awanas-help!!

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deb1

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Last year my friend’s son asked my daughters to be his guest at an Awana meeting in this Baptist Church. He got credit for bringing two guests. My girls had a lovely time, returned home and did not ask to attend again.

So, when he asked them again this year, I thought nothing of them going. They were helping a friend by going. One night seemed fine and they enjoy themselves. This year was different. They returned with paper work to join the group and were excited at the prospect.

As I used to be Baptists myself, I understand that there are many Baptists-yes, I know not all Baptists- who think that Catholics are not Christians.

I have tried to explain this to my daughters, and why I am uncomfortable with them joining but when you are competing with free cupcakes and games it can be difficult to make a ten year old and an eight year old understand. I want them to know why I am saying no.

The little boy’s mama is my friend and I believe that she respects my believes. But, occasionally I have met friends from her church who say negative, off handed remarks about Catholics, even when they know I am in the room. Plus my friend has been told incorrect things about Catholic beliefs that I have corrected. So, I can’t send my kids to regular Awana meetings. I thought one time would be fine, but apparently I was wrong.

Just tell me, how do you explain this to little girls?
 
Well, if there is one thing I remember when I was kid it was that it was easy for me to get excited and easy for me to get distracted. Have you thought about maybe taking them to a club or event that will draw their attention and excitement so that they forget about awanas? Or at least find it less of an immediate draw.

Maybe an athletic club, girl scouts (uniforms beat cupcakes any day!), maybe schedule horseback rides in the park on days when Awanas is meeting. How about the NRA (I kid, I kid). I’m just throwing things out there. I’m not sure what your schedule is and such but there might be a way for you to not only avoid this but to also get them involved in something that will keep them in shape and instill discipline too.

Just ideas.
 
Talk to them about what we believe and what Awanas believes.

They are two different things.

awana.org/about/default.aspx?id=19

From that site:
We believe that man is justified by grace through faith apart from works and that all true believers, once saved, are kept secure in Christ forever.
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We believe that the local church is autonomous and free of any external authority or control.
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Simple things like, they don’t believe that the Pope is in charge.

I know that it is hard. I live in the South. The South is 3% Catholic.

So, I spend some time telling my son, yes, they believe in God, no they are not Catholic. Yes, we pray that they become Catholic, but no, you cannot attend their Bible study.
 
I would just flat out tell them you don’t want them learning heresy and false theology, even from very nice people who like to have fun. Something along the lines of, “I know you had fun with your friends, but some of the things they teach you at Awana are wrong. Learning the wrong things about God and religion are bad for you and can be dangerous, and it’s my job to make sure you learn the truth. Like when they said…” and go on to explain and correct the errors from a Catholic point of view.

Don’t worry about upsetting or disappointing them. Their eternal souls are a lot more important than cupcakes! LOL
 
deb1 said:
The little boy’s mama is my friend and I believe that she respects my believes. But, occasionally I have met friends from her church who say negative, off handed remarks about Catholics, even when they know I am in the room. Plus my friend has been told incorrect things about Catholic beliefs that I have corrected. So, I can’t send my kids to regular Awana meetings. I thought one time would be fine, but apparently I was wrong.

Just tell me, how do you explain this to little girls?
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I don’t know, but I do understand your concerns. I attended Awana for several years, although my family had a theology (Wesleyan/Holiness) that was quite different from the essentially Baptist theology reflected in Awana materials. I never accepted all the things I was taught (and in fact frequently argued with the leaders), but Awana did have a big impact on how I viewed the Bible, because they teach you to memorize Scripture verses in a particular order and with a particular interpretation that reinforces their theology.

I think the best thing to do is simply to tell your daughters that Awana teaches wrong things about Scripture–which I believe it does. They should be able to understand that some religious beliefs are true and some are false.

Another possibility, of course, is that you allow your daughters to attend but make a very intentional effort to follow what they are learning and give a Catholic response. I’m not saying you should do that, of course. Awana is basically a propaganda program for Baptist theology and should be treated as such. I’d think twice before allowing my daughter (who is currently two months old so it’s not an issue!) to be involved myself, though if she wanted to I’d probably let her.

Edwin
 
Thank you all for your responses.

My hubby talked to my daughters last night and explained that Baptists do not believe that Christ is actually present in the Eucharist. Both my daughters were shocked.

I don’t know if they really understood though.

I’d like to get them involved in some local clubs as has been suggested. But I am very short of funds and just about everything costs money, especially if you homeschool.
 
deb1 said:
Thank you all for your responses.

My hubby talked to my daughters last night and explained that Baptists do not believe that Christ is actually present in the Eucharist. Both my daughters were shocked.

I don’t know if they really understood though.

I’d like to get them involved in some local clubs as has been suggested. But I am very short of funds and just about everything costs money, especially if you homeschool.
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Start your own Little Flowers Girls’ Club in your parish and/or homeschooling group as an alternative.

hometown.aol.com/eccehomopr/lfgchome.htm
 
Beverly_Chang said:
I would just flat out tell them you don’t want them learning heresy and false theology, even from very nice people who like to have fun. Something along the lines of, “I know you had fun with your friends, but some of the things they teach you at Awana are wrong. Learning the wrong things about God and religion are bad for you and can be dangerous, and it’s my job to make sure you learn the truth. Like when they said…” and go on to explain and correct the errors from a Catholic point of view.

Don’t worry about upsetting or disappointing them. Their eternal souls are a lot more important than cupcakes! LOL
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This is good advice. I was in a similar situation with my best friend once and nipped it in the bud quickly.

I read a ‘testimonial’ on the Awana site last year about a man who was raised Catholic and it wasn’t until he went to bible-church with a friend that he became a Christian and his Catholic mom reprimanded him saying ‘We don’t talk like that, we’re Catholic!’. I couldn’t find the testimony on the site anymore but will see if I saved it. It just made me furious. I’ve seen the books used at Awana and the memory verses taught completely out of context just for hte sake of indoctrinating kids with the *‘bible-alone’ and ‘once save always saved by faith alone’ message. * This would be a dangerous road to start down.
 
Elzee said:
This is good advice. I was in a similar situation with my best friend once and nipped it in the bud quickly.

I read a ‘testimonial’ on the Awana site last year about a man who was raised Catholic and it wasn’t until he went to bible-church with a friend that he became a Christian and his Catholic mom reprimanded him saying ‘We don’t talk like that, we’re Catholic!’. I couldn’t find the testimony on the site anymore but will see if I saved it. It just made me furious. I’ve seen the books used at Awana and the memory verses taught completely out of context just for hte sake of indoctrinating kids with the *‘bible-alone’ and ‘once save always saved by faith alone’ message. * This would be a dangerous road to start down.
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awana.org/international/default.aspx?id=672
 
I sympathize. I live in a predominantly Baptist part of the South, and my children attend public school. It’s a tough place to live out your Catholic faith. My kids have always been invited to attend social events of their Protestant friends. I’ve tended to allow that in a very limited way. Always, we discuss the differences between what Protestants and Catholics believe to be true. Likewise, I’ve encouraged my children to invite their friends to attend Mass with us (with instruction about not receiving communion) or youth group events.

We’ve never run into serious problems with Protestant friends trying to convert the kids, but I do keep a close eye out for such tendencies. If you allow them to attend Awanas, I would make it infrequent and keep closely in touch with what is going on.
 
One of the things I really, really miss about being Protestant was the club ministries.

I never liked AWANAs. I took my two daughters when they were small, and I stuck around to “help.” One little boy recited his verses to me. I asked him what they mean, and he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I dunno.”

Afterward, my younger daughter, who was about five or six, asked me if it was really OK to say the AWANA pledge and hold up our arm (in the Nazi “Heil” salute position). Interesting insight.

I always found AWANAs to be too competitive. If a child is already involved with a competitive sport(s) (mine were figure skaters) and with a competitive school (mine went to prep school), they really don’t need their religious education to be competitive, too.

Other parents agreed with me. It is one of the controversies surrounding AWANAs. Some kids thrive on competition, but many other kids burn out with it and feel embarrassed to demonstrate their weaknesses in front of others.

My suggestion is to try to find a Pioneer Club in your area. I worked as a leader in this delightful Christian club for many years, and loved it. The emphasis is upon role modeling by adult leaders. The goal is not to get kids to recite Bible verses, but rather, to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the kids. The “What” is not so important as the “How” in Pioneers.

We had so much fun in Pioneer Clubs! My groups always did all kinds of badges: cooking, bicycle skills, nature studies (once we did an owl walk late at night with a Park Ranger), campfire skills, arts and crafts, drama, etc. We also did a lot of service projects–once we made stencilled t-shirts for babies and drove down to the local Pregnancy Life Care Center to present our t-shirts in person. The girls got a tour of the Center and got to hear the Director talk about the evils of abortion and how important it is for us to take care of babies and their mothers and fathers. Good stuff.

But the best meeting I ever had wasn’t even planned. The weather was bad, so we cancelled. But several girls showed up anyway, so I took out paper and crayons and we colored–these were 12 year-old girls, not little ones! While we colored, we talked about various TV shows and whether it was OK for Christians to watch them. Then one of the dads (who was at the church for a meeting) surprised us by sending out for pizza for us! It was a great time, lots of learning and “role-modeling,” and good talk.

So if you can find a Pioneer Club, give it a try. I always had several Catholics in my clubs, and we never tried to convert them. As far as we were concerned, they were already Christians. I think…that churches who go with Pioneer Clubs instead of AWANAs will probably have that same mindset–that Catholics ARE Christians. Pioneer Clubs isn’t about converting anyone, it’s just about demonstrating God’s love to kids.

The other option is to start a club yourself for your kids and their friends. It doesn’t have to be a formal charter like Pioneers. Just have the kids over once a month or so, ask them to bring treats to share, and plan some kind of simple activity for them, e.g., get a camping-type father to demonstrate the art of building a campfire, or try stencilling tiny t-shirts to donate to your local pro-life Pregnancy Center, or do a cookie-baking assembly line or build model rockets (make sure you have someone around who has actually done this!) or read through some Christian skits and act them out (try Martha Bolton’s skits) or draw a giant movie on a roll of paper or go rake leaves for free at a Senior citizen’s house go on a field trip to the local ice rink or museum…there’s so much to do with kids! I REALLY miss club ministries!

Have a short devotional and prayer–just one or two verses of the Bible, or one Bible story. It doesn’t have to be brilliant theology, just something that will mean a lot to kids. Maybe get some of Pope John Paul IIs writings and share them with the kids, or study his life together, or the life of another saint. Then say a very brief prayer–an Our Father or Glory Be. No big deal, but it means a lot to kids to have an adult besides their parent talk about God.

Call your club whatever you like–let the kids decide. Maybe it will be Cool Catholic Kids, or Rome Club, or Vaticanettes or the St. Michael’s Basic Training Camp. Whatever. Make it fun. Who knows, maybe lots of Protestant kids will come!

Good luck to you and your kids!
 
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