Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out To Unchurched Teenagers

Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out to Unchurched Teenagers Copyright © 2004 by Youth Specialties Youth Specialties Products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McKee, Jonathan R. (Jonathan Ray), 1970- Do they run when they see you coming? : reaching unchurched students ... without scaring them off! / by Jonathan McKee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-310-25660-7 (softcover) 1. Church work with students. 2. Church work with teenagers. 3. Non-church-affi liated people. I. Title. BV4447.M237 2005 259'.23--dc22 2004016914 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North American Edition), copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other-(except for brief quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the publisher. Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and replacement URLs if available. Editorial direction by Dave Urbanski Art direction by Jay Howver Edited by Kevin Hendricks Proofread by Laura Gross and Kristi Robison Interior design by Holly Sharp Cover design by Burnkit Printed in the United States 04 05 06 07 08 09 /DC/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0310256607_dotheyrun_int.indd 4 10/22/04 8:32:19 AM Youth Ministry in One Word I'm thinking we're missing something here. I think we're missing the big picture. I don't want ministry programming tips... just tell me what you think youth ministry is all about. As a matter of fact, just give me the one word you think youth ministry is all about! Th anks, Bryan ~ Dear Bryan, LOVE Jonathan ~ Dear Jonathan, Hey, thanks for getting back to me so soon. Okay, you took me seriously. Now forget all that stuff about one word. Love isn't the answer I want. I mean-it's cool and all-it's probably even right. But I just need you to expand on it a little bit. How do we reach the kids outside our church walls? How do we reach unchurched students? Bryan One Word How do you sum up students reaching other students in one word? How do you verbalize-in one word-youth leaders reaching out to youth? Let's go to the only place I know to go: the Word of God. Jesus was asked basically the same question in Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 10. Th e conversation went something like this: "Okay, Jesus-then what is the most important thing? Don't give me the long answer, just what is the bottom line?" Jesus answered, "Love God...love others." Th at's what it comes down to. Love. Bringing God to People Our church has a missionary in Laos named Jim Gustufson. Jim told us about a church he visited in Th ailand. It was a church founded by Westerners from America, reaching Th ai people. Jim told us about a Sunday when he arrived at the church early. Other than himself, the fi rst person to arrive was a woman who walked in dancing, singing in Th ai, and praising God for what he had done that week in her life. TMcKee, Jonathan is the author of 'Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out To Unchurched Teenagers', published 2005 under ISBN 9780310256601 and ISBN 0310256607.