MACSA (Mid-Atlantic Christian School Association) Bible Quizzing started in 1978. Several teams met at a church
in Lancaster for a one day quiz-a-thon. The quiz passage was the book of James.
The following year a few additional schools joined, again for a one day event. Mark 1 – 10 was chosen for the
quiz passage.
The year 1980 marked 2 changes that continue to the present day. First, the passage of John 1 – 6, containing
284 verses, was used. This seemed to be a good number of verses and each year thereafter the passage has
been approximately 260 – 300 verses.
The second change was the addition of a 3 day quiz retreat, beginning with schools arriving on Wednesday
evening, a full day of quizzing on Thursday, ending with playoffs and finals on Friday forenoon.
Note: the first few retreats actually went from Tuesday – Thursday, with students returning to school on Friday.
It didn’t take long to realize that the Wednesday – Friday schedule would be better, giving the students the
opportunity to rest over the weekend before returning to school on Monday.
In successive years, two one day quiz-a-thons were added. In 1989, York Christian School hosted the first
Saturday event. In 1996 another one day Thursday tournament was added. Currently this schedule of 3 one day
quiz-a-thons, followed by the 3 day retreat, is used. The events are spaced 2 weeks apart.
Various locations for the one day quiz-a-thons were used. The Saturday event has generally been held on a
school campus, while the weekday tournaments are held at a church.
For the 3 day retreat, locations were as follows:
1980 – Haycock Mountain Boys Brigade Camp
1981 – Circle T Ranch (Currently Refreshing Mountain), Ephrata, PA
1982 – 1983 – Hilltop Ranch, Colora, MD
1984 – 2000 – Camp Hebron, Halifax, PA
2001 – current – Black Rock Retreat Center, Quarryville, PA
From 1978 – 1982 there was 1 quiz division, using the Junior High style of quizzing. A team consisted of 5 – 7
quizzers, ranging from grades 7 – 12.
In 1983 a Senior High division was added. Grades 7 – 9 now quizzed in Junior High; grades 9 – 12 quizzed in
Senior Hight. (A ninth grader could quiz in either division). The senior High division used the “Olympic” style of
quizzing, with 3 – 5 members per team.
In 1993 we began using the results of the one day quiz-a-thons to form new divisions for the retreat. The retreat
divisions were formed by grouping together teams with similar quiz-a-thon scores, thus leveling the playing field
with closely matched teams for each division.
The first quiz director was Dr. Rick Horne from Media, PA. Amos Stoltzfus from Morgantown, PA filled that role
from 1982 – 1983. Amos King served as director from 1984 to 2017. Currently Nathan King is the MACSA quiz
director.
Bible Quizzing