Questions and Conversation Starters

Introduction

The Building Blocks of Faith describe four spiritual needs everyone has that are met in Christ:

  • the need to belong 
  • the need to know and understand
  • the need to have hope
  • the need to be called and equipped

Meeting these needs helps faith flourish in people of all ages. Since many people lack the vocabulary to talk about their faith, shaping conversations around the Building Blocks of Faith provides a common language to use. 

The questions and conversation starters below can help you introduce people to the Building Blocks and how they can be used to evaluate and develop your congregation’s faith formation efforts. 

Ideas for using these questions

Having a conversation around the Building Blocks in your church can be a faith-forming event! Faith storytelling provides a wonderful entry point, and we encourage you to weave different people’s stories into your discussions. Arrange in advance for several people to share a brief (3- to 5-minute) story in response to one of the following prompts: 

  • Tell about a time you experienced belonging to God or to your church family. 
  • Tell how you’ve come to know and grow in your understanding of God, God’s story, and/or your place in God’s story. 
  • Describe a time when God brought you hope.
  • Tell about a way in which you’ve sensed being called and equipped by God. 

Each of the story-starters above aligns with one of the Building Blocks, and the story that is told will set the stage for the questions that follow for that category. 

Note: There are more questions on the following handout than can be meaningfully discussed in one session. You’ll want to do some discerning in advance about which questions to focus on. 

The Need to Belong

  • In pairs or triads, share with each other a time when you experienced belonging to God, to your church family, or to another group. How did that experience change you? 
  • Identify any barriers that might hinder people in your congregation or visitors from experiencing a sense of belonging to God and to your congregation.
  • Dream about the future as you list three specific ways in which you would like people of all ages in your congregation, as well as visitors, to experience belonging in your church.

The Need to Know and Understand

  • Hearing the stories of faith from the Bible as well as stories about how God is working in the lives of people today assures us that God is at work in our own lives too. Describe how you came to know God and God’s story.
  • Identify barriers that can hinder people of all ages within your congregation and visitors from knowing more about God and God’s story.
  • What are this congregation’s dreams for knowing God? List three specific ways in which you would like people of all ages in this congregation, as well as visitors, to know God and God’s story more fully.

The Need to Have Hope

  • Describe a time when God brought you hope.
  • Identify barriers that can keep people in your congregation and visitors from being reminded of and experiencing hope.
  • What are this congregation’s dreams for hope? List three specific ways in which you would like people of all ages in this congregation, as well as visitors, to have the hope that comes from God.

The Need to Be Called and Equipped

  • Describe a way in which you have experienced a sense of being called and equipped by God.  
  • Identify barriers that can prevent people in your congregation and visitors from recognizing that they have been called and equipped to work in God’s kingdom.
  • What are this congregation’s dreams for people to respond to the ways God is calling and equipping them? List three specific ways in which you would like people of all ages in this congregation to recognize that they have been called and equipped.

For Further Conversation

In this time of sharing, what have you discovered about

  • your own faith?
  • the role of community/church?
  • what the Building Blocks reveal about the nature of faith?
  • your vocabulary or language for describing faith?

What have you learned about the connections (or lack thereof) between the stories you heard and the church’s ministry programs?