I was probably ten years old.
A blond-haired bowl cut chunk of boy.
She was probably 13 years old. I didn’t know her name. She didn’t know mine.
I sat in the back. Safe. Bored.
She stood on stage. Vulnerable. Nervous.
A Nice Public Flogging
It was a Sunday night church Bible Drill Competition. The sanctuary seemed uncharacteristically packed. Deacons, rubbernecks, parents, peers, everyone accounted for. Her competition was two boys.
The final three.
The first reference was called and the frenzied rustling of pages began. The first person to get there lunged forward and proudly recited it for the whole auditorium to hear. The next was called. And the next.
2 Chronicles 7:14!
Psalm 23:4!
James 5:16!
Ancient renderings from Nehemiah the adults in the audience had never heard. An interesting subplot was taking center stage. The two boys were running away with the competition. The poor girl fumbled her way through every challenge.
Not once.
Not once did she step forward.
Her older brother was sitting in the pew in front of me with a group of friends. His peers snickered as every squandered verse ran through her fingertips. At one point in hushed brotherly rage he whispered, “Shut Up!”
As the debacle unfolded her shoulders drooped. Defeat washed over her countenance. I could feel the white-hot embarrassment emanate off of her. She likely felt every eye from the faceless shadows peered at her; the spotlight on her ineptitude.
At the time I didn’t know what to think; except how bad I felt for her. Now I think:
What a Stupid Petty Tradition
What did this competition teach that girl? That drive by knowledge of a reference and using the Bible as a silly sports ploy is what church is about? That the Christian life is namely about performance?
That night I learned I sure as heck wasn’t going to be a part of any such game. If I felt that much anguish from the back row I can’t imagine what she felt.
Children should be taught not to drill the word but to dwell in it (Colossians 3:16). If anything they should be led to handle what they hold with care and reverence, not rip through it as some recreational means to an end.
The Pharisees were the “Bible Drill” Champions of Ancient Israel. They flaunted their knowledge of the Law with brash eloquence. They wielded their Scripture swords like a drunk pirate, always lazily pointing outwards, never inwards to their own black heart.
Scripture was just a means to an end for them.
I’m informed by generally good scholarship that these teachers of law had the whole Pentateuch memorized by the time they were this girls age…thirteen. The only claim to memorization I had at that age was Blues Traveler’s mildly popular song “Hook”: “Suck it in, Suck it in, Suck it in, if you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn…..”
The Verse That Powns Pharisees
This all brings me to one of my favorite verses in the bible. It’s Jesus’s words to the Pharisees:
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life;
it is these that testify about Me; (John 5:39)
From Genesis to Maps. Every Jot. Every tittle. Everything in Scripture points to Jesus Christ. The eviscerated goats on the altar. The weeping prophets. The immaculate temple. The lovesick king in Songs of Songs. The unlikely shepherd boy who slayed a giant for his people.
The Bible is a progressive unfolding of the person and work of Jesus. The Old Testament had veils and shadows, we have the substance: Christ! If we study the Bible and miss Him we miss everything. That’s why I shake my head when I see a preacher endeavor to open the word, open his mouth and a few quaint stories, funny jokes, principles only, and practical vignettes come out.
People don’t need a little humor and new laws, they need Jesus. Period.
The grace He freely gives will both humble the proud Pharisee, and lift up the perplexed Bible drill loser.
I don’t know where that girl is today. She may not even remember that night as vividly as I do.
I do know this:
She won’t have to find Jesus in a fit of staged performance anxiety.
The Jesus the Bible testifies of can find her just fine. Right where she is. He already won the only victory that matters in her life.
Bible drills be damned.
What “unique” traditions did your childhood stream have growing up?
Bryan Daniels
Chief of the least 
Excellent as always. And the memories it brings back for me… The way you describe this makes me think of a short story I just taught to some college freshmen. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Like you do here, that story casts a suspicious eye on tradition. Well done, sir.
Thanks Danny! I’ll look into that Shirley Jackson story…
Great post. We had Bible drills when I was a child, but it was as a group as we sat in our seats, and I believe it was to help us learn the books of the Bible. Haven’t seen that done for a long time, though. We do have much more emphasis now on memorizing large portions of scripture.
I hope we are wiser in every segment of the church than ever, while at the same time fully embracing Jesus Christ as our Saviour.
Blessings….
Thanks and Amen Shirley! Scripture memorization is important, as long it brings us to knowing Christ and his Kingdom. Blessings to you..
I have to confess…I never looked at Bible drills that way before. I took part in my fair share of them as a child. I even won a “Soul Winner’s New Testament” in one. I must admit, though, that I tend to agree with you. It seems very petty now, from this distance.
Ha, I suppose some of these could be done in a safer smaller scale healthier way. The one I witnessed wasn’t done that way though!
I don’t think the Bible Drill is wrong in itself, so much as in the way it was handled. It should never be an ‘entertainment’ or ‘exhibition’ performance. I have seen it conducted in a group of mainly non-Church children which is very wrong, and embarrassing, but it can be beneficial in a core-group of believers – in a group setting, not for exhibition.
One of the main points always stressed in our children’s ministry was to ADD VALUE to children. No child was ever allowed to be demeaned or caused to feel inferior. They were always praised for trying and thanked for their effort. Positive discipline was always used and no negativity was allowed.
I am not excusing what happened. It was very wrong, but the same thing can and does happen in a spelling bee or any type of quiz program. I presume participation was voluntary.