Ask Better Questions - II

Wednesday’s Scripture Readings:
OT: Ezekiel 40
NT: Hebrews 1
W&W: Psalm 119.145-152

Today’s Reflection:

As leaders from BNC (Bethel Nazarene Church) came together for the “New View Leadership Conference 2009,” Doug Van Nest, our district superintendent delivered the keynote address. Today, I continue with part 2 of his address: “Ask Better Questions.”

Dr. Van Nest spoke from Matthew 21.28-31, The Parable of the Two Sons:
28"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.'
29" 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go.
31"Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered.

As we saw yesterday, Better Question #1 was “What is God calling us to be and do?” Accomplishing God’s purpose is not done in the same way in every setting: Hence question 2:

Better Question #2: “What does this look like for us?”
This second question in turn must be driven by another question: “What does our community need?”
The father in Jesus’ story told his sons to “Go.” They had to engage something beyond themselves.
They couldn’t work the vineyard remotely! They had to be in the vineyard.
We need to be in our community, asking, “Where are they?” and “Who are they?” and “What do they need?”
Author Roxberg says that there are two types of change:
1. Continuous change – things we go through that are changing all the time that require only adjustments to our thinking.
2. Discontinuous change – change so dramatic that it requires a whole new way of thinking.
We can’t assume we know the answers to those questions anymore because we are living in a world of “discontinuous change.”
What we needed, they don’t need. What was done for us may not work for them.
What we did before may not work anymore.
How will we know? We must “Go!” We have to get out into the vineyard!
Our planning and vision cannot flow any longer just from the church.
We must ask, “In our planning, how can we get connected to our community so we can understand what our community needs?”
We have to determine how we do that at BNC.

Let’s ask better questions: What does our community need?

This Week’s Scripture to Memorize:
We are trying a whole Psalm this week – the shortest “chapter” in the Bible – Psalm 117: Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.