"Third Age" Essay

The following are excerpts from an essay distributed to the PNW Quizzing board of directors on November 3, 2022. The essay was discussed and voted on by the PNW Quizzing General Assembly in a meeting on November 19, 2022.

Health of the Church

God allowed His people to wander in the desert and to be carried into captivity in Babylon in the past; He allows us to wander from Him and even corrupt Christ’s Church today.

Historically, when the Church hides or ignores Scripture, it becomes corrupt, ineffectual, and uncompelling. This allows culture to dominate, which always puts individual desire ahead of God. There are many historical examples of this, but the strongest is how the Medieval Church hid Scripture. There was an active attempt to prevent the masses from reading Scripture unsupervised. This allowed corruption to take hold and infect the Church like a virus. The Church required the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to correct this corruption.

In our present day, we have a new phenomenon: the Church is choosing to ignore Scripture, which is leading to corruption of the faith and the Church. Certainly not all in the Church, but enough. Instead of the hard truths of the Bible, many pastors just preach what feels good to them and their congregations. The typical congregation member today rarely reads the Bible and gets precious little of it fed to them on Sundays. Doctrinally, we’ve gone from solid food to milk and from milk to water. As a direct consequence, Western Christianity is in deep, systemic decline; the Church is descending toward irrelevancy. The Church struggles to present an effective and compelling witness of Jesus, animated by the Holy Spirit. Our culture has obscured the Gospel. An original witness of Biblically-grounded salt and light has been lost. As a result, the Body of Christ is seen as nonessential when considering the most complex challenges individuals, families, and communities face. There’s a cultural seeking that, by and large, has not found the Church to have answers.

We need to restore the Church, which necessarily means a return to proclaiming Scripture and making disciples. But the Church can’t proclaim Scripture unless we first write Scripture on our hearts. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 reads:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

This command is repeated in Deuteronomy 11 and elsewhere across the Bible.

And the Church can’t make disciples without first being filled with disciples. Matthew 28:18-20 reads:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

To make disciples, the Church must teach obedience to Christ’s commands; but we can’t teach what we don’t know.

Discipleship in its simplest form is the writing of Scripture on hearts and the illumination of that knowledge by the Holy Spirit.

There are many ways to encourage ever more memorization of the Bible, and these should be supported; but Quizzing, relative to the investment, is the most effective way to obey God’s command to memorize. In no other way do we see normal young people memorize verses to the degree and depth that we see in Quizzing. In fact, Quizzing is at least an order of magnitude more effective than the next best option.

Therefore Quizzing is the best way to save the Church.

History and Present State of Quizzing

Quizzing has gone through what I’ve been calling 2 “ages.”

The “First Age” of Quizzing

The “First Age” of Quizzing began with its invention in the late 1940s. It came out of the Youth For Christ (“YFC”) movement, which itself started in 1940. Quizzing was designed as a Christian sport for youth, and it was one of the popular youth events at YFC rallies. YFC rallies typically averaged 350 youth. Teams were organized by high school. Participation grew over the following 20 years. Then starting in the early 1960s, participation in YFC rallies declined, and thus so did Quizzing. By the mid-1960s, YFC reorganized with a leadership council overseeing international operations, and Quizzing was abandoned.

The “Second Age” of Quizzing

The “Second Age” of Quizzing began in the mid- to late-1960s when several denominations started up their own Quizzing programs. With the decline and eventual collapse of Quizzing through YFC, many former quizzers, now parents, wanted their children to benefit from Quizzing. These parents understood Bible memorization was critical for a healthy Christian and a healthy Church. In parallel and mostly without collaboration, these parents helped build various programs across many denominations, including CMA, Assemblies, Churches of Christ, Free Methodist, Nazarene, and more. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the various denominational organizations provided evangelism and other support for their respective Quizzing programs.

Growth peaked for most of these “Second Age” programs somewhere in 1990s. Then, very slowly at first, every program began to decline in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Some years there might have been a small increase, but measured over multiple years, participation always decreased. Some programs received strong support from their denominations and realized a reduced decline relative to the average, but all programs declined.

This trend continued for the next 20 years.

Existential Crisis

Quizzing is now facing an existential crisis. Many Quizzing districts are at the brink of collapse. If radical change doesn’t happen, I predict we’ll see between a third to half of the current Quizzing districts collapse over the next 5 years. PNW Quizzing has not been immune to this universal decline. We’re surprisingly healthy relative to most other districts, but we too will also collapse if we don’t radically change. The math is inescapable. Doing what we’ve been doing the past 20 years will not lead to growth.

So why is the Second Age of Quizzing in decline and nearing an inevitable death?

Some of the reasons aren’t Quizzing’s fault. There are general, overarching societal realities that are hurting Quizzing participation. Church attendance overall declined precipitously around 2015. Youth attendance both at worship services and in youth groups declined sharply between 2012 and 2016. Many once large youth groups have collapsed, and those remaining are shrinking. Denominationalism is on the decline but holding tightly to its status quo. Denominational-bound programs can’t rely on automatic growth anymore because denominational organizations no longer have the influence and mind-share they did in the latter twentieth century. And most church-going parents today no longer consider their children memorizing Scripture to be of higher value than participation in school sports programs. In fact, many church-going parents don’t see any value in their children memorizing Scripture at all.

Why is there such decline across the Church? Because the Church failed to live up to it’s calling to be a compelling witness of Christ, which is because many in the Church deprioritized writing Scripture on our hearts. Certainly not all in the Church, but enough.

That said, though, some of the reasons for Quizzing’s decline and inevitable death are in fact Quizzing’s fault.

We don’t advertise in a systemic, strategic way.

We don’t make it easy for unmentored, unquizzed regions to startup. Part of that is due to our complexity and “tribal knowledge”. We don’t perceive how complex our rules and practices are because we’re used to them. And similarly we don’t notice our “tribal knowledge” (our undocumented pattern of behavior) because we’re accustomed to it.

There’s a minimum memorization investment bar required of all would-be quizzers before they can meaningfully participate, and this minimum investment is beyond the willingness of most modern youth to even consider.

We’re organized around a denominational model that worked reasonably well in the 1970s through the early 1990s but since then is at best stagnant and ineffective at encouraging Quizzing growth. We have some church and denominational leadership who are antagonistic to Quizzing, some who even go so far as to persecute Quizzing; but the majority are simply ambivalent and apathetic to Quizzing. Some denominations, in a vain attempt to maintain the illusion of control, disenfranchise all participants from outside their denomination into a “second class” with limited voice, regardless of their number or contribution to Quizzing.

We often don’t consider modern, distributed translation preferences. The NIV is a popular and well-used translation, but its readers represent less than 20% of all Bible readers. By not supporting concurrent multiple translations, we’re eliminating over 80% of Bible readers from participating. As an example, there’s a private Christian school with curriculum based on the NASB. They’ve expressed interest in Bible Quizzing, but encouraging their students to memorize the NIV is a non-starter. They don’t want to encourage their students to study one translation for school and another for Quizzing. If we support concurrent multiple translations, we increase our opportunity for growth 5 fold.

Most often, though, we’re hobbled because we’re just unwilling to make critical radical improvements. It’s understandable that we hang on to our nostalgic patterns and practices; we love Quizzing, after all. But when we do this, we fail to see the forest for the trees.

Looking across the whole history and present state of Quizzing, it’s clear we have to do something radically different, and quickly.

The “Third Age” of Quizzing

We need to build the “Third Age” of Quizzing: a new way to organize and operate Quizzing.

Quizzing’s true mission is to: Encourage the most number of people to memorize the most number of verses. We need to optimize for this true mission of Quizzing. All other good and desirable outcomes follow from this simple mission. If we optimize for quizzers memorizing Scripture, we will be raising up a generation of strong, healthy disciples who can save the Church from itself. And all the while we’ll be naturally looking at reducing complexity and cost, improving evangelism, and raising quality.

Everything we do can be evaluated against that simple mission. Since our mission is to encourage as many to memorize as possible, a quizzing system that focuses attention on and incentivizes only a portion of quizzers over the whole is anti-mission. There are some organizations that focus a ton of energy into perfecting their rules, typically with ever-greater levels of complexity, but they’re still in decline; we have data that shows simply changing our rules won’t solve the problem. If organizing by denomination would result in more quizzers memorizing more verses, then we should do that; but we know it won’t because we’ve seen every denomination’s program wane over the past 20 years. We’ve seen how removing the essential competitional nature of Quizzing results in decreased missional outcomes; there are many memorization programs, but only Quizzing is Quizzing. And we’ve seen how hanging on to nostalgic but outdated practices slowly wanes participation.

So what are some of the components that lead toward success of this Third Age?

Migration to the Third Age (“A3”)

How do we migrate from where we are now, nearing the death of the Second Age, to this new Third Age of Quizzing (“A3”)? Radical change, while critical in this case, shouldn’t be undertaken without care. And we’re ultimately talking about unifying multiple, independent Quizzing systems and programs each with passionate leaders who’ve invested heavily over the years in their respective traditions. So the migration to A3 necessarily requires a measured, multi-step process.

Step 1: Build relationships, collaborate, and develop trust

Without trust, no Second Age organization will let go of their legacy structures. Trust comes from seeing the true missional focus of leaders based on their actions and fruits. True deep trust can’t come from words alone but from demonstrated action. Ultimately, the Third Age has to demonstrate it’s better.

Step 2: Work toward agreeing that this is where we want to end up

We need more open, frank, and blunt conversations with Second Age organizations about the inevitable death of the Second Age. These aren’t always going to be easy conversations, but we need to get real. If we persist with the Second Age, even if we continue to pour all our focus and energy into it, it will continue to decline, and eventually, Quizzing will collapse. We need to let go of the illusion of control the Second Age gives its current leaders.

Step 3: Build “The Third Age” skeleton

It’s not reasonable to expect people to agree to join something that’s vague or ill-defined. And it would be unwise to define everything in isolation, because it’s better to have open collaboration; however, design by committee is one of the best ways to kill innovation and progress. So to get the ball rolling, I’m writing the first draft of the bylaws, rule book, software, question set, and other technology. I hope to have most of this ready to share by Christmas.

Step 4: Experiment and advertise the results

There are 2 basic paths in this step, which can occur concurrently.

Step 5: Issue an open invitation for Second Age organizations to join the Third Age

The sooner a Second Age organization joins the Third Age, the sooner they will have speaking authority into what Quizzing will inevitably become. And that means early adopters will have more influence than late adopters.

Call for a Vote

You are the current stewards of PNW Quizzing, so I’m asking you now to prayerfully consider voting to switch PNW Quizzing’s participation from IBQ to the new championships meet referenced in step 4, path B above.

Please pray about this. Feel free to talk about it with other leaders. If you have any questions about anything, please email me, and I’ll be prompt in my replies. My intent is to host a leadership meeting over the lunch break at the next district meet this month, during which we can discuss this, answer any lingering questions, and then vote.

J. Gryphon Shafer
PNW Quizzing District Coordinator

Endorsements

The following are endorsements of this proposal from a handful of past and present officials and leaders of PNW who don’t currently sit on the PNW Quizzing board.

Scott Peterson

As we look to the future of Bible Quizzing, it’s clear to me that change is necessary to keep Quizzing alive. The change likely won’t be simple, easy, or quick. The details laid out in Gryphon’s proposal display the exact sort of change that is necessary. Change focusing on making Quizzing simpler and easier to join; change allowing for a wider variety of motivations to find fulfillment in Quizzing. Changes such as moving away from IBQ, or not using the CMA umbrella, are changes towards a Quizzing future that is easier to join, easier to understand, simpler and cheaper to run, and far more sustainable.

Scott Peterson
Former PNW Quizzing District Coordinator

Jeremy Swingle

Quizzing is an extraordinary ministry that changed the lives of my wife and I. We don’t just want it to still be around when my kids are old enough to participate — we need it to be around. And we don’t just need it to be around — it needs to thrive. And yet, I see before me a rapidly shrinking program in which fewer and fewer volunteers devote more and more enthusiasm per person to keeping it alive. I’m tired of throwing all my energy at just keeping the lights on… I want Quizzing to soar. To make it soar, we need to rethink the structure which has clipped its wings. We need to gather together like-minded Christians who share our enthusiasm for this ministry, break down the denominational barriers (which in the CMA’s case is much more like a ball and chain), and make a plan of attack to recruit the many tribes within Christendom who have yet to hear of the value of Quizzing. Gryphon has even laid out the beginnings of the philosophy of this plan of attack in this very proposal. I wholeheartedly endorse both the philosophy of this proposal and the strategy to bring it about.

Jeremy Swingle
CMA Quizzing Leadership Team (CQLT) Board Member
Former PNW Quizzing Coach and Board Member; Current PNW Quizzing Official

Cutty Welt

Quizzing is an extraordinary ministry that must continue. I have seen many young people grow in their faith as a result of Quizzing and I want it to be around for the next generations as well. Joining with other denominations makes sense. We need to abandon our tribalism and remember that we are all one Church because we are all the body of Christ. Joining with other denominations should be the first step in revitalizing the quizzing program. 

Cutty Welt
Official at PNW Quizzing, Great West Invitational (GWI), and International Bible Quizzing (IBQ)

David Swindler

The ministry of quizzing is incredibly important to me. I was discipled, trained, and taught to lead by this ministry, and now, I am able to raise up the next generation through my work as a Christian school teacher. There is a deep need in all of our hearts, not simply to read the Bible, but to soak in its truth. To seek God to the best of our ability, to build each other up in the Gospel, and to be diligent in application. But right now, those needs are rapidly becoming harder to meet with our current quizzing programs. Resources and support are lacking as prices rise, which cripple current programs and provide a massive barrier of entry to new ones. Our friends and partner districts are being sidelined, forgotten, or forced to go it alone. Leaving us unable to remain unified, hampering our love and service of one another. Biblical morals are not being followed by those in the highest ranks of our leadership. The shepherds of this ministry have chosen to leave behind the sheep they were entrusted to serve. Brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be so, and they will not change without great effort. I pray that no matter what, this ministry will use the time that God gives it. That may be 1 year or 1,000, but we should seek to use our time well, to honor God’s word, and to join in worship with as many as might come into our midst. I believe this proposal seeks to do just that, and with much prayer, counting on God’s will to be done, I endorse this proposal and the strategies therein.

David Swindler
Official at PNW Quizzing and International Bible Quizzing (IBQ)

Appendix

The following are some additional details about proposed A3 policies, rules, and practices that came up from conversations after having sent out the above. These are added here just to help clarify a few things.

Multi-Translation Support

To be clear, A3 multi-translation support doesn’t mean support every “translation” as defined by the set of published Bibles. Rather, “translation” means any common word-for-word or thought-for-thought translation, but not a paraphrased publication or Bible commentary. So for example, NIV, NASB, ESV, RSV, KJV, HCSB, and others similar could be supported. However, GNT, CEV, TLB, MSG, and others similar would not be supported.

Why? Because paraphrased publications can’t be relied upon to follow a verse-to-verse textual alignment with every word-for-word or thought-for-thought translation, and this would render them incompatible with multi-translational Quizzing competition. Beyond just this purely practical reason, paraphrased publications necessarily require tremendous injected influence from the paraphraser. Subsequently, they represent an interpretation of Scripture, not Scripture itself. Despite often containing verse numbers, the text of paraphrased publications is essentially commentary, not the Scripture verse itself. And since the true mission of Quizzing is to encourage the most number of people to memorize the most number of verses, supporting paraphrased publications would be anti-mission.

On Doctrine

Quizzing is about encouraging the memorization of Scripture; doctrinal teaching and preaching isn’t a direct part of our mission. I'm an ordained pastor with a masters in theology, so of course I very much love teaching and preaching doctrine (and I eagerly do even in a Quizzing context when asked); but that's beyond the direct scope of the true mission of Quizzing, which is to encourage the most number of people to memorize the most number of verses.

All sound doctrine comes from Scripture. The best way to combat false doctrine is to encourage study of Scripture, and the deepest way to study Scripture is to memorize it. So Quizzing along with the illumination of the Holy Spirit is the best antidote to false doctrine.

There have been times in the past and there will be times in the future when folks become involved in Quizzing, either as quizzers, coaches, parents, or pastors, who hold false doctrines. I would rather such brothers and sisters be included in Quizzing and thereby have the opportunity to be confronted by Scripture illuminated by the Holy Spirit than be separated from this most effective ministry. Too much false doctrine gets taught in the Church today, and I believe Quizzing is the best solution. It's impossible for a pastor to preach false doctrine if the congregation is filled with the Biblically literate.

That said, it’s important to protect the Quizzing organization from being corrupted by self-interested saboteurs. A3 intends to handle this via its incorporation and constitution. Exactly how this works is something I’m still wrestling with and seeking input from a variety of smart, pro-Quizzing people. That said, as long as the unfiltered, unparaphrased Word of God is memorized en masse, I believe core Christian doctrine will be drawn into one accord over time.

If you have any questions, would like to participate in quizzing, or would like assistance starting a quiz program, please email us: contact@pnwquizzing.org