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Leadership Luau, a high-energy time of worship and celebration for Beach Club leaders, is right around the corner. It will allow you to connect with other leaders in clubs near you. 

If you've been serving in Beach Club for a while, you'll find that Leadership Luau isn't a typical training event. You'll be inspired and challenged to continue serving in Beach Club with excellence. You'll hear from a top-notch team of KBC leaders who will share ways to take your club to the next level staying focused on our mission of giving every 3rd through 6th grade child a Jesus experience in their public elementary school.

Our Leadership Luau is going to be really different, really great. Check out these 10 big reasons not to miss it:

1. Experience God’s presence and CELEBRATE 10 years of KBC ministry through worship and praise with fellow KBC Leaders.

2. Hear inspiring testimonies of GOD AT WORK in beach clubs both nationally and locally in your area.

3. Hear first hand WHAT’S NEW for beach club this school year including new Bible distribution processes for Great Treasure Day and Online Basic Training requirements.

4. KBC CURRICULUM has an updated look and layout. Learn about the helpful new features and where to find what you’re looking for. We can’t wait till you see our improved Memory Link Posters!

5. Hear the BIG NEWS about how we’ve streamlined the KiDs Online Management System. Sneak preview…kids information is staying in the system. Record Keepers, be there to learn what this change means for you. We trust you’ll love it! 

6. Help your club win 50 FREE CLUB T-SHIRTS for kids by having the highest percentage of your club volunteers present (Valid only at regional luaus in Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Florida.) 

7. Experience practical and challenging teaching for all leaders on how to effectively weave THE GOSPEL into every element of beach club. Yes, even for attendance and snack leaders!

8. Leave spiritually challenged and refreshed through a personal message from KBC Founder & President Jack Terrell. Word for the year: PASSION

9. Spend time in PRAYER as a KBC community of leaders committing to the Lord the 2016-17 year in beach club and asking God to move in the hearts of kids, families, school faculty and KBC volunteers.
   
   
10. Lunch is provided in most locations. Reserve your lunch for $7 online in advance or pay $10 at the door (supply limited). After lunch options include BASIC TRAINING for new clubs and new volunteers to learn the nuts and bolts of beach club, VETERAN CLUB LEADERS networking, discussion and idea share and RECORD KEEPERS get hands on the KiDs Online Management System to refresh on the basics and learn new processes.

Go to kidsbeachclub.org/leadership-luau to find the Leadership Luau nearest you. Please register to let us know you’ll be attending.

Not many people know where Pass Christian, Mississippi is. The fishing community sits on the eastern shore of Bay St. Louis along the Gulf of Mexico just to the west of Gulfport.

The community continues to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina destroyed nearly all of the town in 2005. After Katrina, the population of Pass Christian shrank from 7,000 or 8,000 people to around 1,000 people today. Most of the town has relocated, but others rebuilt or renovated. Among those is Cornerstone Baptist Church, which took over the site of another church about four years ago. Cornerstone sits just a few of blocks from the beach.

Last year, that small church took a step out in faith to sponsor a Beach Club at Pass Christian Elementary School. The club meets in the cafeteria most Thursdays during the school year.

Late last spring, after praise and worship time, the club leader began teaching the lesson about God speaking to Moses through the burning bush. 

“God told Moses to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground,” pastor Don Bearden remembers teaching. “When we finished the lesson, we asked if there were any questions and one little boy held his hand up and kept raising it higher because he wanted to make sure we saw him. So asked him what he wanted to ask. 

“He stood up like a little man and looked at me dead in my face and said, ‘I just have to get it straight.’

“I said, ‘What’s that son?’

“‘When God told Moses to take his shoes off, why did he do it?’ the boy asked. 

“I told him it was because it was holy ground and it is holy ground because God was there.’

“You could see his mind kick into a higher gear and then the boy asked, ‘so if this (school) is the same as church because we’re worshiping God that makes this holy ground?’ 

“I said, ‘that’s right!’”

Then, he looked at Pastor Bearden, took off his shoes and started moving his feet to feel the floor (like toes in sand at the beach) and then the young man hit his knees and bowed his head.

“You just would have had to have been there,” Bearden said. “You could feel an outpouring of the Holy Spirit rush in that place because this young man gave you the impression that he was genuinely kneeling and praising the Lord.”

Then the boy looked up and asked, “So we are standing on holy ground?” and I said, “Son, we sure are. Anywhere God is present is holy ground.”

One of the Beach Club volunteers tried to explain to him that holy ground is even in his heart and that the Lord is in his heart. 

The Lord definitely is in Micah’s heart. It’s where he welcomed in Jesus last November. It’s one of 19 professions of faith made by kids in the club, which more than 60 kids attended last year.

Bearden said there are always some of the teachers who just watch the club from the doorway. That night when he got home, he had one of the teachers call him and say, “I just wanted to let you know that I may never ever get over what I witnessed today. I know now that I have to get back into church.”

A total of three teachers have come to know Christ by observing that Beach Club. Another nine Beach Club parents have accepted Christ after Bearden and his team witnessed to them curbside when they pick up their children after club.

The Sunday after Micah’s inquiry about holy ground, the church reenacted what happened at Beach Club as part of the message.

“We had a man with a beard who dressed up as Moses,” Bearden said. “This guy looked like someone you would have seen in the movie The 10 Commandments. We had one of our deacons on the PA system as the voice of God. We were trying to make it as real as we could. We did the same thing in our church service and then I got up and told them what had happened.” 

Micah was in church that Sunday. It was his first time to be in church with his dad.

“When we told the story to our congregation, the young many was sitting on the edge of the pew with his dad sitting beside him and he again took off his shoes,” Bearden said. “When he did, I took off mine and several people in the church began to take off theirs and the alter began to fill.”

That story just swept through the town. 

“I didn’t even get to finish preaching because we had an alter call and the alter was filled up in 30 minutes,” Bearden said. “When we told them what had happened with that little boy, several people told me that I didn’t even need to speak. Everybody got the message.”

The KiDs Beach Club® “Hang 10” Summer Reading Program is about to enter its final month. It’s designed mainly with the Beach Club kid in mind to give them a plan to help them spend 10 minutes every day with God, reading His word or in prayer.

The reading plan isn’t just for kids. It’s for everyone. We invited KBC volunteers as well as the siblings and parents of Beach Club kids to participate. We even encouraged you to forward it to anyone looking to spend more time immersed in God’s word.

The focus this month has been to find out what God’s word says about the 24 character words taught in Beach Club. We want them to discover God’s character and explore how they can live with Biblical character, too.

Tammy Terrell, a Strategic Growth Director for KiDs Beach Club®, is reading along with you and your kids. One day, she discovered what she called a “gold nugget” nestled in the middle of a very familiar passage. On July 6, she was drinking a cup of coffee and reading the Bible.

“I was praying about an upcoming doctor appointment and reflecting over the past month,” she said. “I opened the Summer Reading Program and turned to the Gospel of Mark. The character word that day was compassion and the question asked, "How did Jesus show compassion?"

Here’s the passage, Mark 6:30-34…
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.
(KBC Explorer’s Study Bible page 1,081) 

The answer, and the focus of compassion for the Summer Reading Program, is on the crowd. However, Terrell can’t help but think Jesus showed incredible compassion to His disciples as well. 

As she read the passage in her NIV Study Bible she stopped on verse 31. “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’” 

What compassion! In the verses just prior to this passage, it says that Jesus' disciples had just heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded and took his body and buried him. Then, in the very next verse, they went to tell Jesus everything they had been doing. I can’t help but think they told Jesus the sad news of John’s death in addition to everything else they “had done and taught.”

Terrell thinks Jesus saw how tired his disciples were both physically and emotionally. Not only had they been “doing” and “teaching” but they also were saddened by the loss of John the Baptist. Terrell thinks Jesus was, too. Jesus showed great compassion and extended to them an invitation to “come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Think about it! Almighty God in human form, Creator of the universe, Jesus, invited His disciples to get alone with Him and find rest. Do you know that this same God, Jesus Christ, invites you and me to come with Him by ourselves to a quiet place and get some rest? No matter what life throws at you, know that you can pick up your Bible, get alone in a quiet place, pray and find rest for your soul.

If you are not currently Hanging with God at least 10 minutes a day, we want to encourage you to join us. The Summer Reading Program continues through August and you can always go back and see what you might have missed by visiting our website. God loves you and invites you to meet with Him by reading the Bible and praying.

Do you know Jesus personally? Has there ever been a time in your life when you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and place your faith in Him alone to save you? If you haven’t, we would love to talk with you. In fact, it’s as simple as A-B-C! ADMIT you have sin. BELIEVE Jesus died on the cross to save you and forgive you of your sins. And make the choice to CHOOSE to follow Jesus by inviting Him into your life. You can read more about the A-B-C’s on the tip-in pages of your child’s KBC Study Bible between pages 626-627.

We want to encourage you to call KiDs Beach Club® and let us know if you have questions or if you have something we can pray about for you. Please share your story of how KiDs Beach Club® or your child’s KBC Explorer’s Study Bible has impacted your child, yourself or your family. You can even send us photos of you and your children reading their KBC Study Bible to news@beachclubs.org. We would love to hear from you.

What a month it has been. Notice there is no exclamation point after that statement. Outside of our nation’s 240th birthday, there were no celebrations. July was a tough month for America. From the killings by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana to the killing of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge to the political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia this week and last, the outlook appears bleak.

America is hurting. We’re becoming too secular and it’s time for a change - a change of heart. We think that starts with God and His word. America needs to reengage with the Bible if there is to be any hope.

KiDs Beach Club® staff regularly listen to podcasts of sermons from neighboring churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It’s another way for us to see how God is working through the churches in our community. 

Recently David Barton, the founder and president of WallBuilders, recently spoke at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. WallBuilders is an organization dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious and constitutional foundation on which America was built. His message at Gateway is definitely worth checking out. 

He talked about how the Bible influenced the founding of our nation and how for a little more than two centuries significantly influenced our culture. Barton quoted many former United States presidents throughout his message.

“The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our civic and social life that it would be impossible for us to figure what life would be if these teachings were removed,” said President Teddy Roosevelt, who served from 1901-1909.

“If you take out of America what the Bible produces, you wouldn’t even recognize America. That is what Teddy said back then,” Barton stated.

He also quoted President Franklin Roosevelt, who was in the White House from 1933-1945, who said, “In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident.”

Barton interjected, “Unless you go to school today and then it is conspicuously absent.”

Franklin Roosevelt continued, “We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic.”

President Andrew Jackson (1829-37), regarded by many scholars as the least religious president, said, “The Bibles is the Rock on which our Republic rests. 

President Zachary Taylor (1949-50) called the Bible the best of books and said, “I wish it were in the hands of everyone. It is indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions.”

Taylor continued, “Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best schoolbook in the world. I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that Holy Book.”

And American children were according to Barton. In 1844, the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous 8-0 decision, said if you’re going to be a government-run, government-operated school, you will teach the Bible. We won’t fund any government school that doesn’t teach the Bible.

That was the way it was until 1963 when teaching the Bible in school suddenly became unconstitutional despite no historical or legal precedent.

“In that decision,” Barton explained, “the Supreme Court, for the first time, said, ‘You know that thing about Bibles in schools, we’re not going to do that anymore.’

“Why did they do it? The court said that ‘if portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and… had been, psychologically harmful to the child.’”

Barton sarcastically said, “So, we’ve now discovered the Bible causes brain damage. We have to save our kids from brain damage. I would argue that we’ve suffered massive brain damage since we’ve taken the Bible out of schools. We’ve lost our senses in all sorts of areas. 

“Benjamin Rush, one of our nation’s founding fathers, said the Bible, when not read in schools, is not read in subsequent periods of life. We know statistically that the older you are the harder it is to start reading the Bible.

“Now if you read it when you’re starting school… you’ll keep reading it for your entire life. But if you don’t read it early on it’s pretty hard to start as a teenager. It’s even harder to start as a young adult. When you get over your 30s its even harder and as time goes on it’s even harder to start reading the Bible.”

That is why KiDs Beach Club® chooses to engage with children in third through sixth grades and where do we do it? In the public elementary school thanks to another Supreme Court ruling from 2001 that allows Bible clubs to meet in school after school hours. We’re able to do it because if a school is open to other outside organizations, it cannot discriminate against religious organizations. 

Not only are we teaching children about the treasure of the Bible, we’re giving each and every child in our 170 clubs across the nation a copy of the Bible of his or her very own. We’re teaching them how to read it daily and how to share it with others. It’s helping to change hearts of children, connect them and their families to a church and impacting communities.

“God has a great promise for us,” Barton said. “This is what God tells us in Joshua 1:8, ‘Constantly think about My Word every day and every night so you will be sure to obey it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ 

“What made America different for so many years is that we tried to apply those biblical principles and we weren’t always successful. We had lots of things wrong. But more than any other nation we tried to apply the Bible and Franklin Roosevelt said, the advances we made were because we did apply the Bible. So many areas, while we’re not a perfect nation, we are so far ahead of so many others with stability and prosperity and creativity, we just didn’t know that it came out of the Bible.

“That is our challenge,” Barton said in his message at Gateway. “If you’ll get into God’s word and read that and obey it and apply it, you will be prosperous and successful personally, in your family, in every institution we deal with. The whole thing will change if we get back to knowing God’s word, but that starts with us individually.”

If you’re interested in watching David Barton’s message in its entirety, please visit: http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/individual-messages-2016/session/2016/06/25/know-the-bible

By now you know that KiDs Beach Club® gives a KBC Explorer’s Study Bible to every child in every Beach Club. Many of you help in this effort with your monthly donations. Some of you even help in the distribution process as a Beach Club volunteer. 

During the last school year, KiDs Beach Club® handed out more than 8,300 Bibles. In the 10-plus years KBC has been giving out Bibles, more than 40,000 kids have received a Bible. For many of them, it’s their first.

Only 38 percent of children who enroll in Beach Club claim to have a church home on their permission form when they start club. Sixty-two percent do not! So, for most, not only might the KBC Bible be their first, it might also be the first Bible in their home.

“The most important thing about handing out these Bibles is that many of the kids might not have ever had a chance to own a Bible or even ever read the Bible,” David Griffin, a pastor at Community Life Church in Forney said. “One of the exciting things is that many of these students don’t even have access to a Bible, so to give them the opportunity to have a Bible to call their own, means a great deal.”

The KBC Explorer’s Study Bible is designed to be easy to read. One dad of a Beach Club kid asked the principal at his child’s school where he could get a copy of a KiDs Beach Club® Bible for himself. He said his son had one and it seemed easy to read. The principal suggested that he sit with his son and read it together. He was surprised that he hadn't thought of that and now they read God’s word together.

KiDs Beach Club partnered with publishing company Tommy Nelson to create the KBC Explorer’s Study Bible, which is handed out on Great Treasure Day, the fifth week of Beach Club.

“This Study Bible has been richly enhanced by the four-color cover designed by KiDs Beach Club as well as the insert pages interspersed throughout the New King James Explorer’s Study Bible,” said Dana Long, a Bible designer at Tommy Nelson.

The special features of the KiDs Beach Club® Explorer’s Study Bible include Word Decoders, which are a compass to the meaning of Bible terms; Discoveries, which allow readers to experience living in Bible times; Bible Treasures, which helps readers learn wisdom from the lessons learned by Bible characters; and Digging In, which allows readers to find rich treasures in story backgrounds, the meaning of key passages and more.

“Each of these insert pages help kids grasp the plan of salvation and the essentials of the Christian faith with age-appropriate language and artwork,” Long said. “The insert pages cover topics such as ‘How to be saved,’ ‘Who is God?’ and ‘What is He like?’ ‘Who Jesus is?’ and ‘What He has in store for each child that trusts in Him.’”

There is also a full-page spread highlighting the great commandment and another for the great commission.

We have put all the insert pages on our website and hope you will take the opportunity to learn more about the Bible your helping to put in the hands of children.

Thank you for your continued support of the Bibles for Beach Club program. If you are interested in becoming a monthly Bible donor, please visit: kidsbeachclub.org/bibles.

KiDs Beach Club® went to St. Louis in mid-June as an exhibitor during the SBC Annual Meeting and as a program sponsor in the SBC Pastors’ Conference. The goal was to unveil its new national growth strategy.

The theme of the Annual Meeting was “Awaken America” by placing a greater emphasis on evangelism. The theme for the Pastors’ Conference was “Live This” encouraging pastors to lead the charge in the urgency to share the gospel.

Several great speakers at the Pastors Conference were unified with the message to thousands of pastors in the audience to “do the work of the evangelist” from 2 Timothy 4:5.

“There is no answer for what’s happening in our world today apart from the gospel."
      - John Meador, First Baptist Church; Euless, Texas

“People can’t respond to a gospel they’ve never heard. We must proclaim the message of the gospel.”
      - David Platt, President of the International Mission Board

“May we never forget the first time we met Jesus.”
      - Derwin Gray, Transformation Church; Charlotte, N.C.

And these two remarks that reinforce how KiDs Beach Club® can help churches share the gospel.

“If your lane doesn’t take you near far-from-God-people, change lanes.”
      - Jimmy Scroggins, First Baptist Church; West Palm Beach, Fla. 

“If Jesus continues to use you, bring the next generation with you.”
      - Johnny Hunt, First Baptist Church; Woodstock, Ga.

Through more than a decade of ministry in public schools, KiDs Beach Club®, has gathered statistics that indicate 62 percent of children who first attend a Beach Club do not have a church home. National studies have also shown a much greater success in reaching people for Christ before the age of 12.

Researcher George Barna, author of Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, stresses the importance of children's ministry by contending that lifelong moral views are largely in place by adolescence.

"What you believe at age 13 is pretty much what you're going to die believing," Barna said.

Research compiled by his Barna Group shows that children between the ages of 5 and 13 have a 32 percent probability of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. That likelihood drops to 4 percent for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, and ticks back up to 6 percent for adults older than 18.

KiDs Beach Club® provides a great way to reach children during this critical period in their lives in a mission field that is often overlooked by churches, providing those churches an open door into the public elementary schools to minister to children in third through sixth grades. We are an evangelism tool to reach children for Christ.

At the booth in the exhibit hall in St. Louis, KBC was able to meet with hundreds of pastors and church messengers. We had more than 100 meaningful conversations with church leaders from 18 different states, including 11 states that do not yet have a Beach Club.

While most of the churches were in southern states, KBC also visited with pastors from Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, Wyoming and even the Virgin Islands. Some pastors at churches that already sponsor Beach Club also stopped by our booth and were excited to tell the KBC story, being some of our strongest ambassadors during the annual meeting.

One of those pastors is Fred Shackelford, the senior pastor at Ellendale Baptist Church in Ellendale, Tenn.

“Our church got involved with KiDs Beach Club® a couple of years ago,” Shackelford said. “In our involvement we have seen incredible opportunity, not just to take the gospel to children in our area at a school that we had been looking to get involved with and partner with for a number of months, but we’ve also just seen an opportunity to connect with our community in a deeper way.”

And that is by sharing the gospel.

“Like most churches, we are trying to get outside the walls of our church and KiDs Beach Club® has just been an incredible opportunity for us to connect with our community in an ongoing way. We’ve seen children that have been unchurched, families that have been unchurched, come into the life of our church through KiDs Beach Club®. We’ve seen kids pray to receive Christ… and they get to become part of the Kingdom and we get to be a part of that. I’m so thankful for KiDs Beach Club®.”

In St. Louis, KiDs Beach Club® was able to deliver the message about who we are and what we do to as many church leaders as possible. Many schools don’t have KiDs Beach Club® and we wanted to make sure we reach as many children as possible. KBC also is placing a greater emphasis on sharing the gospel throughout the entire club meeting, not just at a set time.