Contenders of the Faith

Contenders of the Faith is a boys' character club program published by Keepers of the Faith, organized around a handbook of fifteen skill categories that run from Spiritual Life Skills and Outdoor Skills to Creative Skills and Nature Studies. Oriented toward conservative evangelical families, it functions as an extracurricular formation program rather than an academic curriculum.

Last updated: 2026-10-03 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist, badge-based character club, hands-on practical skills
Worldview	Christian-evangelical (conservative Protestant, family-integrated church orientation)
Grades	Ages 4 through 16 (the Little Contenders handbook for ages 4-6 and the Contenders for the Faith handbook for ages 7-16)
Formats	Free PDF handbooks and companion notebook, printable at home; hands-on activities; optional local club participation
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	4 (significant parent time required for badge verification and activity supervision)
ESA-common	No (extracurricular enrichment; not typically core-curriculum eligible)
Accredited	No
Established	Handbook copyright dates of 1993, 2000, 2009, and 2017 per the handbook PDF; the publisher's About page gives no founding year
Website	keepersofthefaith.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	2	Not an academic program; practical-skill and character focus
Ease of teaching	3	Activities are straightforward but require parent time and occasional outside expertise
Content quality	3	Handbooks are functional; badge content varies in depth across categories
Flexibility	4	Self-paced; badges can be earned at home or in local clubs
Value for money	4	Handbooks are free PDF downloads; most activities use everyday materials
Worldview scope	1	Explicitly Christian evangelical; Scripture memory and Christian biography are core categories
Visual/design	2	Plain PDF handbooks; minimal illustration
Support resources	3	Independent local clubs; the publisher lists an email address for questions

Who the publisher is

Keepers of the Faith began as a program that Jeff and Susan Zakula built. By their account on the About page it spread to their church, then to other churches and through the homeschooling movement, and it is now in all fifty states and many foreign countries. Contenders of the Faith is the boys' program; the handbook's dedication credits Susan with building a program for girls (handbook PDF). The program's stated orientation is explicitly Christian: the Our Clubs page describes a ministry to guide young people in the steps of Jesus Christ and sets out distinct roles for men and women.

The organization is not a membership body in the formal Scouting sense. Families use the free handbook and optional companion materials, and a parent or a local club leader guides the work, with the Essential Guide for Leaders and Parents offered as the teaching resource. Some communities host local Contenders clubs that meet weekly or monthly for group activities; other families complete the program entirely within the home. The publisher's FAQ says Keepers groups are independent, require no membership in a national organization, and are each run by a single family, local association, or church. This lightweight organizational model keeps costs low and scheduling flexible, with the tradeoff that the program's depth depends substantially on parent engagement or the quality of a local leader.

Theologically and culturally, Contenders of the Faith sits within the conservative evangelical family-integrated-church movement. The program's framing assumes traditional complementarian family structures (the Our Clubs page assigns distinct roles to men and women), Scripture memory as a devotional practice, and practical-trades instruction as part of Christian masculine formation. The literature selections, biography recommendations, and Scripture portions reflect this orientation consistently across the handbook. Families outside this specific subculture will find the worldview embedding present throughout rather than confined to an optional Bible-study track.

The core pedagogy

The Contenders for the Faith handbook organizes its content into fifteen categories: Spiritual Life Skills, Character Studies, Personal Skills, Serving Others, Around the Home, Culinary Skills, Creative Skills, Scholarship Studies, Special Knowledge, Music Arts, Artistic Skills, Nature Studies, Outdoor Skills, Caring for Pets and Farm Animals, and Recreational Skills and Hobbies. Individual skills inside the categories include Bible Memory, First Aid, Woodworking, and Campfire Cooking.

The pedagogical structure is closer to a merit-badge system than a graded curriculum: a boy works through the requirements for individual skills in the handbook, with a parent or club leader teaching and checking the work. The publisher's page also lists the Little Contenders handbook for ages four to six, a companion notebook that parallels the handbook, and the Essential Guide for Leaders and Parents.

Signature mechanics: (1) Badge-based progression. Unlike time-based curricula, Contenders moves students forward on completion of defined activities, which scales well across age and ability. (2) Fifteen-category breadth. The spread across spiritual, personal, home, creative, academic, nature, and outdoor skills is deliberately broad. The program is not trying to be a trade school; it is trying to expose boys to a wide range of practical skills. (3) Scripture memory as an explicit skill. The handbook's Spiritual Life Skills category opens with Bible Memory, Bible Reading, and Bible Study. (4) Local club or home-only options. The program works equally well as a home-only structure for an only child or as a club-based structure for groups of boys meeting regularly.

What they do exceptionally well

Practical skills with real tools. One of the program's clearest strengths is that boys who complete skills such as Woodworking, Tools, or Outdoor Skills genuinely learn to use tools and complete projects. The program assumes that a boy can safely use a drill, a hand saw, or a jigsaw under appropriate parental supervision, and the badge requirements are structured to build skill progressively.

Affordability. As of October 2026 the publisher's Contenders page offers the handbooks as free downloads. Most activities use materials families already own or can source cheaply (wood scraps, basic tools, ordinary outdoor gear), so a family's cost is mainly the materials for the activities it chooses.

Breadth without overreach. The fifteen-category structure deliberately trades depth for breadth. A boy does not become an expert woodworker or mechanic through the badge, but he does encounter the field, develop basic competence, and identify areas of interest for deeper pursuit. For a broad-strokes character and practical-skills formation program, this breadth is the design feature rather than a weakness.

What they do poorly

Editorial polish is modest. The handbook's production is plain, with limited illustration and functional typography. Compared to publishers with in-house art and editorial departments (the Boy Scouts handbook, for instance, or polished Christian character-formation curricula), Contenders is visibly plainer. This keeps costs low but means the program reads as a modest product rather than an institutional one.

Depth varies by category. The requirements in some categories are relatively shallow; the requirements in others assume access to expertise the average family may not possess. Families completing the program at home need to either locate outside instruction (a grandfather, a church member, a neighbor) or skip badges the parent cannot meaningfully verify. For a boy in a community with adequate skilled-trade mentorship, this is fine; for an isolated family, some badges are effectively inaccessible.

Narrow cultural framing. The program's assumed audience is conservative evangelical family-integrated-church families. References to "biblical manhood," the explicit complementarian framing, and the Scripture-memory requirements are baked into the handbook rather than segregated into an optional track. Families outside this specific cultural context, broadly evangelical but not family-integrated, mainline Protestant, Catholic, or secular families looking for a skills-based program, will find the framing present throughout and will either need to adopt it or look elsewhere. In our assessment, the Boy Scouts' more religiously-neutral structure is the most obvious alternative for families seeking a skills-based badge program without this specific evangelical framing.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Contenders of the Faith if: you are a conservative evangelical family seeking a character-formation and practical-skills program with an explicit Christian worldview; you have parent time and skill to supervise hands-on badge work; you value a badge-based rather than time-based progression; you prefer a free program without a national membership requirement; you want flexibility between home-only and local-club participation.

• Skip Contenders of the Faith if: you want a secular or religiously-neutral skills program (Boy Scouts or Trail Life USA may fit better); you cannot commit the parent time for supervised hands-on activity; you want an academic curriculum rather than an extracurricular enrichment; you are outside the conservative evangelical family-integrated-church tradition; you prefer a visually polished published curriculum to a plainly produced one.

Cost honest assessment

As of October 2026 the publisher's Contenders page offers the handbooks as free downloads. The page lists the Little Contenders handbook, the Contenders for the Faith handbook, a companion notebook, and the Essential Guide for Leaders and Parents, and states that the materials may be copied for personal use but not sold. Costs beyond the downloads are a family's own materials and any awards or display items it chooses to make or buy; we could not verify prices for those.

Compared to alternatives, Contenders sits at the budget end of character-formation programs. Boy Scouts of America and Trail Life USA are national membership organizations, while the publisher's FAQ says Keepers groups are independent and require no membership in a national organization.

ESA eligibility notes

Most state ESA marketplaces do not typically reimburse extracurricular character-club program fees, because ESA funds are generally targeted at core academic curriculum, tutoring, and formal enrichment rather than badge-based volunteer programs. Families in states with broader ESA definitions (Arizona's ClassWallet, Utah Fits All) should verify with their program administrator before assuming reimbursement for Contenders materials. Because the publisher now offers the handbooks as free downloads, there is little to reimburse.

Alternatives

• Trail Life USA, a family would choose Trail Life over Contenders of the Faith if they want a formal membership-based Christian boys' character organization with local troop structure, regional events, and uniformed program.
• Boy Scouts of America, a family would choose Boy Scouts over Contenders if they want a secular skills-and-character organization with nationwide recognition, established advancement paths to Eagle, and broader community mentorship resources.
• American Heritage Girls (companion girls' program context), not a boys' alternative; Contenders' girls' companion is Keepers at Home.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Keepers of the Faith publisher site, the Contenders page that offers the handbooks as free downloads, the Contenders for the Faith handbook PDF, the Our Clubs page and FAQ, and the publisher's About page in October 2026. Program details verified October 2026.