Is AWANA acceptable to any strongly moderate churches?

[William Thornton]

I'm curious, having just attended an AWANA training event held a a friendly megachurch near us. Come to think about it - I don't know of a moderate church that has an awana club. Do any of you? Is it too conservative?

Things I noticed:

1. AWANA no longer requires the Senior Pastor to sign off on their statement of beliefs, just to agree to use the materials in their entirety. Subtle but significant change, IMO.

2. AWANA is growing exponentially among SBC churches in GA. Brand recognition is strong. We have people looking for 'an AWANA church.' It's almost a denominational identification.

3. Sat in on a workshop on "Biblical Christian Worldview" (not just 'Christian" but 'Biblical Christian') that would probably not suit mods here.

4. GAs, RAs etc are back-of-the-bus ministries, seems to me, where churches have strong AWANA programs. Since AWANA promotes its international work, churches have to be deliberate in SBC missions education.

Anecdote: largest church in my former association had a v/strong AWANA program feeding into their splendid youth program, both led by dynamic youth and children's minister. New pastor, a major mod, wouldn't, couldn't sign the doctrinal statement for AWANA. AWANA is out, youth program crashes, youth minister leaves, pastor leaves to in a couple of years.

We like the program. It is very good.

[Dave Roberts]

The question might need to be raised in reverse. Are Passport and Passport Kids acceptable to SBC-oriented congregations. I am aware of a once-moderate church being stolen by pastoral leadership which came not having truthfully answered the search committee's questions and the battle rages over not allowing any more youth groups to attend the dynamic and exciting Passport camps. Are these unacceptable in the SBC camp despite their missions emphasis and practical mission involvement for kids?

[Sandy]

AWANA bypasses mission education programs. Usually, when a church starts an AWANA program, it drops its missions education. AWANA isn't missions education. As a result, there is a corresponding drop off in support for mission education and mission support, especially for denominationally based missions. I agree with William, that if a Baptist church wants to start an AWANA program, it should first make sure that its mission education and support mechanisms are firmly in place.

My observation of AWANA is that, while it is conservative in theology, it is also divisive in most churches that want to have it. I'd have to question the success that AWANA has in creating or maintaining a "dynamic youth program." I haven't observed that. What I have observed is that people who push the AWANA program get ugly, turn a deaf ear and threaten to pull their support from the church unless it goes along with what they want. I've served on staff of two churches that started AWANA (as Minister of Education and Youth) and I'd have to say in both cases that we had a successful youth program in spite of the fact that we also had AWANA. Basically, the AWANA families and kids weren't committed to the other programs of the church, including regular attendance and support of Sunday school, and didn't get involved in the youth ministry. A dynamic and successful youth ministry is the result of a church committed to doing it, not an AWANA program.

I think a lot of Southern Baptist churches are interested in AWANA these days because they are failing to reach younger families and, in their mindset that problems are always fixed by some new program, are looking at AWANA as yet another program fix to problems that are the result of a change of culture. Basically, what an AWANA group does is bring in kids from other churches whose families are not members of your church and aren't going to be. Then, when a community gets saturated by AWANA groups, its just another way to shuffle your own kids into a different program.

[William Thornton]

[Norm]

William: [...] AWANA no longer requires the Senior Pastor to sign off on their statement of beliefs, just to agree to use the materials in their entirety [...]

Norm: What, AWANA money-oriented, too? Usually those criticisms are reserved for CBF. No?

[rickwright01]

[John]

[William Thornton]

[Mark]

[William Thornton]

[Norm]

[Joshua Villines]

Is AWANA?

If so, I can't think of a single liberal church that would be comfortable with this doctrinal statement. I can't speak for "moderate" ones, but I suspect that - at the very least - the patriarchal identification of God and the dispensationalism would be an issue.

This stuff isn't even on our church's radar.

-Joshua

[rickwright01]

[Sandy]

[Mark]

[Joshua Villines]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

[Ed Pettibone]

Rick W. wrote [quote]I cannot and will not... Heck - I refuse to use any material "as is..."

ED: Amen Brother! Preach on! Preach On!

So they don't require senior pastors to sign off on their statement of belief any more, WHY? Could it be that they figure if the Senior pastor is not involved, he will not even realize what they are promoting.

[Mark]

[Mark]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]