“Is it a sin that I think the Bible is boring?”

I sat across the table from two 6th grade girls, weighing my response.

Possible response #1: “Boring? Have you read your Bible?!? Ever read Genesis? 1 Samuel? Esther? Luke? I’d hardly call murder, incest, war, romance and raising the dead boring.”

But these girls grew up in church. They’ve heard the “exciting” stories, and what was interesting the first time had lost its luster after the 10th retelling.

Possible response #2: “You’re right, reading the Bible IS boring. Let’s make it more exciting!” and add a bunch of creative, media-packed teaching methods to keep students are always highly stimulated when we study God’s Word.

(Okay, I actually do #2. People learn more when they’re participating and playing. A youth leaders it’s our privilege to help students experience God’s Word in a fresh way.) 

Yet that’s still not the solution to these girls’ boredom. Creative teaching will convince students that you are not boring and that you’re not bored with the Bible. And that’s worth something, but not everything.

Of course the girls are asking the wrong question. Compared to the fiction books they read—even for school—the Bible probably does seem dull, or at least difficult to understand. But it’s the only book they will ever read that is “living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12).

No other book can stake that claim.

Do our students know THAT? Do they know God speaks right to our faces through his Word? That the Holy Spirit whispers to us as we take in Scripture? That this “book,” has the power to read us, to transform our souls?

And THAT is the thought they need to hear—no, what they need to taste and touch themselves. They need first-hand experience with God’s Word to know it’s life-changing.

More than teaching students the Bible, we need to teach students to handle the Bible—not like a paperback novel or a textbook, but as the ever-living Word of God. Only when students experience God speaking to them and changing them first-hand through his Word will they discover it’s anything but boring. (That’s true for us as leaders, too.)

5 First-Hand Experiences:

1.  Read Scripture with students, not to students.
Wait for everyone to find a passage in their Bible (or a borrowed one) before reading it. Ask students who know their Bibles to help the ones who don’t. Even better, set up students in small groups to read the passages with each other instead of hand-feeding it to them.

2.  Get students to reimagine and retell the story themselves.

Students learn 95% of what they teach to others, so acting out a passage, drawing a poster-size mural or comic strip to retell the story, etc. will not only diffuse boredom but also help students internalize the story.

3.  Pray Scripture together.

This is where Scripture penetrates the heart. Type out Psalm 139 with blanks for students to insert their own names. Show students how to pray Paul’s prayer requests (i.e. 1 Thessalonians 1, Colossians 1, Philippians 1) for one another.

4.  Set students up to do word or subject studies—and then teach each other their findings.

Don’t be afraid to stretch students to critical thinking! With your help, they can do it. Practice using sites like biblegateway.com and blueletterbible.org. I still make students use print concordances, tools in the backs of their Bibles and other study resources, too, to help them look more deeply and build different skills.

5.  Write your own Psalm.

This month’s free download guides students to write a prayer modeled after Psalm 13, bringing Scripture to life in a fresh way. (Thanks to Doug Holliday for compiling this tool.)

~ Laura Wampach