Four Questions you can use every week

Asking questions is the best way to teach adults. And a few
questions can be used over and over and never get old. Here are four
questions you ought to ask your group regularly.

 

1.  How are you doing these days in terms or your time alone with
God?

I have asked groups to discuss this at conferences many times at
it is always a positive, encouraging thing. Most of us want to have
a quiet time. We just need a little help from our friends. We need
to encourage one another to have a quiet time. One way to do this is
to ask the questions regularly: how are you doing these days?

The quiet time is the fundamental discipline of the Christian
life. We want to create people who start their day with the Bible on
their lap. Most people need a little help from their friends to do
this.

I have found that in in own life my consistency in time alone
with God ebbs and flows a bit. For me, I tend to do better when I am
at home and worse when I am on the road. Trouble is, I am on the
road alot. I need a little help from my friends.

Every month or so, ask your group: what are you reading? What
have you read lately that was meaningful to you? Have you memorized
any verses? What are your praying about?

Of course, it works best when this question flows naturally out
of the text. The good news is, it often does. Whenever the subject
of the Bible or prayer comes up, ask your group: how are you doing
these days in your time alone with God?

2. What do you love about following Christ? What has been great
about it recently?

Every so often, we just need to review the size of the stockpile.
We all have a tendency toward negativity. We all tend to complain a
bit. Gratefulness is one of the healthiest disciplines we can
develop as an individual, and as a group.

What do you love about being a Christian? Here is a short list
that comes to my mind:

• I love having a Bible that instructs me on how to live.


• I love sensing the presence of God in my life on a daily
  basis.


• I love enjoying Christian teaching. We have such great
  Christian teaching these days in books, radio, podcasts and
  other media. What a time to be alive!


• I love serving the Lord. Jesus said as we engage in the task
  of making disciples, that He will be with us. We know He is with
  us always, but there is a special sense of His presence when we
  are serving Him.


• I love the sense of calling and purpose--a reason to get out
  of bed in the morning. A Christian needn't ever be bored.


• I love the church and the fellowship of Christian friends.


• I love the knowledge that I am forgiven of all my sins.


• I love the knowledge that death is not the ultimate enemy.
  (What would you pay for that?)


• I love knowing that God is God and I am not. I love resting
  in the fact that He is boss. The world is not running recklessly
  out of control. There is a throne in heaven and Someone is
  sitting on it. Not pacing  the floor and wringing His
  hands. Sitting. Relaxed. In charge.


• I love the promises of God, especially Romans 8.28. Life is
  hard; often very hard. In a difficult world it is great to know
  that there is a God who is working all things together for God
  as we love Him and follow His calling for our lives.

An old hymn describes our heart as, "prone to wander, Lord, I
feel it." It is really true, isn't it? We need to be reminded on a
regular basis of what we have in Christ.

Some of the sweetest times in my life in church were in my High
School years. This was the era of the Jesus movement and Lay Witness
Missions that had a profound impact on my life for the good.
Christianity came alive for me. One of the components of church life
in that era was the share group. It was not a Bible study, we just
talked about what God was doing in our lives. It was great.

I had a similar experience for a time in college where fellow
believers would get together and just share what God was doing in
our lives. Rich times of fellowship. We need to include some of this
in every Sunday School class. Not all the time every week, but some
of this in every class.

I recommend asking the previous two questions regularly. These
next two questions can be asked every week.

3. How does it benefit you to follow Christ?

There is a foundational verse in Hebrews says "And without faith
it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek
him." Hebrews 11:6 [NIV]

I draw your attention to the word "rewards." We must not only believe that God exists. The demons do that. We
must believe that he rewards. We must believe that following Christ
has its own rewards. We must believe it is in our best interest to
live the Christian life over the long haul. In the short run it can
cost us, but in the long run, it is always in our best interest to
live the Christian life.

It is important because we are hard-wired to do what we believe
to be in our best interest. We can't avoid it. You can for a time,
but eventually what you believe is in your best interest will win
the day.

You must come to love the Christian life or you will never come
to live the Christian life.

Quiet time becomes for you a "sweet hour of prayer" or you are
not praying very well.

In every arena of life, no matter what you are teaching, you
need to ask, "How does this benefit you?"

• How does it benefit you to give?


• How does it benefit you to forgive?


• How does it benefit you to discover your spiritual gifts?


• How does it benefit you to serve?


• How does it benefit you to seek to double your class?

People will only do over the long run what they believe to be in
their best interest. We need to ask about every arena of life, "How
does God reward as we follow Him in this area?"

Self-discipline is over-rated. Not that there is not a place for
self-discipline; there is. But if you try to live your whole life
forcing yourself to do what you basically don't want to do, you are
not living the abundant, John 10.10 life. We must come to love the
Christian life, and every part of it, or we will never come to live
the Christian life.

4. What does not following Christ cost you?

Psychologist tells us we are motivated by two things: pain and
pleasure. Of the two, pain is a slightly greater motivator. We need
to talk about both, just as the Bible does:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity,
death and destruction. Deut. 30:15 [NIV]

Which do you want--life and prosperity, or death and destruction?
If you want life and prosperity, choose obedience. If you don't want
that, choose disobedience. Your call.

Not following Christ will always cost us in the long run. Get
people in touch with the cost.

5. What are you burdened about these days? What is on your heart?
What has you tempted to worry?

So often when we ask for prayer requests, people have to think
about it. Andy Stanley says, if you have to think about it, it is
not a prayer request. Your real prayer requests you don't have to
think about. That is what this question seeks to get at.

We share prayer requests about Aunt Bertha's hung toe nail and we
need to be sharing about the tax bill we got this week and we don't
know how we are going to pay for it, or our kid who has been
diagnosed with Schizophrenia or a job we don't know if we should
take. This is the real stuff that is on our heart and that is what
we should be praying about. That is what we are praying about, and
it is what we should be asking the group to pray about. Let Aunt
Bertha's group pray about her hang nail.

This is, of course, part prayer request and part life sharing.
This is how it should be. We need to do life together. Pray
together, yes, but just share life together. Sunday School needs to
be a place where we share what is really going on on one another's
lives.

Need more help?

Asking questions is the fundamental skill taught in
Disciplemaking Teachers. If you would like more help on this, there
are books and videos in our online store.
www.joshhunt.com Or, you might consider a
live conference.
www.joshhunt.com/conference.htm

Also, you might consider subscribing to the Lesson Vault. It is
an online resource of hundreds of lessons that include these types
of questions regularly. See

www.joshhunt.com/vault.htm