Home Youth Leaders Youth Leaders Blogs The Bible and Jr. Highers … “What do You HOPE For?”

The Bible and Jr. Highers … “What do You HOPE For?”

If you’re like me, you spend a fair bit of time thinking about how we’ll help students engage with the Bible when they’re “at’ our ministry…
But lately I’ve also been thinking a lot about what I’m hoping they’ll do with the Bible the rest of the week.

This school year, we’ve been passing out a simple card each week when we teach. It has scripture for the week on, and a couple of places where students sometimes “fill in” a word or 2 about the lesson. (or doodle… or play tic-tac-toe…or create origami of flamingoes & hummingbirds & dinosaurs)

But every week, I encourage students to Read More in their own Bible about the topic we covered. (or any topic, for that matter!) Of course, we want to catalyze a habit of reading Scripture for themselves — and middle school is a great time for that habit to start.

So I’m wondering … in the world of middle schoolers…what’s my HOPE for how often they’ll read the Bible for themselves?! Of course I know that there’s no “right answer” to this question. In a perfect world, I’d love to see every middle schooler open Scripture for themselves every day, and learn from God’s Words. But honestly, if I could get most of our kids to read the Bible once a week, I’d probably do a back flip.

Is anybody out there wiling to comment — How often do you HOPE your students are reading the Bible on their own??