I found the two pages in our Building Men manual that give 10 good suggestions for Helping Boys Memorize. It is found in the Leadership Skills section, under the chapter Exploring the Bible with Boys. In my copy of the book this is on pages 107-108, the very last pages in the text.
Arden M.
A New Question, July 2023
Rory also asked how to better get his Stockaders to participate in Bible memorization. He is getting some push back from the leaders of their other children’s ministries saying that is an issue with the CSB program with no name recognition. I offered the idea of finding out something the boys would really like to do like a field trip or something like that to offer as a reward for memorizing Bible verses.
The phrase “an issue with the CSB program with no name recognition” has me somewhat baffled. Are they saying that Brigade is not well known? Perhaps they do not understand the meaning of our name? CSB has been a hold-out regarding the importance of memory verses. Has this been a contributing factor to our shrinking numbers? We must plant our flag and stick to our values OR perhaps find alternate ways of bringing God’s Word in a relevant context to the lives and hearts of boys.
Most likely the leaders of other children’s programs (Sunday School, VBS, and ?) have seemingly ceased requiring memory work–typically because many of the teachers of kids have never been encouraged to memorize Scripture in a meaningful way. Offering prizes can seriously cheapen the value. How many kids have memorized just for the reward and never are offered the opportunity to interact with a caring adult mentor about its meaning and its application. AWANA offers plenty of prizes. I would be very cautious about using such “extrinsic incentives.”
Without question, memorization of Scripture verses has been a long-standing issue, even in evangelical Christian churches. The rebuttal cry: “Kids don’t want to do it,” begs an examination of the hearts of not only the kids, but more significantly, of their parents and their teachers. Kids are fully capable of memorizing. Kids do not want to memorize verses because it is not meaningful UNLESS a caring adult takes the time to build a relationship, learns the verse himself, and enjoys discussing with each “kid” the verse’s purpose and how it can be applied to life.
In Battalion, Stockade, and Tree Climbers we have always encouraged Scripture memory. We are at fault if we do not keep training leaders in seeing how a boy- when learning and saying the verse, then discussing and praying together with the leader is THE MOST LIKELY TIME in the whole meeting when that boy will come to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of his life.
Ron Rynd