Got Questions? - Your Students Do!

I recently asked the Jr. High students that I lead to come up with questions that they currently have about God, the Bible, Christianity and wow, I couldn’t have been happier by the quality and thought provoking questions that I got back. Above is the actual questions that I received back on strips of paper that we handed out.

This brings me to asking a question, “Are you creating an environment where questions can be asked?”

If your answer is YES - Great! Please share for the sake of us youth leaders what you have done to encourage questions in your group via a comment.

If your answer is NO - Your a bad youth leader - (kidding) You may want to consider creating an environment where questions can happen.

Here’s Why:

1. When we ask questions it helps us learn (duh)- Just today, I think my 5 year-old son asked about 20 questions. Here is an example, “Dad, How big is the sun compared to the earth? Dad, why can’t you see outer space when it’s day time?” His questions help him learn - in this case it looks like he’s going to be a scientist of some kind.
2. Questions encourage questions - Usually what I have seen happen is that one student will start with a question and all of a sudden I have 3 others asking questions. When this happens it helps suck in the students that are just sort of there and not engaged because now they hear their peers asking questions and they are interested to hear the answers.
3. Questions allow interaction of the talk/lesson- It almost seems wrong to give a great talk, but not allow any discussion to take place. If this is currently happening in your youth ministry, you are probably still in a Level One ministry phase. By allowing a time to have students discuss the lesson or a different lesson on a different night, it helps them grasp the message and there is more of a chance that they remember something down the road.

Here’s How:

1. One of the best ways is to start small groups in your youth ministry. Small groups is a great setting for discussion to take place - share about it in a Level 2 ministry. Make sure that you coach and overemphasize that your group is a safe place for questions. If someone asks a question and then the rest of the students laugh, then that needs to be stopped because discourages the questions.
2. While diving into your talk, stop and ask for questions. I really see nothing wrong with strategically stopping a few times during your talk to see if anyone has a question or an example. This is a great way to provide some interactivity and really keeps students attentive.
3. Have a question night.Plan a couple times during the year where you have let the students know that you will be answering questions that they have. You can make this time about something specific, or more open ended. I would take the questions before hand and prepare some answers for them so that you have done your research on them. Another idea is to have a panel of seasoned youth leaders show up and then have some questions asked impromptu style.

Here’s the list from the pictures above:

1. What is the point of life?
2. What is Revelations about?
3. How many names does God/Jesus have?
4. Why is there so many names in the Bible?
5. What is the rapture and what happens in the end?
6. Is it wrong to not really want it to be the time when Jesus comes back?
7. What does the Bible say about dating?
8. Who wrote each book of the Bible?
9. Where did God come from?
10. What should you say to a person that says there couldn’t be a God because of all the bad things in the world?
11. What’s a good way to witness to someone about Jesus?
12. If you feel guilty what should you do?

Discussion Starters

Jr High Small Group Start-up Kit: Download

Throw & Tell Ice-Breaker Ball: Physical