VIOLENCE is tearing our country apart. And violence has entered our houses of worship.

This seminar is NOT about how to improve your church services (and good church services are necessary). It is NOT about how to have a better song service on Sunday morning (and that too is necessary).

This seminar is about stopping violence.

The principles you will learn in this seminar are relevant to all situations where violence is possible (churches, schools, malls, etc). This seminar is for ALL those concerned about … violence.

Getting the word out about the seminar is the biggest challenge. If this is not done on a consistent basis, the crowd will be small.

We have conducted many seminars where the hosting church simply did not faithfully advertise the event. Below are our recommendations for advertising.

Remember this general rule - On average, people do NOT make a decision about attending an event until they hear about it 13 to 21 times.

• Be sure to put the link to our website so people can sign up.

• Try to keep the event ad on the FRONT PAGE of your website.

• Repost the event on your Facebook page at least once a week (remember, people have to be reminded often before they make a decision about attending any event).

• We do create a Facebook event page for your seminar. If you have already scheduled an event, go to the webpage on our website that advertises it and click on the Facebook link on that page. You can share the event page with others. Click here to go to our Facebook page.

• Try to compile an email list of possible attendees. Get the email addresses of local churches.

• Remember this: people do not make a decision about attending until they are notified at least 13 to 21 times. One email to someone does not “do the job.” Send out an email at least once a week.

We have conducted over 400 such seminars. It has been very, very difficult to get the participation of the youth director and children’s workers to attend, much less participate in getting the word out. WE NEED THEIR HELP!

We will have a session on how to prevent sex crimes. Sex crimes occur at a much higher rate than shootings or other means of death. Even in the church, and church settings (youth camps, etc) sex crimes are in the thousands.

• We ask that you insist that your youth director and children’s workers attend this event. I have been stunned at the lack of participation from youth workers concerning this all-important topic.

• Have your youth director assume the responsibility of telling other youth directors and children’s workers in your area about the seminar. Encourage him/her to compile a list of possible attendees and contact them on a weekly basis.

• REMEMBER: We are trying to stop crimes against children. WHAT THEY LEARN IN THIS SEMINAR COULD POSSIBLY STOP THE VICTIMIZATION OF A CHILD.

The pastor and staff are vitally important in making the seminar a success. We ask that he consider the following -

• Contact fellow ministers in the area and let them know about the seminar

• If he belongs to a local group of pastors (ministerial associations, etc) let them know.

• Remind his flock about the seminar every few Sundays.

• We understand that a pastor has a full schedule. We do not expect the pastor to give all his time to this, but perhaps a few minutes a week could certainly be helpful.

Contact your local newspaper and radio station (if you have one) and ask them to do a story about the seminar.

We have conducted many interviews with the press.

contact YOUR LOCAL POLICE, SHERIFF, ETC.

Have the pastor call the local police chief and the sheriff and tell them about the seminar.

Invite them to stop by on the day of the seminar and share a word with the attendees (after all, it’s “their people”).

Ask the police chief/sheriff if it would be possible to give educational credit to officers who attend.

Ask them to send officers to the seminar. You might consider purchasing tickets for local officers to attend. We have seen this on several occasions.

At some of our seminars, the youth cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and used the event as a fundraiser for mission trips.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT LUNCH. HERE IS WHAT WE HAVE SEEN -

• Lunchtime will last about 1 hour and 15 minutes

• We can dismiss the attendees and have them go to local restaurants

• Food trucks. We have seen this on several occasions. A food truck comes out and feeds everyone. The downside of this is that if there is only ONE food truck, it makes it very difficult to get everyone fed.

• The church provides a meal and the price is included in the admission price.

• If we have already made eating plans with your church, please disregard this section.

• Have someone (or several people) welcome attendees as they arrive.

• We do not usually check everyone’s ticket. We operate on the honor system. It simply takes too long to check everyone in.

• We do (most of the time) give everyone a sticker badge when they arrive (they write their name on it).

Please have TWO folding tables set up for us near the stage (books, materials, etc)

We have no desire to be a financial burden to your church or community. We fully acknowledge that there have been challenging times for churches.

The cost of the seminar depends on who you want the presenters to be. For example, if you wanted Colonel Grossman and Jimmy Meeks, the cost is around $10,000. We pay all of our expenses (travel, lodging, food) from that amount.