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The story below was originally published on our blog on July 27, 2018, a couple of weeks after the SBC Annual Meeting and Pastors' Conference in Dallas. A couple of numbers to update within the article are 8,799 professions of faith and more than 61,000 Bibles being handed out to kids since 2003. You can always check the front page of our website to see the impact of our ministry.

You almost can’t turn on the TV, read a newspaper or sift through your social media feeds without seeing discouraging news about the culture of public schools. From bullying, peer pressure, alcohol or drug use, sexual harassment or assault, suicide and even school shootings, what our kids experience in schools is mirroring what we see in our communities.

People are quick to point a finger at why they think it’s this way, but many people fail to acknowledge the real reason. As believers in Christ, we know the real problem is sin.

"When God left the schools, chaos entered in,” Dallas-Fort Worth area pastor Tony Evans said during a sermon at his church – Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship – following the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. in February. “Wherever God is removed, chaos will fill that space… in your life, in your family, in our culture.”

Too many people in our country think they can live without God, but they lack an eternal focus. Politicians were pressured to remove God out of our schools and we’re seeing a moral decline in that space where our children spend so much of their time.

“The wrath of God is revealed when He releases you to life without Him,” Evans said at the Southern Baptist Conference Pastors Conference in Dallas last month. “When He releases you to put Him out of our lives, out of our schools, out of our culture, out of our environment… God is saying you can have life without Me, but you won’t like it.”

Evans said the responsibility falls on the church to get God back in spaces where he has been removed. He told his congregation, “We will do our part as a church for you, for our community to get God back in the proper place so we can bring ease to a chaotic world.”

He’s right! It’s the responsibility of the church to help our communities return to God. KiDs Beach Club® is a solution to do just that. KiDs Beach Club® is an innovative ministry established to mobilize the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community.

Speaking just two days after Evans at the Southern Baptist Conference Annual Meeting, Vice President Mike Pence spoke to attendees and praised the work churches and ministries like KiDs Beach Club® are doing to change communities.

“The most important work in America doesn’t happen in the White House,” Pence said. “We know the most meaningful work, the most transformative work, happens where you live, where your ministries impact, in the hearts and minds of American people.”

This fall, KiDs Beach Club® will partner with churches to sponsor after-school Bible clubs in nearly 200 schools in 11 states. Each club meets immediately after school for 24 weeks during the school year and our screened and trained volunteers teach an energetic, customizable curriculum that stresses the character words they’re already talking about in school; but in Beach Club, are defined through the lens of scripture.

Just like a message from church can stick with someone the rest of the week, an hour of Beach Club can stick with a child and change the outcome of their week to follow.

And in many instances, Beach Club may be the only “church” a child is exposed to.

Historically, more than 62 percent of children who come to Beach Club have indicated they don’t have a church home. To God’s glory, nearly 8,300 children have made Jesus their Forever Friend and accepted Him as Lord and Savior of their lives in a Beach Club.

Through our generous donors, KiDs Beach Club® provides a customized study Bible to every child in every Beach Club at no cost to our partnering churches or families. Since 2003, we have given out more than 55,000 Bibles to children in public schools. In most instances, those Bibles are the first Bible a child has ever received and in some instances it’s the only Bible in their home. Together, with weekly take-home reading plans encouraging kids to spend 10 minutes daily reading God’s word or in prayer, we’re able to reach their entire family and connect them to the partnering church.

Michael Proctor, a retired juvenile probation officer, volunteers at the Beach Club at Mohawk Elementary in Richardson. He has seen first-hand what can become of a child with no love and guidance.

“More needs to be put into prevention,” Proctor said about how to make an impact in communities. “Instead of dealing with things after they have already happened. That is what this program (KiDs Beach Club®) is about.”

Dr. David Vroonland is the superintendent of schools in Mesquite Independent School District and sees the tremendous benefit KiDs Beach Club® brings to his campuses. This fall, as many as 20 of his 33 elementary schools will have a Beach Club with that list expected to grow by at least two in the spring.

“All of those children need the opportunity to experience the love and the faith and the educational experiences.”

As a young child, Vroonland grew up in poverty. Approximately 75 percent of the children in his school district come from poverty. Without these three elements in his life, Vroonland could very well have been stuck in poverty, but through his adoptive family he was shown love, brought up in faith and received a quality education.

“Those three things made a huge difference in my life,” Vroonland said. “Significantly and obviously is God’s presence. Those three things matter… That’s why church volunteers who minister to these kids with love, helping people in faith, and your ensuring the quality of their education will provide a direction for young people you just simply can’t understand. You can’t understand the impact of that.”

For more information about how your church can start a Beach Club or to see how you can get one in your child’s public school, click here to see how your church can partner with us or get a Beach Club in your school.

Your support of KiDs Beach Club® September 19 on North Texas Giving Day will help us continue sharing the Light of Jesus Christ in public schools. For more information and to donate, click here. Or you can text "Bibles" to 444-999.

When you support KiDs Beach Club® September 19 on North Texas Giving Day, your gift is helping us fight an increasingly difficult spiritual battle between good vs. evil, morality vs. sin and light vs. darkness. It’s a real battle infiltrating our communities.

Through our after-school Bible clubs, KiDs Beach Club® is on the front lines, sharing the Light of Jesus Christ in our public schools, which have become the most accurate representation of their communities.

According to the Barna Group, more than 70 percent of Americans identify as Christian, but when asked if they attend church regularly – at least one time per month – only one-third of the surveyed respondents indicated they do. Barna researchers say this represents a more accurate picture of Christian faith in America, one that reflects the reality of a secularizing nation.

More than 60 percent of parents who sign up their children for Beach Club, indicate they and their kids do not have a church home.

KiDs Beach Club® is a solution to enable the church to go outside of its walls to reach the unchurched to help our communities return to God. KiDs Beach Club® is an innovative ministry established to mobilize the church to go outside its walls in order to take the message of Jesus Christ into the heart of its community.

“Many students won’t ever step into a church so it’s important for us to go to them,” Kathy Porter, the club leader at Northrich Elementary in Richardson, Texas, said. “Our culture is a culture that doesn’t always look to the Light. They feel despair; they feel a lack of hope many times.

“KiDs Beach Club® is a way for (volunteers) to form relationships with these kids and then, when we form those relationships, we can show them the Light of Jesus and then they start to feel it and ask more and more questions. The culture can be scary, so school becomes a safe place for them and certainly KiDs Beach Club® becomes a safe place for them.”

Churches, like First Baptist Richardson that partners with KiDs Beach Club® to do the Beach Club at Northrich Elementary, are incredibly passionate about the gospel being the Light that can change a life and are excited to be able to go into the schools and share Bible stories with them.

Keneé Dover is a surf team leader in the Beach Club at Janie Stark Elementary School in Farmers Branch, Texas. “Being able to spread the word of God to young hearts is the biggest blessing that we are given,” she said.

“To be able to give that gift to children when it really sinks in… especially children that have never heard about God and never heard about Jesus. It’s important for us to share that with them because we are called to share the Good News. It’s the Great Commission, ‘Go to all the world and preach the Good News…’ Our world is right here in this community and there are people who don’t know Him yet.”

Dover is proud of club leader Schalee Sanchez for helping The Branch Church bring a Beach Club to their community.

“Schalee had it called on her heart to start this club,” Dover added. “We debated on public school or private school for that reason, and we chose, because we are believers, to be the light in the public school. This just gives us another avenue for our children to be able to share and be an encouragement to their friends, and then to be able to partner with our children, to be the Light in little hearts, is just the biggest blessing.”

Sanchez said her heart was burdened and troubled for all of the things that go on in schools during this day and age.

“It’s just so sad,” Sanchez said. “I began praying about it more and more. I felt like God was saying I want to teach you to fight back but in the right way. I believe that KiDs Beach Club® is doing that. It’s a way, in a spiritual realm, that the armies of God are fighting against the darkness.”

KiDs Beach Club® is teaching children the word of God so that as they grow and mature, they will make better life choices, instead of negative ones. The truth of scripture is incorporated in every club meeting, which reinforces the character words taught each week in club and in the elementary schools themselves. The vision of KiDs Beach Club® is for every child to have a Jesus experience within the culture of their elementary school.

Thanks to your ongoing support, this fall we have 162 churches partnering with us to operate 192 Beach Clubs in 11 states. Since 2003, more than 21,000 volunteers have allowed our organization to impact more than 101,000 students. In the next five years, your support will help us march toward our goal of reaching 100,000 students in 2,000 Beach Clubs every week.

Your support of KiDs Beach Club is making a huge difference in our communities and for God’s kingdom.

Beginning today, you can schedule your gift to KiDs Beach Club® to help our churches share the Light of Christ in the heart our communities – the public school. Click here to schedule your gift to KiDs Beach Club®.

This year, for the first time, you also can give via text message. Just text “Bibles” to 444-999 to support our efforts to connect kids to Christ and put Bibles in their hands.

We hope you will prayerfully consider supporting KiDs Beach Club® on North Texas Giving Day. This year, North Texas Giving Day is Thursday, September 19. Last year, we were one of more than 2,700 non-profits based in North Texas to combine to raise more than $48 million.

Your support is crucial to our mission and vision of helping churches take the message of Jesus Christ outside the walls of our churches and into the heart of our communities – the public schools – where we are trying to give every boy and girl a Jesus experience within the culture of their public school.

Your contributions not only allow us to give a Bible to every student in every Beach Club; they’re more than that. They help us equip volunteers to teach students how to read God’s word and how to apply it to their daily lives.

What students learn in Beach Club and what they read in the Bible are setting them up for an eternal relationship with Jesus. It is also teaching them how to be a light in public schools, which offer a true representation of our communities and their darkness.

John 12:46 tell us, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”

Students who come to Beach Club learn about the character of Christ and when they use that as a plumb line, behaving in ways that are pleasing to God and showing His love to everyone, it shines the Light of Jesus.

In a few weeks on North Texas Giving Day, your gift to KiDs Beach Club® is helping shine light in our schools and in our communities. Please visit kidsbeachclub.org/giving-day for more information.

Wanna be a KiD who makes JESUS cool at YOUR school?

Here's How!

• Carry your Bible with you to school.
  
  
• Behave in ways that are pleasing to God.
  
  
• Wear your KiDs Beach Club® t-shirt.
  
  
• Tell your friends what you learn about Jesus.
  
  
• Read your Bible during your free reading time.
  
  
• Go to a church that teaches about the Bible. Invite a friend to go, too!
  
  
• Pray to Jesus during your "moment of silence" and before you eat lunch.
  
  
• Show love to everyone... just like Jesus did.
  
  
• Come to KiDs Beach Club® and bring a friend with you.
  
  

Beach Clubs will be starting up again soon. Find your club and register online today at KiDsBeachClub.org/Find-A-Club.

The burden on the heart of KiDs Beach Club® Founder and President Jack Terrell is to give every child in America a chance to hear about Jesus Christ.

“What child doesn’t deserve to hear a clear gospel presentation?” Terrell often asks. Since 2003, more than 97,000 children have been impacted by the life changing message of Jesus Christ during a Beach Club in their public school but there are millions more to reach.

KiDs Beach Club® believes God is calling us to maximize our resources to make the biggest impact we possibly can in this generation. We believe that God has given us a proven model of reaching communities through public schools and that now is the time to multiply that model in ways that we’ve not thought possible before.

We believe that God is calling us to tenfold growth during the next five years and we have prayerfully sought His guidance for this five-year strategic plan called ENVISION2k25. This will allow KiDs Beach Club® to move from an addition ministry that adds a couple dozen Beach Clubs each year to a multiplication ministry that adds hundreds of new Beach Clubs annually and impacts 100,000 students and 2,000 communities through 25,000 volunteers on a weekly basis by January 2025.

“ENVISION2k25 is a bold step for our organization,” Frank Banfill, KBC’s executive vice president for strategy and organization growth, said. “It really focuses us on growing through multiplication, which is greatly needed if we are going to take advantage of the incredible opportunities we have right now in public schools. I’m asking all KBC friends, volunteers and partnering churches to join with us in prayer for this endeavor.”

As a way to accomplish our goals, we will launch four new programs and one new project:

• Elite Volunteer Program
  Volunteers who will help administrate the field ministry
  
  
• Church-to-Church Mentoring Program
  Veteran KBC church partners help new KBC partnering churches launch and grow their clubs
  
  
• Internal Leadership Development Program
  Systematic training and development of KBC leaders and managers
  
  
• Point of Entry Donor Development Program
  Systematic approach to introduce KiDs Beach Club® to potential donors
  
  
• Reorganized Training Project
  Revamping how KiDs Beach Club® trains clubs and volunteers in order to accommodate club growth
  
  

To look at all the details of this exciting and aggressive growth plan, please visit the ENVISION2k25 page on the KBC website by clicking here.

While much of the program appears to position KiDs Beach Club® for expansion, the focus remains on reaching students and their families with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things Christ commanded us to do.

There needs to be urgency in sharing the gospel, so that kids and their families hear it before Christ returns. More than 60 percent of students who enroll in Beach Club do not regularly attend church, so we’re letting our culture teach them what is right and what is wrong.

Our public schools are dark places that need the Light. Your church can shine the light – the Light of Christ – in the darkness of our schools and our communities.

In John 12:46 (NASB), Jesus said, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”

Many of our communities are like harbors in the night; harbors full of rocks, fog and darkness. They are dangerous. Jesus is like a lighthouse providing all a light to focus on to help navigate dangerous waters. It’s time to light up our communities and force darkness out.

Summer is rapidly coming to a close and the folks in the KBC corporate office are putting the finishing touches on volunteer training for the 2019-20 school year.

Three types of trainings will be offered to our church partners this year:

K – the K training is our Train Up A Child Conference on Feb. 1, 2020. (click for details)

B – the B training is our Basic Training available to all new clubs starting in 2019-20.

C – the C training is our Customizable training for all existing clubs and volunteers

Our KiDs Beach Club® field team representatives will be in touch with club leaders and church coordinators soon on dates and locations of trainings in your area.

Also coming soon is an all-new training for record keepers live via Zoom video conference as well as a club leader training held at the KBC corporate office. Club Relations Director Tammy Terrell will be reaching out to all club leaders with information on these specialized trainings.

As an added reminder, make sure to take advantage of the KBC Video Training Portal which features every part of Beach Club on video! The 25 training videos were watched more than 1,100 times last year. It’s easy to access:

• Click the orange “Login” box at bottom of any page on the KBC website
• Click Online Video Training Portal button
• Enter Password: kbcvideo

In addition, KiDs Beach Club® is trying to minimize the cost of a church to print out club flyers and permission forms and is offering a print portal to order deeply discounted copies thanks to the resource ministry at First Baptist Church Arlington. Simply visit http://www.fbcaprintshop.com/kbc and use the password: beachclub. Additional instructions will follow after logging in.