In this fun episode, BOW’s guest, Dr. Nika Spaulding, shares how to create Bible teaching that sticks. In other words, how can you, as a Bible teacher, use tangible teaching tools to help your audience remember the biblical point of your teaching? Using the senses, physical teaching aids and play will enable you to enable others to better grasp and possibly clarify deeper biblical concepts.

Recommended resources nikaspaulding.com * BOW resource “Choosing Powerful Illustrations and Applications” on video or BOW podcast. * Made to Stick* by Chip & Dan Heath * Nika’s decks of cards: Gospel cards (coming soon) & Minor Prophets cards * Bible Bricks

This episode is also available on video.

Timestamps:00:20 Introductions
01:26 Why use teaching aids?
02:30 What teaching aids do we see in the Bible?
07:42 God’s teaching aid: Ezekiel
09:18 Physical teaching aids
29:07 Learning through play
37:04 Other resources

TranscriptKay >> Hi. I’m Kay Daigle. Welcome to the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast. Today, our guest is Nika Spaulding.

Nika >> Hey, Kay.

Kay >> Welcome, Nika. It’s always so much fun to have you. And for those of you who know Nika, Nika has been on our podcast many times and so we’re always thrilled when she has time to be with us. She has a masters of Theology from Dallas Seminary. She actually went to Oklahoma University, but we don’t really care about that part.

And she has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Northern Seminary. So she’s Dr. Spaulding. But I will not call her that. I will call you Nika.

Nika >> Thank you.

Kay >> Nika is really sort of our go to person for hard questions and about teaching the Bible. And so today we are talking about teaching the Bible, and we’re going to talk about using teaching aids in teaching the Bible.

So Nika why do teachers need to use teaching aids?

Nika >> Yeah, it’s such a good question. And I don’t know, Kay, if you’ve had like your philosophy of teaching develop on this. I would say for me, this is a more recent addition to how I teach the Bible, and that is—when I was a young teacher, I kind of wanted to teach all these cool, nifty things that maybe people didn’t know on their own.

And now I really, really just want to make the Bible stick. I want when people leave for them to remember what we talked about, for them to be able to meditate on it. And what I have found is, you know, you probably think back to your experience when you were in elementary, junior high, high school, and you think about lessons that really stuck.

There’s a chance that your teacher used some sort of teaching, some sort of illustration, or maybe they brought something in the classroom or something like that. I have discovered just over the years that using teaching aids, whether it’s props or engaging the senses or something like that, really allows us to help the Bible stick and that’s really the goal with the teaching aids.

Kay >> Great. So what are what are some of the things that you do see things in the Bible that are teaching aids?

Nika >> Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that’s what’s interesting about it is when you think about even let’s say you want to teach wisdom, you go to the Book of Proverbs so often what you see from the Proverbs is they take stuff you already know, stuff from nature, stuff that you’ve experienced in life. And then they say, “Hey, this, this is what that’s like.”

So a perfect example is you might talk about honey is how the Word of God is. It’s so sweet, right? And if you’ve ever tasted honey, especially pre modern food where we have sugar at our fingertips at all times, you kind of think about how like, am I? I’m sure in my pantry right now I can eat sugar, but in the ancient days, having that ability, honey, was a really sweet experience.

So to compare that to the Bible, we see how the Bible also uses teaching as Jesus does. This in his parables all the time. He gives examples from the world that allows the story to sort of stick. And so I’ve seen this play out in the Bible and then thought to myself, Why are we not taking the best of the Bible’s teaching and using that in the way that we communicate with folks?

Kay >> What other senses have you seen God use in the Bible besides taste?

Nika >> Yeah. Yeah, I love. Yeah. So the five senses, when you think about teaching aids, I think we often default to visual things. We think of things you can see. And in order to make things stick, we know this from the science is that engaging all five senses actually helps things stick. If you think about like childhood memories, chances are there’s associated like if you’ve ever walked into a room, you’ve gotten a whiff of, you know, chocolate chip cookies and all of a sudden you’re like, whoa, I just got transported back to my grandma’s living room or what, you know, things like that.

So smell is very powerful. And when you’re making your way through Exodus, which I’ve done recently, we’ve talked about this, like there are the boring parts of the Bible right how do you make your way through the boring parts? In Chapter 30 of Exodus, it talks about this really special aroma that belongs to God. It’s God’s incense. And so when you think about how does God show his people that He’s near them, one of the ways is God asks them to engage their senses.

So if you read that list, of senses that or the things that you can smell in Exodus 30, this would be an example of what I would do is you. Maybe grab a couple of the items on the list and have the women smell it while you’re teaching through the Bible.

We hear all the time of the Christmas story. Hey, the wise men come and they offer these gifts and then they offer frankincense and myrrh and then people say, “Oh, what are frankincense and myrrh?”

Because I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I didn’t know that those were, you know, they were smells, they were sniffs, things that you can sniff. You know you can just go in my neighborhood, there is a plethora of shops because we are in a predominantly Hispanic part of town, which means a larger percentage of Catholic churches. That means there are many churches that sell things that Catholic worshipers will use in their worship services.

You can walk in and ask for a vial of frankincense or a vial of myrrh (and it’s the scent; it’s not the actual stuff), but you can then smell what it would have smelled like on Jesus’s, you know, gift day, I won’t say on his birthday, because we know that the wise man came a little bit after he was born.

But think about that. You’ve heard these stories over and over again. You’re trying to teach the Christmas story in a way that it sticks. You know, it kind of allows people to remember it. What if they got to smell frankincense and myrrh while they’re doing that?

So since it’s like such a key part of it and smell is one of those core senses, of course, obviously, what you can see is helpful.

I think about hearing the other day somebody was teaching me a lesson from Hebrew, and a lot of your women are going to be learning Hebrew. But what he did that was really powerful is he played an actual native Hebrew speaker reading the text. And so for me, hearing these words pronounce from a native speaker. And so one of the ways that perhaps if you’re teaching through the Psalms is you could find them in song form and you could play those so that the people could hear the music of the Psalms, not just read it, not just listening to you.

So those are some examples. And then of course, my favorite, my favorite senses, of course, taste. So and I, you know, I don’t think it’s probably feasible for a lot of ministries to do, let’s say a full Passover meal, right? I mean, that might be a little bit hard to do. You know, if you bring a lamb on the spik you know, you’re roasting a lamb. Kudos to you if you could pull that off in your church.

But for a fresh break, you know, if you’re teaching manna and you had fresh baked bread or you had the, you know, different like the honey that we talked about, a chance for people to actually taste what you’re talking about. These are the kinds of teaching ways that allow the lessons to go from theoretical to physical.

And when we do that, when we physically engage in things, it sticks in our memory. We just we know this from the sciences.

Kay >> And those are good ideas. Those are really good ideas.

I was thinking about this this morning, and I thought about one of the most strange lessons that God taught in using an aid was Ezekiel.

Nika >> Mm.

Kay >> He had Ezekiel lie on his left side for, I believe it was 390 days. Then he and he was bound with cords then he had to turn on this other side for another 40 days.

I don’t even understand how that worked. I mean, I think about it, I’m like, how did that work? How could he have lain there that long? I mean. Could he even walk when he got up? I’m sure people thought it was strange, but God was trying to show the people who had been taken captive into Babylon and were not in Jerusalem when the siege came, what was going to happen, how people were not going to have . . .

Oh, and while he was lying there, he had to these little cakes that were specific, you know, and first he was told just to cook them over human dung. And Ezekiel pled against that. So God said cow dung is okay. But I mean, it was, it was all a picture of how bad things would be for the people who were left in Jerusalem.

Yeah. Because these people were not going through it. And have you ever used any physical . .

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> types of aids like that. I mean, not like that. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Nika >> You know, thank goodness I am not a prophet called by God. You know, as you were talking, I am blanking if it was Jeremiah or which of the prophets it was. But there is another prophet, the major prophets, you know, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, they were asked by God to do some pretty incredible things that are these teaching is what we’re talking about.

And I can remember I’m blanking right now, but one of them was asked to build a replica of Jerusalem and then destroy it.

Kay >> It was Ezekiel.

Nika >> Okay. Yeah. And so in which is a great segue way to what we’re about to talk about. I think about a replica and it actually brings me to recently I’ve been teaching through and I’ve been going through the whole Old Testament, and I knew when I got to Exodus, there’s going to be two like sandwiches essentially.

And in the middle is the golden calf incident where Israel rebels and right here are instructions for the tabernacle, the rebellion, and then the instructions again. But this time they’re actually following the instructions, which then also leads into Leviticus when you learn what they’re doing in the Tabernacle. So I made the decision I wanted to have a physical replica of the Tabernacle as I taught through these lessons, because not just because I want them to really understand, like visually what what they’re building in Exodus. But I also knew without that when we got to Leviticus, it would be very hard to understand the sacrificial system. There’s all these instructions he goes into, which room is in front, which lamppost. So yeah, this is insane. I’m not recommending everybody does this, but I am very committed to the teaching age right now.

So I bought.

Kay >> Oh my gosh, you built this yourself.

Nika >> Well, it was a kit, so this is not an advertisement. I’m not advertising here. There’s actually a much less expensive one I got off of eBay. That’s a foam version of this very thing, but I decided to upgrade because I do love Legos. If you haven’t noticed behind me, this is not Lego branded, but it’s similar to Legos.

And there’s a young man who just started a business where he’s creating replicas of different things in the Bible. So I spent more money than I should have. I’m not advertising it, but if you’re interested in it, go check it out. It’s called Bible Bricks. So I built this tabernacle for that very reason because I have a very hard time.

If somebody were to say, okay, here’s a pencil, and they started describing something, they said, now draw it. I guarantee you, whatever I draw is not going to look anything like what they are envisioning.

I am not gifted. Yeah, I don’t have that gift. I don’t understand it. I say I did this for the people that I was teaching but the reality is, is this was very helpful to me because I’ve read through Exodus, I’ve written a study on Exodus. I’ve done so much analysis. And it wasn’t until I actually built the Tabernacle that I was able to then start imagining the priests doing things.

So when we talk about like these physical things, part of what we’re doing is it’s called creating a schema. And what we mean by that is a schema is when you take something you already understand, you’re familiar with and then you build on top of it, it’s much easier to understand then.

So here’s an example where let’s say you’re trying to describe a pomelo, which is a giant grapefruit. So you can say, oh, a pomelo is a citrus fruit. It’s large, about a softball size, it’s orangish yellowish in color. That’s one way to describe it. Or you can say to somebody, Oh, it’s a grapefruit, but bigger. And immediately, because you already knew what a grapefruit was, you can you can get to understanding a pomelo faster.

So one of the ways that we use things like these, you know, these teaching is they’re goofy, right in and of themselves. They’re a little bit silly. But what it does is then when we get to Leviticus, because they already have a mental understanding of what the Tabernacle looks like, then when we go to explain the sacrifices, they’re not having to try to imagine the Tabernacle.. They already have it there. So that allows them to then learn the sacrifices without their brain the whole time.

Go on, wait. He goes to the front and then he and then where’s the altar? And there’s a basin involved and then they sprinkling blood. Where is he sprinkling blood? So the tabernacle is an example of if you can help the person under stand mentally what we’re talking about, then you can add more knowledge to it.

So perfect example is you get to Leviticus 16, one of the most important passages in the whole Old Testament because it’s the day of Atonement. It’s one day a year where the High Priest gets to go into the Holy of Holies. He sprinkles blood on the altar and in doing so he is able to make atonement for the entire nations sins.

All of these things that I just said are extremely heady, big theological things. You’re going to have to work really hard as a teacher to unpack everything that I just said. What you don’t want to be doing is having people going, What’s the Holy of Holies and where is it at and why is it going in there and what does it look like and where? Horns? There’s horns on the altar? Why is there horns on the altar?

But if you have this teaching aid, it allows them to then say, Oh, I can visually understand what you’re doing here now. You can teach me the theology of the day of the atonement without having to teach me the architecture of the day in the sermon. And that is so helpful to anybody trying to learn the Bible is to be able to give them these visual things.

Kay >> And so and that’s basically what you’re saying is the student is distracted with all these questions they have.

Nika >> Yes.

Kay >> And not really listening to your real point.

Nika >> Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Kay >> Yeah. And I at the I’ve heard a lot of teachers who just kind of go off on something a little bit and I’m thinking, is anybody following this? Yeah, because it’s not the real point. And they’ve drawn them off. And so you’re trying to build something in them where they have those details and it will not distract them from the teacher.

Nika >> Yeah. So think about how detail oriented so much of the Old Testament is. So you go to that, like think of the high priestly garments, okay? There are 12 gemstones on the ephod. It’s linen underneath and then a blue ephod on top, and it’s different color fabric. It’s got what we call pomegranates, which are on the hem, which are bells and pomegranates. He’s got the names of the tribes on his shoulders. He’s got a God-named plate on his head. With the two on and on and on we can go. I could stand on stage and start saying what I’m just saying to you. Or I could throw a picture up. Very simple teaching it. Sometimes you don’t have to overcomplicate it.

You know, if you really want to go nuts, you could build, you know, a life size one and walk out with it. I wouldn’t go that far, but, you know, you put a picture up and then when you put the picture up, you say, “Hey, the whole role of the high priests is to be a mediator between God and humanity. So how does the High Priest in this outfit represent God, and how does the High Priest in this outfit represent humanity?”

And then because they can visually see it, they can see the gemstones which are going to remind them of Eden, they can see the bright colors, which hopefully will remind them of Eden.

You can begin to talk about these things that are actually important, because if they leave there and all they really know is there is certain fabric and yarn and some gemstones, I don’t know that that’s going to stick, you know, and I don’t know how hopeful that is to them understanding what is the role of a priest as the person who represents God to the world and then represents, you know, the people.

Ultimately, hopefully where you’re going to take them is we are now priests and we are supposed to be clothed in in the ways of Jesus.

And so in the same way that the priest was clothed in the way of God, in a way that they understood, we are supposed to be clothed in the way of Jesus, suddenly the person goes, “Oh, okay, I can understand that.”

But if they’re still trying to understand I think the 12 gemstone names, like just that alone, I remember one time, like looking them all up to see what color they were to try and like draw in. And I remember thinking how is this helpful to anyone if I were to explain to them all of these and there was just something I wanted to nerd out on, but it’s not helpful to to drive that point home.

So, Kay, I think you’re exactly right, is that our job as communicators is to remove the confusion. And there’s so much confusion when you’re talking about an ancient text. And so these teaching aids, they ultimately are designed to say, “How can I get the main point across as simply as possible so that the person can encounter the living God, not so they can learn something neat about the Bible, but so that they can see the face of God looking back at them. These teaching aids, they really come in handy.

Kay >> Yeah. And I can see how particularly Old Testament teaching aids could really benefit people because I remember —I don’t know how old I was when I had finally saw what the high priest actually wore. And I was always trying to figure out what this looks like, you know, I just couldn’t quite get it. So you know, it’s really helpful to have some sort of picture or something.

Of course, there’s always—you know, they can always watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. As you know, at the end the Nazi puts on the High Priest’s. . .

Nika >> Yeah.

Kay >> I don’t know how well it pictures exactly what it says in Exodus, but I think it’s pretty close.

Nika >> And that’s such a good point of what you’re saying is. So if you’ve seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, that’s a schema you already have that you already you kind of know it. So if it is accurate, I’ve not seen it or I haven’t seen it in years,

Kay >> I’m not sure.

Nika >> Yeah, but let’s say you watch it and you’re like, actually, that’s pretty close.

Like, that’s pretty good. You could show a 20 second clip and people who remember the movie will go, “Oh, and then they associate that,”so part of this idea of schema and making things, there’s this book and I’ll make sure, you know, we get this, this called “Made to Stick”, and it’s a fantastic book. These two brothers, Chip and Dan, their last names are Heath.

They both independently started studying what makes ideas sticky, like for lack of a better term, like what makes something where you’re able to walk away and go, Oh, I remember that. And throughout the book, they talk about, you know, there’s really simple things that you can do. Like you can use concrete images. You the schema idea I stole from them, this is totally them where you take something that people already know.

So one of their very simple examples of theirs is like, imagine you had to memorize the letters f, k, j, f, k, j. So I tell you, memorize these letters and then all day long you’re going “f, k, j, f, k, j.”

But if I just said, “Rearrange them and said, JFK,” you’re not going to forget if I ask you in an hour, “What were the three letters? Because you already have an association with a JFK. We know John Fitzgerald Kennedy, we know who that is.

And so they have these like tips and tricks to make things sticky. And they and honestly, they’re genius, but they’re so simple. We kind of know them because we experience them in our own lives. There’s a reason why certain commercials work and then others, you know, you’re not going to remember.

There’s commercials I remember from the nineties Super Bowl that I still remember those commercials, which means that marketing exec did their job, you know? And so for better or for worse, I still remember those frogs doing the Budweiser commercial. Now, I’m not drinking Budweiser but I at least remember the product. They have done their job.

And so that’s part of what my recommendation would be. Sit down with your talk that you want to give and then ask yourself, “what is it that I want them to walk away with? What’s the thing that I hope they chew on the rest of the day and then ask like, is there something I could show them? Is there something they could smell? Or something we could listen to or watch?”

And maybe it’s borrowing from culture like you just mentioned from the movie.Is that the movie where they open up the Ark of the Covenant in their faces melt off? Is that the movie okay?

Kay >> Yeah.

Nika >> I totally— that’s the only scene I really remember, which makes me laugh every time. But yeah, yeah.

Kay >> So Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is the one about the Ark of the Covenant. You know, about a lot of things, but. . .

Nika >> See, so we remember that, right? I remember the laughs. You know, the Ark of the Covenant is really important. And they open it and their faces melt off, which tells you something about the Ark of the Covenant. So I would use that clip. I would absolutely use that clip if I were teaching through the book. And so, yeah, you bring up a great point.

Kay >> Yeah. Well, you know, it seems like all the way through the Bible, there are things that God tells them to use to help remember. Now, remember and of course, you know, communion is is something that we’re supposed to remember and that involves food and tasting and just the picture of something of God being in you that I was thinking about.

One time.I haven’t done many, many things, but one time I was teaching Joshua, and when you go into Joshua, of course, Joshua has led the people to the promised land because Moses just died. And so they’re going to cross the Jordan, and after they cross the Jordan, God told Joshua to have men go into the Jordan.

Now that they cross the Jordan, it was dried up. Just like in Exodus when Moses and the people crossed the Red Sea, it was dried up for Joshua. And the people there enter the land of Canaan. He told one man from each tribe to go in and get a stone and put it on his shoulder and bring it out. It was going to be what the people would remember what God had done, a memorial stone that they were to pay attention to.

So when I got to that, I thought, “Huh.” I went like to Michael’s or some place like that, and I bought a bag of little rocks. I gave every woman a rock, and I told her to think about some time that God had made in her life to remember it with that rock.

And so there just little things like that that you can do also. I mean, they may not remember Joshua, but they will remember what God has done for them in the same way that what Joshua did would remind the people.

Nika >> Yeah, I love that Kay. And truth be told, one of the reasons why I had such a strong aversion to teaching aids when I was younger, except for like a visual slide, like I might have put something up on the slide or something like that, but I was always hesitant because I just didn’t want to come across as dorky like that.

That’s the reality. Like, and it’s I look back now and I realize I am a dork. I’m a huge nerd. My bookshelves tell on me behind me. And but I think there was this sense that especially God in the women’s ministry, I had heard from young people, they just felt like women’s ministry is out of touch. And so I was always afraid that I was going to do something that was a little out of touch or a little lame. But I have found some of the most significant moments in my life were not these like really theologically deep, sort of like, you know, heady things.

They were tangible, touch, taste, smell like your rock example. I can think of times in my life where I have keepsakes that I’ve thought that significant and to me that’s that mattered to me. And so, like, I came up with this thing where I decided years ago I was going out into the mission field and I was tasked with teaching the whole Bible.

I was like, what? Like the whole Bible? Okay, no problem. And I think they gave me like 20 minutes. Can you teach the whole Bible in 20 minutes? And so I was like, You know what? Youth Ministries have been doing this forever. They have figured out cool, fun, you know, goofy ways and so I came up with and I had some help. I stole some from other people.

And then I came up with these 13 words that teach you the Bible, and they have hand motion. So I remember getting all the adults up and thinking, well, you know, we’ll see if they’ll do it. And it starts with like creation. We do creation and everybody’s hands go up. And then I talk about how God created the whole world then we do fall and we eat an apple like fall.

And I talk about that, and then we talk about the Exodus. So we go marching and imagine a room full of adults and they’re all doing this and it gets funnier and funnier. Like I make them circle around for wanderings conquest, which is very funny because when I do this, if I do an all men’s group, they get real loud at conquest.

And when I get to the end, I use return and I do, “Urk, Urk.” And the women are always louder on the return, I don’t know, there’s something to that. But all that to say I’ve done this many times now, not just in a missional context here in the States in my own churches. And I have found it’s goofy, it’s silly, it gets people out of their comfort zone.

But in about 10 minutes, people know the whole story of the Bible in about 13 words. And that’s the kind of stuff that you go, Hey, this is a way for you to think about the whole meta-narrative of the Bible. And so when you’re thinking about individual stories, where are you at in the grand scheme of the story?

And so I’ve just learned one to embrace my own dorkiness. And then to that I’m really asking the wrong questions. If like the question shouldn’t be, is this lame? The question is will this stick? And if it will, then I think it’s worth doing. Even if people are like, she’s kind of dorky, but I understand my Bible a little better. I’m great with that. Put it on the tombstone. I’m great with that little dorky, but now I understand my Bible better go with that young teacher. Kay >> Yeah, yeah. Because you’re right. I mean, what good is that if they never remember any of this, that they don’t understand it and never remember it? If we can’t go down to a real elementary level of how to make sure something’s clear, then we can lose the whole ballgame, basically, you know? Yeah. Nika >> Yeah, yeah. And this is where, you know, especially as young teachers are trying to find their voice. I know we’ve talked about this before. Like do’s and don’ts of teaching. You guys on Beyond Ordinary Women. There are so many videos that will help you with teaching. So if you’re new to teaching and this is the first video that you’re listening to, go back and listen to the others because this is sort of like a second level kind of thing. But part of finding that voice is taking time to sort of back up from the top. You’ve prepared it, you’ve done your homework, you’ve studied the passage. You think you have a good idea of what you want to communicate. This is sort of a time to back up and then say, what are those creative elements that are unique to me? Because the reality is, is me getting a whole bunch of people up in the room dancing around. I was born to do that. I’ve been a camp counselor my whole life. That is something I can pull off, even though it’s dorky because I’ve got the energy for it. It’s not something I’d recommend to every teacher, but I know every teacher is capable of coming up with these creative, unique ways of making it stick. And that’s where you as a communicator, can really show your people that you care about them. You spent a lot of time thinking about, I mean, those rocks, you had to go buy them. You had to think about it, that tell someone Kay loves me enough to put this extra effort into what she’s doing. So that’s why I’d say, as a communicator, too, these are great ways to demonstrate you really care about your audience and not about if someone knows you care. That goes a long way. Kay >> Yeah, well, tell us. I know you’ve made some decks of cards. Nika >> Yeah. Kay >> Yeah, I have some right here. Nika >> I love it. Kay >> These are the Minor Prophets cards. Nika >> Yeah, look at that. Kay >> They’re Minor Prophet cards. Nika >> I love it. Kay >> And I haven’t tried to play a game with them yet, but I’m going to give these. (I have my own deck, of course), but I’m going to give these to my group. This reading through the Bible when we get to the Minor Prophets. And we’re getting close because we’re in Ezekiel, which is what made me think about that story about that way that Ezekiel was God’s teaching aid. Nika >> Yeah. Kay >> But tell us. Tell us about these decks of cards that you created. Nika >> Yeah. So this is another way that you can make learning stick, and that is to play. There’s all the data in the world that talks about if you’re playing, you’re learning, which is why so many great especially music teachers, you know, coaches I remember some of my favorite times in volleyball were when we got to play games at the end of a grueling practice and you learn a lot while you’re doing that. So as an aunt, I got to tell you, I have played 5 million hands of cards. I have played so much. So I started thinking the last Aunt Camp I had with my babies, I thought, can I create a deck of cards that yeah, we can play games with it. But we can also learn while we’re playing those games, especially with games where you’re pairing things like “Go Fish” and things like that. So there are 12 minor prophets and you need 13 cards in a deck. So this was, this just lent itself. Plus I’m partial to the minor prophets. So the deck is designed that like the aces are Hosea, and then you go from there and you go through the order of the minor prophets, and each of the different suits, as you kind of think of them, are different cards. So one is a poem that I wrote that summarizes a whole book. One is an image that I think captures the essence of the whole book. One is a characteristic of God that you learn from the book. And then the fourth one, I’m totally blanking, but I think it’s a key verse. There’s some, there’s a fourth one. I’ve been working on my gospel deck. That’s why I’m blanking here. Kay >> I think there’s some key verses in here. Nika >> Okay, perfect. Yeah. Kay >> Yeah. Nika >> And so the idea was, “Okay, you’re already playing. Can we sort of sneak some knowledge into this?” And because over time you get it, you get familiar with cards. So let’s say you’re playing a game there’s a game we play all the time called Sevens. And Sevens are really important in the game, as you can imagine. Well, Micah is number seven, so as you’re playing, you’re going to naturally know Micah better than the other cards because you’re going to be looking for the Micahs every time you play this game. And so the thinking on this was how can we create, again something you’re already familiar with, a deck of cards? And then can I create little ways of sneaking Bible knowledge in? So right now I’m currently working on the Gospels deck. It should be ready in about a month. And one of the things, because there’s only four Gospels, each suit is a gospel. So the clubs are Matthew. So that means over time you’re going to notice there’s these five women on the Queen of Clubs and you’re going to notice them over and over. Bathsheba, Ruth, Tamar, over and over again and then eventually you going to go, Wait a minute, are those the five women in the genealogy? And then later when you’re thinking, Oh, where’s that genealogy of Jesus with the women? You’re going to go, Oh, it’s a club. Clubs are Matthew and now you’re like, without even having to think about your Bible, because now you’re just thinking about a deck of cards. You’re already learning these things. And so these are some of the ways that. And this is listen, for those of you listening at home, you’re like, this woman invented a deck of cards. This is what she wants me to do. No, no, I’m not asking you to invent a deck of cards. What I am saying is this is what creativity can produce in your communication, in your ministry, especially if you’re a youth pastor, especially if you’re a children’s pastor. There are ways, sneaky little ways, to get the Bible into people’s lives in a way that allows them to learn without laboring. Learning is hard. I mean, when you start with not knowing and you have to get to knowing, we all feel that dread, especially when you start a new lesson in trigonometry, when you have to learn something at your job, you know, my one of my friends is contemplating a new job, and she’s like, Maybe I’ll just give it a year and see if it works. And my counsel to her was, Hey, every new job in the first year is really hard. Because there’s just a gap of what you don’t know. And so these are ways to close that gap. To make it a little less painful is playing having, you know, these like the giant temple for them or tabernacle for them to look at. These are ways to close that gap between what you don’t know and what you want to know and make it interesting entertaining, fun and joyful because we’re talking about the Bible. And so people have to learn the Bible the same way they have to learn trigonometry. That’s just not what we want to do. We want them to learn the Bible in spaces that are joyful and fun and beautiful and encouraging. And there are a lot of ways to do that. These are just some examples that Kay and I have given you, but it’s I think there they are unique opportunities, again, not just for people to learn the Bible but to encounter the God of the Bible. And that’s ultimately why we do these things. Kay >> Yeah. When I wrote a Bible study on the Minor Prophets, I just came up with the little icon picture for each one, which is a lot simpler than all the work that you did with a deck of cards. Nika >> Yeah. Kay >> But I tell our audience that because you don’t have to necessarily do a deck of cards. Yeah. If you can come up with some way just to distinguish the messages and the different prophets, it will help. Nika >> Do you remember what the image was for Hosea? Can you remember off the top of your head what it was? Kay >> I think he was a heart. Nika >> Yeah, yeah. So mine is they’re broken wedding rings and again. Kay >> Oh, yeah. No. I did wedding rings. Nika >> Okay, so think about that. You and I both studied the same book and we both said, Okay, what’s a quick image that somebody would say, oh, that’s what makes Hosea different then? Because I think Micah uses a heart and it’s a broken heart and he talks about you’re going to need new hearts. And then, of course, Jonah, you know, some stand out, Jonah’s being swallowed by a giant fish. So there’s some that you kind of think, Okay. But so Hosea is a story about a prophet who God has asked to marry and love and unfaithful woman. And God is saying this is what Israel you are like. And so in this story, immediately you can look at these broken rings and you can tell yourself, oh, that’s Hosea without I mean, it’s almost instantaneous. You begin to associate these things with Hosea. Joel is number two. Joel has for my deck of cards, a bunch of giant locusts. When you read Joel, you learn there’s this famine because the locusts have come in and then God says, I’m going to restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. And so suddenly you’re like, “Oh, locusts.” Joel, got it. So if I need a book about the consequences, of rebellion and yet God’s promise to restore, Joel is a great place to go if you can. So all that to say that’s why I asked about Hosea because I had a feeling we had the same image. I think that speaks to a little bit of effort goes a really long way in helping people learn the Bible And if you have creative friends, maybe they can help you. You never know. So anyway, we do have other resources for studying and teaching the Bible. If you’ll just go to BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org, go to the dropdown menu under resources and go to the section on studying and teaching the Bible. And we have a number of episodes of our podcast, and they’re all on video as well, if you prefer that. And all of those things will help you. Nika has done some of those. We have some other people who have also participated in helping us help others teach the Bible well. So until next time, Nika, thank you again. Nika >> Thanks, Kay. Kay >> And we will see you all out there soon.