Asking The Hard Questions

A few months ago I began teaching a group of teens at a local church on Wednesday nights. At first I taught them using power points and twenty minute lessons. After about a month I realized that strategy would not work well with them. Most of these teenagers came from a family or culture that stressed open communication. So my teaching style that involved lots of lecture with very little discussion seemed strange to them.

After realizing how important communication was to them, I centered the Wednesday night service around open discussion. I would share verses of Scripture, and ask them questions about what God is saying in that passage. After a while we began to discuss some controversial issues during the lesson. Things such as politics, terrorism, homosexuality, sex before marriage, and dealing with depression.

At first discussing these things frightened me. They are subjects that I would never be comfortable talking about in a church service. But I was amazed at how the teenagers responded when I brought up the controversial issues. They began to become actively involved in the discussion and helped me think about the response that God would have for us. In a few weeks I went from speaking to a group of bored teenagers to making sure that only one spoke at a time instead of three!

What made such a difference in the youth meeting? I believe part of it was that they could talk about things that they couldn't discuss anywhere else. Teenagers today deal with issues that we could not possibly imagine. So having a place where they can feel safe enough to ask hard questions and discuss those messy issues is important. I was very careful in these discussions to make sure that they were honoring to God. I always began with a devotional from Scripture that had to do with the subject we where discussing. And I would ask questions during the discussion that would draw us back to Scripture.

As believers living in a postmodern world we are surrounded by the unsaved. And if we commit ourselves to interacting with the unsaved they will ask us hard questions. Questions that have to do with the subjects we many times don’t discuss because they make us feel uncomfortable. Because of this we must learn to communicate about those subjects in small groups. Those discussions will help us develop answers to those hard questions.

I do not believe that subjects such as homosexuality and terrorism should be discussed from the pulpit of a church. But I do believe that they need to be discussed. Talking about those issues will probably make you uncomfortable just like I was. But those moments of discomfort will reap great rewards. Like being able to give a well thought out answer to the unbelievers question. And being able to not only state our view, but defend it as well.