Contact: Melody Bentley, 571-274-6058

WARRENTON, Mo., Sept. 12, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Sunday, July 28th, the East Denver Bible Baptist Church, a small mission church in a working class neighborhood of Denver, Colorado, saw attendance of its worship service swell from the usual 75 to an astonishing 235. Of these newcomers, 106 were children. According to Pastor Loren Richmond, the remarkable attendance that Sunday, and the significant increase in attendance since then is a direct result of the church's participation in the week-long Good News Across America campaign, sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship, the largest Christian ministry to children in the world. Good News Across America began in 2008 targeting a strategic city in the United States every July with evangelistic clubs, called 5-Day Clubs. It has consistently reached over 2000 children each year and this past July in Denver, the campaign reached over 2700 children.

Photo: Meeting of 5-Club during Good News Across America Campaign in Denver

To reach so many children in such a short period of time requires considerable manpower and resources. This year in Denver, 162 CEF staff and volunteers from 27 states, partnered with 38 Denver area churches to provide 87 5-Day Clubs for children in the churches' communities. 530 members of the participating churches worked alongside the CEF workers. The cost of the program is born entirely by CEF and its volunteers. "We want to help churches with something they often find challenging: evangelizing children, especially non-churched children. And we want churches to bear as little cost as possible because our strong desire to serve and bless the churches," said Mr. Moises Esteves, vice president of USA Ministries for CEF. Indeed, the only expense the churches incur is the cost of one meal for the participating children and their families at a rally the final evening of the clubs.

The Good News Across America campaign has its roots in Brazil, where CEF workers pioneered the program, targeting areas where the ministry was not yet established. The first campaign held in the United States was in Chicago, in 2008, followed the next year by Little Rock, Arkansas, then Boston, Salt Lake City and last year, the Twin Cities.

Two weeks prior to the start of the 5-Day Clubs the 29 churches handed out a minimum of 250 invitations to children and families around each of the 87 locations where the clubs would be held. A week prior, they handed out another 250 invitations at each location for a total of 45,000 invitations in all. Also, during that week, the CEF workers and members of the participating churches were given training on the curriculum of the 5-Day Club, as well as the cultural background of the local communities. "The goal of the curriculum simply stated is to train participants to share the gospel as clearly as possible," says Mr. Moises Esteves, vice president for USA Ministries at CEF. "God does not require us to make people believe. The children must decide that for themselves."

The genius of the 5-Day Clubs is that they are held where the children are rather than inside a local church. Depending on the community, clubs might be held in parks, community centers, private backyards, on playgrounds or in apartment complexes. "Many churches need this program because their traditional method for evangelizing unchurched children, the Vacation Bible School, has been in decline," said Mr. John Luck, project manager for Good News Across America. "Instead of reaching children who do not know the gospel, VBS attendees are primarily children who already attend the host church or another church. We want to help churches find those children and their families who have not heard the gospel." Indeed, Ms. Vickie Deasy, a volunteer from Grace Church said, "We had given up on VBS... we wanted to reach more kids of our community and Good News Across America helped us do that."

The clubs themselves are a wonderful mix of learning and fun. Engaging Bible lessons, songs, and games have been designed to encourage relationship building among the children, with church members, and help children learn how they can have a relationship with God. The clubs culminate on Friday evening with rallies at the sponsoring churches for the children and their families. The rallies, which were attended by 2800 people this year, serve as a bridge to connect the children and their families to the local churches. The churches offer many ways for them to become involved, including inviting the children, with their parent's permission, to attend Good News Clubs which meet once a week after school, in local public schools. Like the 5-Day Clubs, these clubs offer a good mix of fun with thoughtful Bible lessons and are led by church members who have been trained by CEF. In this way, churches are able to maintain their relationships and spiritual care of these children. CEF will be working with churches who participated this summer as well as other local churches in the Denver area to launch Good News Clubs in all of the Denver Metropolitan School Districts this fall.

If you would like more information about Child Evangelism Fellowship, please visit www.cefonline.com.