Good News Clubs are the best thing that has happened to public schools. Designed to bring the Gospel to children ages 5-12, Good News Clubs are sponsored by the international ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship (“CEF”). CEF is in all fifty states and 155 foreign nations.

Through its international ministry, CEF brings the Good News of Jesus Christ to more than five million children each year, of which more than one million children make decisions to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s quite an impressive statistic for a ministry that started in 1937 when some people thought that children were too young to understand the Gospel. Now modern researcher George Barna has confirmed what CEF’s founder, Jesse Irvin Overholtzer, knew from the beginning – that introducing the Gospel to children ought to be a high priority for any ministry. In his book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, Barna gives startling statistics which show that most decisions for Jesus Christ occur during the tender years of ages 5-12. While many people make decisions for Christ later in life, the majority occur during these early years.

From its inception, CEF has focused on bringing the Good News to children. This has been accomplished by conducting what I describe as a high-powered, extremely effective, Sunday school. These meetings historically have occurred in individual homes. However, recent court cases have allowed Good News Clubs to be conducted in public elementary schools immediately after school. In 2001, the Supreme Court case of Good News Club v. Milford Central School District ruled that a public elementary school could not prohibit the Good News Club from meeting on campus solely because it disagreed with the Club’s Christian viewpoint. In that case, the New York public school allowed other secular organizations like the Boy Scouts to conduct meetings immediately after school. However, the school district denied the Good News Club’s request to use the facilities on the same equal basis as the Scouts. The school contended that it would violate the First Amendment by allowing a Christian club to meet on campus. The Supreme Court disagreed.

Since the 2001 Supreme Court decision, Good News Clubs have been spreading like wildfire throughout public schools. When I spoke to a CEF regional conference in Atlanta, Georgia, only a few years ago, there were four Good News Clubs in the local public schools. A year and one-half later, that number grew to ninety-six. When the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in America, denied equal access to the Good News Clubs, Liberty Counsel filed suit. The district, which had at the time over 370,000 public elementary school students, allowed a wide array of groups and organizations to use its facilities but denied equal access to the Good News Club because of its Christian viewpoint. In that case the district agreed to allow the Good News Club access but wanted to charge a facilities usage fee. The problem is that it did not charge a similar facilities usage fee to other youth-related, after-school clubs. The federal court ruled that equal access means what it says – equal treatment. As a result, Good News Clubs have been allowed to meet on the campus and they now receive equal access to more than 426 public elementary schools. Since that ruling, Good News Clubs have been exploding throughout the district.

Liberty Counsel defended Barbara Wigg, a public elementary school teacher in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when she was told she could not participate after school on her own time in a Good News Club. A federal court of appeals ruled against the school district. Thus, since September 2004, public elementary school teachers can now put aside their secular textbooks immediately after the last school bell and bring out their Good News Club materials to teach the Gospel to elementary students.

Good News Clubs are taught by adults, and the children attend by parental permission. Good News Clubs teach morals and character development from a Biblical viewpoint. The youngsters sing songs, read Bible stories, memorize Scripture and are taught the Gospel. In my experience, many secular educators have asked for the Good News Clubs to be on their campuses because they have seen the visible difference in the way the students treat each other, their teachers and their parents.

Liberty Counsel is working with CEF to implement a five-year strategic plan to get Good News Clubs in every public elementary school in America. There are approximately 65,000 such schools. Thus, there are many open fields for evangelism to take the Good News to public school students immediately after school.

Because of the importance of ministering to children, Liberty University is now working with Child Evangelism Fellowship to develop a children’s ministry degree that will be available for the Fall of 2006. This children’s ministry degree will be available both in the undergraduate and graduate levels and will also be made available as a certificate program. The certificate program is designed for those who are interested in working with youth but either do not want another degree or cannot leave their home to obtain one. The certificate program will be designed to pass on CEF’s years of experience in working with children.

While there have been many negative things associated with public schools, the most positive thing to happen to public schools is Good News Clubs. These Clubs provide a tremendous opportunity to take the Good News to public elementary schools. Many of these youngsters will never attend a church unless the church comes to them. Good News Clubs provide an unprecedented opportunity to restore the culture, one young person at a time.

For those interested in leaning more about Liberty University’s children’s ministries degrees or certificate program, or to learn how you can start a Good News Club in your local elementary school, contact 407-875-2100. You can also email inquiries about the degree program or Child Evangelism Fellowship to liberty@LC.org.