For those of you out there who are saying I'd like to have a Bible bowl team but I just don't think my youth group will like it or that we'll have enough time to do it then here's some ideas for you. I tried to compile a lot of the things I did on my bible bowl team in Red Deer to give you some ideas. If you have any questions or need more ideas feel free to contact Chad Utke or Andrew Jones . Good Luck!

Involve food

Everyone loves to eat so try to include food while teaching about Joshua. For instance you could have different kinds of food represent the different tribes of Israel. Use Cheerios for Levites, Smarties for Judah, and licorice for Manasseh. This will allow team to be able to have a clear understanding of who the important people are in the book.

Play Games

To learn the important people places and things in Joshua you can use a game of tic-tac-toe. Label one column People the next Places and the Third Things. The object of the game is to get three X's in a row. To obtain an X you must answer a question in one of the categories correctly. For example Team X may choose to try to get an X in the People Column. They could then be asked a question like "Who was called the son of Nun." If they answer correctly by saying Joshua then they get to have a x placed in the one of the squares under the people column. To win they need either 3 people in a row, or a person place thing in row, etc. Be creative. We found that the more wild and crazy the game was the better we remembered the chapter.

Play Sherades

Try to come up with actions for a whole chapter or verse. For instance you could show the Jordan River by taking one hand and making the motion of waves. This can be really fun, especially if you have people in your team who enjoy drama.

Make a Tape

Some people learn better if they can hear something rather than have to read it. So why not make a tape of the book of Joshua. Divide up the roles between the people in your team. For example one person can be Joshua and another could be Rahab a third could be the narrator. Then get together one weekend and record it on tapes. This will allow you to read through the whole book and to have fun while you do it.

Use it as a Bible Study

If your not sure how your youth group will have enough time to practice for Bible Bowl than how about using it as a Bible Study. Go over the background of the book of Joshua with the team and talk about how it relates to us today. I have found that the books I have done for Bible Bowl are the books I know the most about. This is an opportunity to get your youth group into reading their Bibles and becoming interested in them since they have the incentive of trying to win.

- Go through the text first as a bible study so that everyone on the team understands what the book of Joshua is all about.

-Coaches can write questions about everything in the text and quiz the team on certain points.

-Try to arrange a get together with another team in your area and have a little competition.

-Plan out how much the team will have to read through each day/week and how many times they should read it.

-Meet on a regular weekly basis to study together

-Get tips from other youth sponsers or teams about how they study.

-Go through Joshua and list all the people, places, and things mentioned.

-Try to put together two teams from your church so you can challenge each other on a weekly basis. Besides it's also more fun the more people you have.

-Choose whether your team wants to divide the book of Joshua between the four members, or whether you want everyone to work on all of it so they know everything. There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways.

-Challenge the elders or other adults in your church over a small piece of Joshua and invite the congregation to come watch the show down.