Bible Skills and Biblical Literacy at Home Part 1

Taylor Garman is a Bible Drill Consultant with the Southern Baptist Texas Convention and he talks with youe host Maria Brannen about Bible Skills and Bibical Literacy on this episode.

Links:

https://sbtexas.com/church-ministries/bible-drill/

https://bibledrillandspeakers.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Drill and Speakers Podcast. In this episode, Maria Brannan talks with Taylor Garman of the Southern Baptist Texas Convention about Bible skills and Bible literacy at home. Here's part one.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Welcome to today's podcast. Today I have with me Taylor Garman, who's a Bible drill consultant with the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. We're so glad to have you with us today, Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

It's good to be here, Maria. I'm excited to talk with you today.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Yes, and today we're going to be talking about Bible skills and biblical literacy at home. And Taylor, tell us about your family.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

And uh I have two twin-year-old boys. They just turned 11 years old. I have a seven-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son. They're only 16 months apart, so we call them uh they're they're almost like twins themselves. And uh so my family is always quieting. No, no, no, it is it is constantly loud and messy and chaotic, and that's just what makes it fun. So being a dad.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Well, well, we are glad to have you here with us. And and talking about Bible drill, I know that that we've served together with Bible drill before, but also wanted to talk about how do you, as a dad, as a kids ministry leader, as a Bible drill consultant, how can we, as parents, as grandparents, and as kids ministry leaders encourage biblical literacy and Bible skills at home?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yeah, I love that question. Um, you know, really going to the heart of all of this again, really goes to the scripture of Deuteronomy 6. And we see the mission, the plan for parents is to teach their children diligently. And wherever they go, when they are sitting in their house, walking, it says in the scripture, walking along the road, which I think today would be driving in their car, uh, when they're going to sleep, when they're waking up, we have opportunities as parents to disciple our children. And really we're the primary ones responsible of that. And so we're seeing today, more than ever, illiteracy of the Bible. And we see it in adults, we see it in students, we see it in children. And we know that Bible drill, the ministry of Bible drill, helps so much with uh helping children with helping them be comfortable with the Bible, helping them have it in their hands, helping them understand the Bible, uh, helping them find passages quickly, all of these skills that are so necessary in order to teach the next generation uh biblical literacy. And um, you know, one thing that I teach in church ministry and our Bible drill families, we do it in our own home as we make sure we have the actual Bible in place. We're not doing it on uh a screen. It is the the copy of God's word. And I think it's so important. One thing we can do in our homes, it's so important for my children to see me and see my wife with our Bibles open on the physical copy of that Bible, because sometimes they see us with our phones, and they know that there are so much that so much news, so much things that are happen on those phones that are false. They're completely not uh things to be trustworthy, but the Bible is trustworthy. And while we want to teach um our children that, so in ministry, in our homes, uh in my home, I want to make sure I'm doing that, especially teaching um my children and showing them, modeling that so that they can see me physically having that Bible uh copy open there.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

I I think that's so important. And and sometimes that's overlooked because we would think that's such a a basic thing. Oh, my kids know that I read the Bible, but the powerful message that it sends to our kids, and they may not comment on it, but the fact that they see you on an ongoing regular basis with the Bible open, with you spending time in God's Word, and like you reference the phone, the difference between because when someone's on a phone, they could be reading, like you said, the news, they could be reading, checking email, they could be on social media, or they could be reading their Bible. But there's no question your kids see you reading God's word when it's an open copy of the Bible.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Let alone distractions that happen from phones. I mean, that's right. It's just so vital that children see that. And they see it in in churches too. You know, that's so vital. So I think in the home, that's something parents can easily do.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

And and I loved um the comment that you made, um, are a real Bible, and you mentioned, you know, not just on the screen, but but I would take it a step further, especially for our younger children. I think about my grandchildren. I have a a five-year-old almost six, and I have a three-year-old. And um I want them to understand that the Bible has an old testament and a new testament, you know. So we pull out Mimi's Read to Me Bible, you know, at my house. Um we yes, there are some great Bible story books, but I try to spend the majority of our time talking about how this is the Bible. A Bible story book's not a Bible, but helping them realize that this is the Old Testament, the New Testament, and it's God's Word and reading those Bible stories. So, you know, it made me think of that when when you talked about that, that that our kids have that. Yeah. Uh so what uh what are some other tips that you would give to to families to reinforce those Bible skills at home? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

So, you know, I think making sure to have a place in your home that that you can just be consistent in order to have discipleship in the home. This really falls into discipleship. And that can be at a dinner table, that can be on the couch, that could be in the car, that might be uh right before bed at the bedside, just making sure a consistent place that children and families are opening their Bible together and looking at God's word. I think one thing, just as you were talking about Old Testament and New Testament and finding books of the Bible, one thing in your discipleship time, you could have kind of a family Bible drill type of thing. And so um make this something you happen once a week or every night or you know, just a little bit. Hey, we're gonna, as we're looking at verses today in the Bible, let's open to uh the Psalms. 10 seconds, go and and you and see who opens first. And they could even take a step forward and make it fine. And um, so just encouraging those skills, equip, just really incorporating those skills already alongside a family discipleship time, I think is is really cool. Another thing we do is we have a verse we focus on during the week. We have a verse of the week and we put that on our refrigerator and we look at that verse and we repeat that verse over and over through the week. Um, and sometimes, especially at the end of the week, I'll I'll ask, what was our verse of the week? And we get from seeing it to memorizing it now to really hiding it in our heart. Um, and that a lot of times goes right along, especially if children are in Bible drill. You can take those same verses and do that at home and and or incorporate that, making it fun, making it something that um is engaging for them. And so uh I've done um uh a class for just Bible drill leaders before. Uh, and you could do this at home too. You can have the verse on the refrigerator and each day take away a word. And uh that we do that in classrooms sometimes or hide a word. You could do that on the refrigerator and make that through the week that they're looking at that and just reiterate reiterating that verse, I think is um a fun thing that that we can do. Um again, I love the idea of being able to find books of the Bible quickly. We, you know, we have cards that have books of the Bible on them from Genesis to Revelation. You can do an index card, Genesis all the way to Revelation, have those 66 index cards, and you could spread them out all over your living room, and each of you guys are taking turns stepping on those books of the Bible. And especially in my family, when there's four kids, they see their siblings doing that. And uh when we get to the younger ones, then they they're they're seeing they can do that too. And so um I think those are just easy things that you can do, don't cost much money. There's something that each family can just have on hand, pull out our index cards, we're gonna put them on the floor, or we're gonna shuffle them up and we're gonna put them in order on a table. Um, another thing we do in our classrooms, and you can do it at home too, is to have cups of the Bible, books of the Bible on each cup, and you can do the stacking game. Those cups do it at the dinner table, before dinner, just as a family game, or after dinner as a family activity to do. Um, I think what the big picture is, is that as parents, we had that opportunity to teach them Bible skills in order to help them be um skillful and literate of the Bible. We want them to know God's word and hide God's word in their heart. We want them to apply God's word to their life. And so let's just incorporate that in what we're doing every day, whether that's before watching a movie together, let's play this little activity, then we're gonna watch the movie together, eat popcorn. Before we're eating a meal together, we can do this Bible skill uh before bed. Let's all let's all uh open up our Bibles and find uh revelation as quick as we can and and read a verse together and pray before going to bed. All of these skills, steps, little small things uh each night, each day, uh build lasting impacts, I think, forever for families.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Thanks for listening, and we'll continue with Taylor Garmin discussing Bible skills and biblical literacy at home on our next episode of the Bible Drill and Speakers Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Thanks for listening to our podcast today. We hope each episode helps you with your Bible drill journey. You'll find all of our content and upcoming podcasts, along with more information and resources at Bible Drill and Speakers dot com. The Bible Drill and Speakers Podcast is a production of Georgia Baptist Bible Drill and Speakers, Incorporated. See you next time.