Day 7: Quizzing

Most Thursdays throughout junior high and high school while most people in my generation were watching the Cosby Show, I was attending Bible Quizzing practice. "Quizzing" was teams of youth from Evangelical Free churches across the country that would study a specific book or books of the Bible and then gather to answer questions on that book. Throughout the winter we would have "quiz meets" with area churches in hopes of being at our best at "districts" in the spring and the dream of making it to "nationals" in the summer.

Looking back my mind is full of memories of time spent with friends studying and making up songs to memorize phrases and of picking out matching shirts for our quiz uniforms (one year we struck gold when we found guess oxfords on clearance -- another year we wore white shirts, suspenders and skinny ties!) and of van trips to quiz retreats and of deep long-lasting friendships.

Here's why quizzing was such a significant part of my growing up years:

It challenged me to dig into the Bible. Sure, some of the work was pure memorization and not as much application... but, as I've grown I'm amazed at verse and themes I'm able to quote or point to that come from my years of studying for quizzing.

It created a sense of belonging. Oh, how I loved being a part of the quiz team! When we would go to the Sunday quiz meets our team in matching oxfords was surrounded by other Twin Cities youth in matching shirts who spent their time memorizing scripture to sit on metal chairs and learn the best way to "jump" so they could be called on first to answer the question. I was surrounded by friends and we all thought we were "cool". I belonged here and it felt good.

I learned about teamwork. Here I learned some of my first lessons about team work: about leaders and followers, about sacrificing for the greater good, about taking the focus off self and onto others, and about the value of each member of the team.

I enjoyed celebrating our wins. In junior high our quiz coaches took us out to Dairy Queen anytime we won all three quizzes on a Sunday. I remember thinking they were incredibly generous and I remember tremendously enjoying the soft-serve cone I had earned. There were the years, too, that we won retreat championships and other awards and those rare but incredible years where we made it to nationals!! Yes, nationals was the Olympics of quizzing and we were so proud to represent the north central district and compete against churches from places like Hershey, PA and Rockford, IL.

I made deep, long lasting friendships. My best friends at youth group were ones who were on the quiz team. Maybe we bonded over our geeky-ness or over our love for the word... whatever it was I'm so thankful for these friends. I also became friends with quizzers from other churches and am still in touch with some of them to this day!

I was able to spend time with my brother and sister. Being within one year of school of both my brother and sister meant we overlapped on quiz teams too. Celebrating wins with my siblings only made the win sweeter. Studying the same material as my sister and/or brother made me want to study harder. And, wearing matching shirts with my siblings? Priceless.