The Simple and Profound Power of Questions (Part One)

The most powerful things in life and ministry are the simple things. Questions are simple, yet they can lead to profound results.

Every year I read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. I alternate between German and English translations. Just before my German Bible reading for 2015, I sensed the Lord telling me to register all of the questions in the Bible. It did that. It generated almost 2,800 questions. I physically wrote them down, each one of them; where was the reference, who said it to whom, and what was the question? That resulted in 164 pages of questions. I read them over and asked myself, what questions does the Bible pose that contemporary society also addresses? I subjectively chose twelve of those questions and answered each one. That resulted in my book PROFOUND: Twelve Questions That Will Grab Your Heart and Not Let Go (click on the cover of the book on my website to order it on Amazon).

What is a question? A question is a quest that leads to greater understanding from which there results a call to action.

This is the first of four blogs that will explore the profundity of questions. We will look into four areas in which questions can help us immeasurably. The four areas are the people we want to reach (outsiders, strangers), leaders, disciples, and we ourselves. Think of them in terms of concentric circles. We will work from the outside toward the inside.

When we begin to address the power of questions we touch on the heart of leadership. Leadership is influence. As innocuous as it may seem, the person asking the questions is the person leading. Why is that? Because questions set the agenda and focus on what needs to get accomplished.

Let’s begin with the outside circle; those people we want to reach. Jesus would refer to this circle as the harvest (Matt 9: 37-38). An organism like the church will only survive and thrive if it lives for those that it is called to reach. The same goes for businesses. The focus on outsiders and not insiders is the key to church and Business growth.

Several years ago, my church planting partner Nico and I sensed we should start a church in Frankfurt, focusing on urban professionals – predominantly the unreached people group of bankers and lawyers. We spent an entire year interviewing about eighty urban professionals one-to-one. Reaching urban professionals with the gospel meant that we needed to familiarize ourselves  with their world. These highly driven and very successful people became our teachers. We were their students. We asked them to teach us about their world. We posed such questions as: “Do you have any free time and if so, how do you spend it? How can the world to become a better place? What is the good life? What do you read regularly? What would a church need to be to interest you?” And the last question was the most helpful: “Who do you know that I don’t know that I should get to know?”

I remember visiting a former politician in his home in Marburg. When I asked him the last question, he got out a piece of paper and a pen and began writing down names. He was kind enough to open the door to these high-level people for me. One of them turned out to be one of the four board members of the Federal Reserve Bank of Germany. This man invited me to dine with him at the Federal Reserve Bank twice. He was known by everyone in the financial community in Frankfurt and indeed in Germany (Martin Luther referred to Frankfurt as “the gold and silver hole of Germany.”). He was good enough to give a professional talk in our location in the financial sector of Frankfurt. Seventy people attended his talk mostly because of the name recognition.

The course that I have developed to reach secular people with the gospel in contrarian ways, mylifeworkshop.net, is an example of beginning with the end in mind. The end are people outside of the fold that God has called us to reach. When we begin with them and their questions we touch a nerve that often opens their hearts up to the good news of the kingdom. s

Call to action

May I challenge you? Ask yourself, “Who are the outsiders, strangers, customers of my business or ministry?” Go to five of them in the coming week and say to them: “Would you be willing to help me?” (They will most certainly say yes, if possible). Then ask them insightful questions like: “What is the good life? If you could ask God one question, what would it be and why? What is a book or article that you have read recently that has impacted you? Who do you know that I don’t know that I should get to know?

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