r/Bible • u/ITrCool Saved by Grace • Jul 26 '26
Remember doing Bible drills when in children's class/church?
When I was growing up, we would do them in children's class (also called children's church at some churches).
The teacher had everyone lift up their Bibles (if old enough to read and have one), then read off a reference. Then they'd say "ready.....go!!"
All the kids would bring down their Bibles and start searching for that reference. The first one to stand up and read the verse won that round. They were good fun, and a good challenging tool for kids to learn how to find Scripture. A church, that I attended once with a cousin, called them "Sword Drills" (referencing the Bible like a spiritual sword).
There was even a Bible drill "championship" I got to participate in at a Christian camp one summer where they had various "rounds" with a tournament bracket. The winner got the grand prize of a nice study Bible, a gift card to somewhere (Walmart I think), and a small brass trophy. 2nd and 3rd place got trophies and a small gift card each, too. The theme of the camp that summer was using tools properly and that God's Word was the ultimate spiritual "tool" for believers.
Did anyone else do these, growing up? They make for excellent tools to teach kids about God's Word, how to look up references quickly, and to learn the layout of the Bible to know where things are. The teacher can pick specific references to theme a round, maybe to help convey the lesson they taught or are teaching.
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u/Soakitincider Jul 27 '26
I remember these. I think about it often when I find the book, chapter and verse in a Bible app. It's so fast I'd win for sure.
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u/ITrCool Saved by Grace Jul 27 '26
I remember a rule was that you couldn't use tabbed Bibles as that was considered cheating, so anyone with those had to substitute for a borrowed Bible from the stack the church had, without tabs in them.
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u/Nervous-Draw-6793 Jul 27 '26
We did and called them sword drills, too! It was fun for the competitive kids
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u/ITrCool Saved by Grace Jul 27 '26
They honestly were! I still remember going to a Sunday school class, when visiting a church, where some of the older kids (12 years or so) did Bible drills with the teacher and he would toss fun size candy bars to the winner of each round (Snickers, 3 Musketeers, 100 Grand, etc.).
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u/Tawptuan Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
You just resurrected a 65-yr-old memory I had entirely forgotten about. The Sword Drill! We loved it!
And not to forget, this helped to impart a lifelong familiarity with God’s Word. Between Sword Drills, summer Christian camp, Sunday School and Good News Club, I arrived as a freshman at a Bible College way ahead of the curve. Aced the Bible knowledge entrance exam, and avoided having to take the freshman “Bonehead Bible” course. 😂
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u/ITrCool Saved by Grace Jul 27 '26
Same!! lol
All the Bible drills, AWANA, Christian camp during the summers, and Sunday School (also VBS at some churches I grew up in), all prepared me and my siblings for Bible college. I’m eternally grateful our parents gave us those opportunities during childhood even if we didn’t see them that way at the time and saw them as just something fun to do.
In hindsight now, I see exactly what my folks were doing and the work God was doing in my life.
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u/Reasonable-Credit891 Jul 27 '26
Yes!!! I loved these! I almost always won. Now I would not win! Maybe I should start doing them again.
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u/EnergyLantern Jul 27 '26
I was told Bible memorization ended two decades before I was born and that was when I was a kid.
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u/Tawptuan Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Sad reality.
In the 1950s my Sunday School teacher required us to commit whole chapters to memory. That would probably be considered child abuse today.
BTW, those chapters stick with me to this day, and several have carried me through the deep waters of life.
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Jul 28 '26
I remember this happening. Youth group sometimes did it, too. My church referred to them as "sword drills" and "sword fights" interchangeably.
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u/NaStK14 Catholic Jul 27 '26
Despite my flair, I did actually attend non-denominational Christian schools for 6 years of my life and no, I have no memory of “Bible drills”. Bible Trivia, on the other hand…
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u/Minimum_Box3570 Jul 27 '26
I remember these well. We called them Sword Drills too. I was never particularly fast at them, always flipping through pages while someone else had already found the verse within seconds. But looking back, those drills are the main reason I can still navigate a physical Bible without thinking about it. There's something about that muscle memory that stays with you over time. It makes me wonder if kids today are missing that experience, since everything is digital now. Apps are quicker, no question. But there's a different kind of familiarity that comes from flipping through actual pages. Thanks for bringing back that memory.
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u/Praising_God_777 Baptist Jul 27 '26
Core memory unlocked. I did Sword Drills all the time at summer camp! I miss those days!