“AWANA since 2021 has increasingly featured and been dominated by social justice/woke, LGBTQ inclusion activist evangelical speakers. Based on its 2022 and 2023 discipleship events and speakers, Awana is in the polluted stream of Tim Keller’s WOKE organization The Gospel Coalition (TGC), Neo-Calvinist leader’s Together 4 The Gospel (T4G), along with the now disgraced former leader of the ERLC, Russell Moore. Clearly Third Way politics and activist / inclusion / BLM [Black Lives Matter] / CRT [Critical Race Theory] narratives are flooding Awana. Note about the speakers at Awana’s Child Discipleship Forum, Sept. 2022: SAM ALLBERRY is an activist same sex attracted / homosexual priest from the Church of England and co-founder of ‘Living Out’ a controversial LGBTQ inclusion movement which has sought to ‘Audit Churches for LGBTQ Inclusion.’ ANDY CROUCH is a former editor of left-swerving Christianity Today who used his position there to promote the LGBTQ activist ‘Revoice’ movement and now serves on Revoice Board / Council. REBECCA MCLAUGHLIN is in the TGC [The Gospel Coalition] speaker promoting the APA / SOGI [American Psychological Association’s Sexual Orientation Gender Identity] based same-sex attraction narrative. Awana’s 2023 Child Discipleship Forum promises a racially woke rapper and more. Speakers include SHAI LINNE, a rapper and writer and TGC regular. He was discipled at TGC / T4G leader Mark Dever’s Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Shai is a racial activist using vintage critical race theory narratives Linne’s own words advocating Black Lives Matter (BLM) reflect his Critical Race Theory worldview in his reflections on the death of George Floyd which launched the BLM riots and Marxist-styled protest of 2020. Mark Markins [new CEO of Awana] appears to be desperately eager to turn Awana from the tried and true and treasure focus of teaching Bible verses to our children and grandchildren, which is viewed by him and others inside Awana as ‘looking back to the ways of the past and the methods of the good ole days.’ Markins warns churches and parents that this ‘looking back’ is wrong and is failing their children and [we should rather be] ‘looking ahead and charting a course to the future.’ Clearly by ‘Charting a New Course,’ Markins and Awana leadership mean your children need LGBTQ Church Inclusion. BLM advocate rap with Critical Race Theory driven narratives on race by Shai Linne which are loose with the facts and heavy on systemic racism worldview.”
“Awana,” thirtypiecesofsilver.org, Nov. 2, 2022
