Questions To Ask Your Student Over Supper
by Mark Matlock
Find a time that is relaxed and unstructured to talk to your son or daughter about these issues. Young people can easily feel threatened by their parents when they are discussing spiritual topics, so as you talk about these things, sit back, relax, listen well, and don't challenge or correct. You can ask follow up questions, such as "Would you tell me more about that?" but don't say, "I cant believe you'd say that!" One invites more discussion; the other squelches it.
I recommend that you begin by saying something like, "I was looking at PlanetWisdom.com, and I saw some really interesting statistics they got from a survey of young people. One of the things they found was. . . ."
Some questions are included with each of the stats from the survey. Take your time and listen to what your teenager has to say. You just might learn something!
66% of Youth Group attendees said that their church provides them with opportunities to share their faith, yet only 28% had received any training regarding how to share their faith.
Where do you see people in your youth group telling people about Jesus? Tell
me some ways people respond to them.
I wonder what kind of training people need to share their faith. What do you
think that would look like? Has your group had anything like that? What
did you think of it?
The type of faith that is being disseminated by student evangelizers is a problem - including information from born again evangelizers. For example, consider the following statistics:
23% of all evangelizers and 12% of born again evangelizers said that the Bible is not accurate in all that it teaches.
I wonder what they meant by "not accurate." Do you think they meant in the
translations, or maybe in topics like the creation-evolution discussion?
How would you have answered that question? Tell me more. . . .
48% of evangelizers and 35% of born again evangelizers said that the devil, or Satan, is NOT a living being but is a symbol of evil.
There is so much talk about evil and Satan, and there are so many people who
have read the "Left Behind" series, this statistic is surprising to me.
What do you think people were thinking of? Why would a third of the born-again
students believe Satan isn't a real being?
30% of evangelizers and 21% of born again evangelizers believe that when Jesus Christ was on earth He committed sins, like other people.
Do you think the people who don't believe this really have a problem with Jesus
being God in the flesh? Where do you think they developed this concept?
I wonder how these people view Christ's death on the cross. Do you imagine
they think Christ's death is the way we find forgiveness or that we earn
it? Tell me more about that. . . .
62% of evangelizers and 55% of born again evangelizers contend that there is no such thing as absolute truth; that two people could define truth in different and conflicting ways and both still be correct.
We all hear people say something may be true for one person but not for another.
When is that statement valid?
What are some things (if anything) that we can be absolutely sure of? How can
we be sure?
89% of evangelizers and 83% of born again evangelizers did not even offer a guess as to the meaning of the term 'the Great Commission.' Only 3 % of evangelizers and 8% of born again evangelizers offered what could be described as the "right" description of the phrase.
How important do you think it is for Christians to take the story of Christ
to everybody in the world?
Do you know any missionaries? Where are they and what are they doing? What
would they say "The Great Commission" is?
44% of evangelizers and 31% of born again evangelizers - and 75% of non-Christians - did not offer a guess as to what John 3:16 might refer. Only 26% of evangelizers and 37% of born again evangelizers offered a correct description of John 3:16, either reciting the verse or describing the concept of the verse accurately.
Imagine sitting next to a friend watching a game on television, and somebody
holds up a sign that says "John 3:16." How would you explain this verse
to your friend?
Why do you think the concept of grace is so hard for people to understand?