The selected passages, (the verses and/or catechism questions and answers) for each month will be recited corporately when the Grace Bible Presbyterian Church family gathers together.  These corporate recitations will take place during worship service, prayer meetings, Sunday School classes, mid-week teaching ministries, and during appropriate Committee meetings.  In addition, passages memorized during previous months will be periodically reviewed.  The memory passages will be printed in the weekly bulletin for everyone to see and read.

            In a typical month you will have recited the memory verses 4 to over 20 times.  By default, you will start to remember the verses and have them memorized in no time.

 

 Other Aids to Memorization

            The passages to be memorized for each month will be posted in several locations: the weekly church bulletin, the Monthly Tidings of Grace, on bulletin boards in each classroom, and on specially printed “verse cards” for each us to use.  We will also use the display cases in a church hallways.  The object is to have these verses before us all the time, so with very little effort we will begin to memorize them.

            Of course the most important incentive for memorizing is knowing God’s Word in our hearts and minds.  However, the program includes a few other “incentives” to encourage us in our monthly memorizations.

            The Memory Cards will have places to mark successful memorization of each passage.  At the end of the month, if you have been in church and said the verse, you will receive the “Pastor’s Sticker.”  Then after you have successfully recited your memorization to an Elder or Deacon, they will give you a sticker to place on the card.  A rotation of Church officers  will be available after Morning Service and other times of the week.  On the Memory Card there is a space for an Elder/Deacon sticker for each verse or catechism question.   Since each Elder and Deacon will have different stickers, the object will be to get different Elders and Deacons each month to fill in your memory card.

            The stickers and Memory Cards can be “redeemed” for special incentives.  At the end of the year you will be able to turn in your Memory Card and there will be some sort of gift/prize/reward based on how many stickers you accumulated. These incentives may include special gifts, recognition on a bulletin board, gift certificates, coupons, and/or invitations to special parties. 

            While the incentives are not the reason for memorization, we do hope they can make the program more fun for some participants and for others give them that last little push to make the effort for this spiritual fruitful task.  It is our desire to see our lives changed by hiding God’s truths in our hearts.