In my career as a business leader responsible for the development and performance of those who work for me, I have learned and tried to emulate leadership principles that seem to be the most effective. In my experience, there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Leaders must keep their ego in check. They must embrace simplicity and communicate the mission with clarity. To be effective, leaders must not only prioritize various activities, but also execute each of them well.

I have also learned that leadership is not always one thing or another. There is a spectrum and sometimes contradictions. While leaders do lead, they must also be willing to follow. They must remain calm when under stress, but not be robotic. Aggressive, but not overbearing. They must be brave, but not reckless. Successful leaders have a competitive spirit, but are also gracious losers. There are times leaders must be quiet, but never completely silent. Additionally, leaders should be humble, but not passive.

After all, if no one is following you, are you really a leader?
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Not surprisingly, these leadership principles in business are also effective for me as a leader in Youth Bible Quizzing.

My family and I love to play board, card, and dice games. There is at least one game on my Christmas list every year. Though we all enjoy the bonding time and delicious snacks, it seems to me that my family has the most fun when they team up against me. While I prefer strategic games like Settlers of Catan, Risk, and Ticket to Ride, my wife enjoys simpler games like Mexican Train Dominos and Yahtzee. And when we play cooperative games like Pandemic or Escape Room the Game, I am often amazed by our genuine selflessness and impressed by our collective ingenuity to solve the challenges of the game.

It is not surprising then that I fell in love with Teen Bible Quizzing. In addition to the Bible study, disciple-making, and spiritual growth this ministry offers, the game appeals to my fondness for strategy and teamwork.

Yet at times home study or team practices can get routine or even boring. And if you are bored, you are not learning. To keep everyone engaged, it is good to add a little variety every now and again.
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With the goal of making reviewing at home and team practices fun and engaging, playing Tribute: The Youth Bible Quiz Board Game just might do the trick (assuming, of course, you enjoy board games as much as I do). Now you can review at home without it feeling like you are studying. Or play it during a team practice to keep practices from getting stale. In addition, the beauty of this game is that it is different every time you play. The types of questions are in a different order every game and you decide in advance from which chapter or chapters you want questions asked. There are 2 versions available: physical game board or a print-your-own version.
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While some of the board games I like to play are so complicated that they take hours to learn, this game is so simple that you can learn how to play almost faster than you can set it up.

​Though this topic was recommended to me by a subscriber to this blog, I am writing it as much as a reminder to myself as I am writing it to share with all of you.
 
After our November quiz, the weekends get very busy. First up is Thanksgiving. A week later, my District participates in the St. Louis Top 10 quiz tournament. Not too long after that is Christmas followed one week later by New Year’s Day. So, like many of you, our District does not have a December quiz. For our small District, the St. Louis Top 10 quiz is our December quiz. But as God continues to bless our ministry, we continue to grow in numbers. So much so in fact that for the first time ever we will have more teens not quizzing at the St. Louis tournament than those who will be quizzing.

Congratulations! By now most of you have completed the Bible Quiz season that covered the Gospel of Luke. As a faithful reader of this blog, I’m sure you prepared for the season by reading 1 chapter of Luke as part of your daily time in the Word during the summer. When the season started you set up a dedicated study area where you blocked off time to study in 25-minute chunks with 5-minute breaks every night immediately before you went to bed and got plenty of sleep. You followed a plan that varied what you studied every day to prevent mid-season burnout. You used the NPH Bible Quiz App to take advantage of the idle moments that happen randomly throughout your day. You asked others to hold you accountable and you rewarded yourself for achieving your study goals.  You dedicated yourself to learning 2 Memory Verses a week because you know it is the practically guaranteed* way to be a top 10 Bible Quizzer. But most importantly, as you read Luke God revealed Himself to you through the Scripture. With God’s leading, you are finding direction for your life and learning how to best serve the Lord who gave His life for you.
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And now here you are. Relieved that you made it through the longest book of the 8-year Youth Bible Quiz cycle. You are looking forward to the relative ease of studying 1 & 2 Corinthians next season.
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So to help you prepare after you return from your summer break, here is a brief statistical analysis of the upcoming quiz material:

I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t like to improve one aspect of their life or another. Some people want to be a better friend. Or be a better writer. Or be more compassionate to those in need. Even the best athletes spend time practicing and learning ways to get better. That same desire to improve can be found in practically every Teen Bible Quizzer.

Now that the quiz season is over for most of you, it is common to think, “If I start studying next year’s material now, I’ll do better next season!” But my advice to you is: Don’t do it! Take a break and recharge your batteries! Enjoy your summer. Avoid the inevitable burn-out from a non-stop grind.  Quizzing is supposed to be fun, not a burden!

But at the same time, you shouldn’t put on hold your daily time in the Word. Growing closer to the Lord is the one thing that everyone should be working to improve! So there must be a way to avoid burn-out and yet expose yourself to the new quiz material as part of your continuing conversation with God during the summer.  

​Following are my 3 suggestions. Choose to do as many as you would like!

​I’ve been around quizzing virtually my entire life, and the most common problem I see with my fellow quizzers is mid-season burnout. For some reason, after all the holidays, quizzers start to drop out one by one. And for those of us who don’t drop out completely, mostly our averages drop because we don’t study as much.

​If I were to ask all the quizzers who experienced the infamous burnout what happened, I imagine the majority of them would say either, “I don’t have the time anymore!” or, “I got bored.” If you really want to be involved in this program and excel in it, then you need to do something about this burnout. There’s only so much your coach can do for you!

As a Bible Quiz Director I am always concerned about how many teens drop out of quizzing during the season. One year we lost so many teams by December I was legitimately worried that we might finish the year with just the teens from my church (and we practically did). I couldn't for the life of me figure out why some teens seem to can't get enough Teen Bible Quizzing while others lose interest over time. But that year I decided I had to do something to break the pattern. After all, if nothing changes then nothing changes.

As I tried to understand this phenomenon through personal observations and candid conversations with the teens and their parents, 3 common factors affecting season-long commitment emerged:

1.    Mid-year Burnout
2.    Lack of Success
3.    Uninvolved Parents

Knowing is half the battle. Armed with new intel, here are my suggestions to combat these 3 adversities: