Awana Clubs -
Are they heading toward contemplative?

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February 26, 2006 - Awana Club Participating in
Willow Creek Conference

Awana Clubs has been a respected and trusted Christian organization for many years. Countless children have been Cubbies and Sparkies and have memorized Scripture through the program.

With so much of the church heading into the contemplative/emergent camp, also known as the spiritual formation movement, what a tragedy it would be to see Awana being sucked into this also. Few things are stable these days ... is Awana the next to cave in?

A few days ago it was brought to our attention that Awana's Kevin White sent out a notice to an undisclosed number of Awana youth leaders, letting them know about the upcoming Willow Creek Association's Student Ministries/Next Gen Leadership Conference (February 27th). The notice encouraged leaders to attend and told them where they could register.

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August 11, 2006 - Awana Club Now Featuring Book by Youth Specialties Author

We have now learned that Awana is now featuring and offering a book by Saddleback Youth Pastor, Doug Fields (a regular speaker at Youth Specialties events). The book, Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry: A personal and practical guide to starting right, is published by Youth Specialties and Zondervan. Inside the book are several sidebar commentaries by various people who promote contemplative and/or emerging spirituality: Tony Campolo, the late Mike Yaconelli, Rick Warren, Marv Penner (Briercrest Biblical Seminary, Canada, Duffy Robbins, Bo Boshers (leader at Willow Creek), and others, most of whom promote contemplative spirituality and the emerging church. It is important to remember that Youth Specialties has been working in conjunction with emerging church leaders for several years now and has a major role in the growth of this movement.

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July 23, 2007 - Awana Embraces Contemplative Spirituality:

In February of 2006, Lighthouse Trails issued a report titled "Awana: Are They Heading Toward Contemplative/Emergent?" The concerns were over the organization's connection with Willow Creek, with Awana's interest in Spiritual Formation and with a recommended ministry list that included a number of contemplative/emergent organizations, including Youth Specialties.1

A year and a half later, Awana is showing signs that it is becoming a full-blown contemplative organization. First of all, through Awana's prison project, the organization is incorporating New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard's Lead Like Jesus Encounter program. On July 13th, we spoke with Lyndon Azcuna, Awana Cross Cultural Ministries director, who told us he was a Lead Like Jesus facilitator. Azcuna works in the main headquarters office of Awana. He said that the project was using Ken Blanchard's materials. When we explained to him that Blanchard promoted the New Age and mystical meditation, he said that the program did not have these elements.

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