Awana is about to celebrate 75 years of ministry, and because of that, it is a well known organization. With that much history, there are many misconceptions about Awana that are shared. Over the next few posts, I will look at some of the common misconceptions, or myths, that I have heard others have about Awana.
The first myth to be addressed: my church is to small to have Awana.
If you are member of any children’s ministry or Awana group on Facebook, then you may get the impression that all Awana Clubs have one hundred or more children, and that y friends is simply not true. Though how you view the size of your Awana Club, or church, is subjective and may be perceived by the churches around you and your area of the country (United States). Not long ago someone posted in a children’s ministry group that their children’s ministry was on the smaller size, only around 100 or so kids! I have taught breakouts at Awana conferences on small Awana clubs and have leaders from churches with anywhere from a few children to about 100!
How many children would you say is a small Awana club?
To “bust” this myth, I am going to give two examples from two different extremes.
The first example is my own situation. When our church was planted, they sought a strong children’s ministry and Awana was to be a part of it. I left the church where I led an Awana club of 100+ children from Cubbies to what is now T&T (through 6th grade) to help plant this church where I would now lead a club of about 10 children, mainly Cubbies and Sparks. That was 20 years ago. Currently, the church has between 30 – 40 people (total adults, youth, and children) and our Awana club currently has six children who regularly attend. Would you say that my church is too small for an Awana club?
While we do not have everything a larger club might have, we have children who are learning God’s Word and coming to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus. An interesting side note: four of the six children in our Awana Club do not attend our church on Sunday mornings and their families are not members of our church!
The second example actually surprised me. I was teaching a breakout on small churches with Awana in Ohio. As I went around the room asking the size of their church and their Awana club, one leader shared that they had more children attending their Awana club than they had total people attending on a typical Sunday morning! Other churches in the area opted to stop offering Awana and so they began to attend this church’s Awana Club! This church could have limited the size of their club, but instead, opted to reach more children with the Gospel of Jesus Christ via Awana.
In both examples the churches did not say, “we are too small for Awana”. Instead, they said we will use Awana to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ so children can come to know, love, and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we would say that these churches are using Awana to disciple children so they will Belong, Believe, and Become more like Jesus.
The size of the church is irrelevant. Awana can be an effective tool to disciple children in churches of every size.
If you are interested in how Awana runs in my small church, then please contact me. I would be glad to share with you.
We dropped from average of about 70 to 30 over past 13 years. We are a small church
Even though we know the reason for most part it has concerned us.
However, as you stated we feel that the kids that are coming benefit. Having said that , I’m always looking for ways to build
Our church has between 12-18 clubbers each Wednesday night. About 5 of those clubbers don’t attend church anywhere. It can be done and it’s worth it!