Presented by Mary Glover, Awana Missionary – Indiana
Start with PRAYER
- Sometimes a Leader
- Sometimes a Clubber
- Take Prayer Request
Sing
- Songs with Motions work out wiggles
- Go from fast pace to slow
- Keep them about the Lord
- Remember the goal: To help them listen
Story/Lesson
- Age appropriate
- Relate to Sparky
- Use Visuals
- Keep It Simple – Use your eyes, voice, hands and body language. Enjoy the lesson with them.
Give the Gospel
- Without the gospel being presented, you haven’t had Awana
- Keep the invitation short
- Close with prayer
Awards
- Have lots of praise
- Only present to those in uniform all night
Be sure to tell EACH CLUBBER good-bye, hello
- It tells them they were noticed
- It tells them they will be missed
- They need to know they are important
Bible Story Alternatives
- Bible Drills with a theme
- Question Night – have questions submitted 2 or 3 weeks before hand
- Bible Quiz Night – lots of notice so they can study up. Include all handbooks
- Act out a story. This is a greater review method. Use a clubber for each character and have them act out the story. Change clubbers and do it again.
- Guest Missionary
The hardest part of our Sparks large group time is giving out awards at the very end of the night (new badges, book completion, jewels). How have you found the best way to do this? Our club has about 70 clubbers so trying to get them all to sit relatively still and quiet enough to hear names called out for awards is the most difficult part of the night.
we started collecting vest while they go to game time and putting awards on then.. we give back vest as they come then have them stand up for each award for a round of applause. So all the green jewel recipients names are called and we clap, then red, ect.
Cathy, thank you soooo much, that tip is genius!
I have a question about this too. Our Awana nights are about two hours, and it seems that doing the large group time (with our Bible story then) seems not to work well. Has anyone tried doing the Bible lesson first instead of last? I have Sparks, and by the time we get to Bible story, the kids are just too all-over-the-place. Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Any suggestions?
We set up a separate table during Handbook time and as each earns a jewel or patch they come to us with their books and we put them on at that time. Then during Counsel time at the end we recognize each clubber by color group, that received an award. We try to leave at least 5 min. at the end for this.