By Andy Blanks, co-founder of youthministry360. Andy loves Jesus, his amazing wife and daughters, and the Boston Red Sox. In that order.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n I have thought a great deal about this, and I\u2019m convinced there isn\u2019t a sure-fire, \u201ctry-this-five-step-method\u201d that works. But I do think there are some important things to consider.<\/p>\n Here are a few of them . . .<\/p>\n Knowing God, Part 1: We\u2019re Framing The Question All Wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhat can we do to get teenagers reading the Bible more?\u201d I think this might be the wrong question. I think the right question may be, \u201cWhat can we do to help teenagers value God more?\u201d God must be important to our teenagers, specifically the idea of knowing<\/em> God. When knowing God is important, when being close to Him matters to teenagers, the act of reading the Bible simply becomes the means by which they come to know Him. If they value God, they\u2019ll value reading the Bible. Which leads me to the next point . . .<\/p>\n Knowing God, Part 2: It Doesn’t Start With Doing. It Starts With Feeling.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I read hundreds of blog articles a week. (Or, I skim hundreds. I read a few dozen.) A few times a month I will run across an article that is titled something like this: \u201c5 Steps To Better Bible Reading,\u201d or \u201cTips To Help Your Students Read The Bible More.\u201d The problem with these articles is that they are practice oriented. They focus on technique (\u201cBible study methods\u201d) and behavior (\u201cwhen to study the Bible\u201d). Many of them are solid articles. But they assume a faulty starting point, as I alluded to earlier.<\/p>\n We have to change the way we teach teenagers to think about the Bible. If we teach them to see the Bible primarily as a \u201cdiscipline,\u201d or a \u201chabit,\u201d or even as \u201cBible study,\u201d we\u2019re missing it. We’ve forgotten that reading the Bible is relational.\u00a0(We don’t talk about any other relationship in this way. You don’t develop the discipline of taking your children to see a baseball game. You do it because you love your kids. We should approach the Bible the same way.)\u00a0We should strive to teach teenagers that the Bible is first-and-foremost a heart-driven, deeply personal, experiential encounter with God. We go to the Bible to engage with God, to meet God. We have to stop putting technique and behavior first, and make Bible reading about feeding our relationship with God. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Teach Teenagers To Embrace Multiple Methods Of Engaging With God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/p>\n WAY too often we communicate to students that there is one way to engage with the Bible: sit down with a passage and study it as they would any other text. Inductive, exegetical Bible study. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching this method. The only problem comes when this is the ONLY way we teach teenagers to engage with the Bible. It communicates to students that the Bible is meant for primarily comprehension-based information gathering. It neglects the many experiential, heart-driven approaches to meeting God in Scripture.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/formation\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\"){kind=spacer}
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