How a Church Club Works

Leadership of the Club

Director/Teacher
This person is responsible for directing and administering the entire club night, including the leaders and children in their division.

Game Director
The Game Director plans and prepares games for the children each week. Their main responsibility is to ensure a fun activity is organized and ready every club night.

Leader
Leaders interact with, oversee, and mentor the children. They are responsible for their small groups and for reading through the Forgiven Tract with new children. Leaders stay with their small group throughout the night.

Assistants
Assistants support the Director by registering new children, maintaining records, and overseeing the store.

Age Groups

Tiny Trackers (Preschool)

The Truth Journals for Tiny Trackers teach preschoolers biblical truth by helping them learn a theme word for the week. This word is usually found in their memory verse. Children review the verse throughout the week and learn more about the theme word through short daily devotionals they complete with a parent’s help.

Each day, a child uses the Truth Journal to review the weekly verse with a parent or adult. After reviewing the verse, the parent reads a short devotional to reinforce the truth. At the end of the week, a parent or adult signs the child’s Truth Journal.

At club, children review the verse together, learn the weekly word and its definition, hear a Bible lesson, enjoy a puppet show, and color a fun page.

Tiny Tracker children earn points each day as they review their verse and complete their devotional. These points can be used to buy prizes at the Tiny Trackers store.

Scripture Spies & Faith Force (Elementary)

The Truth Trackers program includes two elementary theme groups: Scripture Spies and Faith Force.

The Truth Journals teach elementary-age children through verse meditation and daily devotions. Children review their verses daily using multi-sensory methods and complete short, simple devotionals.

Each child uses their Truth Journal to review the week’s verse daily in three ways:

Tapping each word as they read the verse out loud
Hearing the verse read by another person
Writing the first letter of each word in the verse

At the end of the week, a parent or adult listens to the child recite the verse, helps total the week’s points, and signs the points page.

At club, children listen to a Bible lesson that teaches the doctrinal topic for the week. They can also use earned points to purchase items from the club store.

Options for Nightly Schedules

Option #1: 1 Hour 15 Minute Club (Verse Recited at Home)

Registration (15 minutes)
Rally Time (15 minutes)
Game Time (30 minutes)
Lesson Time (30 minutes)
Dismissal

Example Schedule: 6:15 pm – Registration 6:30 pm – Rally Time 6:45 pm – Game Time 7:15 pm – Lesson Time 7:45 pm – Dismissal

Option #2: 1½ Hour Club with 15-Minute Pre-Club Verse Listening

Verse Listeners (15 minutes before club start)
Rally Time (15 minutes)
Game Time (30 minutes)
Lesson Time (30 minutes)
Dismissal

Benefits: Uses volunteers who are not regular club workers to listen to verses. Requires fewer volunteers than Option #3.

Example Schedule: 6:15–6:30 pm – Verse Listening 6:30 pm – Rally Time 6:45 pm – Game Time 7:15 pm – Lesson Time 7:45 pm – Dismissal

Option #3: 1½ Hour Club with Small Group Time

Rally Time
Game Time (30 minutes)
Lesson Time (30 minutes)
Small Groups (30 minutes)
Dismissal

Benefits: Provides dedicated time for small group discussion and mentoring.

The Calendar

A clear calendar helps your church stay on track with Truth Journals and lessons. It also helps plan Friend Nights and family activities. Parents should fill out the calendar in the front of the Truth Journal.

Churches can download a customizable Microsoft Word calendar template from the Church Members area.

There are three calendar options:

31-week program
34-week program
40-week program (not shown in detail)

31-Week Program Example

August 22 – Truth Trackers Training
September 5 – Week 0
September 12 – Week 1
…
October 17 – Friend Night (Week 6)

34-Week Program Example

August 22 – Truth Trackers Training
September 5 – Week 0
October 10 – Friend Night (Make-up week)

40-Week Program

Adds Special Agent / Special Faith Force review nights after each doctrine (adds 6 extra nights) plus Friend Nights.

Note: All calendars begin with Week 0. On this night, children receive their books, learn how the program works, and prepare for the first official week.

Ideas for Your Church Calendar

Invite parents to the first night (Week 0) so they can see what their children will be doing and learn how to use the Truth Journal at home.
Plan ahead for nights when Truth Trackers will not meet (e.g., Christmas break, missions conference).
Schedule special events such as Friend Nights, Family Blast Activities, Quiz Nights, and an end-of-year Awards Program.

The program is designed to run from fall through spring.

Friend Nights are best scheduled on separate nights from regular club meetings so the entire night can focus on evangelism with no memory or lesson requirements.

Evangelism

Truth Trackers is primarily a discipleship program that teaches children key doctrines of the faith while also emphasizing the importance of becoming a believer in Jesus Christ.

We use three main strategies for evangelism: the Gospel in Weekly Lessons, the Forgiven Tract, and Friend Nights.

How do you address evangelism and visitors in Truth Trackers?

Truth Trackers is a discipleship program for children. By that we mean we focus on both the first step of discipleship—becoming a believer—and on the continued walk with Christ through progressive spiritual growth. We believe the first step of discipleship is extremely important. Truth Trackers is primarily a discipleship program that teaches children key doctrines of the faith while also emphasizing the importance of becoming a believer in Jesus Christ.

We use three main approaches to evangelism in Truth Trackers:

Teaching the gospel each week through our doctrinal topics.
The Forgiven Tract for every new visitor.
Friend Nights focused on inviting unchurched friends and neighbors.

Every week, as we teach key doctrines of the faith, we clearly present humanity’s sin problem—our guilt before a holy God, our inability to save ourselves, and our desperate need for rescue. At the same time, each lesson points to the only solution: the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who alone can forgive sins and give new life by His grace. In this way, the gospel is woven into every weekly meeting, giving children repeated opportunities to hear and respond to the good news of salvation.

Forgiven Tract

The Forgiven Tract is the entrance tract that every new child completes to join the program. When a child visits Truth Trackers for the first time, a leader sits down with them during memory time and reads through the Forgiven Tract together.

The goal of the Forgiven Tract is to clearly present the gospel to the child. First, the leader turns to the back of the tract and explains the requirements for joining the program. The child’s name is written in the tract, and the expectations and rewards are explained. The tract is designed so that a child can easily fulfill the requirements. There are two requirements on the back:

Requirement 1 is completed when the child reads through the tract with a leader. Both the child and the leader sign it. Once Requirement 1 is finished, the child goes to the registration desk and receives an award.
Requirement 2 is completed when the child returns home and reads through the tract with a parent or guardian. The parent or guardian signs Requirement 2. When the child returns the following week, the leader also signs it, and the child receives another award.

This time is not only an opportunity for the leader to help the child complete the tract, but—most importantly—to help the child understand his or her need for Jesus Christ. We do not encourage leaders to pressure or scare a child into making a decision. This is not a time to call for a decision. Instead, leaders use this time to help the child understand God’s Word and to make themselves available for future conversations.

This is also a great opportunity to connect with the child’s family. Since the parent has read through the tract with their child, it opens the door to talk with the parent about the gospel.

After the child has completed the Forgiven Tract, they can purchase materials to fully enter the program.

Friend Nights

Friend Nights are special nights set aside by your club to evangelize the children’s friends and neighbors. Your club will schedule three Friend Nights throughout the year (fall, winter, and spring, plus summer if you have VBS). These nights either replace or fall on the same night as regular Truth Trackers.

This allows your church to have a focused children’s evangelism night every season. These nights are special Truth Trackers evenings dedicated to evangelism. You can choose a theme and award prizes to children who bring the most visitors. Many churches have found these nights to be very fruitful for strategic and focused evangelism. They provide a clear gospel presentation every season.

Suggestions for Successful Friend Nights:

Choose a fun theme and offer prizes for the child who brings the most visitors.
Have children pray for their friends and make invitation cards in small groups.
Build excitement by announcing and promoting the night in advance.
Clearly communicate to parents and church adults that a gospel message will be shared.
Prepare leaders to talk with children about Christ and how to lead someone to Him.
Promote the event in the church and community through flyers, skits, and announcements.
If held on a regular club night, keep Memory Time at the beginning so verse recitation is not skipped.
Consider scheduling Friend Nights on non-club nights if you prefer to skip memory time entirely.
Plan themes early (Fall Festival, Christmas theme, etc.).
Announce contests and prizes in the weeks leading up to the night.
Invite a special speaker who can present the gospel clearly to children.
Include unique, fun games to make the night exciting.

FAQ

What is your advice? Why are you switching programs?

We believe you should consider Truth Trackers for many reasons. We produce high-quality materials, we keep our costs low, and our materials are simple to understand and implement.

But the number one reason we believe you should use Truth Trackers is this: we equip your children and families to know and apply Bible doctrine more effectively than any other program.

We have discovered that when church members understand the Truth Trackers philosophy and methods, they become excited about the new club and wholeheartedly support it.

What is lacking in your children’s ministry right now? What do you want the Sunday/Midweek service program to do that no other program is doing?

Take time to look at your entire children’s ministry and write out clear goals for each program you run. What do you want Sunday school to teach and accomplish? What is children’s church (if you have one) teaching and accomplishing? What should your Sunday/Midweek service program accomplish and teach?

Many churches don’t have clear answers to these questions, and the result is that every ministry tries to do everything. For example, Sunday school sends home a memory verse and devotional, children’s church has its own memory verse and take-home sheet, the children’s choir gives prizes for memorizing verses, and then the midweek program adds even more verses. The teaching often ends up being random as well.

Our suggestion is that you gather all your children’s teachers and workers, lay out the goals for each program, and give specific, distinct goals for each one. Show them how the different ministries complement one another rather than compete or overlap.

Are your workers trained and excited?

Your workers need to be ready to go by the first night of club. Make sure they understand not only what to do, but why they are doing it. This is crucial. Workers will have many different ideas, but when they understand the reasons behind the methods, they will follow through with excitement and ownership.

Training is often less about telling people what to do and more about showing them why you want it done a certain way.

Do your parents understand how the program works and what their responsibility is?

Truth Trackers is a family memory program. We want families to memorize the Bible together. To make that happen, you will need to teach your families the importance of learning Bible doctrine and memorizing Scripture.

If parents are not encouraging their children to memorize and learn doctrine, the children probably won’t care either. Encourage your parents to take responsibility for their children’s discipleship and to use Truth Trackers as a helpful tool to accomplish that.

Question: The devotional books are clear, simple, and purposeful. However, my first thought is about overlap between the Sunday school devotions and these. What should we do about that?

Answer: We encourage churches to use the Truth Trackers devotions because they help children understand the doctrine that their verse and lesson teach. If other children’s ministries have devotional requirements, we recommend either eliminating those devotions or making them optional.

We advise you to evaluate all your children’s ministries, clearly define the purpose of each one, and then coordinate the materials and requirements across all of them. Many times, leaders in each ministry do what is best for their own program, which can overburden children and families and make the overall children’s ministry less effective.

Question: Why can’t the children memorize as many verses as they want?

Answer: The memory program in Truth Trackers is intentionally different. We focus on qualitative learning rather than quantitative. Most children who try to say 4–5 verses a night are not truly retaining them long-term anyway.

The Truth Trackers goal is deep, long-term memorization. This is also designed to be a family memory program, which works best when everyone in the family is learning the same doctrines and verses together.