Thursday, January 17, 2008
Almost as good as Ice Cream :-)
Okay, so you've heard me talk a lot about bus ministry and probably think that's my favorite thing in the world, but how wrong can you be?!! There's one thing that I will probably always be involved in at some level during my life no matter where I go and that is Bible quizzing. I'm very passionate about the program. Do I always like how everything is done in quizzing--no, but I do love the overall idea of it and the fact that kids spend their time studying the Word of God. I quizzed for 6 years and have coached the last 10 years at both the junior and senior level.
Probably the reason I am most passionate about quizzing is because as a teenager I watched my whole youth group, one by one, walk away from God. When I was praying about it at the time, I asked God what I could do to keep from walking down that same path and He said, "Know my Word and love my Word". At the time, I hadn't ever put forth effort into my quizzing, but that changed from that time on. I spent every hour possible on my quizzing, got up at 5 a.m., studied on the school bus and during study hall, kept my cards with me for when my classwork was finished early, etc. It became one of my life's obsessions.
One of the coolest things about it was that all of my public school friends wanted to help me with my quizzing. So as they are listening to me quote all the Pentecostal doctrine verses, they start asking questions and I get to explain about oneness, the Holy Ghost, and just God in general. Those cards became my greatest witnessing tool during my teen years. Most people would say you gave up a lot to spend that much time and in reality, I didn't. It was a choice I made and I had to get up a little earlier, but I was still involved in all the school stuff (band, class officer, student council, yearbook, SADD, scholastic bowl) and everything at church, plus took 3 different music lessons and practiced a couple of hours a day on all the music stuff. My dad did not approve of quizzing and did not want me doing it, so I couldn't give up all the other "important" stuff. I just made a decision that it was important to God, so it needed to be important to me.
It's hard as a coach though 'cause sometimes you get irritated with your kids because you know what they are capable of and how they spend their time and you just want to wring their necks slowly but surely. My kids know I love them though and each year that I've coached this group, I've started adding more and more responsibility to them each year. It's a different ballgame today with quizzing and I'm hoping that the quizzing ranks will someday make a few changes. I think they need to take into consideration that most teens have to work now, have to do all kinds of volunteer stuff, be a part of x amount of clubs, plus do all the youth group stuff and all the other church ministries, and most of that is just so they can get a good scholarship for college. It's just not realistic that they can spend 2-3 hours a day every day studying and in order to compete, that is what has to happen.
Quizzing numbers have dwindled over the last few years (especially since the buzzer change--took away half the fun!) and I think a lot of it is just because quizzing has not changed with the times. Now a lot of the "old-timers" are out there saying, in my day we learned 900 verses; these kids have it easy with 500...that's not an easy number and the number of teams/quizzers in seniors has dropped, the number of quality teams is down, and a lot of times, in making the change from the jr. to sr. level, you hear a lot of talk about the bad attitudes. My opinion--cut back the number of verses, let the focus be on the real goal of quizzing (Learn, love, live the Word--get it in your heart and let it show), and have fun with it.
Just a little rampage...I really do love the program and if it were not for quizzing, I would not be who I am today and have no doubt that I would not be living for God if it had not been for the love for the Truth that was planted in my as a teenager.
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!
Probably the reason I am most passionate about quizzing is because as a teenager I watched my whole youth group, one by one, walk away from God. When I was praying about it at the time, I asked God what I could do to keep from walking down that same path and He said, "Know my Word and love my Word". At the time, I hadn't ever put forth effort into my quizzing, but that changed from that time on. I spent every hour possible on my quizzing, got up at 5 a.m., studied on the school bus and during study hall, kept my cards with me for when my classwork was finished early, etc. It became one of my life's obsessions.
One of the coolest things about it was that all of my public school friends wanted to help me with my quizzing. So as they are listening to me quote all the Pentecostal doctrine verses, they start asking questions and I get to explain about oneness, the Holy Ghost, and just God in general. Those cards became my greatest witnessing tool during my teen years. Most people would say you gave up a lot to spend that much time and in reality, I didn't. It was a choice I made and I had to get up a little earlier, but I was still involved in all the school stuff (band, class officer, student council, yearbook, SADD, scholastic bowl) and everything at church, plus took 3 different music lessons and practiced a couple of hours a day on all the music stuff. My dad did not approve of quizzing and did not want me doing it, so I couldn't give up all the other "important" stuff. I just made a decision that it was important to God, so it needed to be important to me.
It's hard as a coach though 'cause sometimes you get irritated with your kids because you know what they are capable of and how they spend their time and you just want to wring their necks slowly but surely. My kids know I love them though and each year that I've coached this group, I've started adding more and more responsibility to them each year. It's a different ballgame today with quizzing and I'm hoping that the quizzing ranks will someday make a few changes. I think they need to take into consideration that most teens have to work now, have to do all kinds of volunteer stuff, be a part of x amount of clubs, plus do all the youth group stuff and all the other church ministries, and most of that is just so they can get a good scholarship for college. It's just not realistic that they can spend 2-3 hours a day every day studying and in order to compete, that is what has to happen.
Quizzing numbers have dwindled over the last few years (especially since the buzzer change--took away half the fun!) and I think a lot of it is just because quizzing has not changed with the times. Now a lot of the "old-timers" are out there saying, in my day we learned 900 verses; these kids have it easy with 500...that's not an easy number and the number of teams/quizzers in seniors has dropped, the number of quality teams is down, and a lot of times, in making the change from the jr. to sr. level, you hear a lot of talk about the bad attitudes. My opinion--cut back the number of verses, let the focus be on the real goal of quizzing (Learn, love, live the Word--get it in your heart and let it show), and have fun with it.
Just a little rampage...I really do love the program and if it were not for quizzing, I would not be who I am today and have no doubt that I would not be living for God if it had not been for the love for the Truth that was planted in my as a teenager.
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!
# posted by 99 Blogger @ 9:12 PM 
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I'm with you on doing some cutting of the material to make it more realistic for busy teens, but I would also like to see quizzing become more family related. Can't you see a quizzing version of Family Feud?? How fun would that be!!
Oh, BTW, I've coached Jr. and Sr., and am currently working with the Ohio District as an official.
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Oh, BTW, I've coached Jr. and Sr., and am currently working with the Ohio District as an official.
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