Making Bible Study Relevant in the Digital Age

As Hudson Valley families settle into the new school year, thousands of residents will be focused on a different kind of education.

This month, Jehovah’s Witnesses are featuring a new interactive educational platform to help make Bible study more engaging and easier to understand: Enjoy Life Forever! — An Interactive Bible Course. This free publication, available in more than 700 languages on the Witnesses’ official website, jw.org, includes multimedia elements that encourage critical thinking and discussion between the student and instructor.

“
Engaging students through interactive activities, discussions, feedback and … enhanced technologies resulted in improved academic performance compared to traditional lectures, lessons or readings.
— Aaron Aupperlee, Carnegie Mellon University

“I’ve found that the videos, pictures and short paragraphs help students easily grasp the main points,” said Brookelynn Hatfield, a volunteer minister in Saugerties.

The digital version of Enjoy Life Forever! — An Interactive Bible Course contains quick-access links to scriptures and more than 200 videos. Printed copies are designed to be used with the app JW Library or jw.org to access the videos that make Bible study more approachable for everyone.

“Our approach is all about reaching people’s hearts by engaging their minds. This is how people learn,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have been publishing Bible study aids for more than a century. “Although we’ve always been about the printed page, we’ve adapted our methods to meet the needs of learners.”

That’s especially true for the younger generation, Hatfield said after using the publication in Bible study discussions with two individuals under the age of 25.

Carnegie Mellon University highlighted recent research findings on dynamic learning methods: “Engaging students through interactive activities, discussions, feedback and … enhanced technologies resulted in improved academic performance compared to traditional lectures, lessons or readings.”

Also available on jw.org are self-paced online Bible study lessons that cover the subjects: the Bible and its Author, the Bible’s main characters and the Bible’s message of hope. All content on the website is free, without requiring registration or subscription.

For more information about how to get the most out of Bible reading and study, visit jw.org.