Kelly~ You are completely right and I agree with that, but the cost isn't something I am able to absorb at this time. So, we are going to figure something else out. God knows, and he will provide. I was just really taken back when I pulled out my check book and she told me the cost. I was completely blind sided.
wow! Our churches that we have been apart of with youth groups have no Fees! If they do an activity than they may say bring 3 dollars a piece to cover food... and such.. I know that when I was doing Missionettes (A/G girls program) that if a girl had not money for the materials than the church would just cover the cost. hummmmm..... not sure what I would do
Okay, I think I am figuring this church out. They are charging for Awana which for 2 kids is $105.00 however, we will not be doing it because I can't afford it. But, there youth group begins at 7th grade and I think Awana ends at 6th. So, next year my son will be able to be more involved and then the following year my daughter. Starting to make sense.
Our Youth Group starts when the kids go into 6th grade and there is no fee to attend. We do lots of activities and the kids are asked way in advance to pay for part of the activities. They are going on a trip soon that would be $25.00 each, but the church is paying $15.00 and the youth bring $10.00 each. Adults going pay the full $25.00. We always let the youth know about costs way in advance and there is always money for any who just can't pay for something. We have people who will sponser a kid for any activity and we have working activities where the youth can come and help and earn money on an account to help pay for camp or whatever is coming up. Our children's group does not pay for missions group that meets on Wed. nights. We do not do Awana. We have R.A.s for boys, G.A.s for girls and K.A.s for smaller kids. It works for us.
Our youth doesn't charge either. With that said, if we had an AWANA program, I do not know if they would or not. The ladies in the church are all going on a Bible cruise next year, along with two other churches. We are all paying for ourselves. I do not think the church should have to pay for this cruise nor do I think they should pay for camp either. While they do try to help those who can't pay, they can't pay for everybody.
I'm of the opinion that you should buy your own books, etc. for a class that isn't part of the church, but anything that is actually a work of the church should be covered by the church. They're basically saying they'll preach to the rich kids but not the poor kids. I didn't read any of the other responses, but that's just not right, IMO.
I would make sure that the church knows that you would send your kids if it was financially feasible for your family. But the cost is something that you can not afford at this time, because I am sure their are other families out there in the same circumstance as you. That is really sad that they feel the need to charge so much. My kids were in awana when they were younger and it never cost that much. I do realize costs have gone up but what are they doing with our tithes?
Many churches will waive the fees if you can not afford it. I would look into that first instead of writing it off completely. Many churches will work with you. They usually would rather see the kids there than not at all, paying or not. I'm kind of in the middle and on the fence about fees like this. Not every church is rich in financial blessings and able to budget for this type of thing. So, in that case, does a church not do programs (like Awana) at all for kids because they can't fork over all the money for it and allow everyone in free? I think that's absurd, considering many church's use this type of ministry as a major outreach program. That to me, is really no different than someone belonging to a church and saying it's not their responsibility to ever put money in the offering plate. Every church is different, and every church has different needs, and unfortunately many things cost money. With that said, I checked our church's cost for what it will be for my two kids to attend this year. We start this Thursday. $20 per kid for 'dues' ($50 per family if you have more than 2 children). This comes out to be less than $1 a night. Pretty reasonable, IMO. $10 for each book. If they want a shirt or vest, that is $11 each. If my kids were new to the program, their total would be $82. Since we aren't new and my kids have their shirt and vests (we do not buy the bookbags and such) from last year, our total will be $60. I don't think that is much to ask when the program we run at our church is a HUGE outreach ministry and serves a tremendous amount of people in our community...and many unchurched. Because of the cost of the badges and supplies, a church could never run an Awana program for free of charge unless it is extremely blessed financially. The money our church charges, goes straight back into the Awana program and pays for supplies. They 'pocket' nothing. You also may want to look to see what they charged you for. They don't need bookbags or CD's or anything extra. Did you fill out the order form yourself? There are a lot of needless extras that could make it very costly. At the very LEAST they should only need their books, and pay their yearly dues (if the church has dues). ETA: It also seems not everyone here understands the difference between an AWANA program and other youth services/groups. Awana is NOT the same as your standard youth group or youth program. It is a nation-wide (or is it world-wide?) program and can get costly to run...but the amount of people it has led closer to Christ is priceless.
That's what our church did. The costs became too much and the parents were pulling their kids. So the church scrapped the program (after the conclusion of the year) and started a different curriculum that was free. There is a shirt: It's $5 to buy outright or free if the child earns enough points by showing up, putting in offering (even $.01 gets the full points), bringing their Bible, bringing a friend, knowing their verse, etc. They earn 'bucks' they can redeem for their shirt. Our pastor and board decided that shelling out so much money per child to do AWANAs was a waste of church funds when there are much less expensive materials available. The alternative was to increase dues for those who could afford it to cover those who couldn't. They decided that wasn't right, either. I have to agree with them.
Some churches DO require the bags and CDs. Those were NOT optional when my boys were in AWANAS (not the church we're at now). They didn't give you an order form on registration night; they gave you a total. You paid the total or your child wasn't registered. They also wrote the names on the bags in Sharpie, so you couldn't pass them down from child to child.
This isn't right, IMO. Why would they 'need' the bags? For everyone to look the same and all cute? Bahhhhh. They don't need a bag to learn more about Christ. Poop on them. I would be complaining about that. That doesn't even make sense to me. I bought a couple bags from the dollar store for my kids last year and they decorated them at home for Awana.
And I can completely understand that, but the comments from some seemed to me like nobody should ever have to fork over a single penny for anything if it's at church. That to me, sounds absurd. A church needs money to survive too. I also do think that some church's do go overboard...like the bag and cd comment above. I would like to believe that our church does a great job at keeping things at a minimum to make it more affordable for people. They don't require much, and if families truly can't afford it they are willing to help in any way they can. Our Awana program is huge. So huge in fact that we use every square inch of our church...there is no unused room in the church that night...and our building is pretty big. For us to get rid of it, would be devistating to a lot of our community that come. Over half of the kids that come to our program are from other churches or unchurched. Could we do another program? Possibly. But, not every church has the staff or volunteers to make that happen either. Even though our program is huge, our church itself is pretty small.
We agree here. Our Women's Bible study charges for the book (no profit, only cost). Our women's retreat is $50 (cheap, compared to some). Some adult Sunday School classes use a supplemental book for which the 'students' are charged. We can't expect the church to foot 100% of the bill for everything members want to do. That's silly. But children, I think, are a different story. Which is why we scrapped AWANAs in favor of something free. Yes, AWANA churches should charge a fee to cover the tremendous costs. If those costs don't sit well with members, do something other than AWANAs.
I believe if the ministry goal is to evangelize, then it should be free to all. You freely received, so freely give. Ladies retreats and camps are special programs that are designed to deepen your relationship with Christ. Some unsaved people attend those things upon the invitation of a saved friend. In those cases, either party could choose to pay however they were comfortable. Concerning Awana, we began to feel like it was too expensive for the church to freely offer. It is designed to be an outreach at the church we were at and therefore needed to be free of charge. We opted to not continue it in favor of other youth options. We made sure that the kids who wanted to continue in Awana were aware of other local churches who offered it.
Absolutely. If we had a bunch of people complaining about the program or the program wasn't doing well, then we would obviously rethink it and move onto something else. I think that would be common sense. I totally get that not everyone loves Awana and why some churches would chose to not do it. It does get costly. Thankfully, our church has been able to provide things cost free to those who need it, and they seem to keep the cost at a minimum compared to others. I will admit though...I have been curious to know what other programs are out there aside from Awana that are somewhat Awana-like. Not because I don't want Awana anymore, but simply out of curiosity. I think we should always keep our options open in case something better comes along. What program did your church replace Awana with, Amie? Is it something they came up with on their own, or was it another pre-packaged program like Awana?
Thanks! I have also been looking at Gospel Light curriculum lately, but they are more geared for Sunday School. Not really an Awana-like program.
http://www.charismalife.com/products/midweek/kid-konnection/ Is this what you're talking about, Amie?
