AWANA?

I think it's a Baptist version of the Boy and Girl Scouts, but I could be mistaken (frequently am...)

http://www.awana.org/

Based in the Chicago area, Awana is the only organization with fully integrated evangelism and discipleship programs for ages 2 to 18 that actively involve parents, church leaders and mentors. Each week, more than a million children and youth, 250,000 volunteers and 300-plus field staff take part in Awana in over 17,000 churches in the U.S. and internationally. ...

Awana works with churches from nearly 100 different denominations.

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Most AWANA programs I've seen have been on Wednesday nights to correspond with Wednesday night prayer meeting, a mid-week service mostly devoted to prayer. However, Wednesday night adult meetings are becoming less well attended. Many churches are doing away with them. So it's conceivable they'd move AWANA to Saturday mornings.

Gravity said:

I think it's a Baptist version of the Boy and Girl Scouts, but I could be mistaken (frequently am...)

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That would be Boy's Brigade which actually pre-dates Boy Scouts. In fact, the Boy Scouts grew out of Boy's Brigade. I was in Boy's Brigade in the late 60's. Apparently, it's still around although I haven't heard of it in years. The churches I have contact with moved to AWANA.

callalily61 said:

Did I spell that right?

Cradle Catholic needs help, please. Isn't this a kids' religious education program? If not, what is it? Either way, would a Pentecostal church have it, and would it make sense to meet in the church basement on a Saturday morning?

My vampire's getting married, and the pastor's checking the calendar.

Thanks!

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It's like the boy and girl scouts. AWANA stands for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed," and I think it's a trans-denominational thing but I'm not certain of it. You could probably contact them (I'm certain they would have a website these days) and see what their denominational affiliations would be.

At the church I went to at the time, Thomas Road Baptist in Phoenix, AZ, AWANA met on Wednesday Nights in the Sunday School area. Also, on Sunday Evening Service, there would be some recognition of boys and girls who did outstanding work in their particular part of the program.

One Caveat, though: my experience with AWANA dates back to 1982. I would imagine they have changed somewhat since then.


I hope this helps. Best wishes with your manuscript, Callalily.

For several years my wife attended a Church of God (Cleveland, TN, branch), and they had Royal Rangers for the boys and Missionettes for the girls. I imagine it was pretty similar to AWANA though.

I've attended now 3 Pentecostal churches (non-affiliated) and none of them has run an AWANA program.

Never fear, Lily...there's plenty of Pentecostals out there using it (though they do seem to be largely international).

My husband was an AWANA kid and his mom runs the program at her church, a Plymouth Brethren. We've got one at ours, too, an Evangelical Free.

Hubby says AWANA can be at any church that meets the general theological criteria of the organization. Usually there will be like one or two AWANA programs in a given community, so kids from other churches will also go there.

The main thrust of the AWANA program is to get kids to memorize scripture. They do fun and games and all that sort of thing, but the goal is to memorize scripture. They offer incentives for doing so, like candy and other little gifts. Usually each night (I think Wednesday is typical but not always) is a "theme." So one week will be Hawaiian night and the next will be Pajama night or whatever.

Here ya go: (from a Q & A about AWANA):

If you want details, there is a semi-official statement on the topic of what churches may host an AWANA youth group, and how AWANA deals with doctrinal differences, that an AWANA representative posted to one of their internal forums (read the whole thread for some context):

In March 2001, Awana reaffirmed its roots by readopting the original doctrinal statement. It was and is a strong positive declaration of what we believe. At the same time, recognizing the autonomy of the local church, we made a procedural change by switching from chartering to registering churches. The term “charter” had taken on the appearance that churches were joining something when in fact, they were merely agreeing to our doctrinal position and affirming they would teach our materials with out addition or omission.

The registration process does essentially the same thing. Note the following statement taken from the current registration form. “The Awana program and materials are available to all Bible believing churches, who in good faith understanding of our doctrinal basis will teach the doctrines of the program materials in their entirety. We allow the church to make an informed independent decision.”


At the same time, motivated by our desire to make a strong positive declaration of “who we are,” a couple of policy statements were dropped. These addressed issues we believe a para-church organization should leave to the local church. However, this in no way changed who we are.


Charismatic Churches

Did these changes automatically open the door of Awana to charismatic churches? No. Our doctrinal statement, as previously stated, is a strong positive declaration of who we are. Our clubber materials reflect and amplify that document. A true charismatic church will have a tough time agreeing to teach our positions on the baptism of the Spirit, security of the believer, inspiration of the scripture (complete and final authority) and current ministry of the Holy Spirit. Why would a genuine charismatic church sign an agreement that obligates them to teach something they do not believe?

What happens if the church violates the registration agreement? Nothing until the violation becomes known and documented. We have no desire to be policemen. We rely, and have always relied, upon the integrity of the local church, and that’s the way it should be. When individuals or churches voluntarily enter an agreement, it’s always their integrity that is at stake.

For more info: [email protected]

callalily61 said:

You guys are terrific! Thanks for all this info--my goal is simply not to distarct the reader when the pastor says AWANA is meeting in his church along with choir practice when the vampire and his fiancee come for their pre-marriage sessions.

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Not to worry. I think they'll be much more distracted by the vampire coming for premarital bloodlettincounseling.

I talked to a Pentecostal pastor this morning and asked him about it. He said his church was interested in AWANA, but the organization wouldn't send them the information because of doctrinal differences (don't know what they are). He said many Pentecostal churches have a program called Pioneers which is essentially the same thing. I think you'd be safe by just changing the AWANA reference to Pioneers.