AWANA

CrossPointe is considering an Awana club this fall. Read on for more information and how you can get involved.

What is Awana and why are we considering this?

AWANA is an acronym for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" taken from 2 Timothy 2:15.

Awana is a para-church organization that was started in the 1950's with the goal of reaching boys and girls with the Gospel of Christ and training them to serve Him. Awana is about Scripture memorization, it's about evangelism and it's about fun! If kids are having a good time at club, they are going to want to invite their friends. If their friends are having fun, they are going to want to keep coming. As those friends practice their verses at home and bring their families to club events, parents are also going to be reached with the Gospel.

Those of us who have worked in Awana before know what a wonderful opportunity it provides to love kids and their families. For those of you that are not familiar with Awana and want to know more, you can check out the official Awana website and find out just how exciting an Awana club can be.

What would Awana look like at CrossPointe?

Awana would run through the school year from September to May and meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Each Awana club meeting would start with announcements and then roughly 30 minutes for the kids to recite the verses they have been memorizing. They will get rewards for reciting those verses, so we need to make sure they have an opportunity to recite all the verses they've worked so hard to memorize. That will be followed by a roughly 30 minute game time where they play games designed by the Awana organization to promote sportsmanship and fun!!! The evening will culminate in a 15-20 minute Bible message.

What do we need to get started?

Any new ministry is going to need workers and boy do we need your help! ;)

In order to be successful, we will need to fill the following positions as soon as possible:

• Cubbies Director (Pre-K kids)

• Sparkies Director (K-2nd graders)

• Boys Truth & Training Director (3rd-6th graders)

• Girls Truth & Training Director (3rd-6th graders)

• Awana Secretary

These positions make up our leadership team. They have a commitment of 2-3 hours of time outside of the regular club meeting. We also need Team Leaders who will help make Awana fun for the kids. Team Leaders have no outside preparation time. All they have to do is come love the kids during club.

We also need Listeners to help listen to all those verses the kids are memorizing. They have it even easier. Listeners only have to stay from 6:30pm to about 7:15pm to help the Team Leaders listen to those verses. They are certainly welcome to stay longer, but they are free to leave once the kids have had a chance to recite the verses they've memorized for that week.

Members of our leadership team must be members of CrossPointe Church. Team Leaders & Listeners must have accepted Jesus as their Lord & Savior and have a heart for spreading the Gospel.

Awana has programs for children from ages 3-18. As we start out here at CrossPointe, we will be limiting ourselves to the K-6th grade programs. We will provide a Cubbies program for children of those serving in Awana. If you are a Team Leader or a member of our leadership team, your little ones are eligible for the Cubbie program. To be clear, only children of Awana volunteers will be eligible for the Cubbie program.

The kids are usually separated into 4 teams (red, yellow, blue & green) and each team will need at least 2 Team Leaders. Since each Director will support 4 teams, that means we need a minimum of 24 Team Leaders for our K-5th grade clubs. We are also looking for 5 leaders for the Cubbies program.

We're expecting to need at least 12 Listeners as we hope to have 120-150 kids the first night, but we won't really know how many we need until we have a better idea of how many kids we will actually be supporting.

So we are looking for at least 46 volunteers to start off our first year. As you can see, we've got our work cut out for us.

How can I help?

If you are interested in joining our leadership team, please contact me. You say you don't have enough experience in Awana or aren't familiar with the program? Don't worry, we have an Awana Missionary here in Northwest Washington that helps churches start Awana clubs. He will be providing basic training so that we know what to do before the first kid ever walks through our doors.

Maybe joining our Leadership Team is a bit too intimidating for you personally, but you might know someone else that would be just perfect for one of these roles. Please send them my way as we can't start the club without a Leadership Team in place, no matter how many Team Leaders and Listeners have volunteered.

The most important position we have to fill (even more important than the role of Commander) is that of the Awana Secretary. The Awana Secretary collects notes on how many verses each child recited during the first part of club & provides the appropriate rewards that we present to the kids just prior to the Bible message. As you can imagine, Awana will be far less fun for kids that don't get the appropriate recognition for all their hard work. We need someone gifted in administration who can keep track of all those little details that make sure club runs smoothly and stays fun for everyone.

If you have friends or relatives that attend another church that doesn't currently have an Awana program, invite them to come get involved in ours. We'd love to have their kids join us and as I mentioned earlier, Team Leaders & Listeners can be from other churches.

Please pray for this ministry opportunity and about your possible involvement. When I was first asked to serve in Awana, I said no twice. The third time I was asked, I recognized God's prompting and last month I received my 8 year pin for serving this last year at another church that already has a program.

My wife and I love Awana and would love to have you come join us!
John & Michelle Gephart