Getting Students to Show Up - by Jonathan McKee (Paperback)

About the Book

The heart was there, the vision was set, the motives were genuine . . . but no one showed up. The book will help youth workers program to an audience that they're not used to reaching. Programming an outreach event is much more than booking a band and a speaker. Unfortunately, most people don't know that---and the students they wanted to reach aren't making it there . . . they don't show up.

Book Synopsis

Whenever I talk with youth workers at big events, I see the same look in their eyes. It's the look of, "I want to pull off an event like this." I regularly get phone calls from youth workers around the country saying, "We've never done anything like this before, but we wanted to do a big evangelism event . . ." At 80% of the events I speak at each year it seems as if the youth worker in charge expected large numbers, only to get a fourth of his or her expectations. The heart is there and the motives are pure . . . but the experience and know-how are in short supply. Most youth workers would love to pull off successful outreach events, if they only knew how. Youth workers are only learning how to program outreach events by "trial and error." They need a resource to not only teach them the basics in programming outreach events, but also give them tools and examples that actually work. This book will help them understand the mindset of this outreach crowd, and give them the tools to plan effective outreach programs. The book will show them examples of how NOT to do it, as well as giving them "ready-made" events that work. It will also provide the basics such as the importance of DRAW, and aligning every single element with the events PURPOSE. The target market is all youth workers who want to plan weekly outreach programs, big events, or campus programs. A secondary audience would be student leaders who want to learn how to run 20 minute lunchtime "Bible Clubs," geared for outreach. Youth workers would be the gatekeepers to this audience, because they are the ones who would purchase the books for their student leaders

From the Back Cover

Whenever I talk with youth workers at big events, I see the same look in their eyes. It's the look of, 'I want to pull off an event like this.' I regularly get phone calls from youth workers around the country saying, 'We've never done anything like this before, but we wanted to do a big evangelism event . . .' At 80% of the events I speak at each year it seems as if the youth worker in charge expected large numbers, only to get a fourth of his or her expectations. The heart is there and the motives are pure . . . but the experience and know-how are in short supply. Most youth workers would love to pull off successful outreach events, if they only knew how. Youth workers are only learning how to program outreach events by 'trial and error.' They need a resource to not only teach them the basics in programming outreach events, but also give them tools and examples that actually work. This book will help them understand the mindset of this outreach crowd, and give them the tools to plan effective outreach programs. The book will show them examples of how NOT to do it, as well as giving them 'ready-made' events that work. It will also provide the basics such as the importance of DRAW, and aligning every single element with the events PURPOSE. The target market is all youth workers who want to plan weekly outreach programs, big events, or campus programs. A secondary audience would be student leaders who want to learn how to run 20 minute lunchtime 'Bible Clubs, ' geared for outreach. Youth workers would be the gatekeepers to this audience, because they are the ones who would purchase the books for their student leaders

Review Quotes

'...Here you can learn how to plan programs that point people to Jesus by hearing others' mistakes and getting useful advice from a savvy veteran.'--YouthWorker Journal