Do they run when they see you coming?

by Jonathan McKee (Youth Specialties/Zondervan)
McKee’s book might well be described as the little book that could. Small, unassuming and easy to use, one might not guess what a gem it truly is. Hailed by a veritable Who’s Who of youth ministry gurus, including Les Christie (William Jessup University), Jim Burns (Partnering With Parents in Youth Ministry, Regal) and Wayne Rice (Understanding Your Teenager, W), McKee’s insights hit a nerve.

The book’s publisher, Youth Specialties, shares a recent letter to McKee from a youth pastor named Jonathan: “I used to think I did a halfway decent job reaching out to unchurched students, until your book smashed my illusion. Thank you, really. I needed to hear what you had to say.”

“Do They Run … asks the question begging for scrutiny behind the walls of many of our evangelical enclaves,” says panelist Jeremy Del Rio. “Why is so much of what Christians do irrelevant to the people Jesus commissioned us to lovingly reach?” McKee, Del Rio says, approaches his topic in a non-threatening way.

The focus of the book is practical application, which McKee shares through anecdotes and simple steps, all leading to his conclusion that evangelism is more than a presentation. It’s not what we say—it’s who we are. Says Del Rio: “It’s an excellent resource to provoke youth ministers to rethink how and why Christ still calls us to be fishers of men.”