Questions with Purpose

Things to consider when creating questions for Discussion

The best teachers:
1) have the greatest knowledge of the material,
2) have the strongest feelings concerning its importance, and
3) are the ones who are most consistently applying it to their lives.

By influencing thinking and feelings towards issues and Biblical Teaching you have a long-lasting impact on actions. You can directly influence actions, but it will be only temporary unless you also influence thinking and feelings.

You should have questions that fall into EACH of the THREE of the following areas:

1. To know - an appeal to intellect, knowledge
* What do you want them to understand more clearly? (This is usually as far as most groups get, but the next two elements are equally important.)

2. To feel - an appeal to emotion
* How do you want the group to feel? Challenged? Loved? Secure? Excited? This personalizes the input. They can study the cold facts and achieve the "knowledge" goal. But it takes the Holy Spirit using your effective introduction and the kinds of questions you ask to make them personally feel the truth as applied to them. Only when the heart is added to the thinking does real lasting change take place.

3. To do - an appeal for action
* What do you want them to specifically do as a result of this time? You motivate them to accomlish this goal through the conclusion and application time. This is the weakest part of most lessons. Often the application is either not planned or pushed out due to lack of time.

The best test of the effectiveness of your teaching is not what you do, but what your students do as a result of your teaching and how they apply the knowledge gained.