New Bible Quiz Experience Generates Excitement

Learning hundreds of Bible facts, memorizing hundreds of Scripture verses -- even complete books of the Bible -- and competing in Bible Quiz (BQ) or Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) has captured the excitement and passion of thousands of young people across America.

However, as national Bible Quiz Coordinator Bernie Elliot has discovered, there are tens of thousands of additional young people who do not participate in Bible Quiz because they feel intimidated by the quantity of Scriptures they have to learn, don't have the time to dedicate to memorizing due to school or athletics, or as Elliot says, simply aren't wired for the intensity of competition.

The struggles young people have with all these roadblocks, Elliot believes, have been overcome with a new Bible Quiz ministry called the Bible Quiz Experience.

According to Elliot, the new division is an "entry level" quizzing ministry that scales the memorization, time commitment, and competition of standard Bible quizzing back to an introductory level, enabling youth to experience Bible Quiz in a whole new way.

Just like the standard version, Experience Bible Quiz changes what book or books of the Bible that will be the source for quizzing in that particular year. This year, it's the Acts Experience. But instead of having to know -- and often memorize -- the 1,003 Scripture verses in the Book of Acts, participants in the Acts Experience division will only be quizzed over Acts chapters 2, 4, 5, and 9 -- 169 total verses.

"In addition to the fewer verses, the intensity of competition is lessened as during the quiz meet, the first 12 questions are divided between the two teams," Elliot says. "One team is asked the odd-numbered questions, the other team the even-numbered questions -- no interruptions necessary, we simply ask the team the question. This sets the youth up for success and allows everybody to score."

After the first 12 questions, the remaining eight questions are treated like regular Bible Quiz, with teams buzzing in to respond. Also, because there are fewer verses, the number of verses that participants need to know for each meet are also reduced. For example, for the first meet, just 47 verses are included, with participants needing to know less than 50 new verses for each meet.

Elliot says that last year, the Bible Quiz Experience was launched in a few districts and he tested it out in his home district, the Penn-Del District, the year before. He says in the first year, he had 169 teams register. He also found that small and inner-city churches as well as churches outside the Assemblies of God have expressed a lot of interest.

"So far, wherever I've presented the Acts Experience, the church has signed up for it," Elliot says, adding with a laugh, "I wish I had 50 of me to go around telling churches about this."

Elliot says that what he's also found with the Bible Quiz Experience is that once youth experience Bible Quiz at this introductory level, they invite others to participate and some step up to the full Bible Quiz ministry.

"I started the Experience division with an inner-city church who had six kids," Elliot says. "Within a month, we had 45 teams join via word of mouth because those six youth enjoyed it so much."

This year, Elliot says he's hoping to have 300 teams register in the Experience division. He anticipates the Bible Quiz Experience to continue to grow in the future and as it grows, he believes Junior Bible Quiz and Bible Quiz will also see its ranks swell as youth discover the fun of the Bible Quiz Experience and want more.

Dan Van Veen

Dan Van Veen is news editor of AG News. Prior to transitioning to AG News in 2001, Van Veen served as managing editor of AG U.S. Missions American Horizon magazine for five years. He attends Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri, where he and his wife, Lori, teach preschool Sunday School and 4- and 5-year-old Rainbows boys and girls on Wednesdays.