Birmingham churches link with after-school clubs

Ask Bryan Miles about his musical ability, and he’ll laugh and tell you he “can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” 
   
But despite that self-critique, he’s carrying the title of “Mr. Bryan the song leader” at Jackson Elementary School in Birmingham. And he’s carried it well for several Tuesday afternoons now.
   
Miles, a member of First Baptist Church, Birmingham, serves as a volunteer mentor for Discovery Clubs of Alabama (DCA), a nonprofit organization that brings the gospel into the state’s public schools through after-school Bible clubs held on campus.
   
Serving snacks and leading songs in an inner-city school might seem like quite a switch from Miles’ daily occupation — handling subsidized housing rental through Nordon Investments. But he will quickly tell you it’s not.
   
“These are the people I deal with on a daily basis,” he said of the children who attend the club. “The families in this area are the ones we rent housing to, and many of these children come from those families.”
   
The overwhelming majority of the tenants he visits in his job are single mothers, Miles said, and he feels Discovery Clubs are a way to reach out to the children growing up without healthy male role models — or  any at all.
   
“I don’t know about the moms, but these (children) still have soft hearts. They can be changed, and they need to be changed,” Miles said. “If the Lord can change their hearts, maybe they can put me out of business. I sure hope they can.”
   
Volunteers from First, Birmingham, and the city’s Sixth Avenue Baptist Church have only been in Jackson Elementary since March 29, but they are already a dependable presence in the lives of the 42 second graders who participate in the club.
   
Brian Carroll, DCA mission development director, said the partnership between the two Baptist churches and the elementary school will help the Christian community tap into the huge missions field that is the public school. 
   
“The long-range vision of this in Alabama is as big as the churches will allow it to be,” said Carroll, who also serves as pastor of Vance Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa Association. “These two are our first Baptist churches to get involved, and we are hoping to sell the vision to more very soon.”
   
Discovery Clubs of Alabama provides the volunteer training, administration, materials and snacks for any church that will partner with the organization to take on a school, Carroll said. 
   
“The ministry is ready to go; we just need churches that are willing to do it,” he said. “We need to get the church aware of the need and the open door we have to minister to them through Discovery Clubs. Many think public schools are untouchable because of legal issues, so they overlook the possibilities.”
   
Discovery Clubs of Alabama, formed in January 2003, rode into the state’s public schools on the coattails of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that put backing to the club’s presence on campus. Good News Club v. Milford Central School held that Christian clubs could meet on school property after classroom hours on the same terms as other community groups.
   
Once a Discovery Club is formed, children are given a permission slip to take home to their parents, Carroll said. Usually 50 to 60 percent come back with them signed.
   
In the organization’s first 18 months of existence in three Birmingham-area elementary schools, volunteers saw 35 children make first-time professions of faith, he said. Jackson’s addition brought the total up to four schools, and students there are already professing newfound faith.
   
“We have schools waiting for churches to adopt them to work with the children and begin sharing the gospel with them,” he said. “The volunteers become an avenue for the students to get to know Christ and their local churches.”
   
Anton Fourie, senior pastor of First, Birmingham, said he believes the experience of sharing the love of Christ with the children will transform not only those hearing the gospel but also the volunteers who share.
   
“This will, in turn, influence our church to grow in grace and godliness,” Fourie said. “We trust that many of the children will find love, acceptance and purpose in Jesus through this ministry.”
   
Options are unlimited for building relationships, Carroll said. When partnering churches are not located in the area of their elementary school, some bus the children in for special events, and others connect with a local church closer to the children to share prospects. Other churches, such as Sixth Avenue, already have a stake in the area surrounding the school they adopt, thus making discipleship through the church a logical next step.
   
Lenora Carson calls the church and community connection a natural one, much like Miles’ connection to the Jackson Elementary’s neighbors through his housing work.
   
Carson, a member of Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, taught elementary school for 31 years before volunteering with Discovery Clubs.
   
“I love doing it because I love working with children,” Carson said. “I believe it is fulfilling a purpose God gave to me.”
   
For more information about Discovery Clubs of Alabama, call 205-870-4306.