Kidnap Retreat: The public event

Key to making the retreat a success is drawing the needed youth to the public event. This means that the event must appeal enough to the target group that they won't just attend, but are willing to sign up in advance. It is currently difficult in most places to get young people to commit early to an event, so this becomes a major problem. One possibility is a concert, a theme park or other public event that requires purchase of a certain number of tickets. It then becomes easier to say to them that if they don't get their reservations in early they may be left behind. Be sure to have an absolute cutoff date that allows time to make arrangements for the retreat.

Although this will cause some griping and complaining and perhaps pressure from youth and parent, this event should be limited to people who are "church members or likely to be involved in youth group this year." Simply explain that the purpose of the (public) event is to act as a group builder for the youth group and that "friends" will be a distraction.

Another difficult issue is that the students cannot have their own car at the public event (they can, perhaps, bring them to the church). Churches with vans or buses have it made, and, if it makes economic sense, renting a van for this event makes it easier to insist that the whole group go together.