Sunday, July 22, 2007

Teens Memorize Whole Chapters Of The Bible

I think young people like a challenge. Our 3 young people were transformed before my very eyes into good storytellers very quickly.

This encouraging article makes me think it would be wonderful to give a bunch of youth a week's training in Bible Storytelling and then send them out in mission teams to small churches who may not be able to put on their own "Vacation Bible Schools" or other programs. Visiting teams could help with programs of Bible storytelling and outreach.

This wasn't telling a Bible story but pure recitation - of Bible Books. The stories would be easier.

Now the whole church is memorizing the the Sermon on the Mount... they've inspired the whole church.

From Calvin Institute of Worship

“One Sunday, thirteen high school juniors and seniors went to the front of church and recited the Book of Titus together. Each recited three or four verses. They kept handing the microphone to the next person until the stage was filled with kids.

“Some stumbled. One ended up reading mostly from his notes. At the end, the entire congregation burst into applause! We were delighted for two reasons. First, ten of these teens have no family connection with our church but, within the last two years, started attending our youth group. Second, afterwards they asked, and I quote, ‘When can we do that again?’ ”

So the teens began learning as two teams, one to present Philemon and the other to present Jude.

“We see a deepening ‘treasuring’ of the Bible as God’s Word. Watching the Bible ‘spoken’ instead of read has helped focus attention on it. And having teenagers participate in all this has been a special delight,” Adams says.

Now the whole church is working on memorizing the Sermon of the Mount together.

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