Have you ever wondered which question is best to ask when talking to people who have yet to come to faith or to those you want to encourage in their disciple-making journey? We wondered that too, so we asked our front-line campus student staff and Navigator veteran staff members who have been doing this for a long time. Here is what they had to say.
Questions To Explore Faith:
- What gives you hope in that difficult experience?
- How would you define a Christian or Christian beliefs?
- Have you read the Bible yourself? How did you find it?
- If you had to summarise Christianity, what do you think it is about?
- What would you say is the biggest barrier to your belief/understanding of Christianity?
- What do you think is the biggest problem in the world? What would your solution to that be?
- Have you ever investigated the claims of Jesus or the Bible for yourself before?
- If not, what is stopping you from doing it?
- To an atheist: “Is it that you believe God does not exist, or that you don’t like Him, how He’s presented, or how He acts?”
- Appealing to intellect: “The truth of Christianity cannot be understood and accepted only intellectually but also requires faith. Can I invite you to consider an experiment? Commit to living for 30 or 60 days as if Christianity were true — read the Bible, pray, and see if God reveals Himself to you. It’s a short-term experiment with eternal implications!”
Questions for Disciple-Making:
- What are some challenges that the disciples had in sharing their new faith? Do we encounter any similar challenges in our own contexts in New Zealand?
- How are you experiencing Jesus with you in this situation? / What is God revealing to you about His heart through this?
- “How is what you’re learning transforming you?” (Highlighting the need for transformation, not just knowledge). Tell me more about that. How is God meeting you in that?
- If wow is a moment of gratitude, a wound is a difficult moment or emotion you experienced, and a ‘word’ is something God is teaching you from the Bible. What is a ‘wow’, a ‘wound’, and a ‘word’ you’ve experienced in the last week?
- How is your walk with God going? In what ways are you hoping to grow in your relationship with Jesus?
- When you envision your life in 10, 20, 50 years, what do you want to be true about your relationship with God? What steps do you need to take today to grow towards that?
- What new insight or understanding do you have after reading that passage of Scripture? Have any emotions surfaced for you in this?
- How can you live out the truth you’ve read in this Scripture passage in your thoughts, actions or decisions?
- Is there someone you can encourage with what you have learned?
- Are there any attitudes or thoughts in your heart that you need to surrender to God?