BaptistLife.Com Forums.

I'm beginning to see a trend here:

1. The New SBC's Revisionist View of AWANA
If you ignore AWANA's pastor approval statement; its creedalism; its political overtones; its hardline dispensationalism; its threat to LifeWay, R.A.'s, and WMU; its pledge to The Republic of AWANA; and its decades of being a mainstay in meanspirited, Independent Baptist churches... then AWANA is a good thing.

2. The New SBC's Revisionist View of Inerrancy
If you ignore Inerrancy's silly caveats; its multiple definitions and exceptions; its zillion-plus contradictions of itself; its threat to intellectual honesty, Christian fellowship, and serious scholarship; its decades of being a mainstay in meanspirited, Fundamentalist churches; and that the term has never appeared in a single version of Baptist Faith & Message since first published in 1925... then Inerrancy is a good thing.

The only thing I have AWANA is that the doctrinal statement, which last I checked had to be signed by the pastor, is limited to dispensationalism, which I am not and therefore don't teach and the cost of the materials. But I say that about every thing so I don't know if that really counts.

In my younger days I taught AWANA and enjoyed it I guess, the game circle was always the big thing to look forward to. It can be a good program but it takes a lot of people to run right so it has never been in the running for the churches I have been fortunate enough to pastor. We feel blessed to have people teaching Sunday School, let alone another program.

There are times the scriptures get taken a bit out of context, but for the most part it's a good thing to have children reading and memorizing the Bible. Though I'm not sure how I feel about making it into a contest, although I am always a sucker for good ole Sword Drill!

GA recognition service last night. As always well attended. Cookies and punch afterward. I wouldn't want to raise girls without GAs. I morn the fact that next year is the last for our family. Long live the WMU and it's programs. RAs service next week. Never been to that myself, but no shortage of boys and men involved and running around in their vests on Wednesday nights.

There is plenty of room for bible memory in churches and certainly GAs has quite a bit less than when I was one. We do have the usual Sunday School promotions for bible verse memory and some separate programs for shorter periods during the year.

For that matter we have hymn memorization recognitions as well.

Glad you guys like your programs and I certainly love and respect the programs that I was raised on and sent/send my children to.

Now if we had audio I would break into a verse of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. Even with the name change Mission Friends is great.

NewsFlash! Lo and behold, I had an unexpected Brush With AWANA yesterday. It was scary, but I survived.

Spent the whole day at an areawide mental health-related conference held (because of the anticipated crowd) at our enormous local formerly-Southern-Baptist-turned-Independent-but-now-Southern-Baptist-again congregation which, for the record, does many good things despite their longtime veneration of J. Frank Norris and Jerry Falwell. In fact, it was probably good for them to experience my presence (rather than vice-versa, of course), so they are probably an even better church today than they were 48 hours ago.

Anyway, there were , bigger-than-life AWANA posters everywhere. Yikes! But in honor of my friend William, even though he discourages the proclamation of "Roll Tide" in worship services, I actually stopped at looked at several of them. Even glanced at an AWANA brochure.

Just glad to have lived to tell about it.

(BTW, for those who missed the earlier (but still ongoing) AWANA discussion which preciptated this thread, it may be found here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5698&st=0&sk=t&sd=a )

Since the idea of legalism ('silly legalism' to be accurate) in AWANA has been introduced, how about one of you guys with no first hand experience with the program explain exactly how this works?

I think my mod/lib friends here have become what they hate.

True, the "silly legalism" reference does not refer to any firsthand experience with AWANA. (I didn't grow up Fundamentalist Baptist, so shoot me.) My observations are drawn from the self-described facts and stipulations of using AWANA before ever being implemented, as outlined in my very first post (the one you don't have time to go back and read). You still haven't disputed any of those facts and stipulations, except for the required pastor's endorsement, which you or somebody said has been modified. (Which merely proves, once again, that money or expediency often trumps doctrine, despite the claims of Fundamentalists to the contrary.)

Having said all of that, William, I'm sure that you're a very good AWANA facilitator (and corporate AWANA board member).

While I appreciate the honor of having this topic in my name...I expected my mod friend to at least describe some of the 'silly legalism.' But then, sometimes we just toss out stuff...