If you have begun to use Awana in the last few years and you have not seen, or used the original Grace in Action handbook, then the following comments will have no context for you as the Grace in Action handbook that you receive, will be in a familiar format to what you have always known. If you have used the original Grace in Action handbook over the last four years, then I hope that this post will help you see and understand some of the revisions that were made to the handbook.
In 2016, Awana began the transition from the former Ultimate Adventure and Ultimate Challenge handbooks to the current Mission series handbooks. The new handbook, named Grace in Action, was received with mixed reviews. Much of the conversation also revolved around the new format (moving from a self paced format to a format where the focus was on one lesson/section per week) as clubs tried to adapt.
Awana received much feedback from Awana leaders about the Grace in Action book. The responses were what would be expected and what they received with a previous change (you can read about that here). In response to some of the feedback, Awana announced that the next book (Evidence of Grace) would be formatted differently along with other updates. Awana also announced that they would be updating the Grace in Action handbook based on the feedback. As I noted in the beginning, if you did not use the original Grace in Action handbook, then you have already seen many of the changes in the other three books and will not see much of a difference in the Updated Grace in Action handbook.
Here are some things that I noticed as I briefly compared the two books.
1) The units now match the other three handbooks. Unit 1 has six section, plus the two in the Start Zone equals eight. Units 2, 3, & 4 each have eight units. This means that Unit 1 has one less section than the original book, and Unit 4 has one more.
2) The AwanaGo sections in the old books (1.7, 2.8, & 3.8 have been eliminated and the AwanaGo sections have been integrated into each section similar to the Discovery of Grace books.
3) So what happened to those sections that used to be AwanaGo sections? They have been updated to be a “regular” section. If you follow the graphic novel portion of the handbook, then you will be glad to know that Awana has added the graphic novel portion to these updated sections. These added panels fit snugly into the overall graphic novel story.
4) Topics (per the table of contents)
- The topics in Unit 1 do not change. Section 1.7 (the AwanaGo section is eliminated)
- Unit 2 topics do not change. One is re-worded. Section 2.4 was “The Bible Teaches us About People from the Past”, and is now “The Bible Teaches us About History”
- Unit 3 topics are unchanged
- Unit 4 has more topic changes.
- Section 4.3 was “Grace to Obey” and is now “Grace to be Humble”
- Section 4.5 was “Grace and Paul” and is now “Grace to be Transformed”
- Section 4.7 is added with the topic “Grace to Persevere”
5) Verses (not including the Gold verses) – many verses remain the same. The following references have been updated.
- Section 1.7 (AwanaGo) is removed. The verse, Deuteronomy 31:6, was moved to section 4.7
- Section 2.5 used to be Psalm 119-9-11, it is now just verse 11
- Section 2.8 (AwanaGo) The verse (Psalm 119:105) is moved to Section 2.7 and now included in the review section
- Section 3.1 was Hebrews 1:3 and is now John 10:30
- Section 3.4 was 1 Corinthians 15:19-20 and is now Romans 6:9
- Section 3.5 was Ephesians 5:1-2 and is now 1 John 2:6
- Section 3.6 was 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 and is now Ephesians 1:7
- Section 3.7 adds Mark 16:15 which is included in the review section
- Section 3.8 (AwanaGo), Philippians 1:12 is removed
- Section 4.1 was Romans 5:1-2 and is now Romans 8:1
- Section 4.2 was Galatians 3:2-2 and is now Galatians 3:11
- Section 4.3 was Titus 3:1 and is now James 4:6
- Section 4.5 was 1 Timothy 1:13-14 and is now 2 Corinthians 5:17
- Section 4.7 added to include Deuteronomy 31:6 which was originally in section 1.7
6) Explore Sections – I looked at just a couple of Explore sections and they have been updated as well.
7) The silver and gold sections are now a part of the section, and no longer in the back of the book.
8) A subtle change and one that was made quietly with the second book released, Evidence of Grace, showed the new direction Awana made mid-stream of introducing the Mission series of handbooks. Something that I referenced as I led breakouts at Awana Conferences in the fall of 2017. The change? By the T&T logo, the words “Ultimate Adventure” have been removed and replaced with “Awana Clubs”. The significance of this is the shift in how the books were to be used. There was no longer a two book system (3rd/4th & 5th/6th grades) but a single book rotation for all grades, 3rd – 6th. This move was also initiated by many clubs who only hold one large group time for all grades.
9) For die hard Awana people, on page 8, the “Super Agents” are no longer listed in the proper order. They used to be shown red, blue, green and yellow from top to bottom. That order has been shuffled and no longer follow the RBGY pattern.
10) Awana is human and not perfect. There may be typos and minor errors. I did notice that the page numbers in the table of contents do not line up with the sections. The page numbers are off (short) by four. The introductory pages may have thrown the numbers off.
If you participate in Bible quizzing, check with your local quiz coordinator as the updated handbook may be different enough (from my initial perspective) that a quiz covering both books in the same quiz may not be feasible. It will depend on how your area chooses to hold the quiz. I will have a better understanding of that when I update the quiz guides for Grace in Action 2020.
Overall, with a surface look at the updated handbook, I am pleased with what Awana has done with this update. They identified areas to be tweaked and responded to feedback from churches, as they stated they would over three years ago. They also have the updated materials on the shelf and available to ship now. No delays as there have been in previous years. I ordered my updated handbooks, small group guide, and large group guide, receiving all items from stock in a timely fashion (less than a week from order to delivery).
Since I have been able to get the resources now, watch for verse cards in early July and quiz guides available by the end of July. I hope these resources will benefit you and your club in the upcoming year.
Thanks to Tim and Sherry Thomas (Awana Missionaries in Wisconsin) you can download an overall scope and sequence of the updated Grace in Action (including verses in the Gold sections) – Updated Grace in Action Scope and Sequence
