Pros
Flexible schedules, ability to work remotely, great scripture memory program, nice facility and many staff members that care deeply for the ministry.
Cons
History keeps repeating itself. Sales are down, budgets get cut, employees get released, others pick up the slack until someone gets hired and the cycle repeats. Executive leadership is BROKEN. Leadership should consist of individuals with proven track records. They should be folks that want to walk alongside the frontline employees and grow the ministry. Leadership doesn't look that way at Awana. Leadership at Awana is a boy's club consisting of mostly white men in plaid shirts and dark framed glasses. They do very little to immerse themselves with the very employees they lead. They hire their cronies into leadership positions that were never posted (even former employees that have been terminated for contributing to past failures within Awana). Wives of some executives are on the payroll and travel on Awana’s dime. This team walks away from reorganizations virtually untouched. Misogyny and racism are evident in some of their leadership styles, ministry decisions and contributions. There are many staff members with hearts for the people of the church and care deeply about reaching youth to know, love and serve Jesus. Unfortunately, the leadership at Awana makes decisions that clearly don’t reflect that. Executive leadership should not be sent to a resort in Lake Geneva to meet and team build after the ministry just went through a major reorganization and employees lost their jobs. Who covered the cost of this retreat when sales are down? There are very nice areas and large meeting rooms at Awana HQ where the rest of the staff meets. Awana is a wonderful ministry but with its current operation it is headed into a downward spiral. Another “house cleaning” needs to take place but this time it needs to start at the top of the totem pole. These executives, if not culled soon, will result in a conflagration of the Ministry.
