You may have heard our big announcement that we are launching a new program for kids on Wednesday nights at Berean called Team KID. We are incredibly excited about how this new program will help us to walk alongside kids in their discipleship process and partner with parents and families. But why the new program?
Why are we changing what we do with children on Wednesday nights?
As a church, we want to make sure that in all areas we are doing the best that we can to proclaim the gospel, build disciples, and minister to people. These three things may sound easy to accomplish, but they are large endeavors that incorporate all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. In proclaiming the gospel, we want to reach the person down the street and the person half-way around the world. That involves a lot of different strategies, efforts, resources, leadership, and volunteers. And that is just with one area! As our world and culture change around us, we want to make sure that we maintain an unwavering commitment to Scripture and its truth. We must also be nimble and able to adjust to better accomplish the mission of the church within the current climate.
So much of what we do in our churches is through programs.
Some people love programs and others hate them. Programs in and of themselves are neither good nor bad. What matters is the goal that the program is trying to accomplish, if it is helping the goal to be accomplished, and if it is the best means for accomplishing this goal. So as leaders, we have to constantly be looking at the mission of the church, stewarding our resources in engaging this mission, and trying to be as effective as we can in accomplishing our goals. That means as our culture and environment change around us, we have to be willing to change and do something different. The old way is no longer effective or a new approach will be more effective.
Change is never easy.
Personally I hate when things change in my life. I like things to stay comfortable and the way that I have always enjoyed them. However, we all know that this isn’t always healthy. For example, I used to have an incredibly high metabolism. I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted without any consequences of gaining unhealthy weight. Times have changed. Now it matters what I eat, when I eat it, and how much of it I eat. (Ugh!) I wish that things could be the way they were before, but that no longer makes sense. My body has changed, so I have to make changes in order to remain healthy. (Again, ugh!)
One thing will never change, and that is God and the truth of his Word.
That is our guiding light. It sets our course and direction. It gives us the boundaries to walk in. It gives us the lens to look through and see our world and the ministry we have been called to. Everything around us continues to change and with that means we will approach the same things with a different strategy.
Awana has been a part of the discipleship strategy of kids at Berean for a long time. It has helped to produce a lot of fruit in the lives of the younger generation. I grew up in Awana myself. I learned a lot about God and memorized a lot of Scripture. The years that we have poured into the lives of kids through this program are to be celebrated. Now we feel it is time for a change. Is it because Awana is no longer good or that something has changed making it bad? No. It is simply because we think that we can make some changes to how we have been ministering to kids and families. This will help us to better accomplish our mission of discipling the younger generation.
We are super excited about Team KID.
We think it will be more engaging, more focused, better for families and volunteers, and ultimately will fit better into our overall discipleship strategy. We will miss Awana. We will continue to celebrate how God used that program during the years we had it at Berean. We also look forward to celebrating the fruit we see in the lives of kids as they are discipled through both the church and the home during the years to come.
We hope that if you have kids in the range of age 4 through grade 3 that your family will engage in
Team KID.
Tags: discipleship, children, wednesday, awana, team kid
