I am compelled to share my thoughts one more time, this time to explain why my heart breaks for Awana at this time
A Heart That Breaks
My heart breaks for Awana because of the shipping issues they are facing.
My heart breaks for Awana because of the many clubs who began the year without needed materials.
My heart breaks for Awana because there are many “Monday morning quarterbacks” sharing how Awana should run.
A Bigger Picture
The question becomes, is Awana a business or a ministry. The answer is both.
Recently there were some comments posted in Facebook groups that I would like to address. Not to “call out the person”, but to try to give a bigger picture.
First, a comment was made that if Awana was a business that it would be out of business. A comment of frustration due to the shipping issues. Let’s think about that for a minute. Just let that sink in. It is true, that Awana could be out of business.
Do we want Awana to go out of business? Again I re-iterate that there is no excuse for the distribution issues and Awana is not making excuses. They are doing what they can to rectify it. Many have offered grace, but that does not mean that it does not leave a scar. Here are some facts (this is public knowledge).
In 2017, Awana reported having 9,760 clubs in the United States reaching 673,440 children. (source)
In 2018 those numbers dropped to 9,274 clubs reaching 630,632 children. (source)
That is a 5% drop in one year. Numbers from 2019 have not yet been released.
Awana knows that this trend cannot continue and that this distribution issue will cost them in clubs (i.e. customers). Awana is not solely relying on the forgiveness and grace offered by churches, it knows that it must run the business well or its customer base will erode and the ministry will cease to exist. There needs to be a good balance of ministry and business. Without a solid business plan in today’s world, there will be no ministry.
Another comment was advising that Awana should go digital now. Awana released portions of handbooks and resources in pdf format to help clubs during this time (i.e. a digital solution). They note that Awana would be relying on clubs purchasing the actual number of copies that they would be using and if there was ever a group of people that could be trusted it was Awana people.
Well, I do not want to call Awana leaders a bunch of thieves, but human nature is real and there are clubs who currently copy handbooks and materials and if it was made easier (providing pdfs), then there are those who would get one copy and reproduce several for the cost of one. Then the well meaning leaders would share their pdf with others. People prefer free especially when budgets are tight. I know this because I can show statistics from my website. Many like my site because of the free resource sharing. For the few files where I have put in many hours to develop and suggest a donation, several opt to not donate even though it saves them many hours of work and they can reproduce as many copies as they need for their club. There have also been discussions in other Facebook groups that once they purchase and download an item, then they can reproduce and use it as much as they want without regard for terms of use. While many will be upright and honest, one cannot run a business on the “honor system”.
I agree that Awana should look into a digital option, and they have, and continue to do so. They would need to offer a digital and a print option for several reasons which I will not delve into in this post. To see a bigger picture of Awana’s attempt to enter the “digital age”, we need to go back to January of 2015 when I attended the Children’s Pastors’ Conference and sat in on a session by Awana where they shared about the “Club Tech” tools that they were developing. It was to be rolled out in three phases.
- Phase 1 was for the leader and would include training, ideas, and record keeping ability.
- Phase 2 would be rolled out for parents to help them as they disciple their children and help them in Awana.
- Phase 3 which was shared was for the child, digital handbooks. You can read my post about that here.
This club tech initiative was later called Mozo. Mozo was not fully embraced, nor utilized, as anticipated by the local club. Security issues were questioned and it did not live up to original expectations; though still a valuable resource for the clubs who used it. Consequently, Mozo was scrapped.
Do you realize that only a small percentage of clubs utilize record keeping databases in their clubs? Most use paper and pencil and their is nothing wrong with that method.
So as we look at the bigger picture, we can realize that Awana knows that without wise decisions that it can cease to exist, and while we may not see the fruits of their labor yet, Awana has been looking at digital options for several years; but will enough clubs embrace it to make it a wise business decision?
The Challenge
With an increased amount of resources for children’s ministry in the United States, and many being low cost or free, churches are screaming for lower prices. Awana responds as they are able, sometimes at a greater cost to themselves.
I am confused by people who post in Facebook groups seeking a midweek program, something like Awana, but not Awana.
Awana had large group time and small group time before it was the current trend. They were called handbook time and council time.
Awana has been the standard by which many other publishers and youth leaders copied.
Awana has been blessed by God because of it’s focus on Scripture and the Gospel.
Awana, globally and in the local church, has had an impact on millions of lives.
May this impact and blessing never end.
Yes Awana is a business and must be run soundly. Awana is not perfect. Neither am I.
If Awana continues to have these struggles, then I, like you, would need to look at how it is impacting my local ministry and make a business – oops, ministry – decision about whether to continue using Awana. As for now, I will weather this storm with Awana and pray that the ship makes it through and is stronger and steadier than before.
When business mixes with ministry it can get ugly. There needs to be a good balance. May we pray for the leadership of Awana that they will have the wisdom, courage (because any change, update, etc, they make is met with harsh criticism by leaders in local clubs), and faith to take the necessary steps to move forward.
A Call to Prayer
Awana needs our prayers. Awana had a day of prayer at their global headquarters a while ago. I want to call everyone who has seen how God uses Awana to join me in prayer on Sept 30, 2019 to pray for Awana. A time of earnest, sincere prayer (James 5:16b) for Awana.
Why September 30th? The start of a new week, the start of a new month, praying for Awana as they move out of these turbulent waters into a fresh start after the storm.
I would ask you to pray for the following:
- the leadership of Awana by name: Valerie Bell, Matt Markins, Kevin White, Brian Rhodes, Chris Marchand to name a few.
- for wise decisions at Awana and in the local club
- for a renewed focus on the Gospel and reaching children and youth
- for God to bring Awana out of this difficult time better, stronger, more focused on Him.
- that Satan will not have the victory in this “storm”.
- that we, the local club and leaders, may see a bigger picture of Awana and the impact it is having around the world.
Are you willing to join me on September 30, 2019 to prayer specifically for Awana?
If so, watch for more details and information over the next week.
(Please do not see this post as “doom and gloom” for Awana. The last few months have been difficult for Awana due to the distribution issues and I felt the need to share a bigger picture of what Awana has tried to satisfy their customer, the churches, during this time. They are working hard to resolve the shipping issues. They have not sat idle and I truly believe that they will come out stronger and better.)
Thank you for your balanced approach and the reminder to be in prayer for Awana leadership. Whenever there have been issues, Awana staff has bent over backwards to make things right, even providing discounts or free replacements when errors have been made. That extends to this recent issue as well. The staff I have dealt with have continued to be kind and helpful even in the midst of their own frustration with the issues. They do indeed ask for prayer whenever I have occasion to speak with them. May we support them in prayer, but also help them to be accountable in love.
First off, Bill, thanks for taking the time to do this.
Second, we had our Awana Ministry Training Conference last weekend for our church. We hosted our own internal conference for a multitude of reasons. We still have directors that will attend regional conferences as well and I encouraged anyone that wanted to go to do so and our church would cover the cost of the conference registrations. We think it is that important to network with other churches.
We were blessed to have an Awana headquarters employee attend our conference. We had a long and good chat along with our missionaries. It was a good time of sharing and planning.
Along with the good there is always the bad. That bad is how Awana customer service representatives are being treated by those who have orders that are in shambles. People. Those CSR’s have NOTHING to do with the issues that you are experiencing. They want nothing more then for you to have your club up and running. By treating them in an unkind and unGodly manner is wrong.
My profession requires constant training and reading lots of material. All of my material gets delivered via PDF to readers that require a code to unlock the PDF. That code is fee based. Awana can deliver their product digitally, they can still maintain a decent revenue stream for the materials that they developed and they lower the ability for sharing the product which causes them to loose revenue. They can also significantly lower their production costs because color printing is very expensive.
Awana is being very open and accountable for it’s ministry. It is doing the same for it’s business. Yes, as Bill mentioned, there are two distinct personalities to an organization like Awana. It’s the wise person who realizes that their strengths are in diagnosing a poor performing engine and correcting it just by listening to it and hiring an accountant to manage the money. Awana is no different. They have business people to manage the business side of the house and they have ministry minded people to manage the evangelism side. You can bet that they also meet to discuss how each needs the other to be successful.
People need to hear about Jesus. Children need to have their worldview developed at an early age and the best there is is the biblical world view. There’s not a better organisation that can make that happen then Awana.
Be part of the solution. Don’t be the nail in the tire.
As always, I appreciate your perspective and sincere recommendations. Yes, the current issue is disappointing, frustrating, inconvenient. Our mission hasn’t changed though, because the gospel is never-changing. Inadequate distribution and lack of digital products are a first world problem. Satan would love to divide, distract, and defeat. This challenge is a perfect opportunity to grow in our faith as well as competence. AWANA is an amazing, reputable ministry that offers incredible resources for our own local ministries’ training and service. I agree that they deserve our trust, patience, respectful suggestions and requests, and most of all – prayers.
Thank you for your words of wisdom & encouragement. Yes. I will join you in prayer. I am praying for them, but need to pray more. I have loved the Awana program. I haven’t agreed with all the changes in recent years, but thought that the leadership wouldn’t have made those changes without careful prayers and seeking God’s will. We are still a pencil & paper club. I work with websites at work and use digital media, but there are always issues. I looked at Mozo, but I wasn’t super impressed. The paper records have worked great for us until this year, when we haven’t even been able to get those. I had to create something quickly to keep our records based on what we have always ordered from Awana. I work in education and have mixed feelings on technology with children. I think we have to teach them to use technology as it will always be in their future, but I think alot of kids still prefer a paper copy. Our kids love having their own workbook and they do a great job of keeping up with it for the most part. Even, if they offer a digital version, I think I would still purchase the books. Praying for Awana’s leadership team.