Spiritual Discipline: Scripture Memorization

A few posts ago, I commented that I wanted to rethink how I do my own spiritual disciplines and look at how we teach spiritual disciplines in the modern American church.  My first stop is scripture memorization.

My church is currently doing a sermon series on Romans 12, and as part of that, we read/recite the first two verses each week.  I think this is a good (and sneaky) way to get people to memorize scripture without even realizing it.  The repetition over several weeks certainly helps people think about the verse, and possibly commit it to memory.

I know that many churches have Awana programs that help teach and reward children for scripture memory, but I'm not sure how many programs exist for adults.

I never attended Awana, but we did do some scripture memory at church.  I am always surprised when a verse pops back to me (not always with the correct citation) in times I need it.  But I have recently felt the need to add more time in my schedule to devote to scripture memorization.

Of course, with anything I do, I have to figure out how to make it work in my schedule and not become another thing to check off.  I suspect many people don't do scripture memorization due to the time involved.  My current plan is to tape up a verse near my bathroom mirror to recite each morning and night.  My hope is that within a week I will have memorized it and can move onto a new verse.

In the past, I have tried memorizing while I walk on the treadmill.  I tried this first in law school when I was memorizing terms and concepts. A friend of mine and I would go to the gym with stacks of cards (available in any fine law book store) and study them, swapping decks half way through the gym session.  This approach did seem to work, but my treadmill walking has fallen off during the nice weather outside.  Never fear, this is Iowa and the weather is due to change any day now, making this method a possibility again too.

So how do you sneak a few verses into  your memory?  How do you think the church should encourage scripture memorization?