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In many churches, Bible memorization is an essential part of their Sunday school or children’s ministry. Most Sunday school curriculum options have some element of Bible memory. Programs like AWANA are built upon a high value for scripture memory.
But memorization is not a universal value in Christian Education. I am in a master’s level course titled Biblical Worldview and Educational Practice at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY. We’ve been discussing philosophies of education and how they have impacted local church ministry. The goal is to arrive at a more biblical approach to Christian education rather than just copying the latest educational trends.
As you might guess, traditionalism (more specifically Perennialism and Essentialism) highly valued teaching methods like drills and rote memory. Their approach was to promote the learners’ will power and train their mental capacity. In other words, traditional education approached schooling like physical training or even boot camp.
But a movement called Progressivism came on strong in the early 1900’s. Its advocates were strongly opposed to any passive learning by memorization of information. High value was placed on problem solving and maximum student involvement.
Historically, churches have been moving away from rote memory. Some of this has been good. Any veteran Sunday school teacher will tell you the value of active learning. But sometimes I think we’ve gone too far.
The Bible speaks very positively about scripture memory and meditation. If you’re not convinced, just read Psalm 119 or Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4. Knowing the Bible from memory is a great benefit for everyone.
Too often we confuse child focused teaching with low expectation teaching. It’s one thing to accommodate the developmental realities of childhood. But it becomes a problem when use “kids will be kids” as an excuse not to challenge children in Sunday school.
Our ministry has experimented with several ways of doing Bible memory. In Sunday school, our curriculum encouraged the children to learn one verse each week. In Children’s church I have a set of 10 verses we reinforce every week through drills and games. These verses rotate over time. We’ve also taught the children extended passages of scripture like Psalm 23, The 10 Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, and Psalm 1. Our Wednesday night club program has children learn a 21 verse Gospel outline over the school year.
What do you think? Leave me a comment below to join the conversation. How much Bible memory do you expect from children in your ministry?
photo credit: culture.culte
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I’ve been searching the net for kids’ ministry ideas ect. and came across your site…just reading through it, and also comments from other users, tells me this is “good stuff”
As a child I memorized many verses. Those are the verses I remember. When I need them the Lord brings them to me. Now that I am older it is a lot harder to memorize them. Yes it is best to have the application along with it, but even if a child doesn’t understand or learn application at that time of memorization, later in life when he/she most needs it the Holy Spirit will bring it to their memory. God’s Word does not return void. I’m not saying you don’t need application – I’m just saying it is sooo much easier to hide it in your heart when you are young. when the children in my Sunday School class learn their verse they get to pick a prize out of the prize basket.
How can you encourage children to memorize scripture each week? I was thinking of involving the parents of my children this year by emailing parents the MV and encouraging parents to drive home what I teach on Sunday. Parents are so busy these days I almost feel guilty for asking them to do one more thing, but in my heart I know that nothing is more important than each child’s soul. I have been very disappointed in the past at the “ho hum” attitude of the children in regard to memorization. Of course, there will be that “one” child that really is motivated, but most are not. Help! I’m teaching 4th grade this year. I’ve been involved in children’s SS for 35 years and don’t have the answer yet.
Because the truth of the Bible sanctifies us (John 17:17), I believe that Bible memory is key. Memory should not be divorced from application, yet the is an undeniable value in allowing the Bible is be permanently placed into the mind where it can renew the mind.
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