Children's evangelism movement

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KEB-Germany e. V.
legal form Registered association
founding 1949
founder J. Irvin Overholtzer
Seat Breidenbach , Germany
motto Children discover the Bible
main emphasis Events for children, Bible correspondence courses, literature
Action space worldwide
Chair Gerd-Walter Buskies, Thomas Helsper (Board of Directors)
sales $ 17,742,295 (2016)
Employees 80
Website www.keb-de.org

KEB-Germany (Children's Evangelization Movement) is an evangelically oriented Christian missionary organization that has set itself the task of conveying to children their understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ . The international name of the movement is Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) .

history

The German-American pastor J. Irvin Overholtzer (1877–1955) is considered to be the initiator of the KEB. Motivated by Charles Haddon Spurgeon's writings on child evangelism , he sought creative ways to spread his understanding of the gospel in a child-friendly way. In 1937 these beginnings developed into the Child Evangelism Fellowship . The German branch of this international organization was founded in 1949 and named itself in 2017 in "KEB-Deutschland e. V. “at.

Organization and statistics

KEB (CEF) works in over 200 countries today. It employs around 2,500 full-time and around 40,000 volunteers worldwide. The headquarters of the international CEF organization is located in Warrenton ( USA ).

In Europe there are currently 600 full-time employees in 42 countries. The European KEB is based in Kilchzimmer near Langenbruck in Switzerland .

The German-speaking branch currently has 50 employees who work in 12 regional institutions. In 2016, they reached around 27,000 children with their offers in Germany. There are also 30 missionaries working abroad.

KEB is a member of the Working Group Evangelical Missions (AEM).

working area

Direct work with children

In direct work with children, children's meetings are supported, camps are held and churches and congregations are supported in children's weeks, children's days and family services. KEB also organizes events on campsites, in outdoor pools and in green spaces. Another goal of KEF is to gain access to the children's parents.

Bible courses for children

As part of the so-called KEB Mailbox Club , correspondence courses and devotional books are offered for children from 8 years of age. The KEB Mailbox Club was set up in early 2002.

Internet

KEB-Germany e. V. operates a website for children that uses internet games to convey evangelical topics to children and represents a creationist worldview: The focus is on personal belief in Jesus Christ as the savior and creator of the world. As a creator, he is shown, for example, in the game "Raumpatrouille Discovery". There it is said that the world was not created by a big bang and that no life could be brought about on earth by chance and evolution alone : "Unfortunately, none of the previous scientific theories could withstand a precise and objective test." At the end of the game, the game is summed up that Christians believe, “There is indeed a Creator who made everything! Who planned everything! "

Story phone for children

KEB operates the so-called story phone in various cities . It is an evangelical announcement service that is comparable to a Bible telephone , but is specifically geared towards children. Every week a new 3-minute program is created for children from the age of 6, in which events from the Bible or short Christian adventure stories are presented as a radio play in a child-friendly manner. Sometimes more extensive biblical narratives are divided into several broadcasts. The main purpose is evangelism and missionary work so that children can meet God and know how to live with him.

The first story phone was set up in Kaiserslautern in 1992. At that time, the children's missionary Elfriede Grotz began producing three-minute devotions for children, which can be called up by telephone. There are now 182 locations in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Belgium and Luxembourg where the story line can be reached at the local rate in the landline network and is supported by local communities as a contact person. According to the initiators, around 5000 children and young people regularly select the biblical stories. Adults should also often show interest in the explanations.

In the meantime the manuscripts have been translated into the respective national language in Paraguay , the Philippines , Macedonia , Kazakhstan and many other countries.

Issuing of materials

KEB publishes extensive materials on work with and evangelism among children, some of which are given free of charge and some are also sold. This includes numerous books, song folders, flannel pictures and picture sheets.

controversy

While KEB is hardly noticed by the media in the German-speaking area, there is intense public controversy about the Child Evangelism Fellowship in the USA. The trigger was the decision of the Supreme Court in 2001 that the "Good News Clubs" operated by the CEF should not be denied access to schools. Critics complained that the court did not take sufficient account of the fact that the children are far too young to distinguish the Good News Club offer from the official school offer. Associations such as "Americans United for the Separation of Church and State" see the US principle of the separation of religion and state in jeopardy and argue that public schools should have the right to deny religious groups access to school. The Good News Clubs, on the other hand, pleaded for equal treatment with other extracurricular groups, such as scouts or chess clubs.

literature

  • Gerda Rinne: Children's evangelization movement , in: Evangelisches Gemeindelexikon (Eds. Helmut Burkhardt, Erich Geldbach, Kurt Heimbucher), Wuppertal 1986, p. 297f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Hempelmann (ed.): Handbook of evangelistic-missionary works, institutions and communities . Christian publishing house Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3767577633 , p. 219
  2. ↑ a b work renamed: “Evangelism remains our primary goal” , idea.de, message from September 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ https://www.keb-de.org/index.php?id=66
  4. ↑ a b c https://www.keb-de.org/index.php?id=4
  5. ↑ http://www.keb-ruhrgebiet.de/index.php?c=1&s=khkfilm
  6. ↑ http://www.entdecker-kids.com/weltraum/weltraum1/weltraum1_44.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.entdecker-kids.com/weltraum/weltraum4/weltraum4_52.htm
  8. ↑ http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06d/goodnewsclubs01.html
  9. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E2DD133AF936A25751C1A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all
  10. ↑ http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=kaminer_21_3