There are times we need to go deeper in order to clarify what a person is saying, reveal a misunderstanding, or to help them see ‘God-connection’ to something they already believe in and hold dear, such as: Beauty, Justice, Morality, Truth, Love.  At times someone will make a comment. We find ourselves surprised or stuck, and the conversation hits a dead-end.  But it doesn’t have to!

Here are 3 questions that will help to move a conversation forward (from Greg Koukl’s book, TACTICS):

Learn to ask…

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?”

An old classmate gets on a bus and is surprised to see you. He walks down the isle toward you to say hi. But as he gets near he sees you’re reading a Bible. He says:

“You’re not still into that God stuff, are you?!  There’s no evidence that it’s even true!”  

This is a perfect time to ask this first question:

“Who do you mean when you say ‘God’?”

Or…

“What do you mean when you say ‘stuff’?”

Or…

“What do you mean by ‘evidence’?  What would count as ‘evidence’ to you? What kind of evidence would you need to see in order to think differently about God?”‍ ‍

These questions can open up further conversation by encouraging a person to explore and reevaluate the accuracy of their beliefs and assumptions.

”WHY DO YOU THINK THAT?”

“You said you don’t believe x, y, or z. But, why?”

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED…

Or, in a conversation, we might ask them to ‘wonder’: “Have you ever wondered why…”

“Have you ever wondered why…we human beings are so attracted to ‘BEAUTY’, when no other animal reflects an aesthetic nature in their being?”

“Have you ever wondered why…‘JUSTICE’ matters so much to us? 

“Have you ever wondered where…‘MORALITY’ comes from?”  How can you have morality w/o a moral lawgiver? Where would it come from?”

“Have you ever wondered why…it’s wrong to DISCRIMINATE based on a person’s ethnicity, gender, color, or creed?”

___

By the way, it’s interesting that the gospel itself is an answer to a question: Who is Jesus?

You see, the gospel is not a set of moral commandments that we keep, or a set of ideas we think about, or some religious experience we want to have. It’s primarily a response to a question! 

In Mark 8.26-29, Jesus asks His disciples a question: “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They reply that some think He is John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks them this question: “Ok, but who do YOU say that I am?” Behind the question, the gospel writer Mark is asking a more fundamental question: WHO IS JESUS? Mark’s whole gospel story is based on the answer to that one question that comes up at the half-way point.  Peter’s answer to that question is the heart of the gospel, and our eternal life hinges on our answer to…a question.