Book Cover: How to Share Your Faith on a Plane

[download id=”15″]

I have a knack for getting an empty seat next to me when I fly Southwest.

On more than 60% of my 2010 flights I sat in the window seat and had an empty middle seat. In January 2011, I flew with Southwest 11 times and had an empty middle seat 7 times. (The other 4 were completely full flights with no empty seats.)

As I bragged about this to my friends, they began to wonder: How in the world is Adam doing that?

I’m not going to share all of my tricks. (Here’s a blog with some decent tips) But one thing that definitely helps looks like this:

  • Make sure you are in the A boarding group
  • Sit in a window seat, then place a book or your iPod/headphones in the middle seat.

It’s the book detail that my friends bring up and eventually resulted in the graphic you see above. More often than not I am reading a non-fiction Christian book like Kenda-Creasy Deans Almost Christian or John Ortberg’s Faith and Doubt. For some reason those types of titles tend to cause on-coming passengers to continue moving towards the back of the plane more than the latest issue of Sports Illustrated or Wired.

That’s the genesis of this fake book cover. My friends and I hypothesized, “If people won’t sit next to me because I’m reading a book with a Christian title, what would happen if I made a fake book cover with an overtly Christian title AND made the book about evangelism?

That’s how this was born.

How to Share Your Faith on a Plane: 25 Scenarios for Converting This Flight from Transportation to Transformation

Instructions:

  • Download the pdf.
  • Print/cut it to the size you need. (The original size is the size of a standard hard cover book with a jacket)
  • Replace the jacket your book came with and follow the tips on the back cover.

Posted

in

, , ,

by

Comments

13 responses to “Book Cover: How to Share Your Faith on a Plane”

  1. Dennis Avatar

    Funny.

  2. benjamin kerns Avatar

    adam,

    this is awesome! thanks for making my morning.

  3. adam mclane Avatar

    @dennis & @benjamin – thanks. Can you help a brother out with a retweet or FB share?

  4. Tim Avatar

    Someone’s going to get wind of this and actually write the book.

  5. Tim McDaniel Avatar
    Tim McDaniel

    HAHAHAHAHAH! I love it. “Love Wins!” (OH. . . wait. . . title already taken. . . sorry.)

  6. Jesse Avatar
    Jesse

    What if two guys sit on a row and both have this book? I plan on printing it off this week. You’re a stud.

  7. Carl Fuglein Avatar
    Carl Fuglein

    Adam,

    Sounds like an interesting idea, but don’t you REALLY want to share your faith? I know you, and I know you’d like to do that, so wouldn’t the idea be to actually get someone to sit beside you so that you COULD share your faith? You maybe could do that with a book title of: “How to shut up those pesky Christians who are always trying to convert you on the plane!”

    I’m just sayin…..

    love ya bro,
    Carl

  8. adam mclane Avatar

    @carl- Not going to lie. Give me an empty middle seat, a good book, and some tunes… That’s Good News to me!

  9. Peter Marin Avatar
    Peter Marin

    In terms of sheer audacity, you take the ‘cake.’
    Or should I use the word, shear?

    Some wear their hearts on their sleeve. Some take
    head counts just to put ‘scalps’ (i.e., numbers) on their
    records so as to prove the validity of their ministry.
    (pelts on belts) I know of a large church that just had
    installed four picture-taking cameras up on the ceiling
    facing the audience so that they can literally count
    how many were sitting in the seats during services.

    You have put your intentions on to your book
    sleeve/cover. No longer does your quiet intentionality
    sit silently way back inside the deepest prayer-closet
    in your heart. Now, it’s out and open for all to read,
    literally.

    I have read: “Productive dialogue through bridge
    building comes from cognitive insight on our part
    and can only be accomplished through a humbled
    immersion that is expressed through our Christian
    faith as a learner.” What does the apparent lack
    of interest, and then also their total avoidance to
    sit next to an open invitation (7 out of 11 times)
    about the Gospel really teach you about your
    fellow travellers?

    What is it that brings forth the fruit of rejection
    when an invitation has been made?

    Luke 14:21-23 NLT
    “The servant returned and told his master
    what they had said. His master was angry
    and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and
    alleys of the city and invite the poor, the
    crippled, the lame, and the blind.’ [22] After
    the servant had done this, he reported,
    ‘There is still room for more.’ [23] So his
    master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes
    and behind the hedges and urge anyone
    you find to come, so that the house will
    be full.”

  10. Andy Avatar

    Adam, my gosh . . . this is funny. Well played.

  11. Brock Morgan Avatar

    I love it – I think I’ll use this! =)

  12. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Hilarious. You’ve got to send this to Bill.

  13. Shea Avatar
    Shea

    awesome I’d love to repost this on my website with your permission
    http://www.myfaithworks.me

Leave a Reply