The Day Jesus Returned Is Live

John McKissack’s newest novel is out: The Day Jesus Returned: A Fast-Paced, Pulse-Pounding Experience.

The paperback is priced at five dollars on purpose. McKissack has called it a one-sitting story—the kind of book you finish in an evening and hand to someone you’ve been praying for.

It asks a blunt question: what if the return of Christ hit an ordinary Tuesday—and the whole world watched it unfold on their phones?

Readers can find it on Amazon now. A free Scripture companion that follows the novel chapter by chapter is already live at johnmckissack.com/study/.

A Bible Study Built Into the Book

Most novels end when the last page does. McKissack wanted The Day Jesus Returned to send readers somewhere else: back into Scripture.

So he built a chapter-by-chapter Scripture companion and posted it on his author site. Each section includes a short recap, the passages behind the scene, questions for reflection or group discussion, and one “Live It” step for the week.

The guide doesn’t ask readers to adopt McKissack’s timeline. It asks them to do what the novel’s heroine eventually does—open the Book themselves and check the text.

The study is free at johnmckissack.com/study/.

The Price of Mars Hits Paperback

McKissack’s hard science-fiction novel The Price of Mars: The Areion Project is now available in paperback.

The story follows a South Texas aerospace fight where the race for Mars isn’t only about rockets—it’s about who gets to decide humanity’s next frontier.

Readers who know McKissack for end-times fiction will find a different register here: stars, engineering grit, and the human cost of ambition. Book two in the Areion line remains in progress.

The paperback and Kindle editions are listed on Amazon under the Areion Project title—not the older framing McKissack has set aside.

Sophia of Savannah Finds Her Readers

After decades of carrying the story, McKissack’s historical novel Sophia of Savannah is available for readers who want the “human heart” side of his brand.

Set in colonial Savannah, the book follows love, faith, duty, and betrayal in a world where some histories are remembered—and others are felt.

McKissack has treated Sophia as a prestige title for events and long-form readers: slower than a novella, denser than a thriller, and built for people who want to linger.

Paperback and Kindle editions are live on Amazon.

A Story for Lila Grace

Not every John McKissack book began with a grand plan. One began with his granddaughter coming to stay for a few weeks.

When Lila Grace spent part of the summer with John and Tammy McKissack, her grandfather decided to write a story for her.

The result was The Lumi Light: A Story for Children and Families.

McKissack wrote the book while Lila was there, turning the process itself into part of their time together. Each night, he would read her the newest chapter—the story unfolding for its first audience one bedtime at a time.

And when the story was finished, McKissack did something different. Rather than publish it under his increasingly familiar author name, he chose a pen name inspired by the little girl for whom it had been written: Romani Grace.

The book was completed and published that summer, but its beginnings were much smaller and more personal than that.

It began with a granddaughter, a grandfather, a few summer weeks together—and a new chapter waiting to be read each night.

A New Name for an Old Idea

A year after publishing his small discipleship book Make Me Lead, John McKissack decided the idea deserved another chance—and a much better book.

So he went back to work.

McKissack rewrote and expanded the original, drawing more heavily from his own years in ministry and the stories and lessons he had gathered as a pastor. At the center remained the same simple conviction: Christians don't make disciples merely through programs, classes or invitations to church.

They make disciples through relationships.

The revised book emerged in January 2026 with a new title: Building Disciples Through Friendships: Principles and Stories from a Global Methodist Pastor.

The new title said plainly what McKissack had been trying to communicate from the beginning. Friendship isn't a trick for getting someone into church. It means genuinely caring about people, walking through life with them and allowing faith to become part of a relationship that is already real.

For McKissack, the rewrite wasn't abandoning the first book.

It was finally becoming the book he had meant to write.

A Dog, a Gift, and Thirty Devotions

For John McKissack, some of the best lessons about God have come from an unlikely teacher—his dog, Lonnie.

McKissack loves his dog, but over the years he began to see something deeper in that relationship. Lonnie wasn't simply a pet to enjoy. She was a living creature entrusted to his care—a gift from God who depended on him for food, protection, companionship and love.

And somewhere in that relationship, McKissack began noticing lessons about his own relationship with God.

A dog's trust, loyalty and eagerness to be near the person she loves became simple pictures of faith. Caring for Lonnie raised questions about how people trust God, obey Him, depend upon Him and respond to His love.

Those observations eventually became thirty short devotions.

On January fifth, McKissack published Paws and Praise Jesus: 30 Devotions for Dog Lovers, a book born from the conviction that God can teach His children through almost anything—even a wet nose, a wagging tail and a dog who simply wants to be wherever you are.

For McKissack, Lonnie had already been a gift.

The book was simply his way of sharing some of what that gift had taught him.

From the End Times to Friendship

After spending decades trying to write a novel about the return of Jesus Christ, John McKissack’s next book went in a very different direction.

McKissack began writing Make Me Lead, a practical book built around a simple conviction: discipleship often begins long before anyone talks about church or theology.

It begins with friendship.

The approach grew from McKissack’s years in ministry and his belief that Christians sometimes make evangelism more complicated than it needs to be. Get to know people. Listen to them. Help when they need help. Share life with them. Live your faith where they can actually see it.

Then, when questions come, the relationship is already there.

The book was published in early 2025 and has since been revised and republished as Making Disciples Through Friendship.

For McKissack, the title changed. The idea at its heart did not: before people hear what Christians believe, they often need to experience how Christians love.

From One Book to Another

Publishing his first novel apparently didn't cure John McKissack of writing. It only made him want to write another book.

This time, however, he turned from fiction to something he had spent much of his life doing: making disciples.

McKissack began writing a small ministry book originally titled Make Me Lead, built around a remarkably simple idea. Evangelism doesn't always begin with a sermon, a program or a church invitation. Sometimes it begins with friendship.

Get to know someone. Listen to them. Help when they need help. Be present. Live your faith where they can actually see it.

And when questions about faith eventually come, don't force the conversation. Let the relationship open the door.

McKissack published the book in early twenty twenty-five. He would later revise and republish it under a title that better expressed what he had been trying to say all along:

Making Disciples Through Friendship.

After spending thirty years trying to write his first book, McKissack was already discovering something unexpected.

There was another one waiting behind it.

The Book Is Finally Out of Me

On the first Sunday of Advent, John McKissack finally became a published novelist.

Caught Up in the Tribulation was released December first—just four months after McKissack had prayed and asked God if he could give up on the story he had been trying to write for more than thirty years.

Instead, he had felt an urgency to try one more time.

Four months later, after thirteen abandoned manuscripts, a last-minute title change and one frantic sprint to publication, the book was finally finished, published—and, as McKissack put it, “finally out of me.”

For a novel about waiting for the return of Christ, its arrival on the first day of Advent seemed particularly fitting.

Two Weeks Before Publication, a New Name

Two weeks before John McKissack was scheduled to publish his first novel, he had a problem: he no longer liked its name.

The book was called Ash and Shadow. The manuscript was finished, the December first launch was approaching, and the publishing process with Amazon KDP was already underway.

But the title didn't fit.

So McKissack did what any calm, sensible first-time author would do two weeks before publication: he changed everything.

The novel became Caught Up in the Tribulation.

That meant securing another ISBN, changing the cover and artwork, updating the publishing information, and scrambling to get everything resubmitted in time.

After thirty years and thirteen abandoned manuscripts, apparently finishing the book wasn't going to be the last adventure before publication.

Lord, Should I Give Up?

Nearly thirty years ago, while serving as a missionary in the Dominican Republic, John McKissack was studying Revelation when one image captured his imagination: angels being sent out across the earth to gather God's people.

What would that actually look like? What would ordinary people see and experience if those angels suddenly appeared among them?

McKissack couldn't stop imagining it—and couldn't seem to turn it into a novel.

Over the next thirty years, he started and abandoned thirteen manuscripts. He wanted to write other books, but always felt this story had to come first.

Finally, in July 2024, he prayed: “Lord, can I just quit trying to write this book? Can I let it go and write something fun?”

Instead of feeling released, McKissack suddenly felt an overwhelming urgency: Now is the time.

He began writing furiously. Attempt number fourteen would become Caught Up in the Tribulation—and change the direction of his life.