Maintain a trusted system to collect students' questions. Collecting questions and returning to them later allows youth ministers to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out," showing that we wrestle with and wonder about God's Word ourselves. In my current congregation, our method for collecting questions is the fishbowl, a container filled with pens and slips of paper that we keep available at every event. When a student's question is a little off-topic or requires some research to answer, we write it down, place it in the fishbowl and answer later.

Talk about your own sense of wonder when you read Scripture. Don't make it sound as if you've already squeezed all the meaning out of a Bible story. If you present your lesson in a way that makes students think there is only one way to look at it, they won't go back to it. If you bring in your unanswered (and unanswerable) questions, you make a safe space for students to ask their own.

The practice of lectio divina, or holy reading developed in monastic communities as a way of focusing a monk's thoughts on Scripture, searching for its meaning and recognizing the ways in which this encounter's thoughts and questions about the text were different from the previous time each monk had read it. Each period of holy reading has four parts. In the first part, lectio, the reader reads the text several times, slowly and carefully. When I lead lectio divina with students, I use the first reading to identify and define unfamiliar words and make sure everyone is familiar with the events of the story. This first phase is also the time to notice specific words or phrases that catch each reader's attention, writing them down if that will help to recall them during the rest of the process.

In meditatio, the second part, the reader reflects on the meaning of the entire passage or one of its words. In group experiences, the second phase of lectio is dedicated to identifying questions about the text and talking about them together. The third phase, oratio, is a time for prayer. During this time, individually or with the group, students identify how the Scripture passage informs, guides and challenges our habits in daily life. The fourth phase, contemplatio, is focused on stillness. The first three phases of lectio divina can be emotionally intense, and the rest period at the end allows for remembering and celebrating the peace and rest Jesus provides for His followers. Taking notes, by yourself or with students, allows you to see how the words that jump out and the questions you ask develop in time.

Martin Luther wrote, "The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it catches me." This kind of experience with Scripture is not passive absorption but engagement and struggle with something we can't fully understand but are eager to explore anyway. That's the kind of experience I want to send home with my students.