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    Asking the Right Question

    November 4th, 2006 · 4 Comments

    One of my absolute favorite things about Jesus is how he worked questions.  He would ask questions that would get people thinking and wondering.  Questions that once people had answered them would linger with them in life-changing ways.  People would ask Jesus questions to trap him and somehow he’d turn them right back around on them.  They would pose a question to him and he would answer with one right back.  In many and subtle ways Jesus would expose that people were often asking the wrong questions. 

    “What must I do to inherit eternal life?,” the man asks.  Jesus replies and brings him to a point where understand the question he ought to be asking is, “What is standing between me and God?” (Mark 10)

    Seeking to justify himself another man asks, “And who is my neighbor?”  Jesus’ reply indicates that this is the worng question, the right one being either, “Who is a neighbor to me?” or “How do I be a neighbor?” (Luke 10)

    Pastors (youth and adult) face this problem everyday.  If they want to draw a crowd they can find out what peoples questions are and then answer them in creative, engaging, and captivating ways, or, they can do the harder, more subtle work of helping people understand the question behind their question, the question they never thought of, or perhaps the question they don’t want to ask, but need to wrestle with nonetheless.   Jesus demonstrated that the task of a good teacher is not to draw attention to themselves by having great answers, but to draw attention to great answers by asking the right questions.  Pastors, leaders, and teachers, abdocate their responsibility to this task when they uncritically or placatingly allow others to set the agenda. 

    Some of the best learning happens when people pose us with timely and provocative questions that we may never think to ask or answer ourselves.

    So, what questions has God been asking you lately?

    Tags: Jesus · leadership

    4 responses so far ↓

    • 1 Dave // Nov 6, 2006 at 1:38 am

      JR,
      Great post. Good to see you today.
      God has been asking me “Why?” Why do I want to follow Jesus? Why do I want to pastor a church? Why forgive Tim? Why let Chaz off the hook? Why do I still love Dan? Why keep trying at things I feel I’ve failed at a dozen times?
      We have had this amazing dialogue going over the past 15 months. It has been very satisfying, even in the midst of what must look like incredible failure to many others. He has shown me why I should do these things. And He has shown me how He can do these things in me and through me. He lets me try and fail, try and fail, until I finally give up, then He shows up. Unbelievable grace, amazing mercy and deep love.

    • 2 JR Rozko // Nov 9, 2006 at 6:18 pm

      Thanks for your comment Dave. Sorry it took me a while to rely, for some reason I didn’t get notified when you commented.

      Having known you for 5 years now (wow, half a decade!) it is incredibly encouraging to see how God has been at work in your life. I am glad you’re getting the “why question.” I feel like that’s the question God asks to keep us on our toes, to make us question, and to get us to grow and expand. I have no doubt that your gifts and personality will be a tremendous blessing to others at the Hartville campus as you pose the same “why question to them. I remain honored to call you a friend.

    • 3 David // Nov 11, 2006 at 1:40 am

      Great post jr. My question, what is the right question, and if I found it/them would I recognize it?

    • 4 JR Rozko // Nov 20, 2006 at 10:58 pm

      Hey David, sorry I haven’t replied to your comment before now. Though I think God asks us certain questions all the time - who are you loving? - what is coming between you and I? - what are you treasuring? - and so on, I have given up my search for the “right” question. I think it so tied up with who we are, where we’re at, timing, and so forth. There are questions God asks us in all sort of different seasons, but I can’t imagine any one right question and even if there was, I doubt I would recognize it.

      (and if I thought I did I would probably get very pious and zealous about it mandating that everyone else respond to the same “right” question. If they didn’t feel like God was asking them the same question, I would probably dismiss them as damned fools and judge them as unworthy of the grace of God. In the end, people would probably divide and start wars over who asks the right question and what the one right answer to that question is. This would probably result in slander, malicious talk, backbiting, gossip, lying, secrecy, judgment, and condemnation. People would probably eventually become convinced that this is just the way things are and if someone came along and suggested that maybe we had gotten off track, that we might need to rethink who God is and what being his people is all about, they would probably be dismissed as faddish or written off as heretics.)

      Thankfully we’ve never experienced anything like that - right?

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