October 15, 2004
By Amy Green

The Rev. Perry Schnabel leads a youth Bible study group, but he doesn't use Bibles.

Instead, his students scroll through the Bible's verses on computers they get free for keeping their end of a contract requiring them to maintain good grades, attend church and Sunday school, perform community service and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

It's part of Kingdom Kids Computer Club, a two-year-old ministry at Steele United Methodist Church in Steele, N.D., that offers sixth-graders free desktop computers if they follow through on the contracts they sign at the beginning of the school year.

Students attend classes at the church once a week, mixing computer instruction with Bible study and discussion of issues such as sex, drugs and peer pressure. The contracts they sign require them to go to school and stay away from gangs. Parents must sign contracts, too.

If the contracts are met, the students take their computers home free at the end of the school year - a big incentive in the low-income farming community some 40 miles from Bismarck.

The idea is to give the students an opportunity to grow spiritually as well as to better educate themselves, according to Schnabel, pastor of the 114-member congregation.

The church is collaborating with the ecumenical Kidder County Ministerial Association and Children of the Harvest, an outreach to needy children organized by regional church leaders, on the program. Children of the Harvest has provided some funding, and the rest has come from the community through donations and fundraisers. A local Internet provider offers free Web access and additional funds to purchase the computers.

Twelve computers are available each year, and so far the church has not had to turn anyone away. Schnabel; Lisa Symens, a sixth-grade teacher who is a congregation member, and a local Lutheran pastor teach the classes, along with an employee of the local Internet provider. Students learn how to surf the Web and run programs such as Microsoft Word. They study the Bible using e-Sword, free software available online.

"It's a Bible class, and yet it's teaching them technological tools to grow in their faith and grow as a person, and to be better prepared for society as adults,'" said Symens, who teaches at Steele Dawson Public School.

Symens is showing the students how to design Christianity-inspired graphics with online programs and software to iron onto T-shirts. She said the ministry helps make Christianity seem "cool" to kids.

Julia Scherbenske, 11, a student in Symens' class at school, said the ministry helps her clear time in her busy schedule for Bible study and prayer, and she finds the computer work fun. The ministry gives her an incentive to do well at school, and it has prompted her to consider more seriously a career in missionary work after graduation.

"I think it would be fun to travel around and help people and preach to them," she added.

Three other churches have picked up on the idea behind the ministry, two in Sioux Falls and another in rural Bowman.

United Methodist News Service
Amy Green is a journalist based in Nashville, Tenn.