They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. - Nehemiah 8:8 (ESV)

 In the last article on small groups, I mentioned that I would describe how I write discussion questions and why the first few are always the same. What follows is a primer on discussion questions. This article is longer than usual to include it all in one post.

 The Standard List

Why a standard list of questions? A standard list of questions helps the leaders and the students remember what is most basic, what is most important. The first three questions are designed to get the discussion going in a general way that reinforces the kind of approach to listening to sermons that we believe is correct. There are innumerable wrong approaches to listening to a sermon. The “right” way is the way that puts the emphasis on Scripture rather than the preacher, on the understanding of the listeners as they listened, and the implications for the listeners and how they live as a result of the sermon.  

Question 1: What was the big idea of the sermon? Is it faithful to what the text says? 

This question is the most basic, and perhaps the most important. It is the most basic because it asks the group to recall what they just heard. It falls short of discovering whether the group followed the argument. Instead, it is a closed question that divides the group into those who listened to the main point of the sermon and those who did not.  

In asking what the big idea of the sermon was, the idea is to check whether the students were listening for the most basic point. Can they repeat it? Do they capture it? The second question helps them to be Bereans as they are described as noble in the Book of Acts. They were checking what they were hearing from the evangelist and apostles against what they could see in the scriptures. This is what we want the students to do. We not only want them to have listened to the sermon, but we also want them to compare what the hair in the sermon with what they can see in the text. This reinforces the idea that the authority of the Word spoken is not in the preacher but in the scripture.

What the preacher says is only as authoritative as it is true and representative of what God has said in his word. In that sense, the question lends itself to interpretation and elaboration like an open-ended question would. It begs the students to consider how the text leads to the interpretation that the preacher gave, in what ways the interpretation is difficult to understand, and in what ways the way the preacher put it together helped to bring out the meaning of the text for the students to be able to understand. This is what we see mentioned in the passage from Nehemiah at the head of this article. The teachers not only read but also gave the sense so that the people could understand. This recognizes that there is a need for teachers in the church.

The point of the teachers is not to present to the listeners what they could never find for themselves, but to show the listeners what is there for everyone to see. Teachers can sometimes teach in such a way that the people listening could never hope to replicate the content, but it is often because the teacher is not so much giving a sense of what is in the text as adding his own sense to the text. Even if what the teacher says is true, if his purpose is to preach a text, then he should preach that text and not other ideas. If he is honest and self-aware, then he might use a text and then jump from it into his own set of ideas, but he should say that. Too often, a text is read and another set of ideas is given, but the teacher or preacher doesn’t explain what he is doing, and so the listeners are left with the text on the one hand and what the preacher or teacher said on the other, and there is a gap in between. Many well-intentioned teachers and creatures do this on a regular basis.

The fact that a student missed the big idea is not in itself always a failure. Sometimes, listeners may be so taken, so distracted, so convicted by a particular line in the sermon or the Scripture that they ponder one or two points removed from the center of the sermon, but those points are very relevant and impactful for their lives. When that happens, it is not a failure, but an important time for the leader to seek to understand what it was that they were pondering and whether it is right, good, and true. The Holy Spirit works through sermon points and parts of passages other than the main thread of thought. 

 Question 2: What struck you most about the passage as you listened?

This question is an open-ended one that is designed to allow the group to begin a discussion from anywhere they would like. This helps to orient the leader to where the students are in their minds. What do they find remarkable? What is confusing? What do they already know? Where are they ignorant? What do they agree with or disagree with, and why? How careful are they as listeners? Do they understand the flow of argument, or do they get lost? Can they think deeply about a particular point, or do they get distracted? Are they attempting to draw benefit from the sermon, or do they fail to see the connections between Scripture and their lives? Are they interested in Scripture and learning to live for God, or do they appear uninterested and even dead spiritually? Do they focus on understanding what God’s Word says, or do they tend to focus on something else, like the preacher, or something or someone else? 

The above questions and many more are potentially answered by how the students answer this basic question. It is a question that does not always bear fruit, but when it does, it can be gold. Often enough, it is not, so leaders will have to decide how to use the responses that students give. Students will often answer in some way that offers no immediate basis for fruitful discussion, but the leaders can sometimes use what they say as a bridge to a more profitable conversation or idea. 

One of the tricky parts of this question is that, if leaders decide to build off of what the student says here, it is easy for students to lose track of the conversation. That is because, oftentimes, leaders will keep changing the question. By changing the question, I mean that a leader will ask one question that gets little or no response; the leader wrongly interprets the students to be unwilling or unable to answer, but the students are actually just thinking about the question that was just asked. Often enough, the question is not particularly clear in the first place. Not knowing this, the leader asks a different question while the students are still thinking about the first one. Oftentimes, a student will offer an answer to the first question when the leader already moved on to the second (or third) question without making that clear to the group. This provokes more silence, because now the students do not know which question is being discussed or where the leader is trying to go. General confusion results, and the leader may wrongly conclude that the students were not willing to talk when the more reasonable interpretation is that the leader did a poor job of leading the discussion.

If leaders build a discussion on the general question of what struck students as they listened, they need to be patient and allow questions to act like building blocks for a discussion. It is often the case that questions act like successive doors the group must go through to find what they are really looking for before the conversation really gets going, which would mean that students’ interest is piqued and they are beginning to develop their own momentum in the discussion.

Question 3: How does this passage help or motivate us to live for God through Christ?

This question attempts to build on the previous two by taking the discussion to the point of considering what the passage ultimately has to do with our daily lives. It is framed as a question about the passage, not the sermon, since the passage is the point of the sermon and the sermon is not the point of the passage. It focuses on the usefulness of the text, since multiple Scriptures (like Psalm 19, Psalm 119, and 2 Timothy 3:16-17) all expound on the fact that Scripture is, in the final analysis, not for theoretical contemplation only, but practical living. The question also focuses on living for God through Christ in particular and not living in general, since we do not live generally but have a purpose. Christians are to consider themselves alive to God and dead to sin, which dictates the overall direction and goal of our lives (Romans 6:1-11).

 The third question seeks to help the students consider what the passage has to do with their lives after the group dismisses. Generally, there are three categories to consider: the way students think, the desires students have, and what students choose. There is no passage of Scripture that does not address these areas in our lives. The three categories—thinking, desires, and choices—are representative of the students’ hearts, and each category feeds into the others and affects them. The starting point, however, is thinking, as evidenced in a passage like Romans 12:1-2, where believers are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The mind is not cut off from desires or choices, obviously, but what is happening there is not a switching out of desires or choices first, but of ideas. The ideas we hold lead to the thoughts we have, the desires we develop, and the choices we make, with all the reactions and consequences that those bring as we encounter different circumstances in our daily lives. 

 It is also important to note about this question, not only that it is intensely practical, but also that it comes after the first two questions. The first two questions are about the ideas of the text, the sermon, and the students. The third question is about the practical implications of those ideas on the students’ lives. Before we can properly apply God’s Word, we must properly understand it. Otherwise, we fall into the trap of believing we are doing what pleases God—trying to obey Him—without paying sufficient attention to what He has actually revealed in His Word. We can believe that the Scripture ought to be immediately and easily understandable, but that is not true. Scripture is clear enough to understand, and it is understandable, but that does not mean every passage, or the whole taken together, have a meaning that is immediately and obviously apparent. It takes work to understand, as evidenced by the passage at the beginning of this article, where those who read the Law made sure to give the sense so that the people could understand.

 Miscellaneous Questions

Miscellaneous questions are questions that are tailored to the content of the particular passage that generated the content for the sermon. The idea in these questions is to give leaders rails to run along if they wish and as they find them useful. I typically write questions focused on issues that are hard to understand, or that require nuanced thinking, or that provoke students to compare and contrast their lives with some specific thing in the text.  

In general, the miscellaneous questions are about the kinds of things that will generally be brought up in a discussion about the first three questions. That is another reason to put those three first. The first question reflects the fact that what God´s Word says is most important. The second question reflects the fact that students need to understand it. The third question reflects the fact that students also should be practically impacted by Scripture. The rest of the questions all focus on at least one of the above three aspects. 

As I form the miscellaneous questions, I try to look at the text from the perspective of a student who has just heard my sermon. What do I not intend to focus on that may benefit from further discussion? What is complicated that leaders may need to help them understand? What are they likely to be most challenged by in the text or sermon, and what can I ask to keep it at the forefront of their minds? What might be controversial or hard to accept, and how can I form it as a question for a group to discuss together? 

In short, miscellaneous questions attempt to show the students the kinds of specific questions about the text that they should learn to ask themselves. If my miscellaneous questions put into words some of what they are already thinking or wondering about, then the questions are that much more successful, since the students will be prepared for the discussion by their own reflections as they listened. The more prepared the students can be, the easier it is to get the discussion off the ground and into fruitful territory. 

Conclusion

Writing good discussion questions is hard. Teaching teenagers to have good discussions is, I submit, even harder. Each group is unique because each group is made up of unique people. As leaders take these questions, they can use them as a starting point to jump in a different direction altogether, or they can walk through each one and have a sufficiently comprehensive set of questions to consider together the text in some breadth and depth, along with its touchpoints in their lives now. Leaders do not need to follow slavishly the order of questions, or even discuss any of them every time. However, the general flow, at least logically, from understanding what God has said to considering what it means for our lives afterward, is essential to maintain. Teaching students when they are young to do this is worth the effort, including the many failures and false starts that all leaders experience. We do not do it by our own power, but depend on the Spirit of God applying the Word of God to make them see and worship the Son of God for the glory of God.