Bible Quizzing Enriches Canadian Calvary Chapel
Photos by Francis Faurot
This story about Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, was first published in Issue 103, Spring 2025. For more information about receiving our print issues, which contain new stories each quarter, email us at contact@calvarymagazine.org.
Every week, the dedicated youth at Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel (RMCC) in Calgary, Canada, gather for an exciting Bible Quiz night to put their knowledge of Scripture to the test. With a unique twist, their seats are rigged so that the first person to jump up gets to answer the question.
Bible quizzing team will enrich your church,” Sandra Perry boldly proclaimed. “It will grow your church, strengthen your families, and young people will be empowered to live out their faith.”
Sandra was exposed to Bible quizzing as a preacher’s daughter. Too young to compete at the time, she remembered her brother winning first place at an international tournament, and a seed was planted. Searching for a quizzing team for her own children, she found only one in a city of a million people. She decided to start one in her church, Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel (RMCC) in Calgary, Alberta.
“It has fundamentally changed my children. They will never be the same,” Sandra attested. “If a mother can give the gift of Scripture to her kids, they have the opportunity to change the world. In Acts, the apostles were sent out to turn the world upside down. I want us to turn the world upside down for Jesus!”
A teen uses a Bible memorization tool to test her skills. Quizzing helps build a strong biblical foundation for RMCC’s youth.
A young quizzer celebrates a correct answer. Bible quizzing gives young people depth and purpose as they hide God’s Word in their hearts.
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” Acts 17:6b
Bible memorization is part of RMCC’s youth and Sunday school programs, but for those aged 10-18, Sandra recognized an opportunity to go beyond what was currently being offered. Why shouldn’t there be a team at a Calvary Chapel church that honors [God] and wants kids to memorize Scriptures? she wondered. Beginning with only two quizzers, the number jumped to 11 the next year, and more than doubled the following year. The RMCC team now has 54 quizzers.
Training & Teamwork
The RMCC quiz team thrives on crazy fun, often ridiculous and over-the-top. Every Tuesday evening, from September to April, the lobby fills with quizzers excited to practice and compete against one another in preparation for provincial quizzing tournaments throughout the year. “We do our best to make quizzing fun,” Sandra pointed out. “Being a quizzer requires a lot of work, so it needs to be fun.”
Quizzers begin practice night quoting memorized Scriptures. “Bible quizzing requires more than a surface memorizing,” Sandra explained. “The verses need to be memorized inside and out and upside down in order to identify the verse and quote it within the 30 seconds allotted.”
Even when competing with each other, the kids encourage, congratulate, and celebrate each other’s progress. Competition is essential in motivating the teams, and tools like quiz books and game-show style jump seats provide formality and structure.
Sandra Perry, AKA Mrs. P., is the quiz team’s founder and head coach. Her contagious passion for quizzing helps strengthen kids, families, and churches.
“Quizzing is practical for our faith, purposeful with our time, and powerful for both our churches and our world.”
Youth quizzers pray and encourage each other before competing, and competitors search their memories for the correct response to the quizmaster’s questions.
Unsure about mixing competition and discipleship, some parents may not fully understand the true nature and impact of Bible quizzing on the kids, their families, and the local church. RMCC parent Paulo Goldstein went from skeptic to advocate after his children became dedicated members of the Bible quizzing team. “In our ignorance, we thought that maybe this was a legalistic activity, that the demands were too great and unreasonable,” he admitted. “But now we know Bible quizzing is an excellent tool to help parents disciple their children. We have great conversations with our kids about what they are memorizing, encouraging them, teaching them how to deal with fears, frustrations, victories, and failures.”
As quizzers learn about their gifts, they are put into action serving as volunteers in RMCC’s Sunday school programs. “Quizzing is practical for our faith, purposeful with our time, and powerful for both our churches and our world,” Sandra exhorted.
“I want the small church down the street to have their own quiz team.”
The program runs on an eight-year cycle, encompassing most of the New Testament as it alternates between the Gospels and the Epistles each year. Sandra offered, “This year we are in Luke, and next year we memorize through 1st and 2nd Corinthians.”
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16
Start Your Own Team!
As the RMCC quizzing team grew, people from other churches contacted Sandra, asking if their youth could join her team. “It sounds heartless, but I turn quizzers away,” she said. “I want the small church down the street to have their own quiz team. If I took their few quizzers, then they would never start a team of their own. There will be way more quizzers, way more memorizers, way more kids who know Scripture if every church has a quiz team.”
Among Sandra’s sweetest memories is when the team got its own bus. “We were so small, we used to carpool with other teams,” she said. “But that first night on our own bus, some of the quizzers started singing worship songs, and we’ve been singing ever since. Our bus driver often calls us the Quiz Choir.” Her voice filled with emotion, Sandra added, “That is a highlight—a busload of young people who know what they believe, worshiping Jesus together as they travel. It is just awesome!”
Quizzers celebrate and work together to encourage and help each other memorize verses.
Regardless of size, Sandra urges other churches to consider starting a team. “Bible quizzing is such a good thing when you have a small youth group,” she encouraged. “The material you are studying through is already decided upon. There is purpose in your time together, and you get the fun of travelling to new places for tournaments as a team.”
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15a
Young adults stay involved in quizzing by helping as volunteer quizmasters and judges.
Understanding the apostle Paul’s counsel in 1 Peter 3:15, Sandra envisions a world of quizzers walking around with thousands of verses stuffed into their back pockets and, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, ready to give a defense for their hope.
Gabe Befus (right) congratulates a teen who correctly quoted his Bible verses. The competitive aspect of Bible quizzing is a draw for teenage boys, providing a firm training ground as they develop into godly young men.
This story was first published in Issue 103, Spring 2025. For more information about receiving our print issues, which contain new stories each quarter, email us at contact@calvarymagazine.org.
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