Bible Lab for High School
Psalm 1 tells us about how the person who feeds and delights on God's Word becomes like a tree planted by the riverbank but it also says that the person who is constantly feeding on the cultural products of the day "the scoffer" turns themself to a light wispy chaff like substance. That was written 3,000 years ago! Now imagine what that same author would say about what would happen to someone who was plugged into the internet spending their time on TikTok and Youtube shorts? Its no wonder we have an epidemic of anxiety and other mental health problems?
Christian schools normally have Bible classes. Typically these will focus on some reading of the Bible and talking about the Bible. Many kids are deeply blessed by these orientations to the Bible but they arguably also fall prey to the same sorts of problems adults experience in seminary...a tendency to turn to speculation and abstraction and even some problematizing of the Bible. Attempts to do survey classes of the Old and New Testament demand a lot of page flipping and don't normally afford time for slow thoughtful meditation. The students are left with some exposure to the Word and its truth but may also not have really slowed down enough around the words and images themselves so that they actually savor and digest them. They may have flown over the foreign land and been somewhat oriented but have they entered into the world of the text it self and tasted the goodness of God?
Be A Tree Bible Lab can use the core approach of systematic (one verse per chapter) memorization for large portions of the New and Old Testament that will leave the students with a sense of confidence and intimacy with Scripture that they have likely never experienced before.
Using www.bibleproject.com videos orientation to books, genres, and themes will help orientation and big picture understanding. Key hermeneutical principals of context and basic words studies will be introduced and practiced. Ample time will be given testimony of God's work in and through students as they experience formation and then witness.
Goals of quantity of chapters covered can be dialed up or down as needed. Some kids are motivated by big audacious challenges and may want to tackle the 260 NT chapters and even significant OT sections while others may need to be given space to go deeper and slower. One possibility is to have a core of 120+/- chapters that are gone over in a year with bonus sections available for the ambitious. Participation can also be measured using the gamification built inside the Bible Memory App with goals developed of different levels and points.
As a reminder the gist of the process is to:
1) pick a book of the Bible and highlight one peg verse per chapter
2) put this peg verse into the Bible Memory App
3) Start memorizing and reviewing with an attempt to shift your brain from seeking dopamine from other apps on your phone and toward the truth of God's Word and delight in it through meditation, formation, and eventually witness.
By doing this systematically and paying attention to the context of the book we gain a confidence in the broader work of the Bible as it transforms us. Besides the obvious benefit of transformation little fringe benefits emerge like:
when the student hears someone reference a chapter and a verse they will have an automatic context for the chapter the verse is being quoted from.
it becomes really fun to take your Bible to church because when you open it you can make notes tying your highlighted peg verse to the passage being discussed (if you've covered the book) or you can pick a verse from the new book, highlight it, and put it in your app for future memorization and meditation.
As the Bible gets more and more highlights the student feels a sense of growing confidence that they know whats going on in that section of the Bible.
** specific attention needs to be given to felt and urgent needs for teenagers like anxiety, hope, and the human body as theologically gifted creation of a good God etc.
