The Q Conference had its usual mind-altering effects, as Christians gathered in Denver this spring to consider questions of faith and culture. Numerous hot topics were on the docket, including race relations, euthanasia, marijuana use, gun ownership, gender dysphoria, and refugees.

The forward-thinking Q planners even included talks on artificial intelligence (how should we treat our robots?) and something called “gamification.” The latter presentation, by Yu-kai Chou, a pioneer in this new field, provided some ideas that might help us promote Bible engagement.

What is gamification? Taking elements of game design and applying them to other activities. It is currently a fashionable theme in some businesses. So what about the business of Bible engagement? Can we learn anything here?

What drives people?

In Denver, Chou went through his Octalysis chart, parsing out eight different motivations for human behavior. Essentially, what rewards are people reaching for—in a game, when buying a product, when joining a club, or when opening a Bible? They might be looking for Meaning, Accomplishment, Empowerment, Ownership, or Social Influence. They might be driven by a sense of Scarcity, a longing for Unpredictability, or a desire for Avoidance of loss. Chou has his octagonal chart broken out into right-brain and left-brain functions as well as noble and less-noble motivations (which he calls “white hat” and “black hat”).

At the risk of oversimplifying a complex model, let’s think about what drives people toward the Bible.

1. Meaning is at the top of Chou’s chart, and we know that people come to Scripture to make sense of life. That’s an ongoing challenge for preachers and teachers—going beyond the facts and details to connect with people’s quest for meaning.

2. Accomplishment motivates many. How many people in your church say they want to read through the whole Bible in a year? That’s an accomplishment to be proud of, a bucket-list item they could cross off. For some, it might be more helpful to poke through the Gospel of John more carefully, a chapter at a time, but you won’t talk them out of their whole-Bible goal. That’s an accomplishment they long for.

3. Empowerment is another key driver. Just as a gamer might gather tools or powers at one level to use on the next, so a Bible reader picks up helpful insights and encouraging ideas. God’s Word describes itself as “alive and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12 NLT) and its students experience the effects in their lives.

4. Ownership functions in other areas of life as an impetus to “collect the whole set” or “be the first on your block to have this.” Sales of phones and baseball cards thrive on this motive. With Bible study, “ownership” might be a matter of acquiring knowledge. People enjoy feeling familiar with Scripture, knowing who the characters are and where key themes and passages are found.

5. Social Influence is a right-brain corollary to the left-brain desire for ownership. Here people want to use their familiarity with Scripture to teach or help others, or perhaps (less nobly) to impress them.

6 to 8. We’ll deal quickly with the final three motives on Chou’s Octalysis grid. Scarcity (“Get ’em while they last!”) has little application to Bible reading, unless we include occasional reference to countries where Bibles are rare and/or illegal. Unpredictability is a right-brain boon and a left-brain bane. Artist-types enjoy the mysteries and seeming contradictions of Scripture while theologian-types try to solve them. Avoidance might be seen in a superstitious approach to the Bible, a fear of spiritual disaster that might occur if daily reading is neglected.

How can you use this?

What motives drive the people in your church or ministry?

The effectiveness of your Bible-engagement methods may differ according to where people are on this grid. Should you offer a sense of Accomplishment with a challenge to read a certain number of chapters a week? Should you have Bible quizzes to test Ownership of Scripture knowledge? Those who desire Social Influence might be waiting for an invitation to lead or co-lead a Bible study. And you may have different groups of people looking for Meaning and Empowerment from the pulpit. A preacher may explain everything the Meaning-seekers ever wanted to know, but the Empowerment-seekers would still be asking, “So what?”

We’ll keep tracking with this fascinating idea, and maybe you will too. Together we can learn about the different motivations that get people into the Word and then we can craft our communication accordingly. Maybe, with Bible engagement methods, one type does not fit all.