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I Thought I Knew These Things About Bible Quizzing

7/5/2017

4 Comments

 
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Having been involved with Teen Bible Quizzing for two decades now *shudder*, I thought I had a firm understanding of the fundamental structure and shifting trends within this wonderful ministry.

But what I have since discovered is that - for some things – I simply didn’t know that I didn’t know. 

Earlier this year, I invited subscribers to this blog to participate in a survey about their local Bible Quizzing ministry. As an amateur statistician, even I knew this would not be a scientific study and it would have a large margin of error. Of the estimated 3,000 Teen Bible Quizzers and Quiz Leaders in the U.S., my sampling method would only capture those Quizzers and Quiz Leaders who are subscribers of this blog.

“So, what is the margin of error?”, your inner geek asks. “16%”, my inner geek replies. But I wasn't necessarily looking for precision of values. Rather, I was looking for patterns of evidence.

​Here are the results to the survey questions and how they either fundamentally changed or affirmed my assumptions:
​How many teens in your Youth Group are Quizzers?
In churches that participate in Teen Bible Quizzing, an average of 26% of the youth are Quizzers. Remarkably, this representation of Quizzers remained fairly consistent regardless the size of the youth group. 
67% of the youth representation on their District Council are Teen Bible Quizzers
​Additionally, 67% of the youth representation on their District Council are Teen Bible Quizzers. This speaks volumes regarding the engagement and qualities of the teens that participate in Bible Quizzing.
Where do your quizzers attend school?
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Last April, the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that approximately 1,773,000 students are homeschooled in the United States — 3.4% of the school-age population. However, of those who answered my survey, a whopping 67% of Teen Bible Quizzers in their church are homeschooled!

As stated earlier, I readily acknowledge that my survey sampling method was not scientific, but from my experience this higher-than-average representation of homeschoolers seems directionally correct. While the main motivation cited by NCES for homeschooling is "a concern about the school environment", the next most common reason is "a desire to provide a religious or moral instruction". So, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that these parents are more favorably predisposed to enrolling their teens in Teen Bible Quizzing.

Armed with this intel, I see a definite opportunity for NPH or some other publisher to provide a quality home-school curriculum that coincides with each season’s scripture. 

​Who is your Quiz Program Leader?
Slightly more than half (53%) of local church quiz programs are led by a parent of a current quizzer (myself included). This is more than double the next type of leader, a layperson who isn't a parent of a current or former quizzer (20%). Here is the full breakdown:
  • 53% Layperson (parent of a current quizzer)
  • 20% Layperson (not a parent of a current or former quizzer)
  • 10% Layperson (parent of a former quizzer)
  • 8% Youth Pastor (could also be a parent of a quizzer)
  • 6% Pastor or Pastor’s wife (could also be a parent of a quizzer)
  • 3% Layperson (grandparent of a current or former quizzer)
When I look at this list, it tells me most quiz programs (86%) are led by non-staff people who obviously have a passion for the ministry. But it also indicates that churches should be recruiting, training and mentoring the parents of the incoming generation of Quizzers when the current Quiz leader’s teen starts to approach their "retirement".
​
The data from this question provided the biggest “a-ha” moment for me. I thought I knew who would be all-in and seek to use Bible Quizzing as a ministry tool to lead their youth into a lifelong relationship with Jesus. For years I have been spending a significant amount of time during the off-season trying to ignite Teen Bible Quiz programs at non-participating churches on my District.  Now I realize the reason for my low response rate is likely because I have been targeting the wrong audience. I have been sending letters, designing bulletins and flyers, writing emails, and delivering impassioned speeches to youth pastors and pastors.  While they all believe in the value of this ministry, very few of them are willing or have the time to lead it. Instead, I will now be focusing my efforts to engage the parents of the teens I meet at District events. Especially the parents of homeschooled teens. 
What is your primary source for Practice Questions?
I actually got this one right. Quizzers and Quiz leaders spend more time reviewing practice questions using the NPH app than any other source. After all, the app only weighs 10^-20 grams and they practically never leave home without it.
​
The next most popular form of practice questions are those printed using a subscription to Set Maker on the youthquiz.com web site. Here is the full list:
  • 31% YBQ App (official questions from NPH)
  • 25% Set Maker (official questions from youthquiz.com)
  • 19% Blue Book (official questions from NPH)
  • 13% Write their own questions
  • 13% Acmequiz questions
What do you use for Scripture?
PicturePhoto courtesy Chelsea Mullins
Surprisingly, teens unanimously favor reading the physical Scripture Portion with Concordance (100%) while 17% of adults prefer to read the scripture using an app or on the Internet. I had this one totally backwards.

​Despite having the scripture available to them at all times on their devices, one reason teens prefer the book form is the ability to customize it to aid in their study habits. Many quizzers highlight or underline unique, double, and triple words with different colors. Some make notes in the margins of key passages. For others, the lists in the appendix provide them with a distinct edge in their desire to master the material. 

What are the 5 Most Recommended Study Materials?
If the Scripture wasn't the #1 most recommended study material, I would have written this entire post MUCH differently! Fortunately, that didn't happen. In whatever form it is read, the Scripture is recommended by 100% of the survey respondents (as it should be!).

Recommended 97% of the time is a study resource designed to provide insight and application of the scripture – a daily devotional book.  This is encouraging as it indicates a desire to first know the content of the scripture and then to understand it better. The full Top 5 list is as follows:
  • 100% Scripture Portion and Concordance
  • 97% Daily Devotional book
  • 97% Official questions from NPH (Set Maker, YBQ app or Blue Book)
  • 97% Scripture audio CD (Acmequiz or NPH)
  • 97% Memory Verse audio CD (make their own)
What are the 5 Least Recommended Study Materials?
​Though they came in last, can you really say something recommended by 67% of the participants isn't useful? Me either. That particular item was a set of flash cards for each verse of the scripture.

When this survey was given, no such product existed (to my knowledge) for the NIV 2011 version of the Quiz material. However, at the Nazarene General Assembly in June 2017, Jingle Seeds debuted this exact item. For those advanced According To quizzers, this will be a great resource.

Coming in at only 79% is a deck of Key Word flash cards. Since no product like this can be purchased, students make their own. They do so by putting the unique, double, or triple word on the front and the associated verse(s) on the back. The full Bottom 5 list is:
  • 67% Flash Cards of every verse
  • 79% Key word flash cards (make your own)
  • 79% Review Activities/Worksheets (youthquiz.com’s crossword and word search puzzles, for example)
  • 82% Memory Verse flash cards (purchased)
  • 85% Daily Devotional app
Reality Check
Just for fun, let's see how well this survey matches my local quiz ministry:
  • Last year 30% of our regular youth were in Quizzing (survey said 26%)
  • I am a layperson parent of a current quizzer (agrees with the most popular survey answer)
  • 75% of my quizzers are homeschooled (survey said 67%)
  • For practice questions, 50% of my quizzers primarily used the NPH app, 25% used Set Maker, 25% wrote their own (survey said 31% app, 25% Set Maker, 13% wrote their own)
  • Study Material actually used:
    • 100% used the Scripture Portion and Concordance (recommended by 100% in survey)
    • 100% used official NPH Practice Questions (recommended by 97% in survey)
    • 50% used Review activities (recommended by 79% in survey)
    • 25% used Scripture audio (recommended by 97% in survey)

​All in all, I’d say we were the typical Quiz program. How does yours compare?
4 Comments
Karl Tabor
7/25/2017 07:00:27 pm

There has definitely been a homeschool revolution in Bible Quizzing. My first go-round as District Quiz Director was 1989-2002 on Chicago Central District. Through 1994, I had not had any homeschoolers on my District All-Star teams. In 1995, I had three. Every year after that, I mostly had 2-3, maybe more. In 2001 I helped with our Olivet A & B teams - 9 of those 10 quizzers were homeschooled, and I believe the odd man out went to a private Christian school.

Homeschool families are definitely an opportunity to pursue, when recruiting quizzers. But a lot of them know about us. I like to keep going after the students in traditional schools as well. After all - it's a large, untapped market!

I agree that it's good to have other contacts to pursue at local churches besides pastors and youth pastors - who are usually too busy with overall church and overall youth group to effectively run a Bible Quiz team. We just hope they hand off the information. But it is most often laymen - and generally parents of teens who want to see their own teens do Bible Quizzing - who make the most likely coaches and other local leaders. And I always tell them they don't need to know anything about Bible Quizzing - don't even need to know the Bible. They need to love the Lord, love teenagers, and be dependable. We'll teach them about the program - and they'll come to know the Bible!

Reply
Rick Hill
8/1/2017 07:42:23 am

Although I am happy when anyone chooses to lead a quizzing program, MHO, laypersons who are called into the ministry and dedicated to quizzing make the best coaches - if for no other reason than they generally aren't as "distracted" as Pastors and Youth Pastors.
But I would prefer that they not be a parent of one of the quizzers. Parents sometimes seem to have difficulty guaging how to treat there own child...either more lax or more strict as compared to the others. And sometimes other parents question the coach's impartiality. It's not always easy to navigate. I began coaching before my children were old enough to teen quiz. I coached them when they were old enough, and those weren't my easiest years. It's difficult for your children when you have expectations of them that are not the same as others. You tend to extend more grace to other kids, to keep them engaged. Granted, if you are truly called into coaching, they are all "your kids" but the others, and their parents, do have different priorities and you have to really work sometimes to keep all treatment and emotions level. I loved coaching my kids. But my stress level went down considerably when they graduated.
Also, I've seen programs collapse when parents leave coaching when their own kids graduate. Although I appreciate the time they spent coaching, and the teens whose lives were touched by scripture while they were there, there are often hard feelings when teens still want to quiz and no one steps in to take up the job. Quizzing is viewed negatively by the youth group and churches take a while to recover. Some never do.

Reply
Deborah Montgomery-Coon
9/26/2017 02:45:18 pm

When my daughter started quizzing the coaches were parents and we had a mix of homeschooled and public school kids. Now it has moved to more public school kids and our coaches are mostly former quizzers (and myself still). I think this will also become a trend if former quizzers stay in their home church like many of ours have. They also become quiz masters and timers at meets, because they have just found such a love of the sport.

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Snapchat Girls Louisiana link
3/15/2021 09:18:40 pm

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    Teen Bible Quizzing is a dynamic, enriching ministry with a mission to invite youth into a deeper relationship with Jesus! Endorsed by Nazarene Youth International (NYI), Teen Bible Quizzing uniquely combines study of the Bible, competition, fellowship and disciple-making in a program attractive to youth.
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    About Me

    I am the Louisiana Nazarene Teen Bible Quiz Director, the author of several Teen Bible Quiz apps and study guides, and regular host of The TeenBibleQuiz Podcast.

    I have been involved in Teen Bible Quizzing as either a coach or District Director since 1995.

    I am married to a wonderful wife and have a son and daughter who love the Lord and have recently retired from Teen Bible Quizzing.


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