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The quizmaster asked the competitors to “quote the only verse to speak of the ‘oracles of God.’ ”
Sixteen-year-old Andrew Kellehan, wearing an intense stare above his shirt and tie, pressed his buzzer. He knew the Bible verse — one of the 544 he has committed to memory — but had to recite it within 30 seconds.
He didn’t take a breath.
If-any-man-speak-let-him-speak-as-the-oracles-of-God-if-any-man-minister-let-him-do-it-as-of-the-ability-which-God-giveth-that-God-in-all-things-may-be-glorified-through-Jesus-Christ-to-whom-be-praise-and-dominion-forever-and-ever-amen.
Correct. Thirty points, plus 10 because Kellehan got eight questions correct in this match and “quizzed out.”
Andrew Kellehan, 16, of Daingerfield, Texas, listens as quizmaster Russ Faubert reads
a question at the North American Bible Quiz Tournament in the Greater Columbus
Convention Center.
He left the table to applause from the crowd gathered at the Greater Columbus Convention Center to watch the North American Bible Quiz Tournament. He and his teammate, representing Texas, beat a team from Calvary Apostolic Church on the North Side.
Nearly 90 teams of teenagers from around the U.S. and Canada have ascended to this national tournament after winning Bible-quizzing contests at the regional and state levels. The tournament began on Sunday and ends Wednesday.
The competition is sponsored by the United Pentecostal Church International and will lead into its three-day North American Youth Congress, which starts Wednesday night. About 18,000 young people are expected to attend.
The denomination believes that Bible quizzing is a good way to teach Scripture, discipline and socialization.
“This is a tool our organization has used to help our children learn the Bible,” said Anita Kellehan, Andrew’s mom and coach.
The kids who participate in Bible quizzing said the competitions are both pressure-filled and fun. They spend at least an hour a day for months, working on their memorization. Quizmaster Russ Faubert posed 20 questions per match. The competitors often interrupted him with the answers before he could finish the questions.
Sometimes, he asked for recitations of certain verses, giving clues but not a citation of which verse he wanted. Sometimes, he’d ask a question, such as, “In how many verses does Paul describe Timothy as son?” and then ask for the citations.
A scoreboard broadcast the points and how many seconds remained for each answer and timeout.
Players who disagreed with Faubert’s rulings could contest the call. They would approach the judges’ table, where three men in suits issued final decisions. Players who buzzed in before the question even began — yes, that happens — lost five points for the “foul.”
Kellehan lived in Lancaster in Fairfield County and Thornville in Perry County from 2003 to 2007 before his family moved to Texas, and used to “quiz” for New Life Christian Center in Lancaster. He’s been training for 10 years and spends at least an hour a day on it, he said.
That diligence has paid off. At the aforementioned match, he scored a career-high 170 points. He was awarded a gold medal with a cross on it, presented to the music from Chariots of Fire.
The quiz contests can resemble serious sporting events, often going down to the wire, said Adrian Hood, 14, a quizzer from Denver.
“It’s like (there’s) three seconds left in a basketball game, and then Michael Jordan shoots and makes it,” he said. “It’s that intense.”
It’s also really fun, said Tanner Carroll, 15, of Glenford in Perry County. Tanner is on the Westerville team that Kellehan’s team beat. The Westerville team has won a national title in its division for the past four years.
Carroll learned all this year’s verses — seven books of the Bible — in a month and a half.
His memory is photographic, he said, but he still has to recite all the verses every day.
“It’s amazing,” he said of his hobby. “My life pretty much revolves around quizzing.”
By Meredith Heagney The Columbus Dispatch
