Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Each and every time I attend an event that the North American Mission Board facilitates they submit several questions to participants for the purpose of personal engagement. Too often we hear great content but fail to reflect and intentionally think how we can appropriate certain truths or principles into our lives.

Questions are helpful tools to help people ascertain where they fall short, what needs to take place in order to move forward and myriad other issues. In his book A Fool’s Talk, Os Guinness gives three reasons why asking questions is helpful when confronting people in their views. Question help people 1) examine their life, 2) uncover errors and 3) appeal to a person’s desire to grow.

To that end, here are the questions that I’ve started to more regularly think about when engaging in spiritual disciplines (e.g. reading a biblical text, praying, meditating on Scripture, listening to or preparing a sermon):

• What did you hear and what do you need to do?
  • You heard a great sermon or you had a meaningful devotional time with Jesus, so what do you need to do in response to it? Our faith in Jesus is an active faith, comprised of good works.
• When will you do it?
  • I’m a big believer in “APs,” meaning action points. You know you need to do ____________ and you’re making a commitment to do it at a particular time.
• Who will help you?
  • I presume you’re much like me in that I need brothers and sisters to come alongside me and help me believe and follow Jesus. This question is designed to ramp up accountability in your life in that you involve someone else in your walk with Jesus. We don’t do life alone; we need one another so who is going to help you do what you know you need to do.

What else would you add? Any thoughts or suggestions on the above content?

Thanks for reading!