STREAMWOOD, Ill., Nov. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Southern Baptist Convention's own research arm reports that SBC membership will fall nearly 50 percent by 2050 unless its aging denomination does more to strengthen evangelism, particularly to young people.
The Southern Baptists are only a microcosm of the struggles of churches across America to attract visitors. In separate studies, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Gallup discovered that even the current economic woes have not spurred increased weekly church attendance.
One key to more effective evangelism is who churches target. Ministries and researchers agree that preschool to middle school is the most responsive age group to spiritual matters, particularly coming to church, trusting Jesus Christ for salvation and learning biblical truth.
Helping churches reach non-churched children is the mission of The Great ShakeUP. This kid-to-kid evangelism initiative is an annual event of Awana, an international youth and children's ministry that has assisted churches and parents for 60 years.
Thousands of first-time visitors
Kicking off its sixth year this fall, the ShakeUP has drawn tens of thousands of kids to local churches' Awana ministries. In its 2005-06 debut alone, 19,000 first-time visitors attended ShakeUP events at more than 2,000 churches nationwide.
In its first year, churches participating in the ShakeUP saw their Awana programs for kindergarten through sixth grade grow by 12.8 percent, or 18,675 new attendees. In all, attendance for these clubs rose 3.3 percent from September to March as 4,823 visitors remained in Awana in the months following the ShakeUP.
Wheaton (Illinois) Evangelical Free Church has used The Great ShakeUP extensively and is sold on the concept. The church ran the program last year for the boys in their T&T club (fifth and sixth grade) and is running it this year as well.
"We typically run about 50 boys per week," said John Sauceda, a T&T boys leader. "For session four, we had 16 visitors – a 30-percent increase in attendance! Of the 65 boys, nine made decisions to trust Christ for their salvation. That's 14 percent of them!"
What is The Great ShakeUP?
The Great ShakeUP™ is a four-week program. It equips local-church Awana volunteers and parents to train children how to invite non-churched peers to their Awana club. The first two weeks of the ShakeUP teach kids how to invite friends, classmates and neighbors to Awana using the Pass the SALT method:
• Search (identify friends to invite who don't go to Awana or church)
• Ask (pray to God for those friends to be able to come to Awana)
• Link (be a link for friends to know Jesus by inviting them to the ShakeUP)
• Transport (offer to give friends a ride to the ShakeUP if possible).
Week three is Parents' Week. The church enlists Awana parents to support the ShakeUP. Parents help their children succeed in bringing friends to Awana and assist parents of new children in Awana after the ShakeUP.
Week four is the ShakeUP event. This special night is when kids, volunteers and parents pull together to share God's message of hope with ShakeUP visitors.
Awana clubs have a choice of four themes from which to choose for their ShakeUP program. They also have the flexibility to set their own dates, usually at the beginning of the ministry year or just after Christmas break, to increase attendance. Using free downloadable resources from Awana, churches can run the program for little to no cost.
At a time when surveys show the majority of teens are abandoning the church, 92.7 percent of adults who participated in Awana for at least six years still attend church at least weekly today. This was a key finding of a 2007 survey (www.awana.org/alumnistudy) of Awana alumni around the country. The Great ShakeUP aims to attract kids to Awana and instill lasting faith in Christ.
About Awana
Awana equips churches and parents to work together in developing children and youth who faithfully follow Jesus Christ. In 2010 Awana celebrates 60 years of ministry. Today Awana reaches 1.5 million kids in over 100 countries each week. Awana is the only organization with integrated, Bible-based programs for ages 2 to 18 that actively involve parents, churches and mentors.
Visit www.awana.org shakeup to learn more about The Great ShakeUP.
