What Are Your 3 Questions?

Three questions.

I’m always looking for the answers to three questions.

About 10 years ago, when I was new to my role, I was invited to go to a leadership conference for pastors.  I had been in my call (and a new role) for about six months and was feeling pretty clueless.  So I immediately signed up.  A couple of weeks before I went, I was talking with a friend about the event, and my friend asked me “what are you going there to learn?”  I was unsure how to answer the question. “Well, whatever they are teaching, I guess.”  

My friend smiled, and then said, “Well, that works…but you might want to go into it with a little more intentionality.”  

I thought about that a lot, and I realized that my friend was right.  In my situation, I probably could get away with just going to the event and being open to whatever happens. 

But I was hoping the event would give me more.  I needed to have an agenda.  I needed to know what I needed to know.

So I sat and made a list of the things that were going on in my congregation and my community.  And I narrowed that list down to the three biggest “hot button issues” for me.  And then for each of these three things, I came up with a question.  My questions were:

1. In my new role, I supervise a seminary intern.  I’ve never done that before. If you’ve done that, what do you wish you knew about it when you started?
2. How does your congregation best connect with organizations in your community that provide care for those who are in need?
3. How are young people integrated into congregational leadership at a level broader than just the youth ministry?

And so then I went to the conference.  

I soaked in the speakers, music, worship and workshops.  But when I met with people casually…between sessions…in the hallways…on the hotel’s couches in the lobby, and we’d gotten to know each other a bit, I’d ask them one of these questions.  

I even had the opportunity, at a reception, to ask one of the keynote speakers a couple of these questions.  

I’d been to conferences and workshops before.  But going to that conference was a whole different experience for me.  Instead of simply hearing and integrating the content of the speakers (which I loved), I went with an agenda that was contextual to me.  I brought my questions, and I had them answered.  

I learned what I needed to learn.  And I got way more “bang for my buck” at that event.

Since then, anytime I’ve gone to a conference or continuing education event, I’ve worked to figure out my three questions.  And I work to find answers to those questions., either from the experts or from the community.

As you prepare for this year’s Extravaganza in Louisville, I wonder what your three questions might be?  Might they relate to curriculum?  Or maybe cultural shifts?  Or perhaps one of the questions is about how we communicate the truths that come from God to an ever-shifting community of young people?

Whatever your three questions are, I just encourage you to have them.  Think and wonder.  Write your questions down.

And then come to the Extravaganza and ask.  

Come to the Extravaganza and find your answers.

In Christ,

Todd