Teaching Bible Literacy - The Why and How-To

Is Bible literacy important to your children's ministry? It needs to be. 

Not only will this episode equip you with the why of teaching good Bible literacy skills, it will give you practical how-tos. 

Check out the Books of the Bible challenge Amber talks about here. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the Kidman Huddle of Amber Pike. Where children as computers get equipped, encouraged, and the power to disciple with intentionality. Growing God's kingdom one child at a time.

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Welcome back to the Kidman Huddle. I have a question for you. Does Bible literacy matter? Hopefully, you answered yes. If not, I'm going to convince you in super short and succinctly. We want kids to know God's story. We want kids to know what they believe. 2 Peter 3.15 to give a defense for the hope that I have. Like, that's apologetics, but Bible literacy plays a role in that. We want to equip kids to go further than just that spiritual milk. We want to give them that meat and potatoes to be able to navigate their Bibles themselves, to become a student of God's word. And that partially begins with Bible literacy. We need to make sure our kids know God's word, know how to navigate God's word, and how to use God's word in their lives. This is faith, right? Living out our faith, walking with Christ. It starts with our Bibles. So what does this look like? Well, we need to be consistent and constant with it. It needs to be intentional, not just a, okay, it's Bible literacy day, we're gonna work on it. No, it needs to be an everyday part of all of your lessons. And I've got a couple of different ways that you can and should do this. Um, when I was thinking about this, I was thinking, how would I do it large group? How would I do it small group? And honestly, my answers weren't very different. So you don't get a small group, large group, which I originally planned. It's just these things work whether you are in a large group from the stage, whether you are in small groups with smaller groups. Now, based on the amount of kids that you have, some of this could be a little more intensive, but that doesn't mean that it's less important. And I really challenge you to think through your flow, think through your programming and see um, do you need to cut some things like I don't know, snack time to make Bible literacy important and being intentional with that. So, number one, when you or a volunteer, when someone is reading a Bible passage, always, always, always work on our good Bible literacy skills. So you're gonna say, we are today, our Bible passage is from Mark chapter four. Hey, who knows? Where is Mark at in the Bible? Is it in the Old Testament or New Testament? I do this every single passage that I read. If we are in five different Bible passages in my lesson, I have asked this question five different times. They need to know how to navigate the Bible, so we're in it. Next, you want to go in kind of next step is some context. Who wrote that book of the Bible? Why did they write it? When did they write it? To whom did they write it? Now, this is teaching kids to study their Bibles, but you're kind of giving them the answers as we are teaching them how to become familiar with God's word, teaching them context. If all of the Bible is pointing to Jesus, if he is central to it, well, how does this passage that we're reading relate to that? How does it fall into God's story? We have to teach the biblical narrative. Biblical literacy and the biblical narrative, I think, go hand in hand. So when we're in our Bibles, we are helping kids figure out physically where is this at in our Bible, but then where is it at in God's story? So narrative teaching needs to be standard. I love a good chronological curriculum. I've used them for years. Maybe you do, and so you've recapped this is where we're at in God's story. Maybe not. Currently, I'm not using a chronological curriculum, though I love them. I have a timeline in my room, though. I've shown you pictures. If you've not seen them, go check them out on my store, my blog, my social media. A timeline is huge because I will go to it pretty much every Sunday. Here's where we are. I've printed it out at Walgreens, it's on my wall, it's a two-poster timeline, and I point, here's where we're at. This is giving them that context. Here's where we're at in the story. Your curriculum may or might not may not be telling kids the narrative, it might not be placing it in the historical timeline. This is important. Is it before Jesus? Is it after Jesus? What's going on in the Bible at this time? Add that piece in there. Help relate it to God's big story. Where are we at? So that's step one, whether you're in large group, small group. Number two, have kids turn in their Bibles. Now this can take a while. I currently have half a kid who can find where we're at in the Bible. So I'm doing it all. I'm turning in there. Um, but I've had years where I had a lot of kids. I had years where I had a ton of teen helpers, and this is a great job for your older kids who are good readers, who know how to navigate their Bibles for your teen helpers. Raise your hand if you need someone to help you find it, and then you all go around and do it. Is this taking up time? Yes. Is it important? Yes. We have a physical Bible. Mine is buried under paper here. But we have a physical Bible, and our kids need to see that it is a physical Bible, not just something on our phones. So they need to know how to navigate in the Bible. And it is a really amazing skill to help kids figure out where we're at in the Bible. Have you seen adults that have no clue how to navigate the Bible? Yeah. I don't want any kid coming through my ministry to become one of those adults. I want them to be able to navigate their books of the Bible. With that, um, you're gonna need to work on the books of the Bible. I think Books of the Bible is a huge literacy skill. Um, I'm gonna talk about games in a minute, but just the easiest way is songs. We sing them. Um, I have used the same songs for 20-something years. Actually, the Old Testament song that I use is like a little clappy chant song that was taught to me when I was a kid. We sing our Old Testament, we do our New Testament. It's one I've used for years, and we use shaky eggs every single Sunday. My kids have not gotten tired for months upon months of singing the books of the New Testament with shaky eggs. Several groups have them available online. I know Seeds Kids Worship just had a newer one come out. Jumpstart 3 has one. Maybe you're gonna make your own chanty one like mine. Um, I will start out, I'm not gonna do all 39 books of the Old Testament. Sorry, yeah, 39. Uh, but I'll start out my little chant so that you can hear we start clapping, and it's 39 books in the old testament, each one a special part. I learn these books, I learned them all, I learned them all by heart, I learned them all by heart. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. There's some double claps, it's super fun. So I now have my four-year-old niece, doesn't have the pronunciation down because you like Habakkuk, right? But she's got her books of the Old Testament. She's really close to having them all working on little pronunciation. Little kids can learn all 66 of those books. It's also fun if you have a visual. At one point, I had a giant piece of like foam board and I printed them all out and had them on there, and one kid would get to like hold it and kind of dance with it while we sang it, and they fought over who got to do that. I challenged them. When I had older kids, the challenge was to say them all, and then you got an action Bible, which was a comic book Bible, and several kids took me up on that. And then the challenge that I offered that no one's ever done is Books of the Bible in one breath. Because you better believe I can say all 66 in one breath. Um, I'm not gonna do it on here because if you're listening to this podcast, it would sound very weird and make you want to tune out. But go to my YouTube channel, I have a challenge on there. It's done, it's filmed as a challenge. So feel free to show it to your kids and be like, look at this. Can you do this? It's very, very hard, and I've never met anyone who can do them all in one breath. Work on your books, the Bible, so that kids can be in their Bibles, turning to it. Number three in teaching good Bible literacy is to have actual Bibles, kids bringing them from home, not storybook Bibles. For a home devotion thing, I get it that storybook Bibles, especially for little, are good. They are popular, they are useful, some of them. But in a classroom setting, when we are hearing from God's word, in a children's ministry, large group, small group, if you're saying, hey, let's turn to Romans 10. Guess what's not in a storybook Bible? Romans 10. And then the kids are like, What? So even if they cannot read yet, encourage moms and dads to buy physical Bibles. I pick the one that this is what we're using as a class. Hey, mom and dad, here is a great Bible. That way they have the same one we have. It's not required, but here's the option. I also, if you tell me you don't have a Bible at home and mom and dad haven't bought you one yet, the church buys you a Bible or Amber buys you a Bible. Even if you're not old enough. I had this, uh, she was about three in my class, and the dad was like, um, Amber, she can't read. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. We're in the Bible in my class. And so what I do with littles, um, I just turned to Psalm 35. So we will turn to Psalm 35, and my kids who can't read, most of them by the time they're in children's ministry, have number recognition. So we put our fingers on the 35, and I'm also talking to them on how we navigate, how we physically read our Bibles. Okay, the big number is the chapter number. Then you want to find the little number four. This is the verse number. Put your finger on the number four. You know, you can do a give me a thumbs up, put your thumb on top of your head. If you have it, put your finger on it. All of those things. It's teaching kids to navigate their Bibles. So I encourage or I provide for families, the Bible from home. Um, I don't have my classroom Bible here beside me. This is my Bible that matches my color scheme. I love the Adventure Bible, it's in IV. There is a younger version that's in IRV. I think it's fun for kids, it's easy to understand. Our senior pastor uses ESV. I wish I had an ESV Bible for kids. I just don't like it. I don't think it's as easy to understand. So, tried and true, I go with the Adventure Bible. Have a classroom set of Bibles. Because even if kids have them, they don't bring them all the time. Some kids do. Some kids forget them. They get left in the car. Mom's not walking back out there after she wrangled everyone in. Have a classroom set. Now, Bibles are expensive. To get the good non-dollar tree version, you're looking at$25 to$40. That's a lot if you have a small budget. But I bet you have people in your church who would gladly purchase a Bible to make sure that boys and girls can read from God's Word. There are also Amazon sales. Watch Amazon, see when they discount them. You can also approach the publishers. Tyndale, for example, who has a lot of Bibles. If you reach out to Tyndale, hello, I am a church. I would like to purchase 20 Bibles. Do you have a church bulk rate? They do. They have a church bulk rate. They will give you a big discount. Um, for me, I supply my Bibles usually one by one. And here's what I do: I go to used bookstores and I find my Bible that I want, the Adventure Bible, on the shelf, and I pick it up. Sometimes for a dollar. They're getting used in class. I'm not sending those home as a gift. So I'm like, uh, yeah, if I got a used Bible for a dollar or five dollars, it's way better than buying new for 45. And I have had some well-loved Bibles. We had one at my last church. The Bible portion got ripped out of the cover. But I'm like, you know, it's still a good Bible. Like it all works, just it got ripped out of the cover. So I duct taped it. And it had mustache printed duct tape on the inside and outside, and the kids loved it. And the best part about it was is that Miss Amber wasn't paying attention when she duct taped it. And I duct taped it in upside down. So it was an upside down duct tape Bible, and it was the favorite of the classroom set. Have a classroom set. Um, encourage parents to purchase physical Bibles for their kids to bring to church, but then don't stop there. Go a step further and equip parents and encourage them to use them at home. So what are you sending home? How are you resourcing parents to get in those Bibles at home? Maybe it's a simple Bible reading plan. I've got one coming up with an event, so it's just read this, check it off. Um, are you teaching parents how to navigate their Bibles? You might have some parents that have no clue how to physically turn in their Bibles. So they're probably not leading their kids if they don't feel confident in navigating the Bible physically. So as you're encouraging Bibles, good full Bibles being brought into church, equip and encourage moms and dads to use them at home as well. Okay, and then number four, and another way to encourage Bible literacy, gamify it. I love games, purposeful games, intentional games. And you can absolutely do this with your Bible literacy. So I've mentioned before we need to know the books of the Bible. I think that's huge. Do you know how many games you can do with the books of the Bible? So many. The easiest is this side's Old Testament, this side's new testament. You guys hop to the side, and I name a book of the Bible. This can be a no-prep, no tech game. This is a great use of extra time. Okay, we finished our lesson, they're still finishing up in church. Hmm, what do we do? No, no, we don't just free play and go crazy. We're gonna use to work on our books of the Bible to skills. Um, you could do a buzzer game with a face-off. Once your kids have started building that foundation, you know, in the beginning it's just repetition. Whether that's through song, through chanting, through whatever. Um after that foundation is laid, though, and they're starting to get familiar, then you can do a little bit more. So you could do teen games, you could do face-off, you could do what comes next. I love buzzers. I've gotten them at Dollar Tree, I've ordered them online, I've had so many buzzers. And I would put something in the middle, make two teams, name a book of the Bible, the first one to hit it and get it right, gets a point for the team. Super fun. I have a classroom laminated set of signs, New Testament, Old Testament, and I will name the book of the Bible, and they have to hold it up. This is super fun, such a the move to as well, because younger kids who might not have a clue still get to engage. So my two not quite three-year-old niece sometimes is in class with me. Um, she's super chill, so I don't have to worry about her. She goes along with big sises, even though she should be in the nursery, but sometimes she's with me. She's participated in some of our books, the Bible activities. She does not have a clue which book of the Bible, which testament the book of the Bible is in, but she's joining in. So for your littles, especially if you're in a multi-age classroom, they get to participate without having to know the answers when you're doing things like holding up signs, moving to a side with our Old Testament, New Testament. Um, another thing is trivia games. I love trivia games. So, yes, you can do these with the books of the Bible, but think about your review. Your review questions for your lesson should be some of them working on Bible literacy, Bible literacy, understanding God's word, knowing the facts about God's word. So this isn't the application portion. This is the did you hear what we talked about? Make it into a game. You could absolutely just read your review questions off of a sheet, but aren't they listening? Some, not all. But if you make it a review game, if you make it an interactive full-body game, more kids are listening. So think about thumbs up, thumbs down. Okay. Thumbs up if the answer's true, thumbs down if the answer's false. Jesus' mom was Martha. Again, all your kids, including your littles, who might not know the answer, so calling on them for the answer might not work, but they're participating, they're putting their thumbs up, they're putting their thumbs down. Um, all of your review games can be turned into a full body game. Move this way, move that, toss a beanbag into something. Lots and lots of options. So I love thumbs up, thumbs down. I will do um double thumbs up or an X for wrong. And sometimes it's extra fun if you get to make that sound to go with your X, of course. Move this way if you think it's this answer. Move that way if you think it's that answer, four corners, or three hula hoops, you know, whatever. Is it this answer, this answer, this answer, this answer? It's getting them up out of their seats, it's moving them. Same thing with stand up or sit down. You're engaging their body, which is a making them listen better. B, it's actually helping aid in memory. So maybe they missed that during the lesson because they zoned out for a minute. Oh, but they just heard it and their body was engaged to where they're having a better chance of listening. It's also great review. Keep a list. I talked about this in the last podcast. Keep a list of Bible trivia questions. It's a great extra time thing. You're working on the narrative of scripture, on deepening that knowledge of, that understanding of. We need to know God's story. So, trivia. I love it. I even had at one point, I think, uh, the action bible made a who is it 20 question card game. I pulled that out during extra time. All right, we got two extra minutes because they're not done yet. Okay, who is it? Prizes tossing out candy, passing out treats. I did one with a prize box at VBS. I took an applesauce box because they're a little sturdier, you know, like the pouches. Duct taped it, made it look all cool. And I would have words written in there that describe Jesus or didn't. And they would have to pull something out, I would get a volunteer, they'd pull something out, and they had to decide did this word describe Jesus? If they couldn't read, I'd read it to them. And then they had to go put it in the yes bucket or the no bucket. That's trivia review. To make a little extra fun, a couple of cards in there said prize. And if it said prize, they didn't have to answer questions, they just got a treat. Big win. Games are great for Bible literacy. And then if you have older kids, sword drills, old-fashioned sword drills are still great. Um, I wouldn't do this for a super long period of time. Like this is not gonna be a 10-minute activity because the kids not winning, or the kids who can't read well yet, who can't navigate as well yet, they might not like this. But this could be a piece. Maybe you do three rounds every lesson. Awesome. Maybe you offer a really big prize for something. But sword sword drills are great. We're practicing, we're navigating our Bibles. So those are a couple of the things that I do frequently. I don't do the sword drills yet, but that's because I've got very few readers and not good navigators yet, just knowing the age of my kids. And same thing with you, you gotta know the age of your kids. What are your kids capable of? So let's go with that concept: knowing my kids, knowing what they're capable of while still giving them more. I'm challenging them into more, right? But what if I think, man, I love the idea of turning into our Bibles, but we just don't have the manpower to do this. It's gonna be like seven minutes to get it all done. How could we help get our kids in their Bibles when we have too many who cannot navigate it for us to be able to do this in a timely fashion because by the time we got done, we'd have lost control of the class. Pre-mark them. Get a cool bookmark. Maybe you're laminating it so it lives. Okay, I want you guys to open up to the red bookmark in your books. They could absolutely do that. So maybe that's a job for your teens that are early on midweek and you're offering them cookies to do it. Maybe you've got some ladies who will come in and help prep stuff for Sunday. Can they go ahead and mark those classroom Bibles? Maybe you're also going to, hey, mom and dad, make sure that your kids' Bibles are marked to this passage. This is where we'll be on Sunday. So go ahead and mark it with those bookmarks that we sent home. That way we're ready for Sunday. Will every parent do this? You and I both know that's not the case, but some will, and it will cut down on time. So as you know your kids and what they're capable of, while giving them more, how can you intentionally and consistently make sure you are working on Bible literacy? We do not want kids who don't know their faith, who don't know God, who don't know God's story. We want kids with a deep, vibrant faith that they will be walking with Christ as a lifelong disciple. They need to know God's word, know how to use it. And you, kidmen leaders, should be intentionally, consistently, constantly working on Bible literacy because absolutely, yes, it does matter. And you know what? What you do, kidmen leaders, matters.