Blog

Let’s face it: COVID-19 has disrupted many of our plans this year. Events have been cancelled, family reunions have been postponed, and schools’ opening protocols remain a huge puzzle. It’s sometimes hard for us to know how to move forward at times like this, but for Chris and Lisa, a Children's Pastor and his assistant, as well as Beach Club volunteers, this has been a time of action!

Chris Burton and Lisa Willis serve in the Children's Ministry at Cross City Church in Euless, Texas. This vibrant church hosts not one, not two, not even three Beach Clubs—but seven! Through this extensive ministry partnership, together we’ve reached just under two hundred children each year with the Gospel. 

Their ministry was vast and appeared to keep growing until COVID-19 entered the picture. But with so many things closing, one might conclude that Chris and Lisa would close their ministry until things returned to normal, right?

On the contrary! They doubled down on their outreach to the families and kids, and they developed a strategy to further their ministry in ways they had never previously imagined. 

First, they started Zoom online classes to keep up the connection with the kids. Then they developed their four-step process to engage kids and their families through this COVID time: 

1. KiDs Beach Club® (KBC) takes the first step and engages with Beach Club families, sending weekly invitations to the parents of more than 10,000 Beach Club students each week to register and view the new Beach Club at HOME! TV shows, a fun and free way they can connect with their friends and Jesus!
2. Once the students login to watch Beach Club at HOME! on the KBC website, that student's activity is registered in a data base where the partnering church can access attendance information for the students who are engaged with the weekly TV episodes.  This gives the church a good idea who to contact.
3. Next, the volunteers ask the parents if they can drop by for a porch visit with various gifts for the kids, which may include fidget spinners, small toys, candy, fun crafts, and more. 
4. From there, Beach Club volunteers connect with the parents to invite the family to attend the partnering church, either in person or online, and welcome them to join the community! 

This process they've designed is not only a fulfillment of the KBC mission to mobilize the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community but also KBC's vision to provide pre-teen students a Jesus experience within the culture of their public school. Even if school is primarilty at home these days, Beach Club at HOME! is keeping kids connected to the fun they are used to having in their in person Beach Club and great churches like Cross City Church in Euless is establishing and deepening meaningful relationships that will last far longer than this temporary pandemic.

You can see ALL of the Beach Club at HOME! episodes on the KBC You Tube Page, www.youtube.com/kidsbeachclub.