How do you raise a generation that is Bible saturated?
Use the Bible in Bible Teaching… Isaiah 55:10-11
Sometimes the audio-visual explosion of methods for teaching the Bible can pull us away from actually open the book. We should encourage our kids to bring their Bibles and use them. If we are serious about teaching the next generation being biblical, then we should give some consideration to the place that our Bible—the book itself—should have prominence in our homes and our classrooms. Are we teaching the Bible to our children, or are we just teaching lessons? Are we teaching them to use their Bibles? Are they biblically literate? Can they find truth in their Bibles? We wrongly assume that using the Bible is too difficult. When we challenge our children to use the Bible, our children will rise to the challenge.
Practically:
Encourage children to bring their Bibles to church.
Encourage Scripture memory. Give rewards for putting the Bible on your heart.
Teach the children to treat the book with respect.
Put the Bible in your lap as you are teaching. Read at least small portions (even to preschoolers). As they become older, have them read. Ask them difficult questions about the text.
Teach the Whole Counsel of God
Children need to be exposed to a wide variety of Bibles stories. We often repeat Bible stories to the exclusion of certain parts of the Scripture. Acquaint children with us much as they can absorb. We should not continue to give them the same shallow teachings. When we limit the Scriptures to which our children are exposed, we limit their understanding of God. When God is shown to be unchanging in so many different stories, we see that God is himself unchanging.
Children need to see all aspects of the character of God so they worship the one true God. When acquainted with large sections of the Bible, children will see the God of the Bible as who he is.
Children need a wide breadth of theological understanding. When we avoid the breadth of the Bible, children have an insufficient understanding of God and who he is.
Give a Chronological Bible Foundation
Teach True Doctrine
Inspire Children to Memorize the Bible
What is learned in childhood is kept for a lifetime. One of the most spiritually influential things in a child’s life is what is memorized in childhood. It is best if this is a church wide program… because adults need the Scriptures too. When we began a Bible memory emphasis in our church, we began to see adults and children praying the Scriptures. When we are impressing memorization on our kids, it is important that they see our parents do this as well. It is encouraging to our kids when they see that this is not merely something to regurgitate for a lesson but something that applies to their life.
Use the Word in Everyday Life
The Words of Life can be used to inspire children to trust in God in the midst of the difficulties and fears of life. If you want your children to think biblically, then we must think biblically. We must put these words in our hearts and apply them to our lives as well.
Three Common Objections:
Children can’t sit and listen to a half-hour Bible lesson.
It is too much to ask children to study the Bible. Children will rise to a high level of expectation.
Many of the truths of the Bible are too difficult for children.
But children are not colored against the truth of Scripture. We teach about hell to children. They need to know the plight before they can recognize the rescue. Many of our adults are learning along with their children. You can explain difficult stories in a pre-school appropriate way
Sunday school should be fun. Children learn by doing—they need to play games and do activities. Otherwise, they will be bored.
Children must be active listeners. We must engage them. But we should not assume that Bible is boring. The Bible is not boring! God is not boring!
What is the goal of all this Bible teaching?
To lead children to see their sin, repent, and turn to the living God. When we are teaching the Bible, we can’t assume the Gospel. “We must not allow marginal matters to become central, because, in a generation, that marginal thing will become the central thing.” –D. A. Carson The gospel must always be central.
Read it repeatedly.
Did you know you can memorize Scripture during your morning devotion? Instead of zipping through your reading for the day, pause and camp on one verse for a long time. You won’t regret it.
Pay attention.
Sounds obvious, but often ignored. Simply forcing yourself to be aware of what you are reading can help you internalize the words. Repetition will make the mind wander. What you have to do is bring it back.
Visualize what you are reading.
Take Psalm 1:1 for example. “Blessed is the man who does not walk with the wicked nor stand in the way of the sinner nor sit in the seat of the mocker.” Your first tasks is to see the three actions here: walking, standing and sitting. If you can see the three main actions, then you can start to memorize the surrounding words.
Create anchor words.
In the above example, your anchor words are “walking,” “standing” and “seating.” In Colossians 1:15, my anchor words are image, invisible and firstborn. Whenever I get lost while reciting a passage I look for my anchor words to orient myself.
Recognize patterns.
In Psalm 1:1, after the first line, the next three sentences follow this pattern: a verb, a noun and a modifier. Think of each of these as a bucket you drop the appropriate word into.
Start with the easy.
Now, some passages are easier to remember than others. Psalm 1, easy. A page from Romans, hard. On your first effort at memorizing large chunks of Scriptures, don’t tackle Romans. Build some confidence first by memorizing Psalm 1 or the Sermon on the Mount.
Stagger.
Sorry, not like you were drunk. What I mean is memorize an easy passage then a hard passage then an easy. Give your brain a break. This way you’ll avoid burnout.
Build memorable associations.
If you want to remember difficult section of scripture like Romans 1:18-20, it helps to imagine God hovering like a brooding mountain over the world to represent all three verses. This is a robust picture hard to forget.
Anchor memorable associations in chapters.
These rich word pictures can also help you when you’re trying to memorize entire chapters of the Bible. They orient you on a larger scale.
Cheat a little.
Once you’ve absorbed a hunk of Scripture, don’t be afraid to keep a sheet of paper nearby with keywords or section headings to help you out when you need a reminder.
Narrate.
Sometimes it helps to describe in your own words what you are trying to memorize. This will also help you build memorable associations, spot keywords and develop anchor words.
Stick to a ritual.
I find it easier to memorize Scripture in my car–I have a long commute–and before I sleep. Especially early on in the process of memorizing, I can’t remember my passage as easily anywhere else except these places. So, until I gain more confidence, I stick to this ritual.
Sing it.
Try opera. Or a musical. The point is to be dramatic. As if you were in a play. [This is my favorite trick, by the way.]
Try mnemonic devices.
Many of us learned ROY G BIV to remember the colors of the rainbow. Make up your own device to memorize anchor words or more. In Psalm 1:1, your device would be WSS, or walk, stand and sit.
Enlist your body.
If mnemonic devices aren’t your cup of tea, use body parts. Classic example of this is Ephesians 6:10-18, the armor of God. Waist, chest, feet, forearm and head complete the armor and can help you navigate through this lengthy passage.
Repeat the alphabet.
Say you just can’t remember that big word in 1 John 2:2. Run through your ABCs. When you get to P, it should trigger the word escaping you: propitiation.
Type it.
One way to memorize something like John 1:1-3 is to type it into your computer. Not once. Not twice. But ten times. Maybe more. Your call.
Hear it.
After you’ve typed it, next, read it aloud and record it. Then listen to the recording several times.
As I dive into the Acts 29 Network Application, one of the questions that is proving challenging to me is “Outside of the Bible, what is the most theologically-intensive book you have read cover-to-cover?” Because I didn’t go to seminary, and haven’t been in churches that place much emphasis on theology (excluding our current church), I don’t have a good answer to this question. I’ve decided to remedy this deficiency and read Wayne Grudem’sSystematic Theology. It’s highly recommended and seems to be the go-to Systematic Theology textbook for many of the New Calvinists. To help me stay diligent in my reading, I made a 28 day reading plan for the book. The plan is to read around 40 pages a day. Lord willing, I’ll start tomorrow and end on May 13. I’m including in this post a generic reading plan in case anyone else wants to read this book but needs the occasional prodding of a checklist Click here to download a PDF of the plan or click on the image below.
Please contact me if there are any changes I can make to this plan to make it more useful.
Our love for Jesus has to be more intense and powerful than the love for the idea of our church plant.
The Church is not a stage to showcase our gifts.
If we’re willing to simply wash the feet of the disciples and serve the Bride of Jesus, we’ll ensure that we keep Jesus in the spotlight and not ourselves. The church doesn’t exist for me to be made much of. The Church exists to make much of Jesus.
Never forget that it is Jesus that will build His Church.
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There is much controversy about what role Jesus was giving Peter and how this has played out historically through Apostolic succession. But this often misses the point. Even if Jesus was saying that Peter is the first Apostle, it is still Jesus that is the one who promises to build His church. Though He may use Peter (a miracle in itself), it is Jesus who builds and it is Jesus who gives victory against the gates of hell, not Peter. Not Paul. Not James. Not Augustine. Not Luther. Not Calvin. Not Spurgeon. Not Piper. And most certainly not you or me.
Be more about what you are and less about what you’re not.
If Jesus is building His church and the church exists beyond our local church, than I should be very careful tearing anything down for I might be fighting against His work. Our posture in criticism should always be characterized by humility. If we’re honest we should confess how far we still are from being a perfect gathering of perfect people.
A missional leader should desire influence, not control.
If we want neat and tidy churches, we’ll tend towards control. But missional churches are never neat or tidy. Instead they are messy and often unkempt because they allow growth to occur organically as they push the missional agenda to the fringes.
Plant churches that grow planters organically.
Anyone looking to plant a church should be willing to get involved in an existing (and recent) church plant to learn what it looks like. This means we may plant fewer churches, but if we train longer (specifically church plant training) we’ll end up with a larger movement because we won’t have as many failures.
We believe in sola Scriptura, no sola pastora
We should fight with all our might to ensure that our people realize we are a team of leaders. This will effectively displace the guru mentality that assumes all problem are solved and solutions given only by one leader.
But this requires…
We are all living for the same mission and vision together.
If our agendas are divided then we’ll find our mission stagnated. This doesn’t mean a homogenous expression of mission, it simply means we agree with the foundational truths of Gospel-Community-Mission.
We have to be willing to lead in community not above it.
The days of pastors acting as a CEO and giving orders from the top down should be well behind us. The truth is we all tend towards telling others what they should do before we’re actually doing it ourselves. Community and mission are two ways of being that every planter and leader must be willing to demonstrate. If not, reproducibility and discipleship simply will not happen.
Seek outside counsel from leaders who have gone before you.
Be willing to submit your thoughts, ideas, and decisions to your community as well as seeking the counsel of older men and women that have loved Jesus longer than yourself and share similar values.
Dr. Wayne Grudem’s talk on 1 Corinthians 16:13 from the 2009 Acts 29 Bootcamp in Raleigh, NC. Dr. Grudem is the author of Systematic Theology, among many other books that have helped The Church greatly.
, as taught by Dr. Grudem and others at 
