Encouraging young people to read the Bible – Be a bombardier

Being a bombardier can be a useful tactic when trying to encourage children and young people to read their Bibles. Try lots of different things. Bombard them with different ideas to help them get stuck into God’s Word.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3 v 16-17)

We want to see children and young people training in righteousness, so that they’re fully equipped to serve God. For that training, they need to be studying, learning from and memorising God’s Word. So we need to try every method at our disposal to encourage them to do that. Be a bombardier. Carpet bomb them with the Bible!

Ideas for bombardiers

Here are a few ideas for you to consider:

• Give out free Bible notes to get them started. That could mean buying them all daily Bible notes or producing your own Bible-reading programme to hand out.
• Try to build into your meetings/clubs a time for the group to discuss or share something they've discovered in their Bible reading.
• Encourage them to ask questions about stuff they don’t fully understand. You could have a regular Question Time slot. Not only will this help the children/young people in their understanding of the Word, but it will also keep you on your toes and help you to get your own Bible knowledge and doctrine sorted.
• Memory verses (don’t groan!). Yes, it’s old-fashioned, and, if you’re like me, it could well give you nightmares from your youth. But learning memory verses is such a practical, tangible way of getting God’s Word into your mind and writing it on your heart. Of course, you’ll have to learn them yourself too...
• For younger children: handouts! Give them sheets to take home and bring back, so you’re encouraging them to delve into the Bible when they’re away from church/club. They’re time-consuming to create but well worth it. Sheets that encourage children to look up Bible passages, with puzzles that relate to what they’re reading, go down particularly well. You could set up a star chart with stars awarded for completed sheets and memory verses remembered.

Non-readers

What about children or young people who can’t or don’t read so much? For lots of young people, reading isn’t a big part of their culture, it’s not something they do regularly. It can seem much more of a chore than a pleasure. This makes it hard to promote Bible reading to them.

You have to get creative. Try giving them smaller chunks of the Bible to read, in an easy-to-read version. You might want to give them a graphic novel (comic book) version of the Bible, or Bible stories. OK, it’s not perfect, but if they’re not reading the Bible at all, it’s a start. You could encourage them to listen to the Bible on MP3 or to look up websites that look at God’s word. It can be hard work getting some people to open their Bibles at all, but we’ve got to try every route possible to get them learning from God’s word.

Let’s make the Bible the focus of our times together. Let’s make it natural and expected for us to open God’s word together, and share from it and question it. Let’s get young people reading the Bible for themselves. Let’s watch God transforming them with His word.