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A History of AWANA’s Contemplative Tract Record and the Implications of Their New CEO


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A History of AWANA’s Contemplative Tract Record and the Implications of Their New CEO

For over a decade  now, Lighthouse Trails editors have been concerned about the direction that the AWANA children’s club is heading. Today, in this report, we want to first give an overview of our past decade of reporting on AWANA, and then we want to share some new information that should concern every parent and […]

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And this is just one more glaring example of why Independent Baptist is of such importance. Associations and conventions are unscriptural and always result in an ungodly downward spiral leading to outright subversion of Christians.

 1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

 2Ti 2:16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. 

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I know a few churches which still use AWANA wisely. They use the KJB version, they go over the material before using it so they can separate any chaff from the wheat. They also have kept the old AWANA material for reference where it may be needed in the future.

That said, most churches adopt the most current, MV using form of AWANA, using no discernment, presenting all the material as given. That's a choice they make based upon the fact that's the direction their church is already heading. Most churches are going this bad direction.

We've had a few visitors to our church tell us our services would be much better if we had a worship band, if we didn't spend so much time in opening prayer, if we didn't take time to read the entire passage of Scripture being preached from that day. This coming from professing Christians.

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1 hour ago, John81 said:

We've had a few visitors to our church tell us our services would be much better if we had a worship band, if we didn't spend so much time in opening prayer, if we didn't take time to read the entire passage of Scripture being preached from that day. This coming from professing Christians.

If they had no eyes to see with nor ears to hear with and left, good riddance, you don't need that leaven in your congregation.  

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4 hours ago, swathdiver said:

If they had no eyes to see with nor ears to hear with and left, good riddance, you don't need that leaven in your congregation.  

They didn't like our pastors answer that church wasn't meant to be entertaining. He told them he could bring in clowns and a full band to put on a show for an hour and draw a crowd but that wouldn't be church...it wouldn't be what people need...it wouldn't be pleasing to the Lord.

He told them if they were only interested in feeling good and having a fun time our church wouldn't be a good fit for them, but if they were interested in learning the truth of the Bible, about salvation and life in Christ they were welcome.

They never returned.

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10 hours ago, John81 said:

We've had a few visitors to our church tell us our services would be much better if we didn't take time to read the entire passage of Scripture being preached from that day.

One of my sons, when dealing with a long passage, will sometimes say-- "For the sake of time, I'm going to read the whole (chapter, passage, etc)."

Sometimes it takes folks a moment to actually catch what he said.

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It is indeed sad to see the direction AWANA has gone. We have a good friend who knew the founder of AWANA quite well as a child, and got his start memorizing scripture from the man. He now has a memorization ministry of his own.

The church we attended in IN used AWANA when we first moved there. I remember when they started using mv's and how frustrated the leader was at times because if you didn't specify KJB, you'd get the mv. I think that actually happened to him once, before he knew they were switching over. I'm not sure which year it was, but the church eventually quit using AWANA and began using Master Club. I don't know if someone at the church wrote what they are using, or if they use the actual Master Club. Whatever they are using, it is a much better program, IMO.

When I was younger, we had pioneer girls. It was the same basic idea. When I got a little older, I participated in AWANA for a year or so. Thinking back, I liked pioneer girls better. Could have been because there were only girls. I can't remember what the boys' group was called.

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Our local church doesn't use any of those organizations, our people have their own in house program that bears much fruit.

 

I haven't particularly cared for AWANA in the past nine years but one booklet/video of theirs had a lasting effect on my youngest daughter and it was on the subject of meekness.  The effect it had on her made a lasting impact on me too.  That was during our foray into the rock-n-roll Calvary Chapel "church". 

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The local church has all it needs to implement any kind of ministry. They have it in the form of the Holy Spirit. There is no need for any outside material. Some may lament that there are just not enough good teachers to go around. This is a shame and speaks directly to pastors not teaching and training their members to take on extra ministries.

If we are teaching the Whole counsel of God there should be no lack of people well trained in The Word. These kind of churches need to get back to the old ways that we see outlined in the N.T. "Feel good" sermons and lessons that have no teaching content only serve to weaken already weak Christians.

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8 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

The local church has all it needs to implement any kind of ministry. They have it in the form of the Holy Spirit. There is no need for any outside material. Some may lament that there are just not enough good teachers to go around. This is a shame and speaks directly to pastors not teaching and training their members to take on extra ministries.

If we are teaching the Whole counsel of God there should be no lack of people well trained in The Word. These kind of churches need to get back to the old ways that we see outlined in the N.T. "Feel good" sermons and lessons that have no teaching content only serve to weaken already weak Christians.

This came up in Sunday school yesterday. One of the members of our class is a former pastor (he now serves as a fill-in pastor for some area churches when needed) and he brought up how churches used to be diligent to teach and instruct members in the Word so they could do likewise. He said he sees very little of that anymore and that's one of the reasons for the mess so many churches are in. He said our church and one other are the only ones in the area which actually trains up members for leadership and teaching roles within the church. Most church simply say, "hey, we need a Sunday school teacher for fifth graders, anyone want to do this?", and then whoever volunteers gets the job whether they are called, capable or prepared for such or not.

Shortly after our pastor started at this church he began a men's Bible study which has since reaped much fruit. Most of the men currently in leadership positions have come forth from those who faithfully attended that class for years.

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I agree that churches should  be teaching people. I disagree that materials must all emanate from within the individual church. Bibles don't...

If someone has written something that is biblical, there is no harm using it in a teaching format. But the key must be: is it biblical. And that is the responsibility of the leadership of the church to ensure. 

(That said, if individual churches have the wherewithal to create ways to teach different groups in their church, that is, IMO, the best way to go.)

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