Fred Pry, CEF Vice President of Administration: ‘The Good News Club has not only succeeded in sharing the Gospel with millions of children, but has been a catalyst God used to start more churches around the world’
ST. LOUIS — Since 1937, Child Evangelism Fellowship® (CEF®) has been committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus with children in their local communities, discipling them through the Word of God and helping them become rooted in a Bible-believing church for a life of Christian living. But when a community lacks such a church, how can those children find a place for further discipleship and fellowship?
The answer often springs from the ministry’s Good News Club®, a weekly community-based program for 5–12-year-olds that includes an engaging Bible lesson, upbeat songs, powerful memory verses and fun games.
CEF Philippines National Coordinator Joy Sidro shared, “In the past, after our workers had been conducting a Good News Club for some time, parents would come to them and say, ‘How about us parents?’ As a result, those CEF workers would help form Bible studies for the parents, and eventually, the number of families grew large enough to support a church.”
This ministry outgrowth dates back to 1980: After former CEF Philippines National Director Rev. Joel Indico completed the Children’s Ministries Institute®, he started a Good News Club that was the catalyst to begin a new church in the Philippines.
In addition, the Good News Club already partners with area congregations, which can spark a new church plant elsewhere.
“The first step is to partner with a church interested in planting a new church in a particular location,” outlined Sidro. “CEF leaders train church volunteers and help start the outreach. First, they go to where the children are and invite them to listen to ‘The Wordless Book’ and share the Gospel with them. Then a weekly Good News Club is started so the boys and girls can grow in their relationships with the Lord Jesus Christ. The weekly club offers more opportunities for the volunteers to connect with families. Then parents become involved in a church-sponsored Bible study, and eventually a new church is started.
“When churches partner with CEF, their children’s ministry workers have access to training, materials and ideas to expand their Sunday school. Their involvement in a Good News Club is one way to connect more children in their own communities with their church or may even give them an opportunity to start another church.”
As a result, when more churches partner with CEF, there will be more prayer partners, support partners and teachers to evangelize and disciple more children.
Fred Pry, CEF Vice President of Administration, summarized, “The local church and CEF are vital partners in the goal to reach 100 million children annually by the year 2032. The Good News Club has not only succeeded in sharing the Gospel with millions of children, but has been a catalyst God used to start more churches around the world.”
To read more about how the Good News Club has sparked churches around the world, click here to read the latest edition of the CEF IMPACT Magazine.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), which was founded 88 years ago, has been establishing the Good News Club in countries around the world for decades. Clubs are thriving worldwide, in countries including Australia, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, and many more.
In 2024, through the combined ministries of CEF, more than 31 million children worldwide heard or read the Good News. More than 533,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
CEF is an international, nonprofit, Christian ministry that has been dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, discipled and established in a local church since 1937. CEF is located in all 50 American states and in most countries around the world, with over 3,500 paid staff and tens of thousands of volunteers around the world.
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To interview a representative from Child Evangelism Fellowship, contact Hamilton Strategies, [email protected], Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, Dawn Foglein, ext. 100, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.