Q: What are some of the guidelines for being a Host Church (HC)?
A: We like the church to be fairly close to the venue location.  All of the Teen Mania interns who help set up the ATF event have to be housed and they cannot be housed more than 30 minutes away.  If the church is farther away this is workable, but host homes may need to be found a little closer to the venue through another nearby church.  Please contact us for your specific situation.

Q: Does it have to be the youth pastor that is in charge?
A: No.  Usually, due to the heavy responsibilities, the youth pastor is not the one in charge. The youth pastor is usually busy planning for the kids to attend ATF.  Each HC actually has what is called an Event Coordinator (EC).  The EC is someone in the church that puts all of the logistics together.  In fact, one of our EC’s is a stay-at-home mom that home-schools her kids and manages to convince her church to continue helping each year! 

Q: Is the HC really that important?
A: YES!  Absolutely!  This position and responsibility is critical to each events.  Whenever we don't have a thriving host church in one of our cities, we encounter many difficulties. such as having to cater in food last minute and sleeping on the buses. In the end, those problems just detract from the ministry that takes place the event.  Host Churches make a HUGE impact by handling the logistics.

Q: But my church is really small – can we still help?
A: Absolutely.  Many churches assist us with just a handful in the congregation.  The key is relationships.  Oftentimes, smaller churches are actually preferable to larger ones.  The smaller they are, the closer the relationships, and the easier the support gets raised.  The church doesn’t have to be rich or overflowing with people to handle being an HC.  For meals, potluck dinners can be cooked.  For transportation, college-aged individuals can gather friends and drive to the airport.  Size almost NEVER matters when it comes to this.

Q: I know this huge nearby church that would love to work with ATF – do you want me to help you get in contact with them?
A: No. Unless this is the church that YOU attend or have an on-going relationship with (through partnerships or networking) it usually doesn’t help if you try to connect us with a big church.  The larger the church is, the more events they have on their plate, and the less likely they are to put the effort into helping out with logistics for an ATF.  If you do give us a church's information, we will always follow up on it, but we would much prefer to talk to you and your church.  Relationship matters more than size.

Q: I know someone from another area you might need help in – can they do anything?
A: Yes.  Absolutely.  If you have relatives or friends where we need help, we'd love to hear about them!

Q: What does ATF offer their host churches?
A: The Host Church is offered special reserved seating.  The first 100 seats on the floor are discounted by 50% to the price of $30. (*Note - certain restrictions do apply, including, but not limited to, how much the Host Church assists ATF and the timeframe for which they begin to work with us.  For details, contact us!)

Q What if we’ve already registered and now decide to be a HC?
A This is something that the Host Church team can work out with you personally, but we will definitely accommodate you.

Q: Being a Host Church seems like a lot of responsibility.  Can we partner with other churches to make it easier?
A: Definitely.  In fact, we recommend HC’s to do just this thing.  We want everything to go over smoothly as well.  The details of Assistant Host Churches are a bit different and specific to the need and event so contact us for further information.  The Assistant Host Churches also receive a discount on tickets, to be determined by the ATF staff based on the amount of help offered.