JACK D. EGGAR

A visionary leader in children’s and family ministry
Since 1999, Jack Eggar has served as President/CEO of Awana. He has provided strategic leadership for the ministry’s efforts to equip churches and parents in raising children and youth to know, love and serve Christ. Under his guidance, Awana has expanded its impact from a total of 9,000 churches around the world in 1998 to over 19,000 as of 2009.

Knowing that parents are the key influencers in their children’s spiritual development, Jack invested vision and passion to give direction for the recent launch of the Modern-Day Joseph and Awana at Home initiatives.

“To raise a spiritual champion, it can’t be the church alone in a vacuum, nor can the parents do it alone,” Jack notes. “It’s a partnership where parents and church leaders work together for the spiritual good of that child. To create a paradigm shift where we move away from the church as the spiritual surrogate to where the church and parents partner together is going to be one of the most formidable—and exciting—tasks in the history of Awana.”

Modern-Day Joseph offers parents and church leaders a biblical plan to instill kids with long-lasting, life-defining faith and character like Joseph of the Old Testament. Awana at Home encourages and equips parents with Bible-based tools they can use for training their children spiritually, including the establishment of family nights structured similarly to Awana Clubs meetings, with a game time, handbook time and Bible learning time. Both initiatives encourage parents and churches to collaborate in kids’ spiritual development.

Jack’s story
Jack grew up in Texas and attended church regularly with his family. He participated in religious education classes at his church and was confirmed at a young age. At age 13, Jack asked his priest, “Am I going to heaven?”

The priest replied, “Of course you are. Weren’t you confirmed?”

When he learned that head knowledge was not enough to ensure his eternity, Jack made a personal decision to trust Christ when he was 17, and God transformed his heart. He soon discerned that full-time Christian ministry was God’s calling on his life. He enrolled in Bible college to begin his training.

Jack’s vast and diverse ministry experience overseas and in the U.S. prepared him for his current role at Awana. Starting in 1974, Jack and his wife, Dona, taught at a Bible college and served as youth directors at a church in California;

planted several churches and helped start a Bible college with Dr. Billy Kim in South Korea; and established a Christian leadership college in Fiji. Jack also served as pastor at churches in California and Idaho.

Jack was introduced to Awana when he returned to the U.S. to pastor a church in 1987. Jack and Dona used Awana as a tool for community outreach, bringing hundreds of kids and families to faith in Christ and sparking record growth for their church. Their involvement in Awana deepened when they helped launch Awana in the former USSR in 1992. Jack was hired as Awana international missions director in 1997 and became Awana President/CEO two years later.

A passion to engage the local church
Under Jack’s leadership, Awana has become known globally as a powerful tool for introducing children, youth and parents in the community to the good news of Christ and growing spiritually strong kids through biblical teaching.

“Awana is an outreach ministry of local churches focused centrally on evangelism and discipleship,” Jack says. “We are strategic in reaching children and youth and helping churches build a substantial bridge to the whole family.”

For nearly 60 years, Awana has been a leader in children’s and youth ministry, providing fully integrated programs for ages 2 to 18 with proven and effective evangelism tools, discipleship resources that involve parents and churches and specialized volunteer training.

An influential voice for the church and family
Author
Jack’s writing has focused on church issues and family life:

Shaping Your Family’s Faith (2007): a modern-day parable for strengthening marriages, families and parents’ spiritual training skills
The Return of a Mighty Church (2005): biblical principles for church leadership and growth
Great and Mighty Things (2004): how the Awana vision supports churches in reaching and developing children and youth spiritually.

Speaker
Jack is a sought-after speaker at conferences, workshops and events around the world. He travels to dozens of countries each year to motivate and encourage Awana missionaries, staff and volunteers. He is a recognized expert on challenges facing families and churches.

Jack has also been featured on radio and TV and conducted interviews with newspapers, magazines and online media, including Focus on the Family, Family Net, Moody Broadcasting and UNI News.

A commitment to raise spiritual champions
Jack and Dona are the parents of four grown children (Joshua, Justin, Jessica and Bekah), all of whom participated in Awana and follow Christ today, along with four grandchildren (Daniel, Emma, Erin and Eric). The Eggars live in suburban Chicago. Dona heads up the Awana program at their church, and Jack is a third- to sixth-grade club leader.

“Our kids were always a part of our ministry,” Jack reveals. “We were consistent and did not live a two-faced life—a church face and a home face. They saw and experienced our own walk with Christ. We don’t have authority over our kids now because they are grown, but we still have influence. They come to us for advice and are open and willing to listen. They see us as a treasure chest of experience and wisdom, for which we are thankful.”

How to contact Jack
To schedule an interview, call Media Relations Manager David Bunker at 630.540.4695 or e-mail mediarelations@awana.org.