How to Get Teens Interested in the Bible
- 1). Ask the teens what interests them. Pass around a sheet for teens to list their three main interests. Make the lists anonymous. Select five items from their lists. Tell the teens that you and they will find those ideas in the Bible, or you will order pizza for everyone on the last day of classes. Encourage the kids to find the biblical equivalent of romance, partying, love and family, for example. Spend time during each class moving the study of the terms forward, showing them that the ideas are in the Bible and what the Bible teaches about the ideas.
- 2). Show teens that Bible study engages the mind as well as the soul. Use a Bible dictionary and a concordance for teenagers to cross-reference topics Bible readings. Give them an example of the term "money," for example, from a search in a Bible dictionary. Ask the teens to find the term in the Bible. For example, 1 Timothy 6:10: "For the love of money is the root of all evil." Divide teens into smaller groups, assigning each group a passage from the search. Ask them to discuss what role money played in the passage and to translate the idea into contemporary terms, such as recent headlines. Instruct a representative from each group to present the group's discussion points to the class.
- 3). Energize teens with playful Bible activities. Ask teens to form pairs. Instruct the pairs to select any biblical narrative. Tell the teenagers to create one crossword puzzle per pair, incorporating characters and terms from the selected Bible passages. Give them 20 to 30 minutes to make the puzzles. Ask the groups to exchange crossword puzzles. Give them 15 to 20 minutes to solve the puzzles.
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