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417.862.2781 X4030
youth@ag.org
417.862.2781 X4084
ya@ag.org
417.862.2781 X4041
faf@ag.org
417.862.2781 X4039
stl@ag.org
Financing your Bible Quiz Ministry ...
Our biggest fundraiser of the year is our quote-a-thon. We've done this
for 3 years now and have raised right around $2000 each time. The kids
get people to sponsor them financially for quoting for a solid hour on
a Sunday afternoon. Our church allows the quizzers to set up at tables
by the main entrances for 3 Sundays in a row prior to the quote-a-thon
day. We supply the kids with a sign-up sheet on a clipboard and put up
signs and trophies to attract attention to our table. These 3 weeks
coincide with the days that we have them quote their chapters in the
sanctuary to earn their National Memorization Award, and our youth
pastor announces it when he introduces the quizzer. Most people sponsor
a flat dollar amount - we're still looking for that brave soul who will
commit to $1 per verse !!! Some of our biggest sponsors come from email
contacts - we have supportive grandparents who let their friends know
what their grandchildren are doing and it's fun to check the mailbox to
see where checks are coming in from !! The kids also ask at work and
school, they don't limit it to our church family - it is especially
amazing to watch them get other teens from the youth group to sponsor
them - that makes a huge statement to me !!! It's easiest when the
money is given right up front, but we collect for 2 weeks after we
quote. We give the kids incentives too -this really seems to make a
difference in their level of motivation for getting sponsors. We
generally offer them a $5 gift card to a fast food restaurant once
they've turned in $100, a $15 i-tunes card or a youth group sweatshirt
at the $250 level, and a $50 gift card to the store of their choice if
they hit the $500 mark. We usually have folks who provide these prizes
for us so that the money doesn't have to come from our quiz fund.
We hold the quote-a-thon on a Sunday afternoon, so we stay after
church, eat lunch together and then quote for an hour. It takes one
adult or teen per quizzer to pull this off. We set up tables in a
square shape, with the "listeners" sitting on the outside of the square
and the quizzers on the inside. Each adult has a pencil and each
quizzer has their scripture portion. Time is called every 5 minutes and
the kids rotate to the next listener - this really keeps things
interesting so no one gets bored. The quizzers are to quote all of the
material that they know before they start over. Some of the kids may
have only learned a handful of verses in the season - that's okay !!!
They just do those over and over. We check off the verses as they're
quoted, so at the end of the hour each quizzer counts up the number of
verses they quoted. It is really fun to report that back to the
congregation.
We've held this at several different points during a quiz season and
have found that it works best for the quizzers when we hold it as close
to the deadline for quoting as we can since that allows the quizzers to
quote all of the material in our given time slot. This winds up being
my favorite hour of the year - it is truly awesome to be in a room of
teenagers quoting God's Word non-stop for an hour !!!
Vicky Albrecht, Coach, Dayspring A/G, Bowling Green, Ohio
The congregation finances our BQ ministry. We have presented the need
to them and a number of people give on a regular basis. Every month, we
bring the quizzers in front of the congregation and take a couple of
minutes to tell them about their achievements at that month's
competition. We then remind the congregation that we appreciate their
support in prayer and encouragement and finances.
Doug Black, Dayspring A/G, Rome, Georgia
Great Lakes Scrip (glscrip.com). Church families buy gift cards from
major retail stores at full price ($25.00 for a $25.00 card) and BQ
pays a discounted price (anywhere from 2% - 18%) and retains the
profit. Many restaurants, clothing stores, gas stations, grocery
stores, hardware, pharmacy, etc. are members (Old Navy, JC Penney, Max
& Erma’s, Exxon, Bennigans etc.) For a complete detailed list and
how the program works go to the web site. We participate in Meijer
Community Rewards and receive money for church members qualified
purchases. We are allotted a budget from our church. Special
fundraisers such as providing luncheon for PeeWee Bible Quiz
tournaments, car washes, pizza kits in the past. We are considering
holding bake sales. We held a quote-a-thon once and raised around
$1,000.00.
Maureen Harr, Greater Lansing, Michigan
Although we are blessed to have church funds to help pay for Regional
and National competition, we also have a church car wash on a Sunday
morning in June. During the service we place a flyer on the parked
cars, giving them information if they wish to stop and have their car
washed as they leave the services. This is also announced during the
service. We have two services, so we have two car washes, one after
each morning service. People swing by and have their car washed and
give a donation, and many simply drop off a donation without having
their car washed. We're very blessed that even in a large church, our
Senior Pastor highlights our BQ ministry as one of his favorites and
gives us huge public praise & support in our efforts.
Kent Kloefkorn, Cedar Park A/G, Bothell, WA
Our church generally pays for our registration, some of the materials,
and gas to meets. For national finals last year, the church paid for
the registration and $200.00 toward each persons air fare.
Unfortunately they do not allow us to fund raise within the church, so
everything else comes out of the parent's pocket. We did approach the
pastor about possibly doing a quote-a-thon this year. They told us we
knew their policy on fund raising, but said they would be willing to
discuss it with us. We are trusting God for a change in the policy! If
we make it to nationals this year, we will approach them again and ask
about a quote-a-thon or if they would consider letting the quizzers go
into the Sunday School classes and share what they have done this year,
and then ask if anyone feels led to give a donation toward the trip.
Our youth group does a huge missions trip every summer, and fund raises
through a "Run for the Glory." where each participants (+2 additional
sponsors each) collects pledges for running 20 laps. This fund raiser
was "grandfathered in" and is HUGE within our church. Because most
everyone has already been asked to support numerous youth for that, I
think asking anyone who feels led to make a donation would work better
because they won't feel the pressure to either give or say NO. Before
the church implemented the "no fund raising" policy, our JBQ team did a
bake sale for Mother's Day and Memorial Day. The team members and other
people in the church donated cakes, cookies, "Tea for Two" (small cake
and two bags packaged nicely), the desserts flew off the table at very
generous prices! It was such a blessing seeing the children buying
dessert for their mothers on Mothers Day. We also did candy
bar/snack/soda sales on Wednesday evenings, KK donut sales on Sunday
mornings, lunches at TBQ meets, and a concession stand for TBQ
Regionals the year it was held at MAG. If you have the people to help
with all the aspects of fund raising it can be very beneficial, but I
caution people that you can wear yourself out fund raising and it can
get in the way of studying.
Darlene Brower, Manassas, VA
We have some supporters who will occasionally give money to our
ministry. We also have had some spaghetti suppers that have been really
top fundraisers for us. We had different levels of giving at the
supper. We had gold, silver and bronze. We had mugs for those who gave
at these 3 levels. Others just paid $10.00 a ticket to come. We raised
$6000 at this supper.
Mark Gilmer, Evangel Community Church, Snellville, Georgia
Our church has been supportive over the years. We have had fundraiser
dinners. We quote in front of the church. Many people have donated
(especially older people) when they see the quizzers quote. We have
quoted entire books in front of the church. To often many of our older
saints only see or hear about the negative aspects of youth ministry.
Bible Quiz is one of the few youth ministries that really speaks to
their hearts. All our quiz boxes have been bought by individuals
wanting to support the ministry. I along with the Everett's have
personally invested in the BQ ministry.
Pastor Scott McGillis, Harvest Time A/G, Brunswick, Ohio
1) ask your church board for a Bible Quiz budget. This is the easiest
way to raise money. Even if you do not get all of the money, it will be
blessing. Even most small churches will give a ministry like quizzing a
few hundred dollars. That will cover registration costs and materials.
Things like tournaments and trophies can be budgeted other ways. NOTE:
it is a bad idea to have your church budget all of your costs! Teams
that have to come up with some of the money are more appreciative of
the money that the church gives them. Having everything paid for can
lead to an attitude that quizzers are entitled to a blessing or take it
for granted. (I have seen this happen in my church and several other
churches.)
2) Fund raisers at church. There is no substitute for having quizzers
raise their own funds. It can be collecting and recycling soda cans,
selling donuts after church services, etc.
3) Fund raisers outside of church. (ie selling candy, etc)
4) Quote-a-thons. These are great. You have a quizzer quote a chapter
in a morning service and have people pledge in advance to how many
verses you can rattle off. It is good PR and you could raise most of
the money that you are looking for.
5) Parents and people in your church. If there is a financial need
(like Susie does not have enough money to go to a tournament), people
in your church would be happy to contribute to a cost if they know that
there is a need.
6) Coaches. Many coaches put their own money into this ministry!
7) Church offering. Ask your pastor and board if they are willing to
have a Sunday night service which is run completely by people in the
quiz ministry. Take an offering stating that 100% of the money will go
to quizzing.
A quizzing ministry does not really need to cost that much money.
Assuming that a first year team is going to one local tournament and
not make it to nationals, you could run a tight budget and spend less
that $500. That is really not a hard task when considering what
churches spend (both big and small) on other ministries in the church.
Tighten your belt and decide that quizzing is important. The money will
take care of itself with the proper attitude.
Dave Pizzolo, NY District Coordinator
At Orange County Worship Center our main fund-raiser is our fireworks
stands and contributions. We also do various secondary things like
Quote-a- thons and miscellaneous sales.
Irv Kuroshi, Orange County First A/G, CA
Our BQ supplies, registration for leagues, districts, Regionals and
National Finals, as well as the cost of the event themselves, are
funded directly from the church (the only expense for the quizzers is
their food). For tournaments where we take all teams, most of the cost
is paid by each of the quizzers. We do not do fund raising but put
dollars back into the budget from dollars raised by the River Classic
tournament. We are blessed at JRA to have the funds necessary from a
budget perspective to do what we need to run the quiz ministry.
John Porter, James River A/G, Ozark, MO
For the past few years my teams have largely been underwritten with
donations from parents and the coach. One thing to stress to new
coaches is that money not spent is money that doesn't have to raised.
When going on a trip to a tournament, ask the sponsoring church if you
can bunk down with sleeping bags in their classrooms. Also, there are
often quiz families in the sponsoring church who will open their homes
and host quizzers. A quote a thon works. Get each quizzer to ask for so
many cents per verse that they can quote in a given period of time.
This serves two purposes, raising funds and motivating memorization.
Keeping quiz before all the church helps. This can be done by news
items in the weekly bulletin, posts on the bulletin board, information
on the church website, and pastoral announcements. Ask for a line item
for Bible Quiz in the annual budget. Let people know they can donate at
anytime to underwrite the ministry to their youth.
Pastor George Edgerly, Ottumwa, Iowa
Excerpts from some former National Finals teams:
Church has decided to take a special offering
We sell coffee and donuts every Sunday AM
Quote-a-thon
Spaghetti dinner
Donations for parking lot
Community days food booth
Luncheon
Spirit night at Chick Fil-A
Car hop at Sonic
Sell Memorial Day flowers
Candy sales
Banquet
Garage sale
Car wash
Church yard sale
Dessert auction
Rod Introduces Karl Dawson
Rod Whitlock introduces Karl Dawson.
Running A Practice
Karl Dawson giveas a few tips about efficient ways to run a practice.
Using Time Wisely
Karl Dawson gives some tips about how to use practice time wisely.
During a Practice
Karl Dawson talks about what you should be doing during your practice.
Contesting - Part 1
Part one of Karl Dawson's talk about contesting.
Contesting - Part 2
Part two of Karl Dawson's talk about contesting.
Contesting - Part 3
Part three of Karl Dawson's talk about contesting.
Contesting - Part 4
Part four of Karl Dawson's talk about contesting.
Rod Introduces Mike Pearson
Rod Whitlock introduces Mike Pearson
Getting Quizzers to Learn
Mike Pearson gives some tips about how to get quizzers to learn and retain.
Tips of Quiz Rules
Mike Pearson gives tips about BQ Rules.
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