Margo Reed’s plan to save Bible Club

A CHURCH “FOR THE CITY” OF URBANDALE

CityPoint Church was planted over two years ago and is a church “for the city” of Urbandale, which has a small town feel in spite of a population of 48,000. CityPoint’s Pastor Nick Reed says, “As a city, Urbandale is ‘over-churched’ and ‘under-gospeled.’ We have churches but only 30% of families are connected to any church.”

BUILDING A BIBLE CLUB

One of the most successful ministries that has developed at CityPoint is Bible Club, an after school program geared toward unchurched parents and kids from local schools. Pre-Covid they had three separate Bible Clubs hosted by church members in homes situated near elementary schools. Between the three groups, last year they served over 200 kids.

The Bible Club pattern is simple. Free play for 15 minutes, have a quick snack, then ring the bell to gather the kids for Bible story time. Pastor Nick’s wife Heather is a master Bible storyteller who uses a three-year rotation that walks through the Old Testament, the New Testament and the book of Acts. They sing worship songs and close with “Stumper Questions” when kids try to “stump” leaders with questions about the Bible story. This year, many of those leaders are middle school students from the CityPoint youth group.

EXPERIENCING GOSPEL FRUITFULNESS

Pastor Nick thinks one of the keys to success for Bible Club is the proximity of the host homes. Nick and Heather’s house is only a couple blocks from the school and they can quickly walk kids over right after school. In fact, the school has often let Bible Club kids out of school five minutes early. Their school is the smallest in the district and word got around. Parents began calling the school to ask, “I want my kids to be in Bible Club. Where do I sign up?” 

They have seen a lot of gospel fruit in kids’ lives through Bible Club. Pastor Nick thinks that most of the kids would say they believe the gospel. The majority of the kids are from unchurched homes so it’s difficult to evaluate the depth of their faith. But he’s fairly confident many of them are genuinely saved, although they know some are not. Last year in early March, CityPoint baptized 11 people, the majority of which were from Bible Club. That Sunday, immediately before Covid hit, was their largest crowd at CityPoint Sunday services and their largest Bible Club attendance.

Although they have seen positive gospel responses from Bible Club kids, Pastor Nick says they’re frustrated they haven’t seen as many parents get involved in the church as they expected. Some parents like having their kids involved in something beneficial and others see it as an opportunity to have another hour of work before picking up kids. Bible Club families do participate regularly in CityPoint special events and, while a couple of families have joined the church as a result of Bible Club, they are striving for more effective ways to connect more families with the church body.

“WE GOTTA FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK”

Currently, CityPoint is rebuilding the Bible Clubs after Covid shut everything down last year. Two of the three original groups have reopened and about 60 kids have returned. They are eager to begin seeing the gospel fruit they saw before. But there’s a problem: The school near the Reeds’ house is being torn down. This fall, all their Bible Club kids will be going to school at a different building that is a mile and half away from their house. There won’t be a school in their neighborhood.

After finding out that Bible Club was unlikely to be able to meet next year, Nick and Heather’s 10-year old daughter Margo immediately got to work. She told her parents, “We gotta figure out how to make this work so we can have Bible Club next year.” At school, Margo started writing out a plan to pray and work for a solution. Heather said, “Without us knowing, she devised a plan to keep Bible Club going her last year in elementary school. Apparently, her desire is to raise money for a bus so that we can transport the kids to our house just so Bible Club will live on. She told us about her plan and ever since she’s been doing extra chores for the plan.” On her list of “Things To Do” are 1) Pray every day, 2) Get creative, and 3) Convince family.

She started by praying for God to make a way and then started getting others involved. She asked what jobs she can do to make money so they can buy a bus. She told her friends. She told the Bible Club and they’ve been praying about it every week.

THE FUTURE OF BIBLE CLUB?

Right now, Nick, Heather, and Margo don’t know how God is going to answer their prayers but they believe He will provide a solution. They don’t know whether the solution will be a bus to transport kids, finding a new host home near the new school, or some other solution but they are eagerly watching to see how God is going to solve this hurdle. “Bible Club has been a huge opportunity to do gospel ministry in our city. We believe that when more parents find out about this, we aren’t going to be able to stop it. It’s going to grow again.”