CLOSE ENCOUNTERS MINISTRIES

Quite awhile ago, CEM responded to a proposal by Heather Olson, a Children’s Ministry leader in Crown Point, INDIANA. She was working with a regional team who wanted a midweek children’s club geared to active, involved children of “baby boomers” who were coming back to churches in droves. It must be fun, interactive and present the gospel to churched and unchurched kids in an appealing way.

Together, our efforts produced an extremely successful midweek children’s program called CLOSE ENCOUNTERS CLUB. Divided into themed sections, CECLUB focuses on themes from the Old Testament, New Testament and Relationships. We hit biblical highlights of stories from Genesis through Revelation. See our list of “Through the Bible” CLOSE ENCOUNTERS CLUB titles in our online catalog.

These CECLUB themes have been so successful that currently we have over 600 churches become a CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Church. Easy to prepare from week to week, inexpensive and exciting, we have enjoyed working with groups in large, medium and small churches.

One result we did not anticipate has been the success of churches to use CECLUB as a church growth tool. Involve children and parents will follow. Most people are not hostile to the gospel, they are AFRAID to walk through the door of your church! Bringing families in through the back door is a great way to add families to your group. They make friends over a cup of coffee and craft project or game and soon your church becomes their church home.

Kids start CECLUB at SNACK AND YAK. They enjoy a delicious snack and play games. Then groups are divided between THE LEARNING CENTER and THE SURPRISE SHOPPE where the Bible themes are presented in fun, active ways. Everyone gathers in CLOSENCOUNTERSINGERS at the end of CECLUB to sing, sing, sing! And…we have t-shirts too!!!

Take a look at our online catalog information and talk to Ellen about getting your own CECLUB started. In the meantime, this is the blog spot to tell us about your club or ask questions. If you have changed CECLUB to fit personal needs, let us know how it’s going.

If you are a CLOSE ENCOUNTERS CLUB Church or want to become one, this is the blog spot to make a comment or ask a question. Include ideas you have added to make your club terrific! We love to hear stories from our club churches. God is working in the hearts of children across the land!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 3:35 pm and is filed under CLOSE ENCOUNTERS CLUB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.