On 3 Jun 98, at 1:36, GrandSpam@... wrote: > I have been thinking recently, in and of itself a dangerous process. :-) [snip] > that we can start LRT our first session. Second, I cannot decide wether > or not I should endeavor to make this an "official" church group. [snip] > downsides, and they lay a little deeper. I attend a rather conservitive > Baptist church with a large elderly population. [snip] > Thussly, I am > veeery hesitant to bring forward to the Christian Education board (the > board that runs Sunday school, youth group, special events, and pretty > much everything else in the church) anything that has the word 'Dragon' in > it, even DragonRaid. [snip] > However... it would still be awkward dealing with those people demanding > to know what in the world a game about dragons was doing in the bulliten. Tim, I'd like to encourage you to go ahead and present it to your Christian Education board. I had to do the same thing in my church, and it helps to look at it this way. The board (in my church it's a committee) is there to prevent error. There's nothing more precious than the education of Christ's church, especially the children. So it's a *good* thing that your church has this board, so that they can approve all the materials being used in your church, to make sure they're doctrinally correct. We know that DragonRaid is doctrinally sound. So you're not going to have to worry about that; you just have to *show* that it is. Here's what I did: 1. Show them the Great Rescue WordRunes. Explain to them that DragonRaid contains a system for teaching the youth to evangelize, and allows them to practice it in a role-playing simulation. Show them the "common objections" which are found in the AM Manual, telling them that the material gives the leader (you) tips on coaching the kids in how to defend the faith. 2. Pull out Rescue of the Sacred Scrolls and read to them some of the dragon Mindspeeches at the end, telling them that the dragons attack using arguments which the kids have to refute. If they refute the arguments, damage is done to the dragon. The goal is to vanquish the dragon by refuting all of his false teachings. 3. Explain to them that the reason it is called DragonRaid is that the players are LightRaiders, who go on Raids into the Dragon Lands to destroy evil. 4. Show them some of the dark creature sin enchantments, and explain the process that the other players have to go through in order to rescue their comrades who fall into sin. 5. Offer to meet in private with one or more members of the board to run a session with them so they can see it in action. I wound up running it for the family of one of the Elders in my church. :-) Once they see it in action, they'll be more likely to recommend it. 6. Emphasize that this is not a role-playing game: it's an Adventure Learning System, which uses role-playing as a technique to teach spiritual truths. Tell them that the role playing is practice for real life. The game situations always need to be applied to real life (you might show them the Troll temptations in LRT as an illustration of this). Support and encouragement (not to mention bulletin announcements) from your church is irreplacable. It also helps to legitimize DragonRaid to parents who might have objections of their own. I had a few questions when the announcement went into the bulletin, but no angry parents, because it was an official church function, and had been approved by the Christian Education Committee. That goes a long way toward easing parents' fears. If they have any questions that you can't answer, feel free to direct them to Adventures for Christ. I'll be happy to answer any of their questions (I'm the Assistant Director). When I was doing this, I asked Dick Wulf (the designer of DragonRaid) for his credentials, so I could show them to my Christian Education committee. Here's the message he sent me: ----snip---- I have been an elder in the PCA for about 20 years, am presently an active elder, and was a popular guest lecturer as well as on the Board of Trustees of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis (the denominational seminary). At the time DragonRaid came out, one of the vice presidents at the seminary went with me around the country talking primarily to wealthy PCA elders to find investment money. DragonRaid was positively reviewed in the denominational magazine of the time, The Messenger. I have also consulted to the Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Youth for Christ. For two years I was the president of the Colorado Springs Association of Evangelicals. And I am quoted in the Parents Resource Bible. Hopefully this will give the game credibility. I am sending you my book published by NavPress in 1983 which was a finalist for the best Christian book in the category of doctrine and theology. Yours in the service of Jesus Christ, Dick ----snip---- You can take whatever information you want from that message, but it helped my case, because it proved that this wasn't something that I downloaded from some crazy person on the Internet. DragonRaid is tried and true. It's been around for 14 years, and has been used successfully for all of that time. It can stand on its own quite well; all you need to do is show it to them. I hope this helps! -- Rich Sezov Home: sezov@... Work: sezovr@... http://www.jersey.net/~sezov DragonRaid Resources: http://www.jersey.net/~sezov/draid "I think the saddest thing in the world to see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Sorry, little friend." --Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey