Minnesota Junior Bible Quiz

What is Junior Bible Quiz?

Junior Bible Quiz (aka JBQ!) offers a fun, exciting way to motivate children to understand and really learn the all-important truths about God's Word and how God truly LOVES them.  Through group learning, kids work together on teams and with their family to learn and appreciate the questions and answers from the Bible Fact-Pak.  Then using, warm and friendly competition, the children meet with other teams from other churches for a fun quizzing match.  There are 20 questions in a match, with 2 teams of quizzers trying to beat each other to the buzzers to get the first shot at the answers.

Some kids don't thrive on competition or it may take them a year or so to get excited about competition.  For those, JBQ offers the Seals program.  This works with the same materials but is more of a one on one program of memorizing and understanding these truths.  The Seals program involves a series of achievements in learnings various levels of difficulty within the questions of the Fact-Pak.

JBQ is a fabulous discipleship program for children's ministry.  It is great for large churches struggling with how to motivate the different types of children that are found in a large group.  It is great for small churches who don't have enough kids or helpers to sponsor Royal Rangers or Missionettes.

What is the purpose of JBQ?

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. 

What is the Bible Fact-Pak?

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 the King James Version (KJV).  The Minnesota District prefers that you use the NIV.  A Spanish version is available in book form. 

Questions are graded by point values.  Ten-point questions are the easiest; 20-point questions are more difficult; 30-point questions are the most involved.  The levels for the Seals program advance in difficulty with the difficulty of the questions.

What is a quiz team?

A quiz team consists of a head coach and two to eight children eligible to quiz.  If you have enough helpers, you can also have an assistant coach.  Frequently children who complete 6th grade and are no longer eligible for JBQ are great helpers as assistant coach.

A church may have as many teams as they can manage.

Children are generally eligible to quiz if they are entering first through sixth grade in the fall.  Sometimes a kindergarten age child can participate.  If you have questions about eligibility, contact your league coordinator.  We understand that, for instance where children are home schooled, these grade levels don't always work.

Junior Bible Quiz is not limited to a single denomination.  Any church who wishes to participate in welcome.  The rule for a team, however, is that all children on that team must be involved with the church sponsoring the team.

Obviously sponsoring a team involves a lot of work with the kids and parents, but all you need to do officially is register the team with the district office.  The registration form is on the 2006-7 Season Information page.

Where can I get more detailed information about getting Junior Bible Quiz going in my church?

We really hate to copy over information that is already provided in another location.  So, we suggest you go to the National JBQ web page to get much better information on that question.  Go to:  http://nationaljbq.org/info/index.cfm

But, how do I really make it work?

That is the question, isn't it?  All of the web pages can tell you to order supplies, recruit members, learn the rules, take the tests, etc.  But that is just the framework, the key is the enthusiasm.  You can start with the children in Kid's church or Sunday School and do games like Bible baseball, Zonk, Sword drills, etc.  There is a whole book on JBQ games that you can order from the Gospel Publishing House. 

Pick the kids who think this is fun and organize a meeting with their parents to explain the concept.  Encourage them to think of quizzing as a great tool for devotions with their kids.  Frequently parents struggle with that concept.  The Bible Fact Pak questions can be arranged by topic - Christmas, Noah, the 10 commandments, etc.  This gives families a theme to work on for a week, a month or a day.  They can take them in the car to study on a trip, impress their Grandparents, etc.  This kind of learning can be fun for the whole family and give them a chance to think about what these things mean.  Many of the questions and answers are very short, but extremely powerful.  They usually include the scripture reference to help the family look up the basis for the statement.

Parents have to recognize that they are a core part of the JBQ team.  We need them to learn with the kids, encourage the kids and frequently to serve as coaches or officials.  This is a chance to bring the family together on a project.  It you make it fun, they will have fun and stay involved.  I can tell you from my own experience, my boys started quizzing at 5 and 8.  When they became too old for JBQ, they became helpers, officials, coaches, etc.  My youngest helped me out even when he was in college, coming home during weekends to quizmaster for me.  AND I didn't even pay him, he really enjoyed doing this.

Also - remember, though the competitive part of quizzing is limited to kids, the Seals program is open to all - children and adults.  Encourage the adults to learn the questions and earn their seals.  Award the seals at your league meets and acknowledge the grown-ups along with the kids.  The kids will love it - particularly when they earn a seal before their coach or parent! 

So, set the tone as a family friendly project and you will be pleasantly surprised by the positive results.

God Bless you and have fun!

But what about the conflicts?

We all know that kids are involved in dozens of activities these days.  There are sometimes conflicts with church activities - Royal Ranger, Missionettes, Sunday School, church programs, etc.  There are sometimes conflicts with sporting events, music lessons or recitals, etc.  We cannot deny that this happens.  This is why we post the schedule so early so you can see the Saturdays that must be set aside for quizzing.

An occasional conflict for a team with 4 or more players may not be a problem.  The other quizzers can carry the team.  But, too many conflicts can hurt the team.  It is just like any other commitment, the child needs to know in advance what is expected and learn to make a choice.  Remember, if quizzing is important, they can stay involved through the seals program, even if they don't play on a team.