Adventurers
Paradise SDA Church's Shiloh Adventurer Club is a Seventh-day Adventist Church-sponsored ministry open to all families of children in grades 1-4 who agree to keep the Adventurer Pledge and Law. The Adventurer Club was created to give children an opportunity to belong to an organized peer group. To join, children are invited to paticipate in various activities which will improve their social skills.
The Adventurer Club involves children in grades 1-4 and their parents. The programming and planning for Adventurers is simple and short, but creative. Parental involvement provides opportunities for parents to participate in the learning experience.
One of the Adventurer Club objectives is to provide a meaningful and exciting experience as the children look forward with anticipation to someday being in Pathfinders, our international faith-based scout organization for boys and girls ages 10 to 15.
What is the Adventurer curriculum designed to accomplish?
- Children will, at their own level,commit their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ.
- Children will gain a positive attitude toward the benefits, joys, and responsibilities of living a Christian life.
- Children will acquire the habits, skills and knowledge needed to live for Jesus today.
- Parents and other primary care-givers will become more confident and effective as co-laborers with Christ for their children.
Objectives
The Adventurer Club provides fun and creative ways for children...
- to develop a Christ-like character;
- to experience the joy and satisfaction of doing things well;
- to express their love for Jesus in a natural way;
- to learn good sportsmanship and strengthen their ability to get along with others;
- to discover their God-given abilities and to know how to use them to benefit self and serve others,
- to improve their understanding of what makes families strong.
Mission
The purpose of the program is to support parents and care-givers in leading and encouraging their children in a growing, joyful love relationship with Jesus Christ. It offers instructional curriculum, family enrichment, supplementary resources, and volunteer training from within the Seventh-day Adventist philosophy. The Adventurer program should work to fulfill the gospel commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and depends on the support of a congregation strong in mission and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Philosophy of the Adventurer Program
The Adventurer program was created to assist parents in their important responsibilities as a child’s primary teachers and evangelizers. The program aims to strengthen the parent/child relationship and to further the child’s development in spiritual, physical, mental, and social areas.Through the Adventurer Program, the church, home, and school can work together with the parent to develop a mature, happy child.
The church’s greatest resource is our children; therefore, it is imperative that as a church we meet the challenge to provide a program for our children during their early,formative years. We want right habits,thoughts, motives, dispositions, and attitudes to be established. The Wise Man wrote,“Bring up a child in the way he should go,and when he is old he will not turn from it.”Prov. 22:6 (NIV). This is more than a cliché—it is a scientific formula.
Adventurer Pledge
Because Jesus loves me, I will always do my best.
Adventurer Law
Jesus can help me to:
- Be obedient
- Be pure
- Be true
- Be kind
- Be respectful
- Be attentive
- Be helpful
- Be cheerful
- Be thoughtful
- Be reverent
History of the Adventurer Club
The Adventurer program was created to assist parents in their important responsibilities as a child’s primary teachers and evangelizers. The program aims to strengthen the parent/child relationship and further the child’s development in spiritual,physical, mental, and social areas. In this way, the church and school can work together with the parent to develop a mature,happy child.
In order to help children learn more about the Bible, health, and nature, and to help them develop their people skills, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in 1939, endorsed the idea of the Adventurer classes of Busy Bee, Sun-beam, Builder, and Helping Hand. In the intervening years, these classes were primarily taught as part of the Adventist School system curricula, often as part of spiritual activities/worships.
In 1972 the Washington Conference sponsored a club for children called “Beavers,” the forerunner of Adventurers, under the direction of Carolee Riegel. The North-eastern Conference is reported to have had a children’s club concept program by 1975. By 1980 many conferences were sponsoring a club for children, though having various titles, including "pre-Pathfinders," "Adventurers," or "Beavers."
In 1988 the North American Division Church Ministries Department invited interested conferences and child specialists to study and evaluate the Adventurer Club concept. A committee met in 1989 to update the Adventurer curriculum, develop Adventurer awards, and write guidelines for the Adventurer Club organization.
The committee involved children’s Sabbath School leaders, educational personnel, conference and union Children’Ministries coordinators, and child and family specialists. Chaired by Norman Middag, the committee membership included Debra Brill, Terry Dodge, Sarah Fanton, Merrill Fleming, Joyce Fortner,Donna Habenicht, Jasmine Hoyt, Noelene Johnsson, Kathie Klocko, Barbara Manspeaker, Kathy Martin, Dixie Plata, Julia Raglin, Toini Shobe-Harrison, Emily Tillman, Claude Thomas, Ruth Walker, Al Williamson, and Bob Wong.
The Adventurer curriculum, written by Teresa Reeve, is designed as a vehicle for sharing and discovery in preparation for life here and in heaven. The Adventurer program piloting process began in 1990 in the North American Division, and became a full fledged program in by 1992.
Currently many churches like Paradise support an Adventurer club for children in grades 1-4, as well as sposoring the additional resource programs for pre-school (Little Lamb) and Kindergarten (Eager Beaver).
Source: Adventurer-club.org
