State Baptist churches spread Discovery Clubs

For members of First Baptist Church, Lanett, seeing missions fields outside the church walls isn’t difficult to do. 
   
Tim Andrews, associate pastor to students and children, said if he steps to the corner of the church’s property, then he can see one just down the street — Central Elementary School.
   
First, Lanett, recently started a chapter of Discovery Clubs of Alabama (DCA) at Central Elementary — the first such club formed outside the Birmingham-metro area.
   
“The school system has been very supportive, and they really appreciate what we are doing,” Andrews said. “We are taking the gospel to the children and at the same time, teaching them right values. The school is very much for that.”
   
And the response from the school’s second-graders has been incredible, he said.
   
“We have only been in the school three weeks, and it seems to be going very well. We enrolled 39 second-graders the first week and have since added four more,” Andrews said.
   
Why do more than half of the school’s second-graders flock to a church-led, on-campus after-school program each Tuesday and Thursday?
   
Snacks, Bible stories, games, crafts and music — but most importantly the one-on-one time they get from the church’s 13 faithful volunteers, Andrews said.
   
“The volunteers have been hugging on the kids and loving them,” he said. “It’s Intentional Evangelism for us — a way that we can intentionally take the gospel outside the church walls and to these children through building strong relationships with them. 
   
“We have even gotten to reach out to the parents through the club.”
   
Brian Carroll, DCA mission development director, said DCA gives churches a structure under which they can take the gospel into public schools.
   
“We provide a platform for churches to work with the schools,” Carroll said. “The schools are easy to work with — we just have to find churches interested in making it happen.”
   
Sixth Avenue Baptist Church and First Baptist Church, both of Birmingham, have been making it happen in the city’s Jackson Elementary School since March. 
   
And Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, Hueytown, answered the call in mid-October at Hueytown Elementary School, making it the first in the Jefferson County School System to get a DCA chapter.
   
“It has really been a neat experience,” said Nancy Glover, preschool and children’s minister for Pleasant Ridge Baptist. “We started the club hoping for 20 second-graders, and we had 46 the first day. We’ve enrolled 10 more since.”
   
Glover said she had taken information on DCA to present to her church as one of its Wednesday night “missionary moments,” never dreaming members would want to start their own.
   
“Many people think you can’t get into the public schools with the gospel, and I took that information just to show that, yes, people are getting in, and this is how they are doing it,” she said. “Drumming up support to start a club was never my intent, but their response was, ‘When do we start?’”
   
All 20 of Glover’s volunteers approached her, wanting to help. “It has been awesome to see how it has come together,” she said.
   
In both Hueytown and Lanett, volunteers include church members from seasoned elementary school teachers to stay-at-home moms to retired engineers.
   
“They are excellent in their roles, and they are sharing the vision. They are already building relationships and telling their Sunday School classes and friends to pray for Discovery Clubs,” Andrews said.
   
For more information about DCA call 205-870-4306.