seriously, sometimes there’s just so much awesome stuff happening around The Youth Cartel that i feel like i have to meter it out here on my blog. i’ve had people tell me that they feel like my blog is all promotional stuff these days. and that really bugs me, to be honest. i really try to write about whatever i’m stoked about, or whatever i’m thinking about, or whatever i’m ticked about. i don’t want to have this just be a marketing channel, but i get so stinking excited about sharing stuff with you that i’m pumped about.

so: i’ll just lump three or four cartel-y things into one blog post! the haters can skip reading and wait for me to get all ranty in another post.

first: The Summit early bird deadline

you know about The Summit, right? TED for youth workers. imagination ignition. creativity jet fuel. the most diverse roster of provocative presenters who will melt your freaking mind. yup, that event. it’s in atlanta this coming november 8 and 9. but the early bird pricing of $149 for individuals and $129 each for groups of 3 or more ends friday night!

to give you a little appeteaser of the event, here’s april diaz’s fantastic presentation from last year’s event, called Re-Imagining the Role of the Youth Worker. we were so stoked about her talk that we asked her to expand it into a book, which she’s done, and we’ll be releasing that bad boy in early october (just in time for The Summit this year!).

second: pre-sale of The Picture Book Guide to Youth Ministry

a youth worker in louisiana named paul records contacted me about this fun and helpful book idea quite a long time ago. somewhere in the midst of our months-long email conversation, The Youth Cartel decided to start publishing books. and we decided to pick up paul’s book. it’s such a fun and solid approach to a book about priorities for volunteer and rookie youth workers. it’s a focus on being the youth worker god made you to be, rather than on having a particular skill set. really, the subtitle says it well: Simple Lessons on Reaching Teens, Sustaining Your Soul, and Avoiding Ministry Meltdowns. and paul created all these fun and goofy illustrations to go with it (which makes reading it really engaging). since it’s a picture book, we laid it out in a landscape design, like a children’s book.

this would be a perfect book to buy for all your new volunteers (and your old volunteers also!) as you approach a new school year. and with that in mind, we’re offering special pricing on bulk purchases.

the book is at the printer right now, and we expect to have it in stock by the end of the month. at that point, the pre-sale pricing will go away — so jump on this one now.

• 5-9 copies – 15% off
• 10-19 copies – 20% off
• 20 or more copies – 35% off

you can download a sample here, by the way.

third: pre-sale of The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers

yup, leave it to The Youth Cartel and jonathan mckee to publish a youth devotional based on zombies. full disclosure: jonathan was way down the road of having this published by a much bigger publisher (“much bigger” isn’t saying much, in comparison to us!), but a honcho there pulled the plug, saying they couldn’t publish a book about zombies. but we will! and we are! jonathan creatively weaves a fiction (duh!) story, written by a teenage zombie apocalypse survivor, about the lessons he and his friends have learned about staying alive. at the end of each of the 27 short chapters, there’s a collection of reflection questions and a bible verse or two to get students thinking about wisdom (the subtitle of the book, by the way, is “27 Principles of Wisdom When You’re Running for Your Life!”).

just got an endorsement in from josh griffin, who wrote that this is “The most original student devotional I’ve ever read.”

this is a great book to give to teenagers; but really, it would be a blast to use in the context of a small group.

yup, we’ve got special pre-sale pricing:

• 1-9 copies – Save $1 each
• 10+ copies – Save $4.19 each (35% off retail)

sorry, we don’t have a sample yet (it’s still in final editorial, and should release in mid-august); but trust me, it’s awesome. everyone who has read it has loved it (including teenagers).

fourth, and finally: continued pre-sale of the Ignite Bible for Teens

i was stoked to play a general editor role (meaning, i wrote a bunch, recruited other writers, edited their work, and gave lots of input on design and other elements) for this new NKJV bible intentionally created for middle schoolers.

just today, i got this fantastic endorsement from brooklyn lindsey (who really knows middle schoolers):

The Ignite Bible has a grit to it that I’ve not seen in other teen Bibles. The feel of the cover itself suggests that there’s a something resilient and eternal in your hands. I like that the hardiness found in it’s pages doesn’t lend to obscurity. Instead, carefully selected language paves clear pathways, instructing young readers in relevant topics–giving them biblical insight that helps them right where they are in their everyday life. My favorite feature: the short but super engaging book introductions, they were so good I read them all.

you can download the entire book of matthew as a sample here, so you can see both the content and the design.

and, yup: we have awesome pre-release pricing for a limited time. the softcover and hardcover are both $5 off retail, and if you order 10 or more copies, we’ll give you 30% off. seriously.

ok, there’s some of The Youth Cartel stuff i’m excited about. there’s plenty more; but that’s the time-sensitive stuff you needed to hear about!