If we can learn to ask good questions, we’ll increasingly find ourselves in deeper levels of conversation. There are three types of questions we’ll focus on today: culture questions, personal questions, and spiritual questions.
Paul could not help but notice the Athenian culture around him. He was quick to notice the idolatry in the city, and used it as an example to talk about God. Let’s consider the culture we live in.
If you’ve been praying for your friends and looking for opportunities to connect with them, God may already be helping you see some of the deeper issues in their lives. By asking them about these things, we can learn how to genuinely care for our friends and also learn how Jesus could make a difference in their lives.
Get out your list of 5 people again.
(You can use the list below to help you think if you like)
Career issues, family drama, friendship drama, parenting, broken relationships, illness, mental wellbeing, stress and anxiety, feeling stuck in life, loneliness, lack of purpose, financial pressure, decisions about future, hopelessness, injustice, violence, bitterness, bereavement…
You want to ask questions which are personal, but not too personal. For example: instead of asking, “hey, are you depressed” you could ask, “hey, I noticed you sharing something on Instagram about mental health awareness. How’s that area of your life been for you?”
Once we have engaged more deeply with people, it’s time to bring up more directly spiritual topics. Paul was not afraid to do this in the passage we looked at, and neither should we be. In fact, if we have been praying, we should be expectant that God is at work in their lives. We may be worried about how people could respond, but that shouldn’t matter if we truly care about their spiritual state. They may tell us they’re not interested in talking about it, and that’s fine. But if they begin engaging with us over these topics, we will be so glad we brought these things up with them.