Awana

Summary

Awana is a nondenominational ministry that helps churches worldwide raise children and youth to know, love and serve Christ. Awana provides fully integrated programs for ages 2 to 18, evangelism tools to reach kids and families, biblical discipleship resources that involve parents and churches, healthy mentor and peer relationships and specialized volunteer training. The organization supplies programs, materials and training for nearly 17,000 churches in more than 100 countries. Awana is a nonprofit organization and contributions to it are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. In addition, it is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Contact Information: [ Back to top ]

Organization Details [ Back to top ]

Purpose [ Back to top ]

Awana is a nondenominational ministry that helps churches worldwide raise children and youth to know, love and serve Christ. Awana provides fully integrated programs for ages 2 to 18, evangelism tools to reach kids and families, biblical discipleship resources that involve parents and churches, healthy mentor and peer relationships and specialized volunteer training.

The organization supplies programs, materials and training for nearly 17,000 churches in more than 100 countries.

Awana is a nonprofit organization and contributions to it are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. In addition, it is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Mission Statement [ Back to top ]

Awana uses the following statement to express its mission:

The mission of Awana is to work with our ministry partners in creating and disseminating integrated programs, tools and training that equip leaders to evangelize and disciple children and youth for Christ.

Program Accomplishments [ Back to top ]

Awana Puggles is an enriching program for older 2- and younger 3-year-olds that plants two basic biblical concepts as seeds of faith: We are a unique creation of God and God loves us very much. Awana Puggles teaches toddlers simple lessons through teaching cards, activities, music and more. Volunteers have a leader?s guidebook to help them plan and direct club time and communicate the lesson. Then parents can step in to reinforce the lessons with take-home cards that include ideas to point out God?s work each day. And little details like Awana Puggles T-shirts, puzzles and coloring books make every precious child feel like part of the group.

Cubbies is the Awana club for preschoolers during the two years prior to regular kindergarten, usually 3- and 4-year-olds. Cubbies is unique because it supports and maintains parents as the primary source of spiritual nurturing by directly involving them in the teaching and learning process. Cubbies uses the fundamental Awana elements of games and activities, Bible memorization, handbooks and awards.

Sparks is the Awana club for kindergarten through second grade. Each club meeting has three parts. In Game Time, Sparkies enjoy entertaining games played on the Awana Game Circle. During Green Meadow Time, Sparkies gather for their age-appropriate Bible lesson. During Sparkle Time, clubbers recite Bible verses from memory, complete handbook sections, and earn awards. Sparky, the friendly firefly, appears throughout the Bible-based materials to encourage clubbers to complete their handbook achievements.

The Awana third- through sixth-grade program is Truth & Training (T&T). This exciting program features increased focus on Scripture application, an improved club structure, a colorful new look, fun characters and more.

Trek is the middle-school program for Awana. It is designed to look and feel much different than a children?s club program since youth are in transition to adulthood. Trek features an evangelism focus plus rock-solid Bible-based curriculum and teaching that meets teens right where they are. It also has flexibility built in ? youth pastors can choose to use the entire program or just whatever portions meet their youth ministry?s needs.

Journey is the high-school program from Awana. Journey takes students into a deep, fully committed relationship with Christ through challenging Bible studies, apologetics, service opportunities and more. Journey continues to also help churches reach out to unsaved teens and minister to them wherever they are spiritually. Like Trek, it is developed to be run as a full program or to use whatever parts complement a youth pastor?s ministry.

Awana also features new ministries to support the local church?s efforts to raise kids that know, love and serve Christ:

• Awana at Home equips churches to partner with families by challenging and training parents to be the primary spiritual influencers of their children. By integrating with a church's Awana Clubs program, Awana at Home creates an environment of community and accountability for parents along with opportunities for celebration and support. It also gives parents the tools to establish and execute a plan for spiritually developing their children. Our research supports the key role of parents and shows that Awana can assist the local church in empowering them to raise their kids to have an active, enduring faith and character as adults.
• High Power? Soccer is a new summer outreach ministry. It is a five-day camp designed to attract unsaved children ages 5 to 10 from a church?s community. Its purpose is to reach children with the gospel, connect unsaved parents to your church and help your church usher these unchurched kids into your Awana program that fall.
• Modern-Day Joseph is a national initiative to help parents and churches work together to grow spiritually strong kids for life. Modern-Day Joseph is modeled after Joseph of the Old Testament, who maintained his faith in God and character in spite of challenging circumstances. It features insights for growing kids spiritually, plotting out critical milestones from the toddler years through adolescence to raising a modern-day Joseph while allowing for the uniqueness of each child.

Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]

Awana uses the following to express its Statement of Faith:

THE BIBLE
We believe that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is supernaturally inspired, so that it is inerrant in the original manuscripts and preserved by God in its verbal and plenary inspiration, so that it is a divinely authoritative standard for every age and every life. (Matthew 5:18; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21)

GOD
We believe in one God that eternally exists and reveals Himself in three persons - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - having each the same nature, attributes and perfections, worthy of the same worship and confidence. (Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; John 1:1-2, 14, 10:30, 14:15-17; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

We believe in God as absolute and sole Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and that creation was by divine command, from nothing and not through an evolutionary process. (John 1:3, 10; Acts 17:24-25; Genesis 1:1)

We believe that God, by His sovereign choice and out of love for men, sent Christ into the world to save sinners. (John 3:16; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 John 4:14)

GOD THE SON
We believe that Jesus Christ was fully God in the flesh and fully man, that He was born of a virgin and that He lived a sinless life, in which He taught and performed mighty works and wonders and signs exactly as revealed in the four gospels. We believe that He was crucified, shed His blood, died to pay the penalty for our sins and was raised bodily from the dead on the third day. Forty days later He ascended to the Father's right hand where He is Head of the Church and intercedes for believers. From there He is coming again personally, bodily and visibly to this earth to set up His millennial kingdom. (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; Hebrews 1:1-2, 7:25; Luke 1:30-35; Ephesians 4:8; John 1:1-5, 10-14, 14:3; Colossians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Acts 1:3,11; Revelation 20:4)

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person and is God, possessing all the divine attributes. He convicts of sin, regenerates, indwells, baptizes and seals all believers at the moment of their salvation, filling them in response to yieldedness with the goal of conforming them to the image of Christ. (John 3:5, 16:7-11; Acts 5:3-4; Ephesians 1:13, 4:30, 5:18; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 12:13)

MAN
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam's sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature and became alienated from God. We believe that all men are morally corrupt, and of themselves utterly unable to remedy their lost condition. (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 1:18, 3:23, 5:12; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12)

SALVATION
We believe that salvation is a gift of God and is received by man through personal faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin. We believe that man is justified by grace through faith apart from works and that all true believers, once saved, are kept secure in Christ forever. (Acts 13:38-39; Romans 4:5, 6:23, 8:1, 38-39; John 10:27-29; Ephesians 2:8-9)

THE CHURCH
We believe that the true Church is composed of all persons who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit through saving faith in Jesus Christ; that they are united together in the body of Christ of which He is Lord and Head; and are commissioned for the God-given tasks of worshiping, fellowshipping, teaching, evangelizing and exercising the spiritual gifts. (Acts 2:42,47; Romans 12:5; Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:23-24; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; 2 Corinthians 11:2)

We believe that the establishment and continuance of the local church is clearly taught in the New Testament Scriptures. (Acts 14:27, 20:17, 28-32; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

We believe that the local church is autonomous and free of any external authority or control. (Acts 13:1-4, 20:28; Romans 16:1, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16, 5:4-7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1-4)

THE ORDINANCES
We believe the ordinances for the believer are water baptism by immersion and the Lord's supper as a memorial. They are, however, not to be regarded as a means of salvation. But both of which are an evidence of obedience and fellowship with the Lord. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:38, 41, 8:12, 35-38; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29)

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
We believe that a Christian should walk in holiness and not after the flesh, with the goal of being conformed to the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As a new creation, walking in the Spirit, the Christian learns to grow in faith, in obedience to Scripture, in prayer, in fellowship with the saints and in a life of service. We believe that the Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to have his life evaluated according to his deeds. (Galatians 5:16-26; Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 4:20-24; Hebrews 11:6, 12:1-2; John 17:17; Ephesians 6:18; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

THE SECOND COMING
We believe in the personal, premillennial and imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, of the believer to everlasting glory and the unbeliever to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Titus 2:11-13; John 14:1-6; Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:11-15; 2 Peter 3:10)

History [ Back to top ]

Based in the Chicago area, Awana is a nondenominational ministry offering 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 16,000 churches in the U.S. and internationally.

Awana works with churches from nearly 100 different denominations. It began as a children?s program at the North Side Gospel Center in Chicago in 1941. Lance Latham, North Side?s senior pastor, collaborated with the church?s youth director, Art Rorheim, to develop weekly clubs that would appeal to churched and unchurched kids, lead them to trust Christ for salvation and grow them in enduring faith and service to God.

Other churches learned about the success of the program and inquired about its availability. In 1950, Latham and Rorheim founded Awana as a parachurch organization. By 1960, 900 churches had started Awana programs. By 1972 Awana had begun its first international club. Today children and youth in more than 100 countries participate in Awana programs, and millions of adults are alumni.

The founders of Awana derived the Awana name from the first letters of Approved workmen are not ashamed as taken from 2 Timothy 2:15 of the Bible.

Ministry Needs [ Back to top ]

Awana expresses its ministry needs as follows:

Thousands of churches overseas see Awana as the most effective means for leading kids and families to Jesus Christ. But they can't afford to start and maintain clubs. Thus Adopt-a-Club was started. Individuals, churches, clubs and families can Adopt-a-Club. For just $20 a month, or $240 a year, you can provide 10 children with handbooks, uniforms and awards that enable them to participate in Awana.

In addition to Adopt-a-Club, Awana has begun a Leader-Based Model. Churches can send Awana leaders to a regional conference where Awana will train them to run the program and give them enough resources to operate the ministry without having to depend heavily on products and resources. This enables many churches to start and maintain Awana without having to rely on Adopt-a-Club support. Awana believes the Leader-Based Model will lead to the rapid growth of new clubs worldwide in the years to come. U.S. sponsors can support the Leader-Based Model through a new Sponsor-a-Leader program where initial Awana program start-up materials are provided for a nominal amount of funds. It also allows international churches the freedom to operate their own Awana programs financially independent of outside funding sources.

Research Analysis

Transparency Grade [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com 5 Star Financial Efficiency Ratings [ Back to top ]

Ranking Category	Rating	Overall Rank	Leadership Training Sector
Overall Efficiency Rating		198 of 352	8 of 14
Fund Acquisition Decision		290 of 352	13 of 14
Resource Allocation Decision		150 of 352	5 of 14
Asset Utilization Decision		137 of 352	6 of 14

Shining Light [ Back to top ]