New Year's Revolutions

I've never been a New Year's resolution kind of guy. It always seemed a bit arbitrary, though I know a lot of people who use them for both fun and to make positive life changes. Before Christmas, I talked with my quizzers about things they wanted to change about themselves in the next year. Not a random goal like "don't drink soda" or a cosmetic one like "lose 20 pounds." Instead, we were talking about spiritual or relational changes that would make a permanent difference in their lives.

Some of the goals were more personal, but one stuck out to me. One quizzer wanted to be more disciplined in reading the Bible. After further discussion, the entire team decided that this was something we wanted to hold each other accountable for, so we committed to reading the Bible through in the next calendar year.

In Bible Quiz, we spend a lot of time studying the Scriptures. As a coach, I spend hours looking over concordance material, working on questions, and listening to students quote. My quizzers spend several hours every week entrenched in the Bible. Yet for all of that, it can often become an exercise in learning words on a page.

I hear people outside of quiz sometimes talk about "head knowledge" versus "heart knowledge." I reject this premise completely. I believe that consuming God's Word, for whatever purpose, will have a transformative effect on the consumer. I do believe that sometimes the immediate impact can be dampened, not from a lack of proper motivation, but instead from a numbing effect after quoting the same chapters again and again.

To that end, I think it's essential that quizzers spend time in the Word beyond quizzing. So we're starting a year-long Bible Reading Plan. There are numerous ones available, and I've given my quizzers their choice of plans. GPH offers one here. This isn't a check box on my quizzers' schedules. I don't want this to be part of an obligation. I want to encourage them, but I want to see the desire in their hearts.

Part of this means modeling good practices for them, so I'll be following a reading plan myself. Interestingly, in all my years of Bible study, I've never read through the Bible in a year following a daily plan. I'm looking forward to seeing Scripture in a new light.

I'd like to challenge you, as a coach, to challenge your quizzers. Maybe they need to work on Bible reading, or maybe they have a different opportunity. As you work with your quizzers, find a way to challenge them, not to make a New Year's resolution, but to begin a New Year's Revolution.