The Battle Is On: Outreach Strategy

Operation Church Congregation
Promoting RU in Churches: We suggest that the director, assistant director, the leaders, or anyone who the pastor will permit, solicit churches in your community to have an RU Sunday. You will simply advertise your local chapter. This RU Sunday can include hanging your chapter’s RU posters at their facility beginning a few weeks before the event, placing brochures in their church bulletins, or even presenting your chapter and program to their congregation. Many churches have members or members’ families who are in desperate need of help with crippling addictions.

Operation Support organization
Promoting RU in Programs: We suggest you find all the support programs in your community and the times that they meet. This would include all the “Anonymous” programs in your city and all the state supported treatment facilities. You will find that if you show up, that you will be allowed to explain your program to their clients and also hand out your brochures. This is a great opportunity to convince addicts to add a “spiritual search” to their recovery process. Once they begin to attend your program, they will see that it is exactly what they need. Don’t forget to
place as many brochures on car windows as possible while there (if it is not against any local ordinance in your community).

Operation Storage Location
Promoting RU in the Liquor Stores: In Rockford, we have been successfully hanging our multi-colored, high-quality posters in the windows of liquor stores for years. These establishments have long been a stronghold for Satan, and we wish they would not be permitted to do business. However, with each request to hang our posters, we have been careful to try to share the gospel with each storeowner. We, the gospel and our program, are always warmly received. Without fail, we have been told “yes” to hanging our posters and even some have allowed us to place our brochures in a brochure holder (provided by us) next to their registers. (We make sure that a leader is sent with each student into the liquor store.) Though this may sound somewhat like a compromise, we consider it a very militant way to do battle with the enemy. How will we engage the enemy and release its prisoners if we are not willing to embark on enemy territory?

Operation Filling Station
Promoting RU in the Bars: Equally controversial, but for the same reasons mentioned before, we have had huge success doing bar drops. We do them in a couple different ways. First, we go in during the business day and seek permission to hang our posters in their windows and place brochures next to their registers. We have seen good results, but not everyone has permitted us to have advertising access to their patrons. To this end, we also have developed a distribution program that we have found to be somewhat successful in reaching people as well. We send out 3 or 4 students out with one leader to do a bar drop. A bar drop consists of placing our brochures on the windows of cars in the parking lot of bars (this is legal in our community, you must determine first if this is allowed in yours). This is a great “after class” activity. Keep in mind, though, to not enter the establishment while it is open, especially with students. This form of battle has proven to be the most popular form with our students. It gives them the sense of really going after the enemy.

Operation City Population
Promoting RU in the Community: Simply by choosing a few streets at a time, and knocking on every door to give out a brochure, we are canvassing our entire area. Of course, people are used to being invited to church, so begin with, “I’m representing a new addiction program in our area. I do not know if you need this or not, but if you don’t, could you please give it to someone who can?” This approach has opened up many doors for us.