I had a whole discussion this week with my small group about how they weren't going to read their Bibles. We had a dare, since we're in a series right now about how to use the Bible, which was to pick a number between 3 and 8, and read the Bible that many days between group meetings. The discussion then ran through some of the following comments:
Buddhist student and pastor's kid: "We already know everything about the Bible; we've read it before!"
Fairly reliable student: "What if reading it one time is pretty much impossible?
Me: "How is that impossible?"
FRS: "Well, I'm studying for finals."
Particularly obnoxious student: "Yeah, finals are way more important than the Bible!"
Struggling student: "What if I read the same thing every day?"
POS: "What if I read one word every day?"
Me: "You have to read more than one word at a time."
POS: "What if God was leading me to that one word?"
How do we overcome resistance to reading the Bible because it's too ________ (fill in: boring, old, weird, violent, irrelevant, hard...)? I really want my students to be excited about Scripture because every time I open it something jumps out at me, but they don't seem to be catching on. Help!
About Me
- Isaac, The Rookie
- To be a rookie, to me, means to always be prepared but never claim to be ready. I am exploring life under God's call. As an unordained professional youth minister, I work with students and families to grow relationships with Christ leading to lifelong commitment; relationships with each other to become healthy Christian humans; and relationships with the larger Church to develop a global view of God's people.
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4 comments:
It's all about reading practices, Isaac.
1. Talk to them about the difference between studying for a final and reading the bible. For a final, the test is an hour of class at the end of the year. For the bible, the test IS YOUR LIFE.
2. Establish that we read things differently. For example, we watch movies we really like over and over again and get new things out of them each time. Even I, who have a really hard time with movies a lot of the time, can appreciate that. And I think your students will too. So make the move from movies to bible and you can get a discussion of the right way to read different things going. And that's almost always a fruitful conversation.
Luck! and I'll be sure to write before camp.
-karl
Try introducing *gasp* The Message. I don't really like it, personally, but for reluctant readers, it may be a good stepping stone. Biblical training wheels.
(oops..that last one was from me.)
-erinjo.
What I want to know is whether your acronym for particularly obnoxious student was chosen on purpose for its double meaning.
Mark
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