What? What? What?
Growing up, my mother frequently told me “Don’t say ‘what’, say ‘pardon’”. However I’ve come to believe in a world where ‘what’ is not only a good word to use but a great question to frame growth and faith formation for whomever the audience is.
I regularly combine this word with the outdoors as a helpful platform for faith formation. This has taught me to pursue activities that include some risk, reflection, discussion about that experience, and application that leads to tangible growth. The great leap is always making an activity apply to the audience’s life and hopefully faith; otherwise it’s just an average game.
Trying to balance holding people’s attention, keeping them safe and providing opportunities for growth can sometimes seem intimidating. Thankfully there is a really simple model or pattern that can be used to help us with this. I can't tell you how many times this model has ‘kicked in’ and saved my activity.
If this becomes a default tool for you, stand back and enjoy what happens. Because although you have a hand in how you set it up, ultimately it's got nothing to do with you. We want to facilitate a space for our audience to talk, share, and listen to one another.
So here it is…
WHAT- Ask as many questions as you can starting with this word - simple, disarming questions. For example,
“What was your favorite…?”
“What part did you like the least?”
“What words by someone in the team helped you the most?”
“What do you think [Bible character] was thinking?”
“What happened?”
SO, WHAT- Frame, create and conjure questions around that previous question of ‘what?’ and shape it into ‘so, what?’. The combinations are limitless. Once you ask one of these simple questions, get out of the way. People want to be heard and listened to. Try questions like:
“So, what did that make you feel?”
“So, what does that say about this group/team/decision?”
”So, what made you do/think/act/decide to do that?”
NOW WHAT- Almost like a call to action, move to a place where questions are framed around:
“Now what will change, happen, improve, be done differently next time?”.
“Now what will this group do to make sure we take care of each other next time?”
“Now what is something positive you will take from this?”
It’s really that simple. As a leader of youth or even home/cell/life groups this can be a valuable tool.
We really believe in this method. So much so, in fact, that we have created a whole resource for youth groups around it in response to the changing nature of this world.
SUNZ have developed a weekend retreat resource for youth groups in this season of rebuilding and reshaping church communities as we’ve known it. It's framed around processing the past (‘what’), acknowledging the present (‘so what’) and dreaming towards a future as a body of Christ (‘now what’).
Please let us know if we can share it with you!