An Insane Sale and a Freebie…

Posted on: 03/2/11 5:30 PM | by Jonathan McKee

For some reason my blog never was sent out via FEEDBURNER to all my email subscribers this morning. Weird! It only went out via RSS feed. I’m plugging it again below so that my email readers don’t miss out:

A lot of buzz about my 10-Minute Talks book lately, so I thought I’d give you all an insane deal… including a freebie. More on that in a minute.

I actually heard a youth pastor give one of the talks from this book a few weeks ago– then printed out the small group questions from the free supplemental CD that comes with the book. As I saw the kids responding to the talks and the small group questions, I remember thinking, “This is cool! I wonder how much venders are actually selling this book for?” (yeah, I think these things!)  But seriously, it’s funny looking at the variety of prices that people sell your books for around the web.

Right now BORDERS is selling it for retail which is $24.99, YS is selling it for $21.24, Amazon has it for $18.24. So I had my web guy go in and drop it down to almost 40% off. We’re selling it for just $15.99… that includes the supplemental CD that has all the transcripts of the talks and a complete small group curriculum– small questions and scripture that go with each talk (I include a link to sample talk with the small group questions from the book and CD on this page).

But what the heck… I’ll even throw in another bonus. The first 10 of you– my blog readers– to order the book today… no… I’ll do better than that. I’ll do it for ALL of you just this week. For EVERY person that orders the book this week and puts MR. or MRS. or MS. in front of their name (when you fill out your mailing address), I’ll throw in a free copy of my book, THE TOP 12 RESOURCES THAT YOUTH WORKERS WANT. I’ll do that all week with the order of any of my books, for those that follow directions.  🙂

Buy it from us RIGHT HERE.

The First Ten of You…

Posted on: 03/1/11 1:23 PM | by Jonathan McKee

A lot of buzz about my 10-Minute Talks book lately, so I thought I’d give you all an insane deal… including a freebie. More on that in a minute.

I actually heard a youth pastor give one of the talks from this book a few weeks ago– then printed out the small group questions from the free supplemental CD that comes with the book. As I saw the kids responding to the talks and the small group questions, I remember thinking, “This is cool! I wonder how much venders are actually selling this book for?” (yeah, I think these things!)  But seriously, it’s funny looking at the variety of prices that people sell your books for around the web.

Right now BORDERS is selling it for retail which is $24.99, YS is selling it for $21.24, Amazon has it for $18.24. So I had my web guy go in and drop it down to almost 40% off. We’re selling it for just $15.99… that includes the supplemental CD that has all the transcripts of the talks and a complete small group curriculum– small questions and scripture that go with each talk (I include a link to sample talk with the small group questions from the book and CD on this page).

But what the heck… I’ll even throw in another bonus. The first 10 of you– my blog readers– to order the book today… no… I’ll do better than that. I’ll do it for ALL of you just this week. For EVERY person that orders the book this week and puts MR. or MRS. or MS. in front of their name (when you fill out your mailing address), I’ll throw in a free copy of my book, THE TOP 12 RESOURCES THAT YOUTH WORKERS WANT. I’ll do that all week with the order of any of my books, for those that follow directions.  🙂

Buy it from us RIGHT HERE.

A Quick Little Give-away

Posted on: 02/14/11 12:29 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I know you all love free stuff… so I’m going to go ahead and give you a chance to quickly win some free books and DVDs… in the next 24 hours! (How’s that for “quickly”?)

WINNERS ARE NOW POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

Tomorrow the movie “Waiting for Superman,” the award-winning documentary shedding light on our country’s failing public school system, releases on BluRay and DVD. I have 5 copies to give away. (I like what they’re doing with the promotion of this film. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each BluRay/DVD goes to benefit GetSchooled.com, an independent non-profit organization trying to improve high school graduation rates and college-going rates)

And what the heck… I’ll give 5 of my books away too. Any one of my seven books in print.

Winning is simple.

Just pop on our brand new TheSource4Parents.com and take a peek around the page. Then come back to this blog and simply post two things: a comment telling us what you think of TheSource4Parents.com, and where you live (just city and state is fine- I’ll get full addresses from winners).

Sample:

I’m Karen from Hershey, PA and I can’t wait to read some of these helpful articles posted in the PARENTING HELP section! They look awesome.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon I’ll pick 10 winners (5 books and 5 DVDS) from the people who commented.

Doesn’t get simpler than that!

WINNERS: I have emailed the following 10 winners of this contest. If you are listed and did not receive an email from me, please use the CONTACT US button at the top of my blog and drop me a note.

Vallerie from Espanola, NM
Henry from Douglas, GA
Yong from Chatsworth, CA
Shelly from Denison, IA
Kris from Elkton, KY
Dave from Cookeville, TN
Eric from Wheaton, IL
Evelyn from Auburn Hills, MI
Peggy from Lincoln, NE
Kelly from Hiawassee, GA

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Parent Seminars

Posted on: 02/8/11 3:45 PM | by Jonathan McKee

I just got to see a copy of the final edit of my upcoming book, Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent. Standard Publishing did a great job with it. It’s off to the printer now and will be on the racks March 31st.

I received some great endorsements from other authors and speakers in the field. Here’s what Dr. Kevin Leman said:

Jonathan—imperfect parent that he is—shows you how to truly connect with your kid. He brings research and experience and delivers with amazing storytelling and humor.
— Dr. Kevin Leman, author of Have a New Kid by Friday

I’ll share with you some more as the book gets closer.

The timing is good… I’m starting to do a lot more parenting workshops. This weekend I do one at a church in my area. I’ll be teaching for four hours. I’ll spend the first hour or so talking about today’s youth culture and what our kids are learning from the media, then I’ll spend the rest of the time talking about how parents can build relationships and teach lasting values. (Click here if you’re within driving distance of the Sacramento area and would like to attend).

Here’s the official blurb about the seminar:

This seminar encourages parents that they CAN make a difference in the lives of their kids, and equips them to do just that. Jonathan gives us a glimpse into the highly sexualized world of youth culture and exposes the media messages your kids are immersing themselves with. Learn how to filter these influences and teach our kids discernment. Discover how to build lasting values and glean a few ideas that will help you open the channels of communication in your house.

You can find more on our TheSource4Parents Workshop page.

 

Contest Winners

Posted on: 02/3/11 11:58 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s time to announce the winners to our little contest.

As most of you know, last week I offered up any one of my seven books currently in print to 10 different people who would simply jump on our new MUSIC and MOVIE CLIP discussion pages and just rate the resource and/or post a comment. Here’re all the details of the contest.

Pretty simple. Hundreds of comments and ratings posted… 10 winners. Here they are.

Jeri
J.D.
Marilyn
Connie
Rachael
Justin
Tim
Aaron
Rod
Michelle

I just sent these 10 people emails congratulating them.

For the rest of you… you’re winners too (now I sound like that teacher at school… you know the one)… because you can make great use of our free MOVIE CLIP DISCUSSIONS and MUSIC DISCUSSIONS. Please continue to post your comments and rate them one through five stars, helping make it an even better resource!

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A Little Movie/Music “Contest” for ya

Posted on: 01/27/11 11:02 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… I’m feeling like giving some books away.

I’m going to give away 10 of my books. 10 people will win a book of their choice… and winning is very simple. Here’s how to play.

We just totally revamped our new MOVIE CLIP DISCUSSIONS page and our MUSIC DISCUSSIONS page on our TheSource4YM.com site (I have to specify which site now that we have our parents site also). These pages are awesome! Now they are each organized by the song/movie (and the songs can also be organized by artist), topic of discussion, and rating. This is a great tool… because once people start going thru and rating these discussion resources, people will be able to organize them and select them by the “highest rated.” Pretty cool, huh?

So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to check out some of these resources- just give a few of them a solid read-thru. Each of them provides small group questions, transition statements, wrap ups, etc. (all you need, really). Read em, then post a comment and rate em! (choose 1 thru 5 stars).

For some of you, this will be easy. You can start by just rating/commenting on the MUSIC or MOVIE discussions you have already used with your group. Let us know how the discussion went. Rate them suitably. I just did this myself on the Movie Clip Discussions page. I organized the list by Title, selected the “Batman Begins” discussion (my absolute favorite), made a comment and rated it.

Each time you post a comment and rate one of these resources… I’ll put your name in the hopper for a free book. Yep. If you rate 15 of our resources… your name goes in there 15 times!

I’ll draw 10 winners.

I’ll run this contest for a week or so then post the winners in my blog. Winners can select any of my books. So rate/comment as many of those discussions as possible!

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Developing Spiritual Growth in Teenagers

Posted on: 12/13/10 3:30 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Last week my friend Tim Schmoyer (Most of you know him from his web site StudentMinistry.org) was visiting Sacramento and we connected for breakfast, chatting about discipleship, student leadership and the general direction youth ministry is heading. Good times!

Afterwards, he shot a quick little video with me for his website– a chance to chat just a bit about creating opportunities for students to serve in our ministry, and he gave a rather obnoxious plug for my brand new book, “Ministry by Students” … fun stuff.

Take a peek here.

It’s Finally Here!

Posted on: 12/7/10 10:55 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Many of you have been asking when my new book, MINISTRY BY STUDENTS will be available– the book about developing spiritual growth in teenagers, and building into student leaders… it’s been a long time coming.

It just came in today!

Grab it from us here on our website… no one else has it in stock yet (authors always get it first!)

Those of you who have read my CONNECT book saw the importance of not just reaching kids for Christ, but helping them grow spiritually. This new book will help us focus on those “right column” kids that we identified in CONNECT.

We packed the book with ideas, advice and resources for:
•    fostering discipleship
•    building student leadership teams
•    identifying student talent
•    helping students discover and use their spiritual gifts
•    creating service teams
•    equipping students to reach their friends

Plus, my good friend David R. Smith (who most of you recognize as the author of so many of our Youth Culture Window articles) partnered with me on this book. He brings a lot of wisdom and experience to the table. Fun stuff! I’m really excited about this book!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

Ministry BY Teenagers

Posted on: 11/10/10 12:32 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Have you ever considered what a youth ministry would look like if it eased back on it’s ministry TO teenagers, and focused more on ministry BY teenagers?

I just received the final proof of my brand new book, MINISTRY BY TEENAGERS, a book that will be in print and available on our site in the beginning of December.

I’m really excited about this one. In my book CONNECT I wrote about the balance needed in ministry between Outreach and Spiritual Growth. I think there’s a shortage of good resources out there that really help us develop Spiritual Growth in our students (those “right column” kids I talked about in CONNECT).

David and I combined our collective experience in youth ministry with this book to provide a practical and detailed guide for how to develop spiritual growth in teenagers.

The designer just sent me the back cover yesterday too. I like how it turned out:

Parenting Book Cover

Posted on: 10/29/10 7:37 AM | by Jonathan McKee

At the beginning of the month, a few hundred of you helped me (and my publisher) choose a cover for my upcoming parenting book. It’s time to show you those results, as well as the final cover!

We showed you four possible ideas, and asked for your comments. Even though a number of you favored the cover with the teenager on the front, the overwhelming majority of you liked the one with burnt toast and offered some great comments about color, design, etc. All good ideas, indeed.

We took those comments and the team has made some tweaks, finally coming up with a really good final cover. (And for those of you who really liked the other covers– no worries– I think you’ll still enjoy the content of the book!)  🙂

Many of you have asked… so here’s a peek at the final cover below, and a glimpse at the Table of Contents as it sits right now. The T.O.C. can still change a bit. I have six of these chapters written and am working steady on finishing the rest.

The will hit the shelves in spring, 2011. I’ll keep you all posted as I make progress on it, especially as we launch www.TheSource4Parents.com in the next few weeks.

Thank you all so much for your help!

FINAL COVER

Table of Contents
  
Introduction—I’ll Never Do That with My Kids
 
CHAPTER ONE:
Blemished—Life Lessons
 
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
 
Building Relationships
 
CHAPTER TWO:
Can I Even Make a Difference?—The Weight of Parental Influence
 
CHAPTER THREE:
Be There—Discovering Quality Time
 
CHAPTER FOUR:
Hot Tubs and Nail Salons—Arenas Where Communication is Cultivated
 
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
 
Teaching Values
 
CHAPTER FIVE:
Raising the Bar—Teaching Our Kids Lasting Values
 
CHAPTER SIX:
Dad, Can I Download this Song?—Applying Discernment in Day to Day Decisions
 
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Do It or…or Else I’ll…—Discipline and Follow Through
 
CHAPTER EIGHT:
I Want to Be Like You Dad and Mom—Imperfect Parents Inspiring by Example Regardless
 
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
 
Letting Go
 
CHAPTER NINE:
Before They’re Gone—Raising Up “Daniels”
 
CHAPTER TEN:
Am I Too Late?—Last Minute Efforts

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