wfn.org | TCN: Church starts Bible study cram school and Bible proficiency exams

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3008 Edition

>October 19~25, 2009

Church starts Bible study cram school and Bible proficiency exams

>Reported by Chen Wei-jian

>Written by Lydia Ma

PCT Hakka Presbytery developed Bible proficiency exams recently in  a fun attempt to help

Christians strengthen their spiritual foundations. An exam based  on the book of Genesis was

held on October 18 at Hukou Presbyterian Church. Seventy people  applied to take the exam

and were placed in different age groups. The test groups were  divided into seniors, adults,

youth, and children. The highest score went to an elder from Hukou  Church who scored 118

>points in a test consisting of 120 questions.

According to Rev. Peng rung-guang, who encouraged Christians to  take these exams,

regardless of what strategy churches use to grow and evangelize,  every church will ultimately

need to focus on helping their members get to know the Bible.  Though many Christians are

avid readers of the Bible, as evidenced by the number of  registrants who applied to take this

proficiency exam, one of the goals of organizing such exams is to  stir up passion for reading

>the Bible among more Christians.

According to reports, the material covered by the latest exam was  more difficult than previous

times, but exam-takers on average scored higher than before. The  elder from Hukou who

received the highest score read the book of Genesis ten times just  to prepare for this exam.

In an interesting twist, many local churches began offering Bible  study cram schools to

prepare for this event and to encourage Bible-reading among its  members. These cram

schools reviewed the Bible using a variety of methods and also  included all sorts of incentives

to attract members. Students sharpened their memory through  fill-in-the blanks and true-or-

false questions and practice exams, and some churches even gave  out cash awards to the

top three students of the class to encourage Bible reading. Some  pastors also focused on the

>book of Genesis during recent Sunday sermons.

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