunch of cool evangelism resources and studies about the attitudes and belief systems of Americans today. including this cool little interactive map of the U.S. that reveals the “faith breakdown”of each state. This map is based off of Pew‘s most recent study (2008). It’s still pretty accurate, although I’m guessing that next time we’ll see that the “unaffiliated” group has been growing. (Is it just me, or have you noticed more and more “Co-exist” bumper stickers? I guess Christianity is just way too “narrow.”)

CLICK HERE FOR THIS INTERACTIVE MAP

Posted in Books, Evangelism, Faith, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

10 Winners Who Connected

Posted on: 01/2/12 4:34 PM | by Jonathan McKee

What better way to start the New Year than to give some stuff away! So that’s what I’m doing. I’m rewarding the people who connect with us.

As most of you remember, on December 19^th I offered prizes to ten of you through a little contest announced in this blog. I offered one of 5 new Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital copies of the new movie Dolphin Tale (Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd), or one of 5 copies of my book, Do They Run When They See You Coming.

The task was simple: LIKE our youth ministry Facebook page, or connect with us by receiving our free EZINE, my blog, or my Twitter (all easily done through this new “Connect with Us” page), or make a comment on our year-end Youth Culture Window article about the year’s top music.

Hundreds LIKED, CONNECTED and COMMENTED… and here are the 10 winners:

Ben Riddle

Aaron Verigan

Blairlee Owens

Eric Groezinger

Stephen Page

Corey Roskamp

Scott Ritter

Bob McMichael

Benjamin Spears

Charles Wallis

If you didn’t win… don’t worry. I offer plenty of fun deals and prizes through my blog, my Twitter, our Facebook, our EZINE… that’s why it’s good to connect with us in as many places as possible via our new “Connect with Us” page!

Posted in Books, Movies, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

Now is the Time

Posted on: 09/28/11 9:48 AM | by Jonathan McKee

A couple times a year I like to offer some ridiculous deals on my books. Now is that time.

I like to offer deals that cater to current needs. It’s funny to observe how different resources are used during different times of the year. For example… right now I’m seeing a bunch of youth pastors ordering my Connect book in bulk for each of their leaders (especially since I provide a free ppt and a free training video that go along with the book so they can use it as a training tool to equip their leaders to connect with teenagers). I’m also seeing a lot of parents buying my Candid Confessions book in bulk for their small groups or “care groups” (probably because each chapter provides small group questions at the end so “cell groups” can discuss what they read at a weekly gathering).

So it seems that now is the time to stock up on these bulk items. So here’s what I’m gonna do:

I already offer the lowest prices on my books on the net. 30% to 40% off all my books when you buy them on my site.

You already can save even more money when you buy my books as package deals (we offer six packs of each book on my site and a “youth workers 7-pack,” a collection of all of my books, saving you a ton).

THE ICING ON THE CAKE- right now, I’ll throw in a 7th book with every 6-pack ordered. Just select any of my “6-packs” on our book order page. So if you order 6 of my Connect books… I’ll throw in a 7th for free. If you order 12 of my 10-Minute Talks books (retailed at $24.99 each, they are less than $15 each in my 6-pack)… I’ll throw in two more 10-Minute Talks.

No special code, nothing extra required. We are just throwing in a 7th book with every 6-pack! It’s that simple.

Jump on it. Now is the time to get these books in bulk!

CLICK HERE FOR THESE PACKAGE DEALS

Posted in Books | | Leave A Comment

Conversation Starter WINNERS

Posted on: 09/22/11 9:46 PM | by Jonathan McKee

This week we had a resourceful little contest that truly made us all winners, because not only am I giving away cool prizes to 10 different people, but all of us now get the benefit of a page full of great ideas for conversation starters! Check them all out. Really good stuff. Thank you all for participating (over 100 comments).

I’m tired (a week at jury duty- finished today, sentencing a young man to prison. So sad. I’m truly emotionally drained), so I won’t delay. Let’s get right to the winners.

I had my team at THE SOURCE look at all 100+ comments and each send me their favorites. It’s funny how many of us chose the exact same ones. In all honesty, 8 out of 10 of these winners were chosen by at least three people alike on our team (all youth workers and parents who regularly are conversating with kids).

Here’s the winners, some comments by me, followed by some instructions for each winner to claim their prizes.

WINNERS

To start us off, I have to go straight to Kerri S who asked (count em’) four amazingly insightful questions. We could really give her four prizes… but that would be lame for everyone else. So we’ll just give her one and give nine other people prizes! 🙂

One of her questions was literally picked by my entire team. That was:

If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing before you started high school, what would it be?

Awesome question Kerri. Myself and my team also loved her other three questions:

If you could change one thing about your high school, what would it be

What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about teenagers?

Complete the statement- My life would be better if…

The rest of the winners:

Jeremy Smith asked a great question, chosen by most of my team: Is there anything you would willingly give your life for?

Chelsea asked: You have to eat the exact same meal for the next 12 months. What do you pick?

Mike asked: What’s the best birthday present you could ever imagine receiving, and who would you want to receive it from?

Michelle asked: If you could know the date of your death, would you want to?

There were several questions that talked about do-overs (if you could change one thing this week, today, this year, in your life…). Matt Pilla was the first to ask it, so we’re giving him the prize. He asked: If you could go back and change one thing about this week, what would it be?

Jason England asked: You’ve just sat down to use the restroom when you notice there is no toilet paper. What do you use and why? Gross, but hilarious.

Carl Eliason asked: If you were stuck in an elevator for 24 hours with one person, who would you like that person to be? Great question. Much like the desert island scenario.

Beaty Bass asked a million questions… and what do you know, one of them was chosen by several of my team: What was the last thing you cried about? Great question (My wife loved that one. She said it would have been a great one for her small group of girls). Your perseverance was worth it Beaty!!!

And finally, Kevin Hand asked an oldy but goody that still works really well with young people: If you were stranded on a desert island and you could take 3 items, what items would you take and why?

Okay… for the 10 winners… here’s how you claim your prize. Follow instructions carefully:

1. Use the CONTACT US button at the top of this blog to email me.

2. Give me your full name, the same email address you entered when you entered your comment, and the question you asked (so I can identify you).

3. Tell me the NAME and full ADDRESS where you want your prize mailed to (we’ll send it via USPS).

4. Tell me which prize you prefer, the BluRay or the book (and which book, Connect, or Candid Confessions…) The first to email will get the prize they request…first come, first serve.

That’s it! Thanks again for participating!

Posted in Books, Movies, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

Conversation Starters

Posted on: 09/19/11 4:29 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay, time to give away some cool stuff. Everybody’s gonna win with this one, because we’re gonna give away some great conversation starter ideas, AND we’ll make it a contest where I’ll give away 5 of my books, and 5 of the new Disney 70th Anniversary Edition of Dumbo (the BluRay DVD combo pack).

Whether you’re a parent or a youth worker, you probably always have an ear out for good conversation starters. Picture this. You’re a mom and the family has just sat down for a family meal and you’d love to get your kids talking (instead of fighting). Maybe you propose this, “Let’s go around the table and each share our high and our low today.” Or maybe you ask, “Okay, everyone share your favorite meal if you could choose any one meal I make!”

Youth workers could use the same type of questions to kick off a small group or a Bible study. “If you could order any pizza, where would you order it from and with what toppings?”

So here’s the contest. Use the comment feature of this blog and share your best discussion provoking question that gets teenagers talking. Something like those above– something that you’ve had success with. Like: If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go and who would you bring? (You can gain quite a glimpse into a kid’s world with that question, finding out a little about their likes and who their best friends and/or significant other is.)

HOW TO ENTER: Simple. Just use the comment feature in this blog this week and tell me your name, whether you’re a parent or youth worker, and then give me your best question. I’ll choose 10 winners late Thursday night, announcing them Friday morning in my blog.

PRIZES: I’ll choose 10 winners. Winners will either get the Dumbo BlueRay DVD combo pack (in stores Sept 20th. I already got mine), or get a choice of one of my two books that help adults connect with teenagers (Connect or Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent).

Posted in Books, Movies, Parenting, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

Shooting “Real Conversations”

Posted on: 08/26/11 3:30 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Wednesday I flew to Grand Rapids to film my new DVD sharing-your-faith curriculum with Zondervan, the one that I’ve been telling you about now titled, “Real Conversations.” We shot all day yesterday and all day today… just finished. I’m wiped out!

To be honest… it was a blast! The crew that shot it was made up with some of the same guys that have shot some of Rob Bell’s videos and Max Lucado’s material. They really knew their stuff and had a “collaborative” attitude. If you read behind the lines there, that means that they put up with my constant, “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we tried this!!!”

Let me paint you a picture. For this one shot we were in this amazing old warehouse near downtown Grand Rapids. This place was so cool looking… it had all these broken windows and the paint was peeling off the columns. We shot on the 4th floor up these precarious stairs. It had this open abandoned feel. Well… I saw a wheelchair and thought, “What if shoot a shot that comes in through the broken window from the outside (first floor), then cheat a dissolve to a jimmy-rig dolly shot (the wheelchair) of the camera approaching me when I deliver my first line?” The guys just looked at me like, “Are you kidding me?”

10 minutes later one guy is pushing another guy in the wheelchair towards me! These guys were real troopers!

Another fun moment was filming a little scene I wrote between two girls where one girl was attempting to verbalize her faith to her friend. The young actresses we got were amazing. As you can imagine, it was a interesting challenge trying to accurately represent what two girls actually talk like. First, I had to use realistic language, but not bad language. That itself was a challenge. Then I had to balance what we wanted to teach, with what a teenager would really be able to articulate. We gave the girls some freedom to say the lines they way they would say them, tweaking a word or two at times. We shot it from three different angles with a bunch of cutaways… I was really pleased with what we got “in the can.” These girls had their lines memorized and were ready, so it gave us freedom to say, “try this” or “say it like this.” They were awesome. I’m really happy with the way it turned out.

All that to say, I think I’m going to try to fall into a coma now until the alarm goes off and I have to fly to my next location tomorrow (Mississippi where I’m teaching a parenting workshop on Sunday.)

I can’t wait until this curriculum is released. (Still don’t know the date. Probably quite a while.)

Posted in Books, Evangelism, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

iTunes Reading

Posted on: 08/13/11 12:31 PM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s funny how many requests I received in the last year for my books in e-format. More and more people are reading ebooks on their iPads, nooks, kindle, etc. (My mom and dad just bought a nook for their trip to Greece)

My parenting book, Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent, just (finally) hit iTunes in their iBookstore! I’m excited because a lot of people have requested it in that format.

Now I have 5 of my books in their bookstore!

For those of you who still like good old fashioned physical books (like me), just jump on our website’s RECOMMENDED BOOKS page, we have 8 of my books available there.

Posted in Books, Entertainment Media, Parenting | | Leave A Comment

Sharing Your Faith Without Being Pushy

Posted on: 08/10/11 4:18 PM | by Jonathan McKee

My daughters announced to me last week that they were going to downtown Sacramento on Saturday morning with some of their friends to give homeless people coffee and donuts. This wasn’t an official youth group activity; this was just a bunch of kids wanting to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I asked them, “Are you just feeding them, or are you going to talk with them too?”

This always brings up an interesting response- actually, a polarized response. People, in my opinion are usually ready to do too much or too little. They are either planning on saying nothing, or pelting them with tracts and unsolicited Gospel presentations.

Again… a difficult balance to find.

Where’s the answer?

I’m pondering this a little more than usually at the moment, because the last few days I’ve been adding the finishing touches on the participants’ guide to the new Zondervan/Youth Specialties DVD curriculum I’m writing, teaching young people how to share their faith without scaring their friends away.

The curriculum is almost to the production stage. I asked your input on titles a while back, and this week the publisher made the final choice (UPDATE TO THIS BLOG- they changed the title AGAIN! So this now reflects the new title).

REAL CONVERSATIONS

Then they’re gonna add the subtitle: Sharing Your Faith Without Being Pushy

(Don’t ask me when the curriculum will be released. I really don’t know. We’re shooting the video in two weeks.)

It’s been a fun process writing this content and trying to find the difference between spirit-led boldness and plain ol’ pushiness. Personally, I tend to be a little less confrontational one-on-one. Knowing that, I sent a copy of this DVD script to my buddy Greg Stier (who I respect greatly) over at Dare 2 Share Ministries (very bold!) and had him take a look at it. He liked it, but encouraged me to make a few tweaks. I agreed on every instance.

Evangelism is one of those bizarre things that so many people do so differently. We’ve all seen the extreme examples: people holding signs that read REPENT THE END IS NEAR, people standing on street corners yelling into bullhorns, people handing out deceptive tracts (a fake $20 bill with a message on the back, “Don’t worry, this is much more valuable than gold or silver…”)

We’ve also seen the polar opposite: sitting and doing nothing, or just feeding people with our lips sealed tightly, except to mutter a questionably accurate quote from St. Francis of Assisi.

Where’s the balance between pushiness and silence?

My wife Lori had a great experience during Easter break earlier this year. She went with our church youth group to the “Tenderloin” in San Francisco to serve with a local rescue mission. This district full of “single room occupancy” residences (dare I say “slums”) has a reputation of drugs, alcohol, and prostitution.

Lori and a bunch of junior higher students went door to door in some of these single room occupancy locations doing “meal delivery.” The concept was simple. They knocked and said, “Meal delivery.” When someone answered the door (usually high, sometimes naked), Lori and the kids would greet the person, shake their hand (these people weren’t used to being touched), then hold out the meal and say, “We have a free meal for you from the local rescue mission.” The people weren’t required to hear a sermon or listen to a pitch—it was just a warm greeting and a free meal, no strings attached.

Most often people were eager to get the free meal and many said thanks. One of the rescue mission workers that Lori was really impressed with—a 18 or 19-year-old kid named Vince—would usually reach out his hand at this point and place it on the shoulder of the person they were visiting and sincerely ask, “Do you have something you’d like me to pray for?”

Lori said that about 80% of the people would share a prayer request. Vince would always say, “Well let me pray for you right now.” And would pray with them in the doorway.

Many of these conversations led to talking about Jesus and his message of love and grace.

Some didn’t.

Funny, I don’t find it necessary to be pushy with the Gospel message… but I don’t find it Biblical to be silent.

Hmmmmm. That balance again!

Posted in Books, Evangelism, Faith, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment