This year’s club theme verse is Proverbs 3:5-6. The theme encourages clubs to trust God for all their needs. He can guide the direction of your ministry, guide volunteers and children to club and guide hearts to Jesus!

Decorations

Cut out footprints of club members to post in a path around the club rooms. Put pictures of Bibles and compasses along the path. Designate a prominent bulletin board in your church. Use pictures to create a theme-based board. Add pictures throughout the year to show what is happening at club.

Activities

Skippers and Scooters

  • Follow the Footprints. Make a path around the room or through various rooms with construction paper footprints. Let children use flashlights to follow the path. (Don’t make it dark; they’ll like it anyway.) Optional discussion for Scooters: The flashlights showed you the way along the path. Living from day to day is kind of like being on a path. Who shows us the right way we’re supposed to live from day to day? (God!)
  • Caterpillar Follow-the-Leader. Have everyone line up and grab the shoulders or waist of the person in front. A club leader leads the line around the room, moving in different ways: hopping, zigging and zagging, kicking and so on. Scooters may like to try it out briefly with eyes closed to add to the trust factor. Optional discussion: Did I make a good leader? Could you trust me? We can always trust God to lead us in living the way He wants us to.
  • Treasure Hunt. Tell children you have hidden treats in the room and they will go find them. The catch is that they will be blindfolded. Ask: “Will you trust me to lead you to the treats?” Help kids join hands and lead them to the treats, where they can take off their blindfolds and each take a treat. Optional comments: You trusted me to lead you. You can always trust God to lead you in real life. He has good things in store for you.

Older Kids

  • Trust Walk. Have each person find a partner and stand back to back, linking elbows. They then try walking to various points in the room, taking turns leading the way. Optional discussion: How did this build trust in your partner? How do we build our trust in God?
  • Do You Trust Me? Have kids take turns saying something true or untrue about themselves (I have five sisters; I have climbed a mountain; my favorite food is spaghetti) and adding, “Do you trust me?” They should then try to look as trustworthy as possible. Other kids decide if they trust the speaker. The speaker then reveals whether it’s true or untrue. If untrue, the speaker says what is true. Optional discussion: How do you decide in real life if someone is trustworthy? Who is the ultimate one you can always trust? Why?
  • Trust Maze. Have players scatter throughout the play area. Blindfold one person and have another kid use words to guide him or her through the “maze” of other kids. Optional discussion: How does God guide us through the maze of decisions and challenges in our everyday lives? How trustworthy was your guide in the game? How trustworthy a guide is God?
  • Make “Trust Jesus” Bookmarks. Write “Trust Jesus” on one side and list qualities that make Him trustworthy on the other side, such as powerful, loving, etc.
  • “Our Trust in Jesus Is Growing” Poster. Make a poster. Draw a bare tree on it. Cut out leaves from construction paper. Stack them by the tree. During the year, club members can write on leaves, “I trust/trusted Jesus when __________,” and tape them to the tree.

Pioneer Clubs Sunday Ideas

  • Invite parents, grandparents, other relatives and friends by letting the children make special invitations. Fold the sheets in fourths to make cards and let children fill them in and decorate them.
  • Have club members design a bulletin cover for Pioneer Clubs Sunday to reflect this year’s theme: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…and He will make your paths straight.”
  • Have club members finish this sentence: “This year at club I’ve learned to trust Jesus by ________.” Print answers in a special bulletin insert.
  • Ask “graduates” of Pioneer Clubs to share how club helped them learn to trust God.
  • Ask club leaders to tell how God lead them along the “path” to becoming leaders as they trusted Him and what rewards they’ve experienced.
  • Check out additional ideas and more specific information on hosting a Pioneer Clubs Sunday at your church at this link.

Special Fundraising Project Idea

Do a special club “On God’s Path” fundraising project during the club year.

To kick it off: 

  •  Have kids come to a club meeting in hiking gear.
  • Learn to use compasses.
  • Talk about the theme verses: When we trust God for guidance, He removes obstacles and leads us on a straight path through life, so we’re not wandering aimlessly. The Bible is like our compass to show us the straight path.
  • Explain that kids can help other kids learn to trust God by collecting money to send to Pioneer Clubs headquarters to help more churches start club locally and internationally.

To do the project: On God’s Path

  • Post the “On God’s Path” poster with a donation container below it. Encourage kids to bring coins each week. Count the money each week and write the total amount by a footprint on the poster, so kids can follow their progress.
  • Decide how many weeks you want to continue. Print another poster, if necessary. At the end of your campaign, send the funds to Pioneer Clubs, PO Box 207, Wheaton, IL 60187-0788, reminding club members of how their efforts will help other kids.