The National Bible Bee
Memverse is my favorite Scripture memory website (easily beating out my own currently mostly dead, but hope to revive someday www.scripture-memory-support.org ) I would like to share with you my favorite Scripture memory event, the National Bible Bee, now in its 2nd year. The National Bible Bee is a contest for 7-18 year olds with a local competition in different sites around the country on August 28th (there is still time for your group to host a local competition) and then a National Finals in Chicago, IL for the top 300 contestants, and then outlandish cash prizes from $5,000 to $100,000 for the top 9 finishers. It is also simply a wonderful Scripture memory resourse for all ages who want help memorizing up to 800 key verses in the KJV, NKJ, NIV, ESV, or NASB.
I am completely sold on the benefit of the National Bible Bee to inspire, encourage, and equip thousands of people to get to know the Living God better and better through His Word, and Lord willing, as a tool God uses to lead towards a much needed revival of Spiritual/Scriptural truth in our churches and "Christian" culture. Last year I ran 5 unofficial Bible Bee Scripture memory camps (NY, PA, OH, MO, FL) and this summer will be sent around the country by headquarters to run official Bible Bee camps from June 6th - August 6th. (If you hear of a camp coming to your area, I would love to meet any Memverse Scripture enthusiasts on my travels, even if you are not involved with the Bible Bee)
I am obviously biased, but I believe that every single 7-18 year old in the USA should sign up for and get involved with the Bible Bee. I don't think everyone should feel obligated or be pushed by parents/teachers/etc. to try to win the Bible Bee. There could be a lot of reasons not to try to win the Bible Bee this summer, but I believe all who sign up, receive the verse list and all the helpful support to memorize Scripture will benefit greatly from being a part of the National Bible Bee. Maybe a low key "introduction year" this summer may lead your 7-18 year old to be self motivated to memorize as much as they possibly can next summer.
I also believe every church, Christian home school group and Christian school should host a local Bible Bee (or connect with another church/school in their area who is hosting) to spur Scripture memory among your people and as a wonderful, God-honoring, eternally and temporal fruitful outreach ministry to your community.
You can check out more about the National Bible Bee or contact headquarters through www.biblebee.org If you have any questions or thoughts about the Bible Bee, you can also contact me directly at philjohn1558@yahoo.com or through this blog.
In Christ, Phil Walker
PS If you are interested in starting Scripture memory initiatives in other countries, I would also love to hear from you.
68 responses to The National Bible Bee
One of my biggest regrets is not starting memorizing God's word earlier. I memorized my first verse ever just over a year ago :(
If you're 7-18 years old, remember that now is the time of life when you have both the free time (I know it doesn't always feel like it!) and the sharp mind to memorize scripture. You never know what will happen later, but once those life-changing words are in your head, they'll be there for ever and will come back to you when you stand at a crossroad making a difficult decision.
You might not understand now what it means to have a 'light for your path' but you will one day. Ask the older saints around you who have heads stuffed full of memory verses and they will all say the same thing. Start early, and never stop.
i would also like to encourage others to do it! i think it is a great way to learn!
i wont be able to though i wish i could. my grandpapa has cancer and i will be going out of town (again, last year we left from augest to late febuary) to see him. he is not expected to live through the summer. thats why i need to leave. i encourage others to do it!
sincerley,
Naomi
Phil, If you click on the person's name in the blog comments you can see their user profile page (which will hopefully look much better soon!)
Wow! I just signed up with memverse and I am thrilled! This place is packed with phenomenal Bible memory and review tools that I look forward to using in the months ahead. If only I had known of MemVerse last year for preparing for the 2009 National Bible Bee.
I will definitely recommend this site in the book I am writing about my experience with the Bible Bee. Are any of you looking for further tips and ideas on memorization? This book is for you! In it I explain the revolutionary approach I learned from Steve Mugglin that allowed me to win first place last year. The book (titled The $100,000 Word) should go to print in the next few weeks and be available for puchase in early July. Keep an eye an the Staddon family blog (www.staddonfamily.com) and the Bible Bee site (www.biblebee.org) for more information.
Wouldn't it be fun to have everyone who has participated/is participating in the Bible Bee join the Bible Bee group here on MemVerse? This is exciting! I joined today and started memorizing, and I think it would be awesome to work alongside all of you Bible Bee contestants. Sign up today!
Hey Guys! I saw that you were talking about the Bible Bee, so I thought I would jump in!
In 2009, I got involved the Bible Bee with my family and some friends.
We had tons of events over the summer, and it was SO AMAZING!! Tons of fun memorizing with all my friends!
I Highly Reccomend the Bible Bee for everyone who enjoys memorizing Gods Word!!
Visit www.BibleBee.org for more details!!
I agree!! The Bible Bee is an awesome program to get families in the word of God throughout the summer!!
Last summer was like a "spiritual high" for me. It really helped me in my walk with Christ. this year that is even more so as I am really digging deep into the book of Colossians!
I was so thrilled when Mr. Walker showed me this site. I think this site has become one of my favorite tools when it comes to studying for the Bible Bee.
The Bible Bee this year has meant so much to me! My brother is doing it this year and i think that it is going to bring us closer in our relationship. 'Cause there's the memorizing, the sword study and the FUN, FUN, FUN! I am so happy that we are doing it again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I'm doing the Bible Bee this year as well! I can't believe how much Scripture I find myself quoting all the time! And I totally, whole-heartedly agree with Zach that Memverse is my favorite site for studying for the Bible Bee. Good luck all of you! (Actually I should say Good Providence!) Hopefully we'll meet in Chicago.
River (in MA, unfortunately, not yet on the leaderboard :( )
Lol! No, I meant that Massachusetts was not on the leaderboard yet! But Mr. Walker invited some people today, he told me, so we'll see if that'll change soon or not.
hi,Daniel,my name is bebe,im from indonesia,i just signed up on memVerse,and i just graduate from my junior high school.
Congratulation,on winning the 2009 Bible Bee
How did you memorize all those verses?
I and my class are trying to memorize the sermon on the mount
Right now,i know,the first five verses
Maybe your book could help me learn more
G.B.U
Wow! I could hardly agree more with you all.
My name is Donald and I am one of Daniel's brothers. The day in November that Daniel, Truman, Ellen and the others competed will certainly live a long time in my memory. Everyone in our family was impressed with the team spirit and the way everyone talked and acted under the genuine awareness that each contestant was a winner already. The younger contestants provided possibly the most powerful inspiration of all to me personally when I saw their level of maturity from my perspective serving as a judge for some of their earlier rounds. I hope to be able to volunteer and judge again for the competition this year (along with some of your all's friends or family members or second cousins who would consider volunteering for the noble cause???).
Of course I highly recommend the book that Daniel wrote because it summarizes everything you need to know and combines the emotion of the experience with tactical strategies of memorizing and mediating on Scripture. Bebe, the way Daniel memorized all those verses was the same way he learned geometry or states & capitals--learning and growing every day (except Sundays) over a long time. The rest of us in the family were available to check him regularly on his verses too. Most of all he wanted to and humbled himself to receive grace from God!
"But his [a blessed person's] delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" (Psalm 1).
I want to speak for many others in the family when I say that the Bible Bee and MemVerse both provide a very high-caliber challenge. They also do a wonderful job of giving us a taste of that fulfilment which God's gives when we are faithful. May we rest on Him daily.
The National Bible Bee is a great way to get closer to God and His word. It is one of the only things I would say is above this program the other is Journey to the Heart. I was amazed how close it drew me to God and it laid the foundation for the Bible Bee and His word. I am so thankful for the counselors who took their time and energy to do it for us.
We had trouble at first as well, but I think that was just because of the immense amount of traffic the website was having. Even our new Mac (very fast computer) was having a lot of trouble loading the page. It's alright now.
Did anyone on Memverse make it to the Nationals? Let us know who you are and we'll pray for you!
Congratulations all,
River
@River Jordan - us too. I think it was the traffic as well. How did you do? I can't remember if you were able to participate. Yes, to my surprise, I placed in the top 100.
My (Senior) rank was 135 (600 points). Only 55 points away from being in the top 100! But it was the Lord's will and I'm totally fine with it. I CAN'T WAIT until next year!!
I'll be rooting for you, Alex! Are you a senior?
May the Lord be with you,
River
O my word! The Bible Bee was sooo much Fun this year :) It was sooo cool! It really brought me closer to the LORD this year:) I can't wait 'till next year :) Although i am kinda nervous, i will be a senior but who cares 'cause it's all about learning God's Word :) that's what's important!
Oh and to everyone who is thinking about joining next year, DO IT! it is A LOT of fun!
Love,
Kyile
@River Jordan - Good job! It is harder with the Senior category - both verse wise and contestant numbers - (I'm in Junior - next year I'll be Senior).
Glad you are planning for next year - I am too! Unfortunately, some people drop out because of the number of verses, but you have to keep the big picture. It's not about the number of verses you have in your head, but what you hide in your heart and how you grow in your relationship with Christ.
May He bless you as well.
Alex
Congratulations, River, Alex, Kylie, and others on your recent completion of the National Bible Bee local competition. It looks like you all have an incredible attitude about Scripture. Praise God!! I pray that He will continue to use Scripture powerfully in your life and in the lives of other young people (including memverse's own Dakota) memorizing Scripture as you lead the church of tomorrow in a much needed revival of Biblical truth and reality to fight today's trivial gospel and marginizing of Scripture. You are an inspiration to me and in my prayers.
I wanted to thank Andy for building memverse and Phil for getting all the verses for the Bible Bee into the database. I used memverse from weeks 3 - 12 for the Bible Bee almost exclusively (I used the cards when I was offline) and placed #36 nationally for the Junior category.
I encourage everyone to do the Bee. It was a lot of fun, and most importantly it helped everyone draw near to God. The effect of Scripture is noticeable, especially for me in my personal battle against sin. Thankful for the Word which is living and active (Heb 4:12).
I also participated in the Bible Bee (the same one as Alex) and thanks to Memverse placed 70th nationally in the Junior Division. Memverse has helped me a lot to review verses better and has motivated me to hide God's word in my heart. Before I have been fairly good at memorizing passages but just couldn't review them in an effecient or long-term way. Now, thanks to memverse, I have the oppurtunity to be able to remember all the verses that I have memorized for a long time. Thanks a lot for all your hard work!
Sorry Phil I haven't looked on this page for a while my church is Fbc monroe and is in Georgia
And what is the bible bee
@Kyle - the Bible Bee is an annual, national competition directed by the Shelby Kennedy Foundation for children and their families. Anyone 7 - 18 years old can compete, but it is a blessing to the whole family. Those enrolled were accountable from 100 - 750 verses depending on age level and the track they chose (Timothy or National). The local bees this year were held August 28th, but the National competition is forthcoming from Nov. 11 - 13. The top 100 contestants in each of the three age groups were invited to this National level in Chicago. While the most valuable prize is knowing God and growing through the study of His Word, money is awarded to the top 3 contestants in each age group in the National competition. More information is available at: www.BibleBee.org.
I HIGHLY recommend participating (and using Memverse to help with structured review and memorization).
Portions of the National Bible Bee competition will be streaming live on their website: Live Webcast. Competition begins Friday morning and lasts through Saturday. The Finals are on Saturday. For a complete event schedule, please click here.
I hope that whether or not you watch, you will be encouraged by the family discipleship promoted by the Shelby Kennedy Foundation in the National Bible Bee.
Sorry for the link mistake above. The event schedule is here: http://www.biblebee.org/_hostcp/eventschedules.php.
My family (7 of our 10 kids) participated in the Bible Bee this year, and my sister Melody made it to Nationals. We are really looking forward to this weekend!
God bless all you young men and women of God who have determined to hide God's word in your hearts. God bless the mothers and fathers who have committed time and money and allowed and encouraged their children in this endeavour. And God bless those who have orchestrated this wonderful, God-honouring event. May our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be glorified through this weekend of declaring His word!! Hallelujah!! Maranatha!!
I will be praying for all you Bible Bee Finalists! I didn't make it this year, but I CAN'T WAIT until next year!!!! ~River
Thank you and I look forward to seeing those who will be there. Good job everyone. I'm really excited about next year, too! The Bible Bee recently updated us that the Finals will be webcasted, starting at 1:00 PM Saturday, with the Primary students. Since it is in Chicago, the time zone is Central Standard Time (GMT -6 hours).
River,
A webcast is a live feed of video from the event. In most cases, these videos are not posted for later viewing, so if you miss it you probably won't have a chance to watch it later.
Dakota
@River La Belle - Yes, it should at 2:00 PM for you. I think Dakota is right about them not posting videos later. I believe they will be selling a DVD with selected videos from Nationals.
Wow! I can't believe I'm going to miss being at this year's National Bible Bee. How many of you are going? I believe it will be a wonderful event for all, whether watching, participating, or cheering for others. I am aware of 2 Memverse qualifiers in the finals: Alex Watt and Josiah DeGraaf. Are there others I am not aware of? I will be watching you live at 2:00AM!! on Sunday morning, hoping not to fall asleep in church after that. You are all in my prayers.
Hahaha! You are so faithful, Mr. Walker. :) May God bless you for it. . . and help you stay awake in church!! :D
I second his motion: are there any other National qualifiers in the ranks that we can pray for?
Phil, I also want to say: in the third paragraph of your original post, you say: "I am obviously biased, BUT . . . "
No, that's wrong. You are not biased. You are Biblically correct. I hope and believe you would say all that even if you just learned about it yesterday!! Many families and parents (and even a few pastors--ouch) don't have above twenty verses hid in their hearts.
I whole-heartedly support your whole post (minus those five words. haha). :)
Thanks Everyone! Rachel Eaton, who is currently in 5th place on the Leaderboard, also made it to Nationals in the Senior Divisions, so you can pray for you too!
I participated in the Bible Bee both years, and I think that it is a good way to get in the Word. Even if you can't memorize as much as you'd like, it's still a blessing to fellowship with other scripture memorizers and helps you to really hide away some verses in your mind and heart.
I must say, Memverse was one of the big tools I used when studying for the Bible Bee. It's a great way to get the Word of God in your life every day!
I also think that Scripture memory, to at least some extent, is something that all Christians should get involved with. Some will memorize more than others, but I think everyone should be able to fit at least a little in their life. Memverse and Bible Bee are great tools for Scripture memory, both small-scale and really BIG-scale!
I would have loved to have been able to do Bible Bee when I was younger. It sounds great but living in England it wasn't available! I did take part in inter church memory competitions but they were on a smaller stage and involved learning a passage. I'm now a youth group leader (14-18 year olds) and am encouraging them to get stuck in to memverse- its a great site. Thanks
I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR. What an inspiration to see all the action. . . WOWOWOWOW. Praise God. . . I am definitely going to pick up on my verses!!!!!
Talia, I was chatting with your mom in the Livestream chat room! :) Fun!
What do you mean? They seem to still be strongly lodged in 2nd place until the 1 JOHN project passes them up on our way to challenging the run away leader. There may be a huge revival of bible bee action come next June.
That's funny. Several people that did the Bible Bee (Josiah and myself) changed our memverse churches: I now have my local church entered in my profile, and I think Josiah put himself in the 1 JOHN project. :)
I LOVE LOVE THE NATIONAL BIBLE BEE!!!!!!!!!!! I competed 2009 & 2010 and made it to nationals BOTH years!!!! I can't wait to the 2011 NBB!!!
@ River La Belle: Yes you're right--I ranked #1 at locals, both years. Do you compete in the National Bible Bee?
I competed in the 2010 Bee, and I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!!!!!! Hahaha--I ranked #1 at locals, but only because I was the only Senior!! I got #135 as my National score. Only 55 more points. . .
For all you Bible-Beers out there, check out the Contestant Accountability Forum - www.accountabilityforum.blogspot.com - a place for the encouragement and accoutability of former and current Bible Bee Contestants.
The Accountability Forum was started by Sophie LaFleur, this year's National Bible Bee Chairman's Oratory Award winner.
Elppa - I'm going to try to answer several questions in one place. 2011 BB materials are released June 1st online, and should arrive in a box at your address around that time.
You can take the accuracy test when you have "memorized" 10 verses on Memverse.
As far as the 1 John project - it has finished now, but you can still memorize it (of course)! Maybe you have friends who want to do it with you as a group.
We got our box Monday and were thrilled with what we got! I have done the Bible Bee every year and this is my first year to be in Juniors so this is going to be a big change from the 2 years I did Primary!!!!!! I LOVE the Bible Bee. This 1 Peter study will be very exciting.
My little sister is doing this for her first year and she is very young so please pray for us as we memorize all of these verses.
BTW, Alex Watt, congratulations on winning Juniors 1st Place last year!!!! I wasn't at the finals but I heard you won 1st place! Maybe I can fill the 3rd place this year...That would be awesome.
Thank you!!
I hope we can meet you in person at Nationals!
thank you so much for starting this site!
Here is the 2012 Bible Bee announcement (From the Bible Bee website):
The 2011 National Bible Bee season is under way and seeking people who love families and are passionate about the Word of God. If you would like to help the families in your community draw closer to the Lord through in-depth Bible study and Scripture memorization this summer, sign up to become a Bible Bee Host! Join the fun and excitement of encouraging youth ages 7 to18 years as they prepare for the Local Contest. Hosts receive a turnkey system for running a first-rate Local Bee. Host registration is now open through Mar 31. For more information and to register, visit www.BibleBee.org!
Though I won't be participating this year, I also believe the NBB is a wonderful tool to help and encourage young people to memorize God's Word. It is exciting to see that there is still a remnant who find their delight in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2), and are devoting their time and energy to hiding It in their hearts.