At 12:48 pm 6/4/99 -0500, Casey, James wrote: >I would like to apologize for making what may have been a hasty >determination. As far as personal information, I am 23 years old, live near >St. Louis MO, and played DR while in attendance at Liberty University. A >friend had it from before he came to school and one group started playing >which led to 2 other groups starting up in the same dorm. We never had time >to get past the second mission, but it was a great time. The problems I am >having with DR promotion are with some parents and church leaders. It has >been dragged out over the last couple of months and I am really getting >tired of it. Thanks again for any help you may offer me. James > Having only weekends to deal with weighty email issues, I postponed answering the original version of this question until today. I'm sorry that made it appear like I didn't care. The question you ask has come up a couple of times on this list. The responses have tended to reflect the experiences of others, and that's exactly the way I'm going to do it as well. I've never run into a problem getting acceptance for DragonRaid. I also have never approached anyone with it without having crossed certain criteria off my list first. 1. Is there an interest in having the kids be discipled? The best way to get that answered is from the youth pastor -- does he want help with discipling, or does he figure he's doing a good job? If there is no youth pastor, the church is probably small enough that the pastor is to one to approach. 2. Get parents involved early on. Even if only one or two, you need to have someone else who's sold on the concept. Again, approach it from the perspective of discipling the kids -- and invite the parents to participate as well. I've used the phrase "a discipleship program cleverly disguised as a fantasy role-playing game" to describe DragonRaid 3. Finally, approach the kids with how much fun it is. For the most part, they don't care that they're going to be discipled; Middle-Schoolers respond best to food and fun. Youth leaders recognize this fact of life, and will likely support you in the presentation. 4. There's absolutely nothing that says DragonRaid has to be run through a church, although that is probably the best approach. I've run three RaidTeams thus far and, after about 18 months of setting the stage, am about to launch one at my church. Once that's going, I will have run two under church authority, and two in cooperation with just one family (and outside a church umbrella). In other words, be creative in your approach. Does that help? Jeff Smith -- WilderLands Hold <http://www.teleport.com/~thehold> ====================================== What are the odds the Chinese kept their U.S. campaign-finance records in Belgrade? ====================================== Fight spam! Join C.A.U.C.E. <http://www.cauce.org>