Awana

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Elliott

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My 4 yr. old daughter went to awana with her cousin. She loved it. My wife thought it would be ok if she went regularly. I’m not so sure. I looked at the website and obviously its doctrinal statement was fundamentalist. Do any of you have experience with awana? Are they trying to save the poor Catholic children?
 
Awana may call itself “non-denominational Christian” but it is very much Protestant. It is very Bible-based and uses Protestant editions of the Bible. So the number of books and the order of books in the Bible will be based on the Protestant Bible which has fewer books than our Catholic Bible. At a minimum, this can cause confusion for Catholic children. Because Awana is “Bible based”, the program will stress Protestant beliefs–such as the Bible being the only authority (and not the Pope or the Catholic Church) and Christ as the only intermediary to God (and not the communion of saints). A 4 year old probably won’t catch many of these theological differences. But why start something that may become problematic later (as she gets older)?
 
They do what they do really well (and I mean that genuinely). And what they do is preach the Protestant salvific and sola scriptura method and get the kids fired up and in the church in order to reach their whole family.

Kids her age will be memorizing hand-chosen (and out of context) Bible verses and given a Protestant sermon on why they learned it. They will be told how important the Bible is to the exclusion of all else. If they know of your daughter’s connection to Catholicism (or any other child’s in the room), they will preach against the church in a direct and an indirect manner. They will have get-togethers with other Protestants (none of whom will pray “Catholic” prayers or make the sign of the cross, and the prayers themselves could likely include heresy and a request for conversion of Catholics).

What you will see when she comes home is a happy kid who did an art project, played some basketball, read a little Bible (and even memorized a verse!) and hung out with friends. What you won’t see is the direct undermining of her faith that will be taking effect. By 6, she will be strongly pressured to walk “Romans Road” and “be saved.” All her little friends will be doing it. And they’ll be going off to Bible Camp where they preach anti-Catholicism long and hard. And even when they aren’t trying, they will be telling her wrong doctrine that will be shaping her spiritual formation that you won’t even know to be battling until she’s already taken some Protestant notion on and presented it to you as fact. Then you are in the position of telling her that all her little friends and all their parents are wrong AND of unteaching it to her.

Or, you face the dilemma of telling her next year, after she’s established friendships and gotten hooked, that you won’t send her back.

Why put yourselves in this situation all for an arts and crafts project and some juice and crackers? I say it isn’t worth it!
 
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Forest-Pine:
They do what they do really well (and I mean that genuinely). And what they do is preach the Protestant salvific and sola scriptura method and get the kids fired up and in the church in order to reach their whole family.

Kids her age will be memorizing hand-chosen (and out of context) Bible verses and given a Protestant sermon on why they learned it. They will be told how important the Bible is to the exclusion of all else. If they know of your daughter’s connection to Catholicism (or any other child’s in the room), they will preach against the church in a direct and an indirect manner. They will have get-togethers with other Protestants (none of whom will pray “Catholic” prayers or make the sign of the cross, and the prayers themselves could likely include heresy and a request for conversion of Catholics).

What you will see when she comes home is a happy kid who did an art project, played some basketball, read a little Bible (and even memorized a verse!) and hung out with friends. What you won’t see is the direct undermining of her faith that will be taking effect. By 6, she will be strongly pressured to walk “Romans Road” and “be saved.” All her little friends will be doing it. And they’ll be going off to Bible Camp where they preach anti-Catholicism long and hard. And even when they aren’t trying, they will be telling her wrong doctrine that will be shaping her spiritual formation that you won’t even know to be battling until she’s already taken some Protestant notion on and presented it to you as fact. Then you are in the position of telling her that all her little friends and all their parents are wrong AND of unteaching it to her.

Or, you face the dilemma of telling her next year, after she’s established friendships and gotten hooked, that you won’t send her back.

Why put yourselves in this situation all for an arts and crafts project and some juice and crackers? I say it isn’t worth it!
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Unfortunately I agree, I loved Awana as a kid but it was very Fundamentalist, which does pose a problem if you wish to create a Catholic culture in your home.
I only wish there was an equivalent Catholic version. There’s K4J, which is very good, but it’s not as widespread. Chances are you’d have to start one yourself in your own parish, and that can be a tall order if you aren’t feeling called to do that much work.
 
OK, I gave up Catholic Answers for Lent but saw this and felt I needed to reply. I have a NONdenom. friend whom I have known for approx. 6 years. After nearly 4 yrs. of close friendship I figured out that she had the motive to convert my family from Catholocism to her church. It was a painful loss of friendship for me, because when she finally figured out that we would never leave the Catholic Church, she gave up on our friendship. Her children were in AWANAS and, trust me, it was Protestant in the true meaning of the word, as in non-Catholic, Un- Catholic and sometimes even ANTI- Catholic. I could go into alot of detail, but won’t here. You daughter’s participation ***may ***not have any problems or consequences, they might never say anything negative about the Catholic Church, members of the Church might not try to convert your family, and talk trash about you and your religion behind your back, or even to your face. On the other hand you might have a similar experience to mine. I wanted to believe that the members of my friend’s nondenom. church would respect my religious beliefs, but their whole belief centers on their own Biblical interpretations which change with the wind and at all costs, must never point the way to the Catholic Church being the one true church, or even legitimate Christianity. It took four years for me to realize that my friend didn’t even consider me Christian, because she was trying, with all Christian Charity and patience to convert my family. Towards the end, the charity was running dry and the final day of our close friendship consisted of her explaining that neither Greek Orthodox or Catholics are Christian. She pulled out all the stops including Mary Worship, Superstition, “inventing” fake Scripture and adding books to the Bible, That my children would eventually be molested by priests, etc. etc. etc. All these things were said after years of her asking questions and me answering them carefully. It was then that I realized that she was asking rhetorical questions for 4 years and not listening to my answers at all.

If you want your children to remain Catholic DO NOT send them to a Protestant school, club or youth group. You have no way of knowing how much of their faith will be undermined, and once it is, you will have a challenge in front of you, in trying to repair the damage. If your child needed to see a dentist you wouldn’t send them to a gynocologist, If you want to pass on the treasure of the Catholocism to your children, don’t trust Protestants to teach them. We can’t blame Protestants if they teach Catholic Children what they believe, that is their mission and most believe with all their hearts that Catholocism is false doctrine. It’s like asking a dog to be a cat, and then blaming the poor dog when it barks, instead of meowing like you hoped it would. (BTW, I like both dogs and cats! I chose “cat” for Catholic because they sound similar)
 
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Elliott:
My 4 yr. old daughter went to awana with her cousin. She loved it. My wife thought it would be ok if she went regularly. I’m not so sure. I looked at the website and obviously its doctrinal statement was fundamentalist. Do any of you have experience with awana? Are they trying to save the poor Catholic children?
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Directors of AWANA programs often actively encourage their students to bring non-churched or non-Christian friends (which, depending on the church in which it is being held, could mean Catholic) to their activities in an attempt to convert them to their vision of Christianity. They’re often very fun, and quite appealing to (especially) younger children, while in contrast, Mass and catechism can seem quite dull and un-fun. This is only my opinion, but if I were a Catholic parent, I would use caution.
 
I thought I would pop in and give you my perspective.

I am a Baptist who attended AWANAs from K-8th grade. I really think it depends on the church. I have no doubt some of the previous posters are right on about some churches. The one I went to (as well as I can remember) would be fine to send your children too, as long as you are ready to explain a few thing along the way. (yes, they will learn the wrong number of books in the bible… but hey, they will be able to name all but seven of them from memory… you can help them with the other seven later)
By the time I was in 8th grade I could quote unbelievable amounts of scripture. I would absolutely send my child/children (who are being raised Catholic) to an AWANA program. However, I would also attend with them and hover in the background for a while to make sure nothing crazy was going on. I want my kids to know scripture the way I did, and while my family was hardcore at the bible studies etc. I would have never memorized that many scriptures just doing it at home with the family.

Our AWANA program had three parts. A small bible lesson, game time and verse time. The bible lessons were bible lesson, the same ones that you have in your Catholic bible. David and Goliath, Jonah and the big fish… etc. Game time, was great. They have certain games you practice and then have an AWANA Olympics. Churches from all over get together and compete against one another. It was awesome as a kid. Then there was verse time. We studied until we knew the verse, then said it to the teacher… If we made less than two mistakes, she signed off.

Later I realized, they never taught us how to apply those scriptures, which I thought was a downfall… but now, since I want my child to go to AWANA, it works for our benefit. It is just rote memory. You can teach your child how to apply those verses in a Catholic setting once she gets home. She/he has a workbook, you can go through it with her and make sure everything lines up with Catholic teaching.

The Roman Road etc, was never a big thing at my AWANAs. (now church camp was a totally different story) I just think it depends on the church. When your child is in middle school, things might start getting tough because then you have to complete bible studies to pass parts of your books, but until then, I think AWANAs, in an appropriate church, is an excellent idea.

That is just my thoughts and my experience with one church. Maybe mine was the only church that wasn’t anti-catholic, but I find that hard to believe.

just my thoughts.

RyanL’s Wife
 
Thanks for all the help. I don’t think she should go. I’ll try to convince my wife.
 
One more Awana story: My daughter (now a grown-up) had a friend who brought her to Awana. I went to meet the leaders, who told me what a wonderful little girl I had, bright, could memorize, etc. We got to talking, and somehow “non-believers” came up. And this guy said, “Yeh, like Catholics.” I think my face froze when I told him I was Catholic.

Needless to say, my daughter did not go back to Awana.
 
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OutinChgoburbs:
One more Awana story: My daughter (now a grown-up) had a friend who brought her to Awana. I went to meet the leaders, who told me what a wonderful little girl I had, bright, could memorize, etc. We got to talking, and somehow “non-believers” came up. And this guy said, “Yeh, like Catholics.” I think my face froze when I told him I was Catholic.

Needless to say, my daughter did not go back to Awana.
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Non-believers=Catholics??? GRRRRRRR! :banghead:
 
Before I became Catholic, both my husband and I served as AWANA leaders. My son went all through AWANA and my daughter was a Cubbie & a Sparkie. They memorized so many scriptures… most of which they can still quote.

It is totally Protestant… and the kids are encouraged to “accept Jesus into their hearts.” If the club filled up and we had to make a “wating list” - the unchurched & Catholic kids were always bumped to the top of the list.

I tend to agree with Ryan L.'s wife… it depends on the church. I think we were pretty respectful of the child’s religion… we just wanted to teach Jesus & the Bible. I would probably let my kids go to AWANA again… espeically when they are small. I would just point out the differences in our faith. And since I’ve “been there - done that” I would feel totally comfortable telling their AWANA leader that we did the Evangelical thing & are now 100% happy with our Catholic faith & if they say anything negative - we’re outta here.

It’s too bad that the Catholic Church doesn’t offer anything similar.
 
I think maybe our family dodged a bullet on this one.
My 4 1/2 year old grand daughter obviously has friends from other denominations. But when they ask her to go to groups at other Churches she is able to tell them she has R.E. on Wednesday nights. They sing. They play. They pray. They make crafts. They have snacks. But most of all they learn about Jesus and how much He loves them. And this is done all in a Catholic setting. There are two classrooms for this age group to accomodate all the children.
It’s really a blessing.
 
There is nothing wrong with saying no to invitations. AWANA is not intended to make children Catholic and no Catholic child should generally attend. In a mixed marriage it might be one way to involve the kids in the Protestant parent’s faith life but only if it did not confuse them or be used as an opportunity to convert them. Those are legitimate concerns and should not be taken lightly. The situation described above should stop.

One does not generally send kids to other kids’ grandma’s birthday dinner or family get togethers. That is a good analogy as to why yes we know other kids’ grandmas but we do not celebrate with them in that way. This is why mixed marriages should go to their own church each week and not go back and forth between the two; would you count visiting your MIL on Mother’s Day as visiting your own mother also in town? If it is a snub to Mom what are your saying to the Lord when you miss Mass to go to Protestant worship on Sunday?
 
I don’t think anyone is saying she should miss Mass in order to go to AWANA. Most protestants don’t miss church services to go to AWANA. I think a better analogy might be attending an extracurricular activity at different school than you attend. While again, it depends on the church, my experience with AWANA is basically memorizing scriptures. I don’t see how memorizing scriptures is such a bad thing. It is amazing the amount of scriptures one can retain from their childhood years. Obviously if the kid ends up at a church that is trying to convert them or confuse them, then NO, they shouldn’t attend. But AWANA is in no way replacing Mass. (It would be in addition to.)
 
I was wondering if it was anti-Catholic recently and found this:
awana.org/international/default.aspx?id=672
Obviously, this speaks volumes. Then I stupidly sent the link to a friend whose kids go to Awana and asked her if she believes Catholics do not follow Christ. I truly offended her, and I do believe in my heart that her kids are not learning anti-Catholicism; however, I wish she had considered that this is the obvious belief underlying the umbrella organization which created her kids’ group, and said belief may blossom later into a full-fledged and much more obvious indoctrination. So often, Protestants do not think their church/organization/Bible study is anti-Catholic, but often the message is too subtle for them to pick up or they don’t even know it is anti-RC because they don’t know what our church teaches. Either way, I would be reluctant to let my kids be a part of a group in any way or at any age that thinks you and your children do not follow Christ.
 
Thanks again. My wife agrees with me now. The little one won’t become a cubby.
 
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Elliott:
Thanks again. My wife agrees with me now. The little one won’t become a cubby.
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I’m glad to hear this Elliott. One of my best friends is very active in Awana and I can agree with what other posters have said. This is not good for a Catholic child. If you spend some time looking through their ‘sample curriculum’ pages, you’ll see how verses are skewed out of context to fit the ‘faith alone’ and ‘scripture alone’ beliefs. I’m all for kids memorizing bible verses - Catholics need to do it more - but kids also have to understand the context of the verse first. Plus, as a poster above said, the link to Awana International sure does speak volumes. Nice people I’m sure who are involved in Awana…but the wrong message.
 
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just5kids:
I was wondering if it was anti-Catholic recently and found this:
awana.org/international/default.aspx?id=672
Obviously, this speaks volumes. Then I stupidly sent the link to a friend whose kids go to Awana and asked her if she believes Catholics do not follow Christ. I truly offended her, and I do believe in my heart that her kids are not learning anti-Catholicism; however, I wish she had considered that this is the obvious belief underlying the umbrella organization which created her kids’ group, and said belief may blossom later into a full-fledged and much more obvious indoctrination. So often, Protestants do not think their church/organization/Bible study is anti-Catholic, but often the message is too subtle for them to pick up or they don’t even know it is anti-RC because they don’t know what our church teaches. Either way, I would be reluctant to let my kids be a part of a group in any way or at any age that thinks you and your children do not follow Christ.
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Wow! That link was shocking. As a former AWANA leader with fond memories… I posted that I would probably let my kids go again - especially the little ones. Thank you for opening my eyes to this… I can see that it is so NOT a good idea. We can memorize scripture at home.
 
I love these forums!

My little one got indirectly invited to go to awana last night by a schoolmate. Actually, her and I were supposed to go to her schoolmate’s house, but the other Mom called and canceled due to her work. (She got called in)

However, she did say that my little one could go to awana last night as an alterative or we can just schedule a new date. (Thankfully, I missed the call and it was a phone message. I don’t’ know what I would of done if I had answered the phone.)

I listen to the message, called hubby and asked him for his (name removed by moderator)ut. He said, “we need to get to know these parents more before we sent our daughter to their church”

So I return the call, and just stated that we can schedule a new play date. (I never mention not going to awana to her, and did not come up in conversation-So the issue is avoided for now.)

This morning I got on here and trying to see if I could find some info about awana from a “Catholic” prospective.

I can see it’s really not the place to send someone who is a novice his/her own faith development.

Thanks CAF posters.
 
I sent my son to AWANA for a few years (K-3) but I am a solid Catholic well grounded in my faith. I wasn’t worried about getting mixed up, and in the early years they just emphasized the Jesus loves you message. As he got older though I had to finally pull him out for they were beginning to confuse him! “Mom, am I saved?” He had a blast in it, they make it fun, but their goal is your child’s soul - so be careful.
 
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