Knowing God’s Word is important to our church life and to our individual spiritual growth. It is for this reason the elders
desire to provide recognition and awards to encourage memorization.
Who may participate?
Anyone who is a regular attendee of Providence Church may participate. This program is not intended for children only. It is important for adults to memorize God’s Word, too. So now is the time to review all those verses you memorized as a child.
What can be memorized?
Our focus will be on Bible passages. You may choose individual verses but you will find passages to be easier to memorize and more meaningful. You may choose any version or translation.
If you don’t know where to start, Psalm 1 (six verses) is highly recommended. This Psalm tells why it is important to memorize and meditate on God’s Word.
Memorization is also encouraged of the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Children’s Catechism, Shorter Catechism, and the Heidelberg Catechism. Contact the elders if you have an interest in memorizing something that this not listed.
Whatever system or version you choose for memorization you should try to learn them word-perfect. To earn awards and recognition you must recite them to predetermined standards.
Why standards?
Because awards and recognition will be given it is important to judge everyone equally to a set of standards. But even more important, the Bible says “Every Word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5). Therefore it is important to get it right. It is also a good mental discipline.
What is the standard?
At least five verses must be said together at one time to receive credit for memorizing (unless it is a Psalm or chapter with less than five verses). The person will be allowed only one help for every five verses they quote. This means if they quote 25 verses, they can have five helps (if they quote 21 verses they can also have five helps). These five helps can all be in one verse.
A help is anytime the person quoting is told one word to help them get started again. The person reciting is signaled every time they make a mistake, but they will not be told what the mistake is. They must figure out what the mistake is on their own. If they are told, then that is a help.
It is important to have high expectations for memorization and be consistent in evaluating everyone. These standards are not too high. They are achievable. If the person gets too many helps, they just need to work on it more. It won’t hurt them.
What is The Procedure?
To receive credit for the verses the person must quote the verses to an approved listener. An approved listener is someone outside their family who has been coached on the pass/fail criteria and how to give helps while they’re listening.
We will need many trained and approved listeners. Please contact the elders if you are interested in helping and encouraging our children in this way.
When someone has verses they want to quote, they should make a photocopy or computer printout of the Bible version and identify the verse/text they will be quoting and give it to the listener. The listener will mark on the copy each help as it is given. This copy will be put in a memorization notebook as a written record of the quoting, for calculating awards and for validating that the quoting meets the criteria.
Quoting can take place at any time that is convenient with the person quoting and the listener.
How Are Points Calculated?
The awards will be determined on a point system. A point will be awarded for each verse quoted. Each verse, whether long or short, will be counted as one point. Point values are yet to be determined for texts not divided into verses such as catechisms and creeds.
When two sequential chapters or Psalms are said together, a bonus of 1/10th point (per verse of the added chapter) will be awarded. This bonus encourages the memorization of longer passages.
To encourage reviewing and retaining what is memorized, points will be awarded for quoting the same verses one year later; but the points will be discounted. They will be worth 1/2 point per verse the second year, 1/3 point per verse the third year, etc.
Someone with a photographic memory may come in and quote the whole Bible (that’s approximately 30,000 verses). To guard against bankrupting the church, there is a 500 point award limit for each person in one year’s time. However points can be accumulated from one year to the next. This limit will be adjusted as necessary.
What Are The Awards?
Those who successfully quote will receive recognition, awards, or scholarships. An award is for a product; a scholarship is for an event.
Every five verses quoted together will be recognized on a card given to the person who successfully quotes the text. Each recognition card will contain the person’s name, the date and the reference of what they quoted. However, to get credit toward an award or scholarship at least 35 verses must be said at one time. These 35 verses can include any verses quoted earlier that have not already been credited towards an award. A point will be awarded for each verse quoted. These points can then be redeemed for awards and scholarships according to a conversion rate yet to be determined.
An exception to this rule is that any self-contained collection of verses (a Psalm or a chapter) will be accepted as credit towards an award or scholarship no matter how short it is.
What kinds of awards and scholarships are contemplated? An award is an item of Christian and educational value, such as a book. On the other hand a scholarship is for an event such as a conference, seminar, family camp or even an excursion or trip. The intent is that whatever the award or scholarship is it will build up and edify ones Christian character and understanding. All awards will be approved by the Session.
As you can imagine some events for entire families can be very expensive and this is the value of being able to accumulate ones points over several years.
