"Good Questions" for Small Groups

Tara Miller and Jenn Peppers wrote a book entitled "Finding the Flow". Sam O'Neal (smallgroups.com) wrote about one of the chapters, "Asking Good Questions". They said "Miller and Peppers identify a key issue: When facilitators don't know the answer to a question, they are generally instructed to own up, admit that they don't know, and offer to find out. Then they research (usually by calling the pastor) and come back next week with the answer. Right? Except that it misses the point of small groups. They are not about answers. They are more about interactive experiences."

He went on to write, "small groups are not so much about the answers as they are about the questions. The facilitator should be asking far more questions than answering them. Questions form the skeleton outline of a group—the basic structure on which everything else hangs."

So, my thought was - How do you ask good questions?! Well, I think good questions are those that:

1) are open-ended questions
2) questions where we expect and believe that the members of the group will have something
valid to say
3) And, they are questions that grow out of Scripture

I thought about what was said about small groups are more about the questions than they are the answers a lot today. My first response was to say, "NO, the answers ARE the important part." But as I have thought about it today, I have decided that these two writers may be right on! The interaction may be as important, if not more important, than the "correct" answers.

I would be interested in hearing from about a couple of things:

1) What is your response to the question/answer debate?
2) What do you think comprises a good question?

Hey, these are just a few of the thoughts I had this morning. I think I am going to buy this book and read the WHOLE thing! That's quite a statement for me.

By the way, if you weren't at The Journey (in Murray, KY) yesterday we had an awesome day! The discussion in our LifeTeams (small groups for those of you that are familiar with that terminology) has been beyond all of my expectations. This series on marriage has generated a lot of interest and a LOT of discussion.