Asking Better Questions

Part 2 of The Key to Leading Bible Study

Last week, we talked about how in every Bible study or small group there is a balance between fellowship and study. This week I just want to offer up a few tips I have found helpful in the realm of asking questions.

Once you have figured out that balance for your group, the next step is to ask questions that facilitate conversation toward where your group lands on the continuum of fellowship and study.

It’s my opinion that every Bible study group should have some mixture of questions that are related to the text and context (study) and other questions that are aimed at evoking conversations about our own experiences (fellowship).

What is the difference between these questions?

A study question looks like this:

In Luke 1, who does Luke dedicate his Gospel to?

Study questions are often meant to point the group back to the text to search for an answer. I find study questions are best when they are findable, but not so obvious that people feel insulted to be asked. What is obvious to a group depends on the group, so that’s subjective.

A fellowship question looks like this:

If you wrote a book, who would you dedicate it to?

Fellowship questions help people get to know each other. But, they also do something that is overlooked and more subtle: They help the group remember that the people in the biblical story are real people.

With the example above, Luke is a real person writing a book. He dedicates that book to someone, just as many books are dedicated today.

In my opinion, the key to fellowship questions is that there are no wrong answers. You want to ask something that is spurred from the text but invites a personal touch in the answer. For some people, the experience of Bible study is much like school. Some people liked school. Others didn’t. Some have memories of school they’d rather forget, experiences of being embarrassed for not knowing the answer. Asking a few questions where there are no wrong answers can help build confidence in such people, giving them permission to answer without pressure.

Some study questions can also have no wrong answers. These open-ended questions can be challenging for some people, but they are really helpful for building biblical fluency. My favorite open-ended study question is this: What other Bible stories/passages does this remind you of?

When I first started asking this question in my current congregation, people struggled with it. But, after eight years of asking, the answers I get now are often quite profound, drawing connectivity between passages that I certainly had not seen or anticipated.

Finally, one type of question that is really helpful and seldom used is something I call a kinesthetic question. It’s a question that invites the participants to use their body in answering the question. The most common and effective kinesthetic question is this: What is the face you would make if you saw (whatever happened in the text)?

So, for example: What’s the face you would make if you saw an angel appear right next to you? People who never answer your questions aloud, will not be able to stop themselves from making a face.

It’s a great kind of question because it prompts participation and it embodies something from the story that will aid people’s memory of the story. These are definitely the hardest kinds of questions to ask. But try to use one every once in a while.

More next week. Thanks for reading!

Andy