Teens Study the Bible? Really! By Kelly Schmidt As teachers, we often search for the perfect method for communicating what we want to teach to whom we want to teach. I ve tried a few formats of Bible study with the youth in my church, some inductive, some not. Some successful, some not. Each method has its strengths and its weaknesses. Here are some things I ve learned about three methods I ve used in Bible studies with teenagers. Bear with me through the long-winded explanations. I hope to bring you along with my learning process and thoughts so you can see what I ve come up with and why. Devotional Style Devotional style format has been used in many youth groups over the past couple decades and there is a lot of literature out there in this style. When I started out as a student worker, this was what I would find every time I tried to find Bible studies. Typical Steps: 1. Starts with a fun activity that illustrates the main theme for the study. This might be something like a collage, a teamwork game, making something 2. A teaching aid like a video clip or story that illustrates the theme. 3. Open up the Bible to see what it says about the topic 4. Answer some questions, usually one or two that are observational (often lists that focus on behavior or a doctrinal point). The rest of the questions are interpretation and application. 5. Finish with hands on application, like prayer for one another, making a plan to do something specific, creating a play that fits the theme, etc. When I first started with my youth group, I would try some of these out, often in conjunction with a fun activity for the evening. They were never successful and I doubt whether anyone learned, remembered, or applied anything at all. I know I didn t. I would often have one or two youth come up at the end of the evening and request that next week we do those fun activities again, but could you please not do the Bible study? That was really boring. Ouch. I soon gave up on these, realizing that I had a desire for the teenagers to love the Bible, not feel like they were in a forced Bible school. The more I thought about it, the more I realized devotional style had these pitfalls: Often uses the Bible to prop up moralistic lessons (deductive) Can lead to a moralistic faith view Doesn t teach Bible study skills Can only be used on basic passages, thus omitting anything complicated Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 1
Leaves students with a simplistic view of the bible if this is the only form that is taught Can miss the bigger picture and doesn t provide a clear framework I recently resurrected this style in the past year four years later and lots of Bible studies under their belt. If the students do not have strong biblical literacy, these devotionals will be limited in impact. When coupled with strong biblical foundation and other study, they can be lots of fun and very refreshing. New Inductive Study Series With the fall of the devotional studies, I had to come up with a new game plan. As a Precept kid, I knew instinctively that inductive Bible study was the way to go, but I had a hard time imagining that my teens (mostly in grade 8-9 at this point) would buy in to doing extra homework throughout the week. In fact, I knew they wouldn t because I used to be in Precept Upon Precept (PUP). What to do, what to do? They were familiar with marking stuff somewhat as they had done the Precept Transform Conferences a few times (Precept s teen ministry). They had mixed feelings about it, sometimes really liking it, and sometimes frankly not caring at all. The materials at these conferences are similar to the Precept 40 Minute Bible Studies. When I used this material, I found they would learn a few things here and there, but again, they lacked the framework to make it relevant for their lives. I knew that pounding them with 40 Minute Bible Studies or forcing them into PUP homework wasn t the answer. So I went back to my memory banks to think on what Bible studies changed me. The answer came to me when I reflected on my time in University as a member of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). We studied the book of Mark in inductive study style, but a little less structured than the Precept method. I took the gospel of Mark, realizing that my students didn t really know Jesus. How can we expect anything out of Bible study if we don t know the God who loves us? At this time, I also started teaching the book of Genesis in Sunday school. Studying the Gospel of Mark took about 10 months. It didn t need to take this long, but I wasn t interested in making people pay attention when they weren t in moments of paying attention. My philosophy changed from one of knowledge gathering to fostering relationship between the youth and Jesus. Who cares if this takes a long time? If it s real, it will be life long. I often think that as teachers, we get very task oriented. With adults, this can be ok because a lot of adults function like that. But teens are very, very relational. Relationships drive their world - from parents, siblings, friends, and teachers They live and function through relationships. And you know what? So does God. Developing that relationship as a teen is a wonderful thing as they are so focused on relationship anyway. It s not a stretch for them. So we took our time, really learning whom Jesus is and falling deeply into love with him. So critical. Teens don t need to be told any more lists of what to do and what not to do. How to live, no matter how spiritual or good it seems. We know that good works don t save; personal image doesn t save. They don t even really have that much impact on helping our world. Faith is what matters. Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 2
Having a heart that loves God and wants to follow Him is what matters. There s lots of time in life to get better at living. But that will never come without first and primarily a love of God. So we spent a year getting to know Jesus and how absolutely wonderful He is. I did a blend of IVCF manuscript study and Precept Bible study. I found that just general observation time or question time as IVCF does it was a little too vague for teens. It works great for college age but not so much for high school. They haven t developed those thinking skills yet. They need to be developed, which meant we had to take some steps before then. I think this is also why devotional style flopped it requires a different brain process to be effective which teenagers don t biologically begin to develop until late teens. As we readjusted our study, it ended up looking like the New Inductive Study Series (NISS). So I bought the NISS for Mark and used that as a template for teaching. In the NISS there is 15 minutes of daily homework and then you get together at the end of the week and there are group discussion questions. Instead of sending them off during the week to do the homework, I would pick which elements we would focus on, I d highlight them, and then lead the teens through the homework days, blending the group discussion question into the week s homework. I didn t worry about getting through very fast. I just got through a passage, usually about a third to a half a chapter a week, breaking in convenient spots. Sometimes we did more because the story demands such, but usually not. This translates to about a half-week in the NISS book. Man, sometimes it felt like we were doing Mark forever, but God kept encouraging us by showing us the things we were learning in our every day life. Format: 1. Write the passage reference and the words and their marking symbols on a display so the teens see a visual cue. Otherwise you will spend a good 10 minutes getting everyone to the same passage and explaining marking. 2. Give them time to do their observation markings, usually about 20 minutes. They must all be in the same version of Bible. I use NASB. For the students who don t mark in their Bible, I print out a manuscript or observation worksheet for the whole book. 3. Go through an observational discussion (5 W and an H questions), getting them to basically regurgitate the passage in their own words. 4. Move to more interpretational and application questions that are found in the NISS book. This whole thing usually takes about 1.5 hours. I m sure we could rush it along faster, but honestly, I really enjoy taking my time and working through the messiness that comes from doing Bible study with teens. Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 3
The 40 Minute Study Series I ve tried the 40-Minute studies twice. One was very average to boring. The other was amazing and transformational. Before Bible Framework The first study I ever did with my teens was a Precept 40 Minute Bible Study. It was dull. The kids might have learned one or two things, but it wasn t enjoyable. And I don t know if it really stuck at all. This was not the fault of the study itself because I have done quite a few from the 40 Minute series and have learned tons and really enjoyed it. I think the lack of interest was due to a number of factors - inexperience on my part and immaturity of students (they were mostly grade 6-8). But I think the main factor was they honestly didn t know the Bible and didn t have a framework. This topical method really didn t work so well at that point because every conversation turned into one of moralistic obligation or questions about Biblical history that revealed a total lack of understanding of the Old Testament. Who s Moses? After Bible Framework After studying a gospel and several other foundational books (see the bottom of this post) I decided to give the 40 Minute Study Series another shot in the teen Bible study. A question that came out of studying Mark was, How do I fit into the picture? What does God want me to do? I encourage you to listen to questions that your students have and try to pick studies that will help them out with the answers. I picked the Understanding Spiritual Gifts study and it was absolutely amazing. Enabled with their ability to study the scripture and evaluate it, it was easy to dissect these passages in comparison to the NISS. They had the ability to observe well and then have great discussion, equipped with their knowledge of who Jesus is. They want to follow Jesus, they love Him, and this study became really exciting for us to learn. I took the approach of having them take turns leading each observation and discussion. I would be the one who would guide the discussion with any further questions that needed to be asked or directing the answers, but I would let the students self monitor. My goodness, they sure were on each other s cases for getting sidetracked or distracting each other. They were very respectful of one another. It was a great launching point for them to begin teaching Bible studies of their own. Maybe next year a teen led Bible study will happen in their school with their peers. Wouldn t that be great? Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 4
A Few Random Sides on Leading Teens I don t usually take rabbit trails because these can cause us to become bogged down and frustrated. But I do recognize that we as people tend to learn better if our brain takes little brief breaks from what is happening and then return to it. This often presents itself in the appropriate time of a student going on a tangent. This is a balancing game for the teacher to decide on when to allow these diversions to happen or to cut them off. This comes down to class management techniques of which the grand ol Google machine can help you with. In our Bible study, we all get together before the Bible study and have supper together. One of our leaders faithfully gets groceries and is in charge of the preparation. This is intentional on our part and serves a significant bonding time for the teens. They help prepare supper by doing chopping and setting the table. They learn how to work together, to serve, and it is a great, natural activity where people talk about their lives. It is an opportunity for me to hear what is happening in their lives and to begin in my mind to tailor the subtleties in the lesson to be relevant. We really enjoy that family dinnertime together. Then we start the Bible study about 45-60 minutes later. I find it s important to not fixate on tangible results with teens. They are going through such an up and down time of life. It s not helpful to judge success based on action in a microcosm way. During this time, I had faithful students getting drunk at parties, smoking up, saying nasty things about others, being bullied and being bullies themselves, not standing up for their faith. But then I had those same students standing up for their faith, sticking up for victims of bullies, realizing they didn t want to get drunk or smoke up. It is dangerous to gauge success on behavior because we don t actually know what s in the heart. As teens, they are trying out different stuff. And yes, one of our goals as adults in their life should be to help guide their choices so they don t damage themselves. But our bigger goal should be to push them in to questions of their faith now. I don t want any of my teens to reach adulthood without asking themselves if this is their relationship with God or just a family practice? Do they want to put in the effort and be committed to a relationship with Christ? Do they want Him Lord of their life? It is so much better for them to come face to face with this while they are still in a community of believers than when they are launched into an environment that hates God, like university, the workplace, or just the world in general. Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 5
Books a Teen Should Know Before Graduating I have these kids for 4-5 years. These are the things I want them to know by the time they leave. The book of Beginnings Genesis. (I did this in Sunday school in an inductive story telling format.) Strong understanding of rest of the Old Testament. (Currently my grade 11 students have learned Genesis; Exodus; parts of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; Joshua; and Judges. Again in an inductive story telling format.) One Gospel (I did NISS Mark) Prophecy and end-times (We did the first half of Daniel in a Transform Conference and we will be doing the second half of Daniel in a 40-minute study in the fall) A New Testament letter (Because they need to know how to study these. Yet to come for my students.) Final Word Thanks for bearing with me. If you are thinking about teaching teenagers the Bible, do it. It is of utmost importance and you will be blessed by the honest and refreshing way teens see what the Bible says. I have learned some very beautiful lessons through their eyes. If you are currently teaching teenagers the Bible, keep it up. I know it s not easy and has many challenges. Many ups and downs. But they need you. It is Kingdom work. Take time to be refreshed and get back at it. If you need support, find it. This is our commission. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB) Teens Study The Bible? Really! Kelly Schmidt 6