Ca Badge Blog
Missions Discipleship

How Many Badges?

If you’ve ever looked through the WMU catalog, you may have noticed there are quite a few badges your CAs can earn each year. We’ve created several different kinds of badges CA leaders can award, and we’ve tried to keep them very general so leaders can use them in a variety of ways.

Whether you are a seasoned leader who has used badges for years, you’ve only awarded just a few badges, or you are wondering if badges are even right for your group, consider the following ideas about badges:

 

  • CA Membership—We offer badges that help identify a CA and what he or she has learned. These include the Children in Action Badge, Children in Action Scripture Badge, CA Motto Badge, and I Love Children in Action Badge. These badges can be awarded as children start your CA group and learn the basics of our organization.

  • Individual Achievement—Our individual achievement plan, Missions Expedition, helps children learn through unique activities. Each child can earn eight badges and experience missions discipleship individually (or in small groups) as you guide the child along his or her journey: Do, Grow, Learn, Care, Give, Keep, Pray, and Missions Expedition. Children earn their eight Missions Expedition badges during their first year and then earn stars to identify completing additional activities for that badge each year. They can work on Missions Expedition activities during the fourth week of each month.

  • Missions and Ministry Project Badges—From Families on Mission to Pen Pals, Annie Armstrong Easter Offering to I Led a Project, you’ll find a great assortment of missions and ministry badges your CAs can earn as individuals or as a group working on individual pieces of a larger project. Consider incorporating a quarterly special missions support project like the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering or a backpack ministry project and award the coordinating badges for these projects.

 

As a leader, just know that you have a ton of options when it comes to badges. Maybe you award each child one badge per quarter, or maybe your group is working on multiple badges at a time. However you choose to incorporate them, badges have the possibility to encourage your CAs, remind them of what they have experienced, and show your congregation just how valuable your time is with your children each week.

 

Heather Keller is the Children in Action consultant at national WMU. Her favorite badge from our current collection happens to be the Backpack Ministry Badge. Reach out to Heather for more tips or ideas: hkeller@wmu.org.