June 5, 2000
Weekday education ministry 'spills over into families'
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___If the weekday education programs of Texas Baptist churches have one single over-arching problem, it's not in the classroom, but in the pew.
___Many church members don't realize what a mighty arm of ministry weekday education programs can be, according to Ann Parnell, executive director of the Texas Baptist Church Weekday Education Association.
___"We have to find ways to help the church see the weekday education program as a tool for ministry and outreach," she said.
"We have to find ways to help the church see the weekday education program as a tool for ministry and outreach."
Ann Parnell, executive director of the Texas Baptist Church Weekday Education Association
___Parnell recalled that when she served as director of a church weekday education program, the children always prayed to ask God's blessing over their snacks and juice. Parents then began to tell her the children insisted on saying a blessing before meals at home.
___"That means ministry in the classroom is spilling over into the lives of families," Parnell said.
___The ministry's importance is magnified by how many unchurched families are touched through weekday education programs, she added. "We are amazed by the ministry done by weekday education ministries, because on average 75 percent of those children's families do not attend church anywhere."
___Noting that fact, several churches that have trained members in the FAITH evangelism program are assigning FAITH teams the names of the families enrolled in the church's weekday education program.
___Jan LaJoie, outreach director of Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, said she would encourage every church to reach out to the parents of the children involved in a church's weekday education ministry.
___"It's really a great outreach, because it says to these parents: 'We have a greater interest in you than the money you pay for your child to attend our school. We're interested in you,'" she said. "Even if we get just one or two prospects, it's a worthwhile thing."
___Parnell said the parents of these children are good prospects because they already have a good perception of the church. When the church begins to see these parents come into the church body, they begin to have a better idea of the weekday education as a ministry rather than just a program.
___"We have an obligation to communicate with these parents and minister to them during moments of crisis and also during every day life," she said.
___Parnell said she knew of one church in Hawaii that visited the parents of the children who attended the church school, and 16 mothers and 16 fathers accepted Christ as Savior as a result.
___"They had to set up a new Sunday School class. They called it the Discovery class because none of these adults had ever attended church before and knew nothing about the Bible," she said.
___Pat Cox, preschool and childhood development center director at First Baptist Church in Pleasanton, knows first-hand what a ministry weekday education can be.
___Two little girls were attending the church's childhood development center and were returning home each evening to tell their single-parent mother the Bible stories they had heard at school each day.
___They also were asking questions their mother couldn't answer. She was bothered by not having a response and took the dilemma to Cox, who recommended she attend Sunday School. The mother has begun attending another Bible study as well and has professed faith in Christ as her Savior.
___The weekday education association also helps churches with curriculum, space management, teacher and director training and making the weekday education ministry a part of the church's overall outreach and ministry strategy.
___The association currently has about 1,600 churches among its members. In 1999, the association provided training for 2,380 weekday education staff members at seven locations.
___For more information about the association or its upcoming training conference to be held July 13-15 at Baylor University, call (800) 475-5851.
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