|
Have you ever thought about the seasons of Awana?
In August, there's usually leader recruiting, leader training, and startup for some clubs.
September is start-up month for most churches and registration. Many clubbers finish their entrance booklets and purchase their handbooks and uniforms.
As October rolls in, parents check out Awana at club outreach activities. Holiday club meetings kick off in November with Thanksgiving, and clubs celebrate Jesus' birthday all through December.
After Christmas break, thoughts turn to Sparks-a-Rama, AwanaGames™, Bible Quizzing, Grand Prix and critical handbook progress. And the list goes on through spring.
But there is one part of Awana that needs
to be "season-less." And, that is leader recruitment.
 In this issue of Awana Ideas, we offer some ideas to help you find leaders. For instance, there's an interview with Dave Pearson, an Awana commander and a long-term Awana staff member with 30-plus years of experience. Dave was also a part of the team that created the all new Basic Training materials that debuted this past summer.
Of course, we always want to encourage our present leaders, and we include a couple of ideas on how to do that. We also have some Valentine's Day ideas for February theme nights.
Back to recruiting leaders — why should we prayerfully be looking for new leaders? Because kids need to know, love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now — the midpoint of the year — is a good time to take a look at who can participate in the Christ-centered adventure of being an Awana leader.
Yours for the kids,
Jodi & Dale
 Awana Fever
Qualities of an Awana Leader
|
All Awana leaders should have these qualities:
- Faith in Jesus Christ as personal Savior — John 6:40
- A growing relationship with Jesus — Hebrews 5:14
- Love for children — Mark 10:14-16
- A teachable spirit — Isaiah 66:2
- Honesty — Acts 5:1-10
- Trustworthiness — Proverbs 11:13
- Responsibility — Genesis 39:22-23
Taken from
Commander Role Book.
Always Open Season for New Leaders
|
 An Interview with an Awana Commander
In this interview with Dave Pearson, an Awana commander, we find out how to recruit Awana leaders all year long.
Dale:
What do you and your church do to recruit Awana leaders?
Dave:
In August, before Awana starts, we do church-wide leader and worker recruitment for every ministry of our church, including Awana. It's an intentional church-wide process.
Does your church do specific recruiting for Awana and how do you do that?
We do. We go about it by targeting parents
. We have a parents' night early in the Awana year to introduce moms and dads to Awana. We make sure they know what we are going to teach their kids, and we help them understand what Awana is all about.
How does that night help you recruit leaders during the rest of the year?
It is a stepping stone to another parents' night that we have right before Christmas. On that night, we intentionally recruit moms and dads to be Awana leaders. As parents, with children in Awana, they know what's involved, and now they want to help out.
 That's a good way to do things! How do you handle training those brand new leaders? Is it all on-the-job training?
No, we actually have four Saturdays of deliberate training for children's ministry. The training sessions occur from September through the end of May. Everyone who teaches children at our church is trained at one of the four Saturday sessions, including the midyear Awana leaders. We post the children's ministry training sessions on the church calendar in advance, so people can plan accordingly.
New midyear Awana leaders are sent an e-mail inviting them to attend the next scheduled Saturday children's ministry training session.
This year, we are giving every new leader a Basic Training rolebook for the club that they are going to work in at Awana. That way they can read it ahead of time and prepare for their role as a leader.
When you recruit leaders, how do you fit them in?
We usually place leaders where the need is greatest. If we need help in Sparks, then we ask a leader to work in Sparks.
What is one thing that you have noticed that happens in midyear recruiting?
We have a church rule that least one parent of a Cubbie has to stay in the church building in case something happens.
Mom and Dad often hang around and end up getting plugged into Awana in some way. They say, "Hey, you know what? We are here, can we help out?" As long as they know and love the Lord, we never say No.
 Keep a Leader Feeder
Handy!
A Leader Feeder is a large plastic container full of candy just for leaders. Leaders can help themselves anytime they feel the need. We keep our Leader Feeder in the Awana closet so clubbers and anyone who isn't actually a leader can't dip into it.
We ask our leaders in advance what kind of candy they like — it's usually chocolate — then we make sure the Leader Feeder is always well-stocked. It is one way we let our leaders know they are special.
— Shirley Dingler, 12th Avenue Baptist, Emporia KS
 Birthdays!
When a leader has a birthday, tell the clubbers you will be celebrating the leader's birthday at club and ask them to make or sign a card. Bake or buy a cake for the leader too and have him or her be the honored guest.
—Cindy Dillavou, Third Street Baptist, Arkadephia, AR
Leaders Like Rewards Too!
Give shares/Awana bucks to leaders. Here are some shares suggestions:
- One for flag ceremony participation
- Ten or more for giving the Large Group Time lesson
- Twenty for planning a special outing
- Ten for participating in an outing
- Three or more for saying memory work
Give gift certificates to a local restaurant for leaders who earn a large number of shares over the year.
 Our Theme Was Love.
We had this contest in February. I bought a poster and put a big brown cross on it. On the top of the poster, I printed out John 3:16. Love was our theme all month. I talked to the kids about how much God loves them, so much that He sent His son, Jesus, to die for them. We talked about how we can show Jesus how much we love Him by learning His Word.
I cut out red hearts for the boys and pink hearts for the girls. Every time a clubber passes a section, his or her name goes on a heart and the hearts are placed on the poster all around the cross. At the end of the month, we put all of the hearts in a bag and pick one red heart and one pink heart. The two winners (one boy and one girl) each receive a gift certificate to Wal-Mart®. The more sections a clubber passed, the greater the chances he or she has of winning.
In keeping with the theme, one of the moms made homemade heart cookies for all of the clubbers. It was a great motivator, and the poster looked beautiful with all those red and pink hearts around the cross!
— Christie Andry, Woodlawn Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, LA
 Sweat Heart Night
(Valentine's Day )
This is a good theme for Trek. Teens earn a chocolate kiss for just being there, 100 points for wearing sweats and 100 points for wearing red.
Our Awana Store
For next month — please tell us about your Awana Store at:
My Awana Store
 How do you finance your store?
Here's how one club does it:
We wrote letters to local stores telling them about our Awana club and asking for a donation. We received things such as free ice cream at Dairy Queen®, gift cards from The Family Christian Book Store® and a $50 gift certificate from Sam's Club® /Wal-Mart®. With the gift certificate in hand, a leader purchases items for our store. (Remember to use your tax-exempt form.)
— Ruth Haley, Grassland Heights Baptist Church, Franklin, Tennessee
 How do your clubbers earn shares?
Here's an idea you might find intriguing as your clubbers start thinking about their Grand Prix cars.
We give 100 shares to clubbers for participating in the Awana Grand Prix and Bible Quizzing. They get 20 shares for each entry in our yearly Talent Night (some kids do multiple entries).
— Heather Darnell
Other things you might want to tell us:
- Why does your club have a store?
- What are some do's and don'ts you've learned along the way?
- How do you run your store?
 Recruiting Leaders
What do you picture when you think of recruiting adults to children's ministry? Is it a staff person twisting the arms of every adult they can find in the church or on the street?
You are inviting people into a serving relationship with God. Volunteering is a way for people to follow God's commands to obey Him and, thereby, love Him.
Recruitment is identifying and attracting qualified volunteers. As with other aspects of your commander role, this task requires leadership, prayer and wisdom.
Taken from Commander Role Book.
Awana Ideas
Delivered free via e-mail to subscribers monthly. We encourage you to distribute this newsletter freely and ask only that you not change its contents.
Did you receive this from a friend?
Click here
to receive your own copy!
Awana has free Bible-based, fun newsletters for your clubbers and Cubbies parents too.
Sign up
for
KidsPrint (for T&T aged-children)
,
Sparkles (for Sparkies)
and
Parent Pause
(for parents of Cubbies)
.
To unsubscribe from Awana Ideas
please
click here
.
© 2007 Awana Clubs International
This newsletter may be reproduced without permission only by churches registered with Awana Clubs International.
All rights reserved
1 East Bode Road
Streamwood, IL 60107-6658
www.awana.org
|
