A distinguishing characteristic of faithful pastors is a heart increasingly pulsating with the words and heart of sacred Scripture. We must be “Bible Men.” We read it, pray it, sing it, preach it, and live it.

A Different Kind of Memorization

I did my graduate work at Reformed Theological Seminary, that venerable institution of Presbyterian “learnedness.” One of the hardest parts of my biblical studies courses was memorizing outlines for each book of the Bible. Providing outlines of Bible books is a normal part of ordination in the Reformed and Presbyterian world, so the professors often tilted—rightly so in my mind—some assignments to help prepare students for ordination. For example, in my classes I had to memorize outlines like these:

Judges

• The Failure of the Conquest (1:1-3:6)
• The Cycles of Apostasy and Deliverance (3:6-16:31)
  • Othniel (3:7-11)
  • Ehud (3:12-20)
  • Deborah and Barak (4:1-5:31)
  • Gideon and Abimelech (6:1-9:57)
  • Jephthah (10:6-12:7)
  • Samson (13:1-16:31)
• The Depths of Apostasy and Canaanite Influence (17:1-21:25)

The major prophets were often especially hard:

Jeremiah

• Prophecies Against the Foreign Nations (46-51)
• Prophecy to Baruch (45)
• Prophecies After the Fall of Jerusalem (40-45)
  • Prophecies under Gedaliah (40-43:7)
  • Prophecies in Egypt (43:8-44:30)
• Prophecies during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (37-39)
• Prophecies against Zedekiah and Jehoiakim (34-36)
• Prophesies of the future restoration of Judah (30-33)
• Prophecies Concerning Judah (2-45)
  • Prophecies Before the Fall of Jerusalem (2-39)
    • Prophecies concerning Jerusalem (2-20)
    • Prophecies concerning Nebuchadnezzar, God’s instrument to punish Jerusalem (21-29)
• The Call of Jeremiah (1)
• A Historical Appendix (52)

What I loathed at the time, such specific memorization, I now love.

Always Ready

I went into seminary convinced there is eternal value in Bible memorization. In my teen years I memorized countless verses of Scripture and later came to see how much better it was to memorize books of the Bible, not just verses. I now see how valuable it is to have at least a cursory outline of each book of the Bible stored away in the mind. Such knowledge gives us immediate and specific familiarity with the peaks and valleys of redemptive history; it offers a leg up on sermon preparation; it enables us to preach the word in season and out of season, always standing ready.

Like so many things in ministry, here is hard work that will lead to long-term fruit. How might you then go about memorizing outlines of Bible books?

A Very Good Place to Start

Books. You could pick up a book like The Ultimate Bible Outline Book: Every Book of the Bible Made Simple, or something similar.

Study Bibles. Pick up a good study Bible like the ESV, NIV, or Reformation Study Bible and you’ll find useful outlines to introduce each book. You could memorize those verbatim, but I suspect they’d be more complex than you’d need. This option allows you to customize the outline—the study Bible has done the heavy lifting and you get to simplify the outline according to your personality.

Flash Cards. One of the many advantages of living in our technological age is a site like Cram.com. There you’ll find millions of flashcards to help you study all kinds of subjects, including the Bible. For example, you can memorize outlines other brothers in ministry have put up for ordination prep: OT Outlines, Main Messages of Bible Books, and Bible Book Outlines 1 or 2.

Go ahead, try it on for size, and inject some more Bible into your blood.