Last year, I felt the need to lead a workshop at fall conferences entitled “Size Doesn’t Matter”. It was geared toward the smaller Awana club. As the attendees entered the workshop, I quickly realized that club size is relative.
I went through the group having them introduce themselves and club size. There was my club which began in the basements of homes with maybe a dozen children and now had maybe an average of 24 Cubbies – 5th grade. And the club sizes varied up to clubs of 100’ish!!
In preparation of the workshop, I asked the commander of one of the largest Awana clubs in the USA what his struggles and his joys were and I think you’ll be surprised at his response.
Let’s look at Big/Mega vs Small clubs:
- Big and small churches struggle and compete for space for the ministry
- Big and small churches struggle to find enough volunteers
- Big churches try to be small (small groups) and small churches try to be big (for fellowship)
- The way leaders build relationships with the clubbers is key
- Big and small clubs rejoice when kids come to know Jesus
- The smile of a child encourages leaders of both big and small clubs
So don’t be concerned about the size of your club, focus on the children in your club, no matter the size, God can touch their hearts through you.
A hand full of kids, who come regularly, can be very rewarding to teach. There is an intimacy and “up-close-and-personal” feeling when a small group meet regularly. This is not always possible for a teacher who has many children and is physically at a distance from them when teaching.
My colleague and I have taught up to 300 children at a time, but love the more intimate sessions with small groups.
God bless every kidmin worker, whether they have 5, 50 or 500 kids! You are all valuable in the work of God and every individual child is precious.
Thanks, Bill, for encouraging those of us who have the “handfulls” of children, rather than the “hallfulls”!
I’m teaching Cubbies for the first time and many nights the only Cubbie is my own child! Other nights there are two. We prepare the same as if there were ten. The message of the gospel (planting and watering) is the most important thing of all, big or small.
Thank you, Commander Bill, for all your help and for the many AWANA workers out there!
Do We Have a Walmart View of Ministry? | Kidmin1124
[…] will the future church look like? As I’ve noted on one of my blog posts on CommanderBill.net (Big vs. Small – Is there a difference?), big churches try to be small with small groups, and small churches try to get big. So where is […]