Child Evangelism Fellowship

Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is an international interdenominational Christian nonprofit organization founded by Jesse Irvin Overholtzer (1877-1955) in 1937, headquartered in Warrenton, Missouri, United States.[1][2] The organization lists its purpose as teaching the Christian Gospel to children and encouraging children's involvement in local Christian churches. It has programs established in all US states and 192 countries, with 733 full-time workers in the US, an estimated 40,000 volunteers in the US and Canada, and over 1,200 missionaries overseas, approximately 1,000 of them nationals. During the reporting year ending December 2014, they reported teaching more than 19.9 million children, mostly through face-to-face ministry. CEF is a charter member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Child Evangelism Fellowship
Founded1937
FounderJesse Irvin Overholtzer
Type501(c)3 non-profit religious
Location
Area served
US, 176 countries
Key people
Reese Kauffman, President
Employees
3,528 (full-time)
Volunteers
40,000 (US & Canada)
Websitewww.cefonline.com

Elk River case

In 2007-2008, Elk River, Minnesota's board of education prohibited Child Evangelism Fellowship from distributing materials during open houses in that district's schools. CEF took the matter to the U.S. District Court, where in February, 2009, Judge Ann Montgomery ruled that the school district's order deprived CEF of its freedom of speech rights. She went on to say that the school district could still prevent the group from distributing materials if it adopted a policy of closing the schools to all such groups, which the school district did in March, 2009.[3]

Criticism

In her 2012 book The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, journalist Katherine Stewart criticizes various practices of the Good News Club after-school Bible study program, including young participants being rewarded for recruiting friends of other faiths and denominations whose parents have not enrolled them in the program. She also claimed in an article in The Guardian that the lesson plan for the Old Testament narrative in 1 Samuel 15, describing the divinely-ordered slaughter of the Amalekites, is used to justify genocide.[4][5] However, CEF President Reese Kaufmann responded to her accusations in a letter, stating:

The story of Saul and the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:3) is found in any version or edition of the Bibles of the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant faiths since the first manuscripts were inscribed. Only a misinterpretation of the cited passage could be used to buttress genocide. The goal of Child Evangelism Fellowship is the proper teaching of this passage, which is not an instruction in genocide. Though truly many brutal acts appear in both the Old and New Testaments, including the torture and crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans, nothing could be more un-Christian than the promotion of genocide of any group of human beings under the New Covenant introduced to the world by Jesus Christ. CEF and the Good News Clubs would never teach children that God would instruct them, or anyone today, to commit genocide.[6]

See also
  • Rusten, E. Michael & Sharon O. (2005). The Complete Book of When and Where. Tyndale House. p. 434. ISBN 0-8423-5508-1.
  • Anthony, Michael J.; et al. (2007). Perspectives on Children's Spiritual Formation. B&H Publishing Group. pp. 136–158. ISBN 0-8054-4186-7.
  • Balmer, Randall Herbert (2004). Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. Baylor University Press. p. 153. ISBN 1-932792-04-X.
  • Wrenn, Bruce, Philip Kotler, Norman Shawchuck (2009). Building Strong Congregations: Attracting, Serving, and Developing Your Membership. Autumn House Publishing. pp. 102–104. ISBN 0-8127-0490-8.

References
  1. The Journey Continues by Helen Edds Frazier, 2004, page 45
  2. Christian Writers' Market Guide 2008 by Sally Stuart, Random House Digital, Inc., Feb 25, 2009, page 443
  3. Draper, Norman. "Backpack mail getting curtailed in Elk River". Minneapolis, Minnesota: Star Tribune.
  4. Pongracz, Linda (2011). David: A Man After God's Heart. CEF Press. Archived from the original on 2015-05-14. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
  5. Stewart, Katherine (2012-05-30). "How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren". London: The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  6. Kauffman, Reese (2012-06-11). "The proper teaching of the story of Saul and the Amalekites". London: The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 2012-06-11.
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