THE SEVEN C's
Are you getting all that you wanted out of your children's program? As you are evaluating children's programs, here is a list of seven C's to help you to see why Expeditions might be the right children's program for your church.
1. Is it Cohesive? Does the program you are looking at have unity throughout its materials or is it more like four individual programs for four different age groups that have been forced to go together? Expeditions unifies our materials by having all of the children study the same missionary, go to the same country, and learn the same lesson each night. All of our materials point us toward developing a heart for missions.
2. Is it Complete? Does the program have books for the children, but leave you on your own when it comes to having lessons for each night or extra credit materials for those who finish early? We at Expeditions know how busy ministry can be. We have a separate leaders guide full of lessons for each year. We offer ten extra credit books so that there is always more for your children to complete should they finish early.
3. Is it Careful? Does the program cater to any denomination that wants to use their program? Does the program encourage you to associate with the other churches that are using their materials that may not follow the same doctrines that your church does? Expeditions finds ecclesiastical separation to be very important. We want our children protected from the dangerous doctrines of some other churches.
4. Is it Convertible? Does the program only offer a one size fits all type of plan? Can you adapt and customize the program to fit your church’ needs? The Expeditions program is currently being run in churches ranging from only five children in the program to those with over one hundred and twenty five children in the program. We don’'t offer you a cookie cutter type of program. We instead offer many things but give you the option of choosing the ones you would like to use to customize the program to your ministry’'s needs.
5. Is it Creative? Does the program look the same year after year? Are the lessons and children'’s books covering the exact same materials each year or repeating the materials every other year? At Expeditions, we go on a different Expedition each year. This means that we offer brand new books and lessons for each year, follow a different missionary each year, and learn about a different country each year along the way. The children will never memorize the same verses, or feel like they have been down this road before.
6. Is it Complex? Does the program take a lot of good understanding in order for it to run correctly? Does it have an overabundance of awards, pins, iron-on patches, stickers, shirts options, or books to move through? At Expeditions, our aim from the beginning was to create a very simple yet effective way of rewarding and keeping track of the children’s progress. From our books to our award system you will find you save a lot of time and headaches because of the ease of use that our system offers.
7. Is it Costly? Does the program charge a great amount for their materials per child? Does the program require that additional pins, patches, and awards be bought throughout the year? Expeditions knows the limitations of a children'’s budget. Instead of around $35-$45 per child like most programs offer, Expeditions only charges around $17 per child. After your first year that cost drops to around $8 per child. Yet our materials are very high quality and extremely durable to the young hands that they are put up against. We also offer no registration fee for your first year if you register by the June deadline