The official slogan of the Nazarene Youth International is quoted from I Timothy 4:12 - “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity”. The main purpose of Bible Quizzing is to help cultivate the actions, attitudes, and the lifestyle that are necessary to accomplish this slogan. The Bible Quiz program intends to reach this goal through a tactic that is divided in these different areas:

Ø     Recruiting a Team

A.     How to talk with teens

1.        Get Personal

a)         Talk one on one.  You won’t have much success when addressing a large group

b)        Get to know prospective quizzers ahead of time by being involved in teen functions.

c)         Use a teen on the team to recruit for you

2.        Don’t Beg

a)         Tell them that the team needs them

b)        Make sure they realize that quizzing takes commitment

B.        Promote Quizzing Among Teens

1.        Talk to as Many Teens as Possible

2.        Explain Advantages of Quizzing

a)         Travel all over xxxxxxx

b)        Meet teens from all over the country; start new friendships

c)         Make boyfriends/girlfriends

d)        Get away from Mom & Dad

e)         Get to skip some school

f)          Learn more about the Bible

C.   Promote Quizzing Among Prospective Quizzers’ Parents and other adults in the church

1.        Explain Goals of Quizzing

a)         Bible study

b)        Deepen or initiate a relationship with Christ

2.        Explain Benefits of Quizzing

a)         Develop Christian relationships

b)        Refine/develop study skills for school (school grades often improve)

c)         Fellowship with other teens

3.        Explain Requirements of Quizzing

a)         Be truthful with parents—quizzing takes time and commitment

b)        Summarize approximate time teens need to spend with quizzing

4.        Why?

a)         You will need help to make your job easier

b)        Allows you to miss a quiz if needed but still allow the team to go

5.        Who?

a)         Current and former NYI adult leaders/workers

b)        People like yourself

c)         Former quizzers

6.        Explain Aspects of Quizzing

a)         Travel

b)        Fun competition

c)         Building special relationships with teens

7.        Explain the Quiz Cycle

For every year, there is a book (or books) from the New Testament that is used as a resource material for the questions of the competition.

Following is the 8 year cycle that is used around the world for Quizzing.

1st.                         1999-2000 - Galatians, Ephesians Philippians, Colossians, Philemon

2nd.                       2000-2001 - Luke

3rd.                        2001-2002 - 1 & 2 Corinthians

4th.                         2002-2003 - John

5th.                         2003-2004 - Hebrews and 1 & 2 Peter

6th.                         2004-2005 - Matthew

7th.                         2005-2006 - Romans and James

8th.                         2006-2007 - Acts

8.        Explain Goals of Quizzing

a)         Bible study

b)        Deepen or initiate a relationship with Christ

c)         Involvement in ministry

d)        Disiciple making

9.        Explain Benefits of Quizzing

a)         Develop Christian relationships

b)        Refine/develop study skills for school (school grades often improve)

10.    Explain Requirements of Quizzing

a)         Be truthful—quizzing takes time and commitment

b)        Outline approximate time needed

B.              Organize

1.        Make Plans For Your Program

a)         Establish what each practice will cover

b)        Select Tournaments you wish to attend

c)         Plan special activities for the team

2.        Organizational Meeting

a)         Once your quizzers are lined up, have an organizational meeting with them, their parents, and any adults interested in helping.

b)        This meeting should establish practice times, and perhaps the goals of your team.

c)         Explain the benefits of quizzing to the parents so they may become supportive of quizzing and not view it as just another activity

d)        Solicit parental support as chaperones, drivers, and fund-raisers

(1)      Chaperones are needed for overnighters and cheerleading at quizzes

(2)      Drivers will free you to work with team on the way to quizzes

(3)      Fundraising events will pay for team going to ET, Regionals, etc.

e)         Explain approximate costs for each quiz event (gas, registration fees, motel, etc.).  Decide how it will be paid for.

3.        Plan a Kickoff Event

a)         Could be a pizza party, a lock-in, or dinner.

b)        Use it to explain what quizzing is and what it can do for teens and adults if you don’t have an organizational meeting.

c)         Make it fun or make it nice, but most of all make it special!

C.     Commit and Follow Through

1.        Don’t Give Up

a)         Commit to yourself to continue the program even if you start late or are slow to start a program

b)        It’s never too late to start.  First quiz is a few weeks, but you could miss it and still be competitive in Nov. since we weight the material.

c)         Don’t skip first quiz.

(1)      Use it as learning experience to prepare for the next quiz

(2)      Each quiz mostly uses the new material, so you can be competitive even if starting in January!

2.        Communicate with Teens and Adults Participating

a)         Publicize practice times through the bulletin and pulpit announcements

b)        Personally remind quizzers, parents, and adults so they know you expect them to follow through on their commitments

c)         Follow up with those who missed the first practice and insist that they come to the next practice

Ø     Financing a Program

A. Fund raisers

1.        NYI Sponsored.  Attend NYI council meetings (even if you not invited).  Suggest the whole NYI run a fund-raiser with part of the proceeds marked for the quiz program

2.        Team Sponsored.  Run a team sponsored fund-raiser to finance all trips, one special trip, or whatever your goals are.

3.        Examples

a)         Car washes

b)        Bake sales

c)         Quizathon or quoteathon in your church

d)        Candy sales

B.          Parent Sponsorship.

Split cost among all teens going and request parents to pay for their teen’s share.

C.       Church Sponsorship.

Prepare a budget and go to the finance committee or the board and request they finance   the program.

Ø     Show Teens How to Learn Material

A.              Study Methods

1.        Straight Reading — least effective

2.        Triple Repetition — most effective

3.        Double Repetition

B.              Outlines

1.        Grid Outline

2.        Topical Outline

C.              Keywords

3.        Importance of Keywords — enables them to make faster jumps

4.        Make flash cards to learn the uniques (or more if you’re bold enough)

D.              Using Question Book I  (NPH yellow book)  It contains:

1.        Study commentaries

2.        Study explanations

3.        Study questions

4.        Memory verses for the year

5.        Memory verse prejumps

E.               Using YouthQuiz.com  It contains:

1.        Study commentaries

2.        Study explanations

3.        Study questions; create question sets based on number of questions, question type, etc.

4.        Copy of the scripture being used

5.        Memory verses for the year

6.        Memory verse prejumps

7.        Key words

8.        Individual competition against other quizzers around the USA

9.        Cost only $15 per year

F.               Writing Questions

1.        Why?

a)         Helps teens formulate the finish to prejumps in a quiz.

b)        Helps them to learn the material quicker and better

2.        How to write them

a)         Look for the answer first and then make a question for it

b)        Don’t change any words unless you have to

3.        Use them at practices along with the blue books

G.              Reviewing Previous Material

1.        Why review? — must keep old material fresh

2.        3-5-7 Plan — an organized approach to reviewing

3.        How to review — use double review method

Ø     Team Practices

A.              When?

1.        Find a day and time convenient for you.  You will be putting in the more time than anyone else..

2.        Plan practice for the same day each week

B.              Where?

1.        Find a central location if possible

2.        Find a room large enough to spread out.  Good practices may have several things going on at the same time especially if you have a helper.

3.        Examples of good locations are church, your home, or rotating among quizzer’s home.

C.              How Long and How Often?

1.        Best practice length is usually 1 hour.  Can be more.

2.        Should meet only once a week so that quizzing does not dominate the teen’s and your time.

D.              What to Accomplish at Practices

1.        Jump on specified material, both new and reviewed material

2.        Drills—quick jumps, fast questions and answers

3.        Strategies that will be used in a quiz (burning, jumping on a specific word, etc.)

4.        Covering specialties—memory, reference, context (do not focus too much on one speciality unless you are practicing with just the specialist)

5.        Use a variety of methods to cover material—written quizzes, quizzers asking questions, one on one drills, etc.

E.               Materials Needed

1.        Blue question book — for asking questions at practice

2.        Jumps seats

3.        Quizzer’s questions — for asking questions at practice

Ø     Motivation

A.              For Quizzers

1.        Get their parents involved and keep them involved

a)         Practice in their homes

b)        Involve them in practices

c)         Have them help on trips to tournaments, e.g. drive, organize, etc.

2.        Add variety to practices, e.g. have a quizzer ask questions, get the coach to jump.  Don’t let every practice be the same.

3.        Incorporate fun activities during the year that don’t relate to quizzing, e.g.: after a quiz, go out for pizza or ice cream.  Have a pool party, slumber party, skating party, any kind of a party!

4.        Travel to quizzes other than Virginia Nazarene quizzes such as Lancaster YFC, WBQA Regionals, WBQA Finals, or SDG

B.              For Coaches

1.        You need to keep your motivation up.  An unmotivated coach cannot motivate his quizzers

2.        If you feel you’re losing your motivation, stop and refine the focus of your program.

3.        Don’t concentrate on the results so much, concentrate on the experience.

4.        If you’ve let the program get off track, do your best to get it back on track.  Then learn from your mistakes for next year!

Ø     Resource Products — Many are available to help you

A.              Local Products

1.        Keywords, 1–3

a)         What are unique, double, and triple keywords?

b)        Ensure quizzers underline keywords each week as they start learning new chapters

2.        Keyword Concordance — Helps you quickly identify whether a word is a unique, double or triple keyword.

3.        Memory Verse Prejumps

a)         What are they?

b)        Teens should learn them as they learn the verses.

4.        People & Places List — Can use these in drills to help teens learn about the people and places in the scripture.

5.        Context Products

a)         Old Testament quotes

b)        Questions asked by the writer

c)         Numbers mentioned

B.           Nazarene Publishing House Products

1.        Yellow Question Books — Should have one for each quizzer.  Used in their studies.  You should not use these in practices.

2.        Blue Question Books — Should have one for each coach.  Use these in practices.

3.        Forms — Score sheets, line-up pads.  You should get at least 2 score sheet pads and 1 line-up pad for the year.

4.        Rules — You need to be intimately familiar with rules.  Your teens that are new to quizzing will ask lots of questions and you should have the rule book so you can properly answer them.  Your teens should not come to a quiz without a good understanding of the basic rules.

5.        Concordance — Each coach should have one.  A good tool to find where the quizzer is at when he is giving an answer.

6.        Scripture Portion — Very slim compared to what we gave you here but more expensive.  Every coach and quizzer needs a Scripture portion, whether it is the slim or thick one.

7.        Cassette Tapes — Audio cassettes of the Scripture are available for sale, but they are very expensive ($15).  You can make them a lot cheaper than Publishing House.

8.        Quiz Leader’s Handbook — A valuable book to help any coach with his local quiz program.  Only $7 and well worth it.  Highly recommend it.

9.        YouthQuiz.com  -- Web based study program available for $15 per year for quizzers or $15 per year for coaches.

PLEASE NOTE:  The green book questions are no longer available.  District directors must use the YouthQuiz.com WEB access to print question sets for district tournaments; $45 per year. The district directors may also supply questions to the Regional Open Invitationals.

I.          Be the Leader

A.       Be in Charge

1.         Act as the focal point of information for your team and those traveling with your team

2.         Control the actions of your team; hold them responsible

3.         Direct the activities of your team

B.        Be Responsible

1.         Get quizzers to the proper area on time

2.         Be responsible for the conduct of your team

3.         Assist tournament directors any way possible

II.        Be the Coach

A.       Keep Score

1.         Helps insure correct score is posted by official scorekeeper

2.         Allows you to make informed decisions about when to “send” quizzers

3.         Let’s the quizzers keep their focus on the quizmaster and not worry about the score.

B.        Anticipate Possible Outcomes

1.         Learn to anticipate what the other team might do to stop your team

2.         Learn how to stop the other team by sending, burning, etc.

3.         Anticipating means knowing the score and all the scoring potentials

C.       Direct the Jumping

1.         Directing the jumping is the same as the “game plan” in other sports

2.         Learn to know when to “send” a quizzer

3.         Let the quizzers know that you are the boss; they jump when you tell them to.  Sometimes that means jumping on first word and other times to sit out the entire question.

4.         Hold your quizzers accountable for their jumping.  If they jump when you say, praise them regardless of the outcome.  If they don’t jump, discipline them (make them sit out, verbally “scold” them, etc.). </