Honest Questions, Honest Answers comes from the heart and mind of Francis Schaeffer as he was giving a presentation at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. The title of his presentation was “Form and Freedom in the Church.” In this presentation, Schaeffer claimed we need two contents and two realities – four things he believed were essential if the Church wanted to see God truly at work.
Honest Questions, Honest Answers was Schaeffer’s “second” content. In this second content, his point was simple – the Church needs to know the truth of God’s Word AND the church needs to know how to put the truth of God’s Word into practice. One way the church can put this into practice is by listening to the honest questions people are asking and then answering these questions with honest, biblical answers. For our purposes, we will be using the questions laid out in the Lifeway/ Ligonier State of Theology Survey. But in our lives, we may discover that we will get questions from family members, friends, co-workers, unbelievers – or even from people sitting beside us in church.
As mentioned above, we’re going to look at the questions laid out in the Lifeway/ Ligonier State of Theology Survey. We’re going to look at those questions and then look at how Scripture answers those questions. BUT, as we move through this CORE Seminar, we’re also going to take these questions and then turn them into questions a skeptic or unbeliever may ask. This will cause all of you to wrestle with some tough topics/ tough questions that are genuinely being asked both outside the Church and within it. In addition to these questions, we’re also going to wrestle with “evidence” that may be presented in defense of the skeptic/ unbeliever’s question.
As we work through the correct answers to the questions AND as we work through the skeptics/ unbelievers questions, you will want to avoid answers like, “because that’s what I’ve always been taught.” And – instead – we want to dig into God’s Word and ask, “What does God’s Word say about this and why?”
The goal of this course isn’t to walk away knowing the “right answers.” The goal is to develop a distinctly Christian worldview – one that is firmly grounded in God’s Word and shapes how we think, how we live, and how we respond – in humble generosity – to the people around us. And, as Schaeffer emphasized, we want to communicate the truth of God’s Word with the love, humility, and faithfulness that should characterize God’s people.
Group Leader Resources
Week 1 | Introduction, State of Theology Survey A and Questions 1-5
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide | State of Theology Survey A
Week 2 | Questions 6-11
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide
Week 3 | Questions 12-15
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide
Week 4 | Questions 16-20
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide
Week 5 | Questions 21-25
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide
Week 6 | Questions 26-30
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide
Week 7 | Questions 31-35, State of Theology Survey B
Group Guide | Teacher’s Guide | State of Theology Survey B