“Great is our Lord and mighty in power…” is from Psalm 147:5. This is a verse my five year old is learning through the Awana program. My older children have all gone through this program, and have had to learn each verse for the Sparks code. P is for power, and this verse fits. However, is it a dumbing down, though the verse does speak of God’s mighty power?
Here’s the “old” verse for P. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16.
I have this version memorized due to the times I worked with them on the verse and listened to the music. What I notice about this little change (the rest of the code is the same) is that it speaks of the gospel. This gospel of Christ is His good news, and taking this verse out certainly seems odd. I realize it’s a longer verse, and they’re trying to make the verses easier. Sadly, in making things easier, we’re missing out on some of the message they were getting. In fact, it’s quite frustrating to me. Our kids did struggle because I am so busy I don’t work with the younger ones as much as I did, however, even getting what we did (which was all of the verses in SPARKS…but not always all the activities), I found it to be a great way to get the Word in. I hope my little ones don’t miss out on John 1:1-4 and Psalm 23. I will just have to pull out the old Sparks tapes.
I have been working harder to read the Bible out loud in my home. We read Proverbs during the school day, since there are 31 we can have one chapter each day of the month. I want to read through many books. My struggle is the older/younger combination. We were given an easier version of the NIV, but I am so uncomfortable with it and find it dissatisfying to read. My oldest actually likes the KJV, but the younger ones are so lost listening to that. I generally read NASB or NIV. Not sure what version is best for the family. I want to keep the Word of God in our daily life. I also want to teach it correctly so that when they hear error, they will know it.
I am a C...I am a CH...I am a CHRISTIAN 
I’m a little surprised you would still let your children participate in AWANA, based on the articles that Lighthouse Trails was written that link them to various other ministries and people that you seem to be concerned about.
Yes, I can see why. I have been pretty upfront on my account here as to my concerns of things emergent/emerging or missional etc. In fact, the church we take them to for Awana is clearly “missional minded.” We’ve attended a few times in order to see if we would go there, and they have mentioned authors of missional bent and in fact had one guest author who presented a “boat potatoes” sermon.
Reasons we are still in Awana at this time are that our children are encouraged to learn verses much the same as the ones before Awana began to switch over. There might be a few bugs in their curriculum, but for now, I can really control what they learn and get. Everything is sent home for the parents to review. Unlike Sunday school at church, where I don’t know what’s up, I can see what’s going on in Awana. Also, I know many of the leaders of Awana and right now, they appear to be presenting the Gospel as it should be. There is no contemplative element as of yet. I am also serving for right now at this particlular Awana to be there with my kids. If we were staying with our old church, I was planning to be involved in children’s ministry as I had before (as was my husband). Awana is still run as it had been, I’ve looked at the books and they’ve changed a little bit. I do notice shorter verses and more Bible stories, actually. They also are adding a sponsorship type service to their program supporting another Awana club (that I guess would otherwise NOT be able to exist). This doesn’t bother me. Just like the service aspect of my old church which is very much part of contemplative/missional church, I do not have a problem with the service aspect as long as the service is for the Lord and what we do is not against His will.
We will continue to look out for what Awana is doing, and just like when we were first looking at our old church, we will evaluate the situation and see if it’s safe for our kids to be involved.