Question Time

A friend emailed me this week with an interesting question. She works in a Christian social services agency that has decided to “raise the bar” regarding their clients. They want to be intentional in finding out the spiritual status of those who want help. Since this is a private organization, they can set standards different from those set by state agencies.  Here is the question: “We get a lot of cold calls and referrals from secular agencies from people interested in (our services).  At times, I have found it difficult to word questions to them in order to understand their level of Christian faith.  Asking them if they are born-again Christians is definitely not enough.  There are many people out there who would call themselves Christians.  Asking them to explain how they became a Christian is often not enough either.  Many of them have become Christians, but are not living the Christian life.  I was just wondering if you could give me some input as to what kinds of questions I can ask people in order to ascertain where they are in their spiritual walk (open-ended questions are best because it forces them to explain things further).” 

After a few minutes, I came up with these questions:

1) How does a person become a Christian?
2) In what ways are you growing in your Christian life?
3) If I asked your friends to describe your Christian life, what would they say?
4) If someone asked you, "How can I know that I'm going to heaven?" what would you say?
5) Tell me about some prayers God has answered for you.
6) Who is Jesus Christ and why die he die on the cross?
7) Do you believe Jesus is the only way to heaven? Why or why not?

I thought I’d throw this question out to my readers. What other questions would you suggest to gauge a person’s spiritual commitment? Send your suggestions to raypritchard@calvarymemorial.com. I'll post the best responses on the weblog.