Word: fellowship
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...fair, kids like Kenny are the exception. "We're not trying to grab kids and indoctrinate them. We're not a bunch of weirdos," says Pennell. "We just want to help kids. And we think kids have a need for a relationship with God." Says Reese Kauffman, the Fellowship's president: "When children come to schools and shoot each other with guns, that's too late...
Traditionally, Good News Clubs met at houses, parks and fairgrounds. But in recent years, the Missouri-based Fellowship has begun applying to have events in public elementary schools--usually right after classes. Hundreds of schools accepted the clubs without hesitation, while others--afraid of blurring the line between church and state--refused. When the Milford Central School District in upstate New York barred the local club four years ago, its leader, the Rev. Stephen Fournier, fought back. If the Boy Scouts could preach their moral message in the K-12 school's convenient location, he asked, why couldn...
...Fellowship, which supports 4,600 Good News Clubs spanning all 50 states, focuses on children because they are so approachable. Its literature exhorts members to seize "every opportunity to instill God's Word in tender hearts while they are young." Most born-again Christians accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour before age 18, according to surveys conducted by the Barna Research Group, an organization based in California that tracks religious attitudes. And children under 14 are most open to the idea, the group has found. Last year, according to the Fellowship's careful record keeping, 17,537 children professed their...
...would like to accept Jesus as his Saviour. If a child raises his hand, the leader has a one-on-one conversation with him to see if he is ready to be "saved" then and there. That practice has been criticized by mainline churches, even as they applaud the Fellowship's other activities. Says Rosalie Potter, head of evangelism and church development at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): "It would be hard to expect a child of four or five to have a conversion experience with integrity." Fellowship leaders say that attitude underestimates the spiritual aptitude of kids...
Most of all, though, critics are worried about parents' ignorance of the club's tactics. According to Fellowship policy, clubs meeting in schools must collect permission slips. And they almost always do, says Marshall Pennell, the Fellowship's executive ministries coordinator. But complaints are not unheard of. In 1998 Neil Katzman, a Jewish man from Ventura, Calif., overheard his son Kenny, 5, tell a friend that "magic is the work of Satan." Taken aback, Katzman asked where he had learned that. "At school," said Kenny. It turned out that the caretakers at Kenny's after-school, public day-care program...