I can only wonder how many people I pass every day without knowing much about them.<\/p>\n
Some of these folks are neighbors I still don\u2019t know well. Others are coworkers and students on a campus large enough that knowing everyone closely is not easy. Some are members of our local church, a three-year-old church plant.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I\u2019m learning, however. Everybody has a story, and I\u2019m richer if I know those stories. To get there, though, I must ask people about themselves. Here are some reasons why asking questions makes a difference:<\/p>\n
1. It requires you to take attention off yourself. When you really want to know about others, it\u2019s hard to keep the spotlight on yourself.<\/p>\n
2. It affirms others. Few things are as encouraging to us as someone else genuinely wanting to know about us. You\u2019ll make somebody\u2019s day better when you show that kind of interest.<\/p>\n
3. It makes you listen. That means you may have to lay down your phone, close your computer and communicate face-to-face with undivided attention.<\/p>\n
4. It helps you know better the people you lead. If you\u2019re a church leader, my guess is that you don\u2019t know everyone in your church at a genuinely personal level. You likely won\u2019t know them, either, until you take the initiative to ask them about themselves.<\/p>\n
5. It moves introverts out of their comfort zone. I know it does, because I\u2019m that introvert. Making a commitment to ask intentional questions allows me to engage in conversations with less anxiety.<\/p>\n
6. It helps guide your praying. A generic prayer of, \u201cGod, help our church\u201d has little comparison with, \u201cGod, please help ____________ as she seeks a new job where she can be your witness.\u201d The latter kind of detail comes only when we ask people about themselves.<\/p>\n
7. It\u2019s a means to connect with non-believers. Evangelism is sometimes difficult because we don\u2019t know how to engage people we don\u2019t already know. Learning to ask simple questions like \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d and \u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d can lead to \u201cDo you attend church?\u201d and \u201cDo you have a personal relationship with Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n
You, too, are likely going to pass many people today — including those whose names you know well, but whose stories you don\u2019t know at all. Slow down and learn some of their stories. You\u2019ll grow to appreciate others more and you\u2019ll pray for them with more direction and care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can only wonder how many people I pass every day without knowing much about them. Some of these folks are neighbors I still don\u2019t know well. Others are coworkers and students on a campus large enough that knowing everyone closely is not easy. Some are members of our local church, a three-year-old church plant. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[221,55,2127,1075],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}