Junior Bible Quiz offers a fun, exciting way to motivate children to understand the all-important truths in God's Word. Through cooperative learning children work together on teams to learn and understand the questions and answers from the Bible Fact-Pak. Then using cooperative competition the children meet with other teams for a fun quizzing match. There are twenty questions in a match, with two teams of quizzers trying to beat each other to the buzzers to get the first shot at the answers.
It has been said that Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) is the fastest growing discipleship program in children's ministry. As more people become aware of the positive influence in the lives of children and in their families, word increasingly spreads of its value in children's ministry. Many people have discovered it to be the best children's program available for helping children to commit to heart the Word of God and for learning how to apply it to situations in their lives.
JBQ was created and designed to help children develop a love for the Bible and an understanding that its truth can guide their lives daily.
For information on the history of JBQ, click here.
The Bible Fact-Pak contains over 500 questions and answers drawn from the Bible. Some questions provide background about the Bible and its contents. Other questions explore the teachings and doctrine within the Bible. All of the questions together give children solid basis for a strong and lasting relationship with God.
The Bible Fact-Pak is available with Bible verse memorization in the New International Version (NIV) and in the King James Version (KJV). A Spanish version is available in book form. Questions are graded by point value. Ten-point questions are the easiest. Twenty-point questions are more difficult. Thirty-point questions are the most involved.
A quiz team consists of a head coach, one or two assistant coaches, and two to eight children eligible to quiz. A church may have more than one team.
A child is eligible to quiz if he is starting grades one through six in the fall. However, in studying the development of children, we find that from ages eight to nine the memorization skills start to peak, and at ages ten to eleven children love to compete.
Teams can set up matches within the local church, if there is more than one team. If there are other churches in your area with teams, you can work with them to organize local meets. To find out about quizzing beyond the local level, contact your District JBQ Coordinator for your state. Every year, teams are invited from each state to participate at the National Festival.
Junior Bible Quiz is not limited to Assembly of God churches. Churches from the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church, the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), the Disciples of Christ, and numerous independent churches have teams. Contact your District JBQ Coordinator for regulations and registration information.
We do not have an accurate number of people currently involved in JBQ. However, from information we have been able to gather, it is estimated that there are over 2,000 teams and at least 10,000 children involved in JBQ nationally.
Junior Bible Quiz is a great opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their children. Often the while family learns the material through family devotions. Daily study times teach discipline to the children. Parents can look for those "teachable moments" in the course of life where they can help the child see the connection of God's Word in life. Many parents have seen improvements in schoolwork, attitudes, and relationships as a result of their children participating in Junior Bible Quiz.
Basically, cooperative learning is an approach where children work in small learning groups and are responsible for learning and helping their teammates learn. You will find that the more time the children work together and the greater the responsibilities they take, the greater their learning will be. Since Junior Bible Quiz is built around the concept of cooperative competition, it is ideal to use cooperative learning for practice and learning sessions. Cooperative learning is a win-win situation for everyone: coaches, parents, children, teams.
Cooperative competition uses group and individual competition to complement the emphasis on teamwork that is associated with cooperative learning. Cooperative competition is concerned with one of the most important issues in education: how to better motivate children. The entire process of cooperative competition is to motivate children by putting learning to a game. Some positive aspects of cooperative competition are that the child chooses when to answer a question and that the team works together in learning and quizzing. Children learn and feel better through cooperative competition.
Winning a competition must not be the goal for parents, coaches, or children. Success in Junior Bible Quiz is not dependent on winning. Success comes from internalizing God's Word and allowing it to guide the direction a child takes in life. Success comes when a child begins to develop a love for the Word of God. Valuable lessons can be learned through the competition of quizzing. Children can learn to win without boasting and lose without complaining. They can learn to treat opponents and officials with respect. They can learn discipline as they study for a match. Quizzing is a fun way to show what they've been learning.
The Junior Bible Quiz program is different from any other children's ministry. Preparing children for a quiz meet is a cooperative effort. It takes coaches, assistant coaches, parents, and the children themselves, each fulfilling specific responsibilities.
5 Easy Steps to Starting JBQ in Your Church:
- Select a coach.
- Order materials from GPH. All you need to start quizzing is a Bible Fact-Pak and a copy of the JBQ Official Quiz Guidelines. Other products at the GPH site are also useful, but not required.
- Enlist boys and girls in grades 1 through 6.
- Schedule practices.
- Register with your District JBQ Coordinator.
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