Of 8.8 million reached in 2023 by the clubs around the world, 2.5 million children received salvation
For Immediate Release
February 19, 2024
ST. LOUIS — Christmas Party Clubs are one of Child Evangelism Fellowship’s (CEF) most important and successful outreaches.
In 2023, CEF staff and volunteers held 295,000 Christmas Party Clubs, reaching 8.8 million children around the world with the Gospel. Of those children, 2.5 million were counseled for salvation. This was a substantial increase from 2022 when CEF held 169,000 Christmas Party Clubs and reached over 6.2 million children.
Through a Christmas Party Club, many churches work alongside Child Evangelism Fellowship to reach children with the true story of Christmas. While each Party Club is Gospel-centered, there are also teachings for children who already have faith in Jesus.
In addition, CEF in 2023 conducted 12,900 training seminars and trained 277,500 volunteers.
In his inspiring message entitled “Not Hide but Tell,” based on Psalm 78: 1-8, CEF President Jeremiah Cho implored more Christians to pick up the baton of missionary outreach to children.
“There are two billion children in this dark and wicked world,” Cho said. “How can they hear the Gospel if you don’t preach it? We can do more, we can go farther and wider and tell the story of the Savior to more children everywhere. The key is to motivate volunteers and challenge them to go and preach the Gospel to children in at least five Christmas Party Clubs.”
Cho led CEF in setting a goal of reaching over 30 million children in 2024, with 12 million being reached through Christmas Party Clubs.
Christmas Party Clubs present the Gospel to churched and unchurched children. These one-time events are taught by Good News Club® leaders, Sunday school teachers, children’s ministry workers, and other believers who love children.
The clubs include a Gospel-centered Bible lesson, games, a memory verse, songs, and more to teach children about the true story of Christmas. They can be used as a one-time outreach program, a party for a Sunday school, and more.
CEF has secured commitments to begin 22,000 Good News Clubs® because of Christmas Party Clubs. Commitments have grown more than 40% from the year before. A long-term goal for CEF is to minister to 100 million children each year globally with the Gospel within 10 to 15 years.
“As the largest child evangelism ministry in the world, CEF has the structure in place through our national workers, training, and connections with churches and schools to achieve such goals,” said CEF Vice President of Administration Fred Pry.
In his aforementioned end-of-year message. CEF’s president said the need is great and the potential is limitless.
“The Gospel remains hidden to hundreds of millions of children around the world,” Cho said. “We are one generation away from a crisis where humanity could be disconnected from the Gospel. If the current generation does not evangelize the next generation, then the next generation will be a generation without God.”
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 87 years ago, has been establishing Good News Clubs® in countries around the world for decades. Clubs are thriving worldwide, in many countries including Australia, Japan, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Taiwan, Kenya, Ukraine, New Zealand, South Korea, Israel, Thailand, and Uganda.
In 2022, through CEF’s combined ministries, more than 19.5 million children worldwide heard the Good News. More than 439,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (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 [email protected], Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.