Want to know a secret trick I do in meetings? (No, it’s not where I try to see how many glasses of water I can drink. I quit doing that years ago, but I promise I would still whup you in that game. Don’t make me come out of retirement.)

When I’m writing on a whiteboard, if I find myself stuck in the middle of a word I can’t spell, I just abbreviate the word wherever I am.

So for instance, let’s say I boldly start to scribble the word “maintenance” in dry erase marker but realize in the middle that I have never spelled that word correctly. As soon as I realize I’m stuck, I’ll just write “maint.” Or the name Isaiah, a name I’ve spelled correctly twice in my life, I’d just write “Isa.”

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One of the questions I’ve been getting is “Where can I walk into a store and buy your new book Quitter?” That’s a great question, perhaps second only to, “Where can I walk into a store and buy a case of your new book Quitter?”

I’m happy to announce that Family Christians Stores is now carrying Quitter. I’m really grateful that they decided to carry it.

Click here to find a location near you.

Or

Click here to order Quitter online from Family Christian Stores.

Sometimes, when I speak about social media at conferences, I talk about the Most Interesting Man in the World commercials. Dos Equis put them together, and they are hilarious. In them, a parade of over-the-top statements are thrown out about a bearded James Bond-type guy.

They say things like:

His words carry weight that would break a less interesting man’s jaw.
He bowls … overhand.
His blood smells like cologne.
Sharks have a week dedicated to him.
He never says anything tastes like chicken. Not even chicken.

On and on these statements go. And as funny as they are, that’s not what I talk about when I speak on social media. The sentence in the commercial I find so interesting is the one The Most Interesting Man in the World says. Here’s what he proclaims when he looks at the camera and ends the commercial:

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Hooray! 5 people won a copy of the Priscilla Shirer’s Seed video series. If your name is on the list after the jump, please email your mailing address (to this email) so that we can hook you up. If you click on the name you can see the actual comment that was left to verify that you’re the “Tori” who won for instance. The comment will appear at the top of the page you click through to. Thanks for participating!

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Depending on the size, denomination and stance on smoke machines of your church, this post might be a complete miss. The church I grew up in certainly didn’t have any videos during the service. Sure, we watched McGee and me in Sunday School sometimes, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about big screen productions shown during the middle of the church service. Now some of the more progressive churches are going to giggle at this post, pat it on the head, and tell it, “You’re adorable.”

They’ve already moved on to piping in specific scents for specific sermons, not kidding, and are developing hologram ushers, sort of kidding.

But whether you’ve seen a million videos in church or never experienced this phenomenon, allow me to school you on the three main types.
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In the last few weeks I’ve received a lot of emails and phone calls about being a writer. From how do you publish a book to how do you create new ideas for blogs, folks have asked some really good questions about writing.

In order to answer them, I’m holding a special Writer’s Q&A for attendees of the Quitter Conference. If you sign up for the conference before Tuesday, July 5th, you’ll get a VIP invitation to it. It will be from 4:30 – 5:30PM immediately following the conference. (If you’ve already registered for the conference, you’re already in.)

If you want to write a book, a blog or just really amazing post cards, I encourage you to sign up. I think it will be a fun chance for us to hang out after the conference and will give me an opportunity to share everything I’ve learned about writing over the last few years.

And if you’re thinking, “Oh, great, a writer’s Q&A, my dream job is to be a plumber,” fear not. If you sign up before July 5th we’ll give you a free Quitter notebook in which you can scribble plumbing schematics. (I am assuming there are schematics involved in plumbing.)

The coffee with Jon morning session filled up fast and is already closed. Don’t miss out on the Writer’s Q&A.

Click here to register for the conference.

Wait, what?

No. That can’t be true. Even typing those words should have caused little mini bolts of lighting to come down from heaven and strike my keyboard, rendering it useless. (Probably didn’t happen because I wrote this on a Mac, and that’s what God uses too.)

But girl, just like Milli Vanilli warned us all those years ago, you know it’s true. I wanted to say “boys and girls” in that sentence, but you see my dilemma. I had a Vanilli opportunity, and I never pass one of those up. Especially when I can use that lip synching, international dance troupe to prove a point that is indeed correct.

We tend to take church off in the summer.

I swear I don’t remember my dad ever dismissing anyone in his church at the end of the spring with a sermon called, “See you in the fall.” But sometimes I think that’s what we hear in our heads. The weather gets warmer. The days get brighter, and around Memorial Day, we pretend the pastor is giving us a pass for the next few months.

Why does this happen? I’m glad you asked:

4 reasons we take church off in the summer

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Dreaming is fun and fluffy and often leads nowhere.

The world is full of dreamers. Doers? People who actually execute and change the world? They’re rare. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I think our generation can change the world.

That’s a big part of the reason I wrote my book Quitter and was excited to partner with Praxis, a new non-profit organization set up to help social entrepreneurs build high-impact organizations.

Who is a social entrepreneur?

People like me and people like you.

My favorite part of Praxis is that it’s mentor-driven. A lot of people don’t know this, but when Stuff Christians Like and my hope of actually changing the world with it started to grow, I sought out mentors like crazy. One of the people I would regularly have dinner with is Brad Lomenick, the Executive Director of Catalyst. I’d email him questions before dinner and then he’d generously share wisdom and ideas with me. That’s a big part of what Praxis helps make possible. It is a mentor-driven accelerator program for social entrepreneurs and innovators compelled by their faith to advance the common good.

Praxis provides:

• Cash awards totaling $100,000. At the culmination of the program at the Q 2012 event in Washington, D.C., Praxis will award prizes of $50,000, $30,000, and $20,000 to each of the top three organizations.
• A year-long mentoring program for twelve early-stage organizations. More than just encouragement, the mentor program includes action-oriented education and planning, peer networking, and access to capital sources.
• Three unique opportunities to gather and learn in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Over twenty mentors will get together to share key organizational development advice with “fellows” (people like you who are being mentored).

A complete list of what you receive when you become a fellow is right here.

In addition to people like my friend Brad Lomenick, who else is a Praxis mentor?

People like:

• Gabe Lyons, founder of Q and founding partner of Praxis
• Jamie Tworkowski, founder of To Write Love On Her Arms
• Jason Russell, founder of Invisible Children
• Chris Crane, former CEO of Opportunity International and founder of Edify
• Jena Nardella, founder and executive director of Blood:Water Mission
• Charles Lee, founder and CEO of Ideation
• Peter Greer, president and CEO of HOPE International

And those are just a few of the mentors. Here’s the complete list.

Praxis was founded and led by Dave Blanchard, a serial entrepreneur and former Principal Designer at IDEO. (If you’ve spent any time in the design world, this is the part of the post you geek out on. IDEO? Unbelievable.)

I would have killed to have a program like this years ago when I decided to take my ideas from “what if?” to “what is!” And that’s why I was so excited Praxis decided to sponsor SCL and reach out to SCL readers.

If you want help changing the world with your organization, check out the Praxis Accelerator Program.

They will be accepting applications from now until July 15, 2011. That’s the one thing I don’t want you to miss. You’ve only got until July 15 to apply.

You can also follow them on Twitter, connect with them on Facebook or learn more by visiting the Praxis website.

Question:
What’s an idea or dream to change the world that you’d love some help to turn into a reality?

(It’s guest post Friday! Here’s one from Peter McMurray, a medical student/great blogger from Northern Ireland. If you want to write a guest post for SCL, here’s how.)

The people who comment on your Christian Facebook status – By Peter McMurray

From time to time on Facebook, you will notice a Bible verse or a worship song lyric in your newsfeed. And no, that does not mean you can skip devotions and just go straight to Facebook for your daily bread. But when there is a “Christian” status, it is hard to scroll past it without feeling obliged to “like” it. (For those of you not on Facebook who don’t know what “liking” a status means – welcome to 2006!)

After all, you can’t not like God’s word, can you? This is a trick I have used on occasion when I have been in the middle of a notification drought and have been thinking about ways to get my “likes” to skyrocket. One quick Bible verse/worship song video/famous pastor quote/SCL Serious Wednesday link, and suddenly I’m getting “likes” left, right and center from all my Christian friends.

But, when you post a Christian status on Facebook, you leave yourself open to the following people posting a comment on it:

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You don’t complain about church. That’s one of the things I like about you. That and your breath. It’s delightful. What is that? The black Dentyne gum that is so minty fresh it lights your tongue on flavor with freshness? I thought so.

You’re not a complainer. The moment you get in the car to drive to church, you shut off your desire to complain. You don’t cut people off on the way to church and, upon arriving, you walk in, worship, leave and go home without a negative word. You’ve never complained about Sunday School or how the kids program is run.

I have, though. I used to complain about the traffic at a church I attended. Which, by the way, is the opposite of the Great Commission. “Urgh! I hate this traffic in the church parking lot! All these people coming to worship God and have their hearts transformed! So frustrating. Who keeps making these disciples?”

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