Bible Quizzing
Sarah Brickle

Bible quizzing makes learning the Word of God—an essential part of our Christian walk with God—more structured and less spur-of-the-moment. Bible quizzing is a program that encourages and rewards kids who learn large portions of the Bible. The quiz season starts with the quizzers learning a certain amount of verses. Then they compete in a statewide tournament. They also have the opportunity to attend other regional tournaments if they so choose.

I love Bible quizzing. I believe that Bible quizzing is the best program a child or any person can be involved in to learn the Word of God. The young people (up to eighteen years of age) learn large portions of the Bible in a way that is both fun and productive. The adults also learn as much as they can and help the kids in every way possible. Bible quizzing makes learning the Word of God—an essential part of our Christian walk with God—more structured and less spur-of-the-moment.

Bible quizzing is a program that encourages and rewards kids who learn large portions of the Bible. The quiz season starts with the quizzers learning a certain amount of verses. Then they compete in a statewide tournament. They also have the opportunity to attend other regional tournaments if they so choose. This process continues until about June when all the teams in a district that have finished the year come together for the state finals. This is the end of the quiz year for most of the teams, but the teams that place at their state finals then get the opportunity to attend the North American Bible Quiz Tournament. It is a great honor to be a part of this tournament. It is for the quizzers who have worked hard all year long and competed well.

Some kids spend many hours training to be good quizzers. This may not be the most important objective, but if a quizzer wants to, why not encourage them to do their best? With Bible quizzing it can be as much of a commitment as the quizzer, parents, and coaches want it to be. Any person who has learned verses from the Bible is a winner. I know some people who just learn the verses that the Bible quizzers are learning, yet do not compete in any way. This is perfectly fine because the point of Bible quizzing is to learn the Word of God.

I am a Bible quiz coach. Coaching can be a full-time job or it can occupy just a few hours a week. A coach has to have the desire both to be a teacher and a learner. Kids work better if the coach not only tells them what to do but also does it with them. It is important for coaches not only to involve the parents of the quizzers but also the kids themselves in making decisions. Kids like to feel like they have a say in the decision-making process.

I am also a Bible quizzer, so I know that there are both fun times and hard times when you want to just throw in the towel (or verse cards!). I have quizzed for ten years. Bible quizzing has become a part of my life. I know for a fact that if I were not involved in Bible quizzing I would not know as much of the Bible as I do now. It not only is a fun game, but it becomes a lifelong spiritual support. There were times when I got frustrated and wanted to give up, but the verses always won. There were even times when I would get a bad attitude. Then I would start quoting about a person in the Bible who had it a lot harder than I did. During those times I would just pray, “Okay, God, you win. I’m sorry.” I can remember so many times God speaking to me while I was quoting His Word.

Children should be rooted and grounded in the Word of God. Parents have the responsibility to train up their children in the way they should go so they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). This is a significant task that parents are instructed in the Bible to do. One way they can try to fulfill this command is to involve their children in Bible quizzing.

The Bible is important, not only to read and understand, but also to memorize. I feel that all Christians should be involved in learning the Word of God. The psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalms 119:11). This is just one of the many scriptural reasons for learning the Bible. We know that sin is evil and that we should avoid it. Sometimes this is hard, but if we have hidden the Word of God in our heart

He will help us. God’s Word is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). I want my “sword” ready at all times. If I leave the Bible sitting on my shelf and I encounter a spiritual battle on my way to work I could experience some problems. I want to be “ready always to give an answer” (I Peter 3:15). To be ready at all times requires study and perseverance to learn all that we are capable of learning.

Learning the Word of God should be a part of every Pentecostal household. Until we go to see Jesus we should be learning all we can about God’s Word. My youngest sister started quizzing when she was four years old. Her first year she learned all 180 assigned verses plus others. At the beginning of the year my mom and I talked about starting her in Bible quizzing, but we did not think she could learn many verses, much less all of them. So we asked her if she wanted to and she said she wanted to do “real Bible quizzing like my sisters.” We decided that we would work with her as much or as little as she wanted us to. I believe that if a four-year-old can learn all those verses, anyone can learn them. And if they want to have fun along the way, they should be involved in Bible quizzing!

Sarah Brickle is a Bible quizzes and coach in the Missouri District, She attends The Sanctuary United Pentecostal Church in Hazelwood pastored by Timothy Dugas and Scott Graham, Sarah’s sisters are also quizzers, her mother is a coach: and her fathers a professor of biblical studies Urshan Graduate School of Theology.

The above article, “Bible Quizzing” was written by Sarah Brickle. The article was excerpted from Pentecostal Herald magazine. November 2010.

The material is copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.