Make Bible Reading Enjoyable

A nice option for Family Worship is to read the Bible together as a family. Of course, at first
your family might feel this is boring, but it doesnt have to be. There are lots of ways to make the
reading enjoyable, to bring the scriptures alive. The April, 2009 Awake! article Young People
Ask How Can I Make Bible Reading Enjoyable? has a many great ideas that can be used when
reading the Bible for family worship. Here are some of the suggestions:

Convert lists of names into family trees.

Create diagrams. For instance, as you read about a faithful character, connect that
persons qualities and acts with the blessings he or she received.
Draw pictures to illustrate the account.
Draw a storyboard, a series of simple pictures to illustrate a sequence of events. Describe
whats happening in each scene.
Build a scale model of structures, such as Noahs ark.For example, see Awake! of
January 2007, page 22.
Read aloud Assign one person to read the narration. Others can take on character
parts.
Select an account, and turn it into a news story. Report the event from several
perspectives by including interviews with the main characters and eyewitnesses.
Take an account in which a character made an unwise decision and imagine a different
ending! For example, consider Peters denial of Jesus. (Mark 14:66-72) How could Peter
have better responded to the pressure?
Watch or listen to recordings of Bible dramas. Dramatic Bible Readings and Bible
Dramas can be found on JW.org.
Write your own drama. Include lessons that can be learned from the account.Perform
this drama with a small group of your friends.
The article also provides several ideas on digging deeper into an account. This might be
especially helpful for older children or even couples. Here are some of the ideas suggested:

Consider the setting. Examine the timing, location, and circumstances surrounding a
passage.
o Example: Read Ezekiel 14:14. About what age may Daniel have been when
Jehovah mentioned him as a good example alongside Noah and Job?
o Clue: Ezekiel chapter 14 was recorded just five years after Daniel was exiled to
Babylonlikely as a teenager.
o The hidden gem: Was Daniel too young for Jehovah to notice his faithfulness?
What good decisions led to blessings for him? (Daniel 1:8-17) How can Daniels
example help you to make good decisions?

Analyze details. Sometimes just a word or two is significant.

o Example: Compare Matthew 28:7 with Mark 16:7. Why did Mark include the
detail that Jesus would soon appear to the disciples and Peter?
o Clue: Mark was not an eyewitness of these events; evidently, he got his
information from Peter.
o The hidden gem: Why must Peter have felt reassured to hear that Jesus wanted to
see him again? (Mark 14:66-72) How did Jesus prove himself a real friend to
Peter? How can you imitate Jesus and be a real friend to others?

Do further research. Consult Bible literature for explanations.

o Example: Read Matthew 2:7-15. When did the astrologers visit Jesus?
o Clue: See The Watchtower of January 1, 2008, page 31
o The hidden gem: How, evidently, did Jehovah provide materially for Jesus
family while they were in Egypt? How can trust in God help you to cope with
stressful circumstances?Matthew 6:33, 34.

Make Bible Reading Enjoyable

A nice option for Family Worship is to read the Bible together as a family. Of course, at first
your family might feel this is boring, but it doesnt have to be. There are lots of ways to make the
reading enjoyable, to bring the scriptures alive. The April, 2009 Awake! article Young People
Ask How Can I Make Bible Reading Enjoyable? has a many great ideas that can be used when
reading the Bible for family worship. Here are some of the suggestions:

Convert lists of names into family trees.

Create diagrams. For instance, as you read about a faithful character, connect that
persons qualities and acts with the blessings he or she received.
Draw pictures to illustrate the account.
Draw a storyboard, a series of simple pictures to illustrate a sequence of events. Describe
whats happening in each scene.
Build a scale model of structures, such as Noahs ark.For example, see Awake! of
January 2007, page 22.
Read aloud Assign one person to read the narration. Others can take on character
parts.
Select an account, and turn it into a news story. Report the event from several
perspectives by including interviews with the main characters and eyewitnesses.
Take an account in which a character made an unwise decision and imagine a different
ending! For example, consider Peters denial of Jesus. (Mark 14:66-72) How could Peter
have better responded to the pressure?
Watch or listen to recordings of Bible dramas. Dramatic Bible Readings and Bible
Dramas can be found on JW.org.
Write your own drama. Include lessons that can be learned from the account.Perform
this drama with a small group of your friends.

The article also provides several ideas on digging deeper into an account. This might be
especially helpful for older children or even couples. Here are some of the ideas suggested:

Consider the setting. Examine the timing, location, and circumstances surrounding a
passage.
o Example: Read Ezekiel 14:14. About what age may Daniel have been when
Jehovah mentioned him as a good example alongside Noah and Job?
o Clue: Ezekiel chapter 14 was recorded just five years after Daniel was exiled to
Babylonlikely as a teenager.
o The hidden gem: Was Daniel too young for Jehovah to notice his faithfulness?
What good decisions led to blessings for him? (Daniel 1:8-17) How can Daniels
example help you to make good decisions?

Analyze details. Sometimes just a word or two is significant.

o Example: Compare Matthew 28:7 with Mark 16:7. Why did Mark include the
detail that Jesus would soon appear to the disciples and Peter?
o Clue: Mark was not an eyewitness of these events; evidently, he got his
information from Peter.
 o The hidden gem: Why must Peter have felt reassured to hear that Jesus wanted to
see him again? (Mark 14:66-72) How did Jesus prove himself a real friend to
Peter? How can you imitate Jesus and be a real friend to others?

Do further research. Consult Bible literature for explanations.

o Example: Read Matthew 2:7-15. When did the astrologers visit Jesus?
o Clue: See The Watchtower of January 1, 2008, page 31
o The hidden gem: How, evidently, did Jehovah provide materially for Jesus
family while they were in Egypt? How can trust in God help you to cope with
stressful circumstances?Matthew 6:33, 34.

Movie Night

Everyone loves movie night! One of the

suggestions in the article Ideas for Family Worship and Personal Study, found in the August 15,
2011 issue of the Watchtower, is to watch and discuss a Bible-based video from time to time.
There are many videos to choose from on the JW Broadcasting website. The article Family
Worship Can You Make It More Enjoyable? , in the March 15, 2014 issue of the Watchtower
magazine, suggests preparing questions ahead of time. You can go over the questions before
watching the video and then discuss them afterwards.
 We recently decided to review the history of the
modern-day organization by watching the video series Jehovahs Witnesses-Faith in Action over
two weeks. The first week we watched Part 1: Out of Darkness. The following week we watched
Part 2: Let the Light Shine. For each video we used the questions found in the April 2012
Kingdom Ministry and the May 2012 Kingdom Ministry. Each article has 14 review questions
for each video. This provided an easy and simple way to prepare for our family worship and to
get the most out of watching each video.

Below is a list of other videos and corresponding articles with review questions:

These Words . . . Must Be on Your Heart KM 8/15

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight KM 12/15
The Wonders of Creation Reveal Gods Glory KM 3/12
Young People AskHow Can I Make Real Friends? KM 10/12
Young People AskWhat Will I Do With My Life? KM 9/12
Our Whole Association of Brothers KM 1/13
Jehovahs WitnessesOrganized to Share the Good News KM 8/11
Transfusion-Alternative Health CareMeeting Patient Needs and Rights KM 1/12
No BloodMedicine Meets the Challenge KM 1/11
The BibleIts Power in Your Life KM 9/10
The BibleAccurate History, Reliable Prophecy KM 11/10

Balancing Recreation and Responsibility

An important skill in life is learning how to manage your time. Philippians 1:10 says, Make sure
of the more important things. Teaching children this at a young age will help them immensely
as they grow older. A good starting point is teaching them to balance the time they spend
enjoying recreation with caring for their responsibilities.

JW.org has a great Balancing Recreation and Responsibility worksheet to help teach this
principle. You can find it under the Bible Teachings Teenagers Worksheets section. The
worksheet uses an effective illustration that compares recreation to sand, responsibilities to
rocks, and a bucket to represent time. The order in which you put the sand and rocks into the

bucket will determine if you can make them all fit. The
illustration teaches the point that by putting your responsibilities first (the rocks) and then filling
the time left with recreation (the sand) one can make the best use of their time (the bucket) and
fit everything in. The worksheet then goes on to have each person analyze their personal
recreation and responsibilities and see how best they can balance them in their lives.

We used this worksheet as a basis for a discussion during our family worship. We started by
having each child perform the illustration themselves. Instead of sand, rocks, and a bucket we
used sugar, corks and a cup. These were things we had readily around our home. (Yes, we had
plenty of extra corks at home!) They did it twice, once putting the sugar (sand) in first and the
second time putting the corks (rocks) in first. This helped make the illustration stand out and be
memorable.

This entry was posted in Activity, Discussions on April 15, 2016.

Movie Night

Everyone loves movie night! One of the

suggestions in the article Ideas for Family Worship and Personal Study, found in the August 15,
2011 issue of the Watchtower, is to watch and discuss a Bible-based video from time to time.
There are many videos to choose from on the JW Broadcasting website. The article Family
Worship Can You Make It More Enjoyable? , in the March 15, 2014 issue of the Watchtower
magazine, suggests preparing questions ahead of time. You can go over the questions before
watching the video and then discuss them afterwards.
 We recently decided to review the history of the
modern-day organization by watching the video series Jehovahs Witnesses-Faith in Action over
two weeks. The first week we watched Part 1: Out of Darkness. The following week we watched
Part 2: Let the Light Shine. For each video we used the questions found in the April 2012
Kingdom Ministry and the May 2012 Kingdom Ministry. Each article has 14 review questions
for each video. This provided an easy and simple way to prepare for our family worship and to
get the most out of watching each video.

Below is a list of other videos and corresponding articles with review questions:

These Words . . . Must Be on Your Heart KM 8/15

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight KM 12/15
The Wonders of Creation Reveal Gods Glory KM 3/12
Young People AskHow Can I Make Real Friends? KM 10/12
Young People AskWhat Will I Do With My Life? KM 9/12
Our Whole Association of Brothers KM 1/13
Jehovahs WitnessesOrganized to Share the Good News KM 8/11
Transfusion-Alternative Health CareMeeting Patient Needs and Rights KM 1/12
No BloodMedicine Meets the Challenge KM 1/11
The BibleIts Power in Your Life KM 9/10
The BibleAccurate History, Reliable Prophecy KM 11/10

This entry was posted in Discussions, Videos on March 25, 2016.

Family Worship Video Project

Our childrens generation is a

video generation. They enjoy watching amateur videos via YouTube, Instagram and other like
sites much more than traditional TV that we grew up watching. They also enjoy making videos
of t

heir own and are very good at using the variety of powerful yet simple video editing software
available today. With this in mind we decided to do a video project for family worship.

The goal was to create a video about a Bible character. We didnt want to be to rigid on how to
do it but instead wanted to encourage our children to be creative and have fun. We outlined that
the video should include background abo

ut the person and their family, details about the major event(s) in their life, and what we can
learn and/or imitate from their example. We did this over two weeks. Week one we picked the
person and began researching information about them. They worked on their videos throughout
the week and during our next family worship evening we watched and discussed their final video
projects.
The video could include pictures of the person, events, maps, etc. They could also include music
along with other video and audio clips. Sources might include Bible Character Cards, Illustrated
Bible Stories, audio from Dramatic Bible Readings and Dramas and videos on JW.org. We also
encouraged them to use publications like My Book of Bible Stories, Imitate Their Faith and Jesus
The Way. They also used various magazine articles, the Insight Volumes and other information
found on JW.org.

The end result was great, as our children created video projects that exceed our expectations.
They not only learned more about their Bible character but also learned more about how to do
research using the variety of tools provided. They put in a lot of effort and really enjoyed the
process. Our daughter created a video about Rahab using various pictures, video clips and a
home made video she created using her dolls. Our son created a video trivia game about Noah
doing all of the programming and research himself. We were surprised at how well it turned out
and how much they got out of the exercise. Attached below for download are the Rahab video
and the Noah trivia game (for both Mac and Windows) that our children created. Enjoy!

Noah Trivia Game MAC

Noah Trivia Game WINDOWS

Making Return Visits

As our children continue to progress in the ministry

we want to help them improve and expand their skills as ministers. Even for us who have been in
the truth awhile, we find it helpful to review and continually work to improve our skills. We took
some time during our recent family worship evening to work on learning how to make and
improve our return visits.

Using three articles from Our Kingdom Ministry, we broke down how to make a return visit into
three steps:
 1. Laying the groundwork for a return visit
2. What to say when we return
3. How to demonstrate a Bible Study

We first reviewed the article Improving Our Skills in the Ministry-Laying the Groundwork for a
Return Visit found on page 1 of the Sept. 2014 Kingdom Ministry. This helped us to think about
what we might plan to say during our initial presentation each month that will lay the
groundwork for a return visit. This was new for our children as up to this point our focus had
been on just how to preach to others on our initial visit. The article helped us prepare a follow-up
questions to answer the next time we visit.

The next article we reviewed was What Will You Say When You Return? found on page 8 of the
Jan. 1992 Kingdom Ministry. This article provides lots of great examples on how we can
continue our conversation based on what we learned about the person from the previous visit. It
really helped us figure out the hardest part of a return visit, how to start the conversation. It also
provided some good pointers on what not to say when we return.

The last article we reviewed was Improving Our Skills in the Ministry-Demonstrating a Bible
Study Using the Bible Teach Book found on page 1 of the Dec. 2014 Kingdom Ministry. This
helped us think about how we can reach our goal of starting a Bible Study with someone. It
provides a real simple approach on how to briefly and easily show someone a Bible Study during
our visit. We also discussed how we could incorporate showing the video What Happens at a
Bible Study? during our visit.

After reviewing the above we worked to pull all of it together into a presentation. We each
discussed a specific return visit that we have and how we would plan to make our next visit. We
then practiced it with one another. We also created a little cheat sheet outline that can be used
to show someone a Bible Study using a variety of tracts and publications. It is brief and prints
small so you can cut it out and keep in your Bible. You can download a copy of what we use
here: Return Visit Cheat Sheet

This entry was posted in Discussions on June 12, 2015.

Preach in a Foreign Language

 When you meet someone who speaks another language, what do
you do? A great new tool has been provided on JW.org to help us preach to someone who speaks
a foreign language. We decided to develop a simple presentation we could use if we met
someone who spoke Spanish, as this is the most prevalent foreign language in our territory. We
did this using the JW Language app. As part of our family worship we learned to use this new
app and to set it up so it will be ready for us when we need it.

JW Language is an official app produced by Jehovahs Witnesses to help

language learners improve their vocabulary and communication skills in the ministry and at
congregation meetings. You can learn more about the app, get a link to download it, and watch a
video about it here on JW.org.

As an introduction for the evening we watched the cute Caleb and Sophia video Preach in a
Foreign Language. We then each made sure we had the app downloaded and setup for use with
our selected language, Spanish. We reviewed the various features and got comfortable with how
it works. We then discussed what we could use as a simple presentation.

One of the great features of JW Language is that you can save specific phrases you want to
remember to a Favorites list by selecting the star next to any phrase in the app. This will save it
to the Favorites list in the order you select it. By selecting a series of phrases you can create a
simple presentation that you can quickly pull up when you are out in the ministry. The app will
even let you listen to someone saying the phrase in the language so you can learn how to say it
correctly. We spent time as a family coming up with the following list of phrases for our
presentation:

Hello
I am pleased to meet you.
Do you speak ____?
I dont speak ____ very well.
My name is ____?
What is your name?
I am a Jehovahs Witness.
I would like to give you this tract.
This is the address of our website.
See you later.

We saved each of these phrases to our Favorites list by selecting the star. We listened to each
phrase and practiced saying it. Then we each took turns practicing the presentation with a tract.

For younger ones there is a great activity you can download here on JW.org called Reach More
People With the JW Language App! It provides a nice worksheet for a simple presentation that
even young ones could use.

There are a couple of optional activities that you might do as well to make things more
challenging. One would be to have someone play the part of a householder who speaks one of
the other languages provided by the app and have another person use the app to do a presentation
without knowing in advance what the language is. Another activity could be to learn some
phrases that could be used when visiting a congregation in a foreign language and then plan to
attend a local meeting in that language and use what you have learned.
The JW Language app is an incredibly useful tool to help us help more people learn about
Jehovah. There are lots of other great features in the app including a flash card mode to help you
practice memorizing your presentation and phrases. We plan to regularly take a few minutes
during our family worship evening to practice our new language skills using this app.

This entry was posted in Activity, Discussions on March 28, 2015.

Field Service Charades

Field Service Charades

This is a modified version of the classic game of charades. The goal of the game is to help us all
become better prepared to be adaptable in the field ministry. Each person takes turns playing the
part of a householder with another person being the Witness knocking on their door. The
householder will present a different situation that the Witness will try to adapt to using whatever
tools they have brought with them. We tried to focus on learning to use new features in our
Bibles (like the section An Introduction To Gods Word) , using jw.org, remembering key
scriptures, and using specific tracts or publications. There is no score, no winning or losing, just
each person becoming better equipped to give a witness. 2 Timothy 3:17

The game starts with one person acting as a householder. That person selects a random slip of
paper from a bowl that describes how they should act when the Witness knocks on their door.
The second player acts at Witness out in the ministry. They should have their Bible, witnessing
bag, smart device, or anything else they would normally take in the ministry. Using the direction
from the slip of paper, the householder should present a challenge to the Witness. The Witness
will then try to give a witness to the householder using the Bible and whatever else they may
want to use (publication, tract, jw.org, video, etc.).

The slips of paper can include a variety of situations. Some might be speaking a different
language, being deaf or blind, holding a belief such as the Trinity or evolution, having a question
such as why God permits suffering or why we dont accept blood transfusions, or maybe the
person has lost a loved one in death or recently lost their job. Whatever they are, they should be
varied and realistic as to represent the types of people we might meet in our ministry. We also
included a wildcard where the householder can do whatever they want, and maybe have a little
fun with it too. You can easily just cut up some strips of paper, write the various situations on
them and put them in a bowl. I created some simple sheets with topics that can be printed and cut
out for use that can be downloaded here.

A nice variation to the game is to do it as though the Witness is witnessing informally. With this
version the Witness would only have one item such as a Bible or smart device with jw.org to use.
The setting could be at school, public transportation, at the doctors office, etc. Also, if there are
very young ones involved, they could be the assistant who rings the doorbell, gives the tract,
reads the scripture or has some part as well. As added fun we like to use one of the bedroom
doors so as to have a real door to knock on when playing.

This entry was posted in Games on November 21, 2014.

Assemble a Sound Car and Build Bethel

Here is a great way to combine learning about the modern history of Jehovahs Witnesses with a
hands-on craft. A brother in Pennsylvania is a very talented artist and has created a bunch of
theocratic crafts that are sold on Etsy.com. Two interesting ones are a model of a sound car
and the original Watchtower building at 25 Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn New York. They are
both downloadable PDF files that you can then print, cut out, and assemble. They also come with
an assembly guide. One thing to note is that these models are very detailed and young ones will
definitely require the help of someone older to cut them out and figure out how to assemble
them. You can find the downloads of the models for sale on Etsy.com here. UPDATE: These
are no longer being made available.

These can be used with family worship when discussing our modern history. One great source
for articles is the From Our Archives series in recent Watchtowers. The August 2013 (Study
Edition) has an article that discussed the use of a sound car. There is a great video about the sign
on top of the Brooklyn Bethel building on jw.org called Sign of the Times as well as an article
The Watchtower SignA Longtime Brooklyn Landmark. There are also lots of related
information in the Proclaimers book ( Jehovahs Witnesses Proclaimers of Gods Kingdom).


This entry was posted in Projects on October 3, 2014.

Bible Jeopardy

There are a lot of great videos on jw.org and we like to review them as part of our family
worship. Recently we watched the video Does God Have a Name?. Afterwards we played a
Jeopardy-like quiz game to help review the key points from the video. I got the idea from another
brother who shared several websites that can help make such games. A simple Google search of
something like make your own jeopardy game will show several web sites that can help
creating such a game.

I created a game on my iPad using an app called Buzz-monster. The app is very well done,
allowing for up to 3 people to play together on the same iPad. Each having their own button to
buzz in. The app makes it very easy to create questions and multiple choice answers. It also
enables you to easily add pictures, audio and video to the questions. Like Jeopardy, the questions
are grouped in categories and assigned point values. Each player takes turns picking a category
and point value. A question is displayed and the first person to press their button is shown a list
of multiple choice answers to choose from. If they select the correct one they get the points
associated with the question.

For the video Does God Have a Name? I created 5 categories: Using Gods name, Other
languages, Many gods, Archeology, and Scriptures. Each category had five questions, like In
english Gods name is rendered Jehovah, and it is also sometimes rendered this. Using this
along with the video really encouraged our family to take notes and play close attention to all of
the detail presented in the video. It also led to much discussion after each question, especially on
the hards ones that were guessed incorrectly.

Conducting Progressive Bible Studies

Recently our entire family has had the wonderful privilege to

study the Bible with people we have met in our ministry. Even our two children have started
studies with others youths. While we are continually trained each week at our Christian meetings
on how to study the bible with interested ones, we wanted to review as a family the basic aspects
of conducting a Bible study. Ideally we were looking for a how-to guide that we could discuss
as part of our Family Worship evening. While we could not find a single how-to guide, we did
find a great series in past articles in Our Kingdom Ministry.

Starting in the July 2004 Our Kingdom Ministry through to August 2005 a series of 12 articles
were published on Conducting Progressive Bible Studies. Part 1 starts with the basics of What Is
a Bible Study. Each article provides specific aspects of conducting a Bible study with the final
article, Part 12, coming full circle by focusing on Helping Students Start and Conduct Bible
Studies. Other topics covered in the series include how to prepare and help students prepare,
using the scriptures, how much material to cover, offering prayer, inviting them to meetings, and
helping students to witness to others. Part 6 has an excellent article on When a Student Raises a
Question and provides great pointers on how best to answer different questions without getting
too side-tracked from the study.
 While the articles are 12 years old, all of the suggestions are still valuable.
When reviewing each section during our Family Worship evening we discussed how we could
update some of the suggestions provided. For example, we talked about the more recent
publications that could be used to study the bible such as the What Does the Bible Really
Teach? book and the brochure Good News From God!. We also discussed how we could use
JW.org and various videos with our Bible students. We started our Family Worship evening by
watching the video What Happens at a Bible Study?.

Because JW.org only has Our Kingdom Ministry articles going back to 2010, you wont be able
to download them from the website. You can find them using the Watchtower Library
application by just doing a search for Conducting Progressive Bible Studies and looking under
the 2004 and 2005 Kingdom Ministry. We consolidated all of the articles from the various KMs
into a single document that you can find here: Conducting Progressive Bible Studies Articles

This entry was posted in Discussions on June 28, 2016.