Guiding Students Through Life’s Tough Questions
Last month, I was in Singapore and was asked to speak at a Christian school for its weekly chapel program. When I accepted, I was warned that the students did not care much for chapel, so their non-attention and minor disruptions should not offend me. This made me even more enthusiastic about speaking!
At the chapel program, instead of opening pleasantries, I started by answering questions I knew they had:
Why does God allow such suffering in the world?
Why are Christians so mean-spirited toward LGBTQ people?
Doesn’t science prove that God is unnecessary?
Can I still be a Christian if I have doubts?
I tied together the questions to our worldview commitments and compared the responses. Students were with me the whole time, and the conversations with individuals afterward were lively.
Students in Singapore ask the same questions our students do. This experience exemplifies how youth today everywhere are impacted by the rapidly changing cultural and technological landscape. Their faith ranks as an add-on to their social life and social media consumption – and it does not fit in neatly.
Our most meaningful interactions are often when we encourage them to ask questions about their faith and to think through the challenges to Christianity. They have seen and heard many of them, and they lurk in the back of their minds, resulting in a tentative commitment. Given the opportunity, they ask deep and challenging questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity and how these relate to their world. Their questions reflect a desire to reconcile faith with a current understanding of the world and personal identity. Here are some of the common questions they might ask:
(How many of these questions have you heard from your youth? How many of these questions do you think your youth have but haven’t asked out loud?)
Questions About God
- Is God real? How can we know?
- Why does God allow suffering and evil?
- Can God really love me after what I’ve done or thought?
- How can God be relevant in a modern scientific world?
- Doesn’t science prove that God doesn’t need to exist?
- If He does exist, why does God not make His presence more real?
- Why does He let bad things happen to people like children getting abused by adults or dying of cancer or a natural disaster?
Questions About the Bible
- Is the Bible still relevant today?
- How can we trust the Bible if it was written so long ago?
- Are the stories in the Bible literal or symbolic?
- How do we interpret challenging parts of the Bible, like those about violence or controversial moral teachings?
- How can you have a book from God written by people?
- Why the Bible and not the Quran, or the Upanishads, or other “holy” books?
- Why did God order Israel’s army to kill all the people, including children (Deut. 20:16)?
- Why does God order execution for disobedient children, people who are homosexual, and people who work on the Sabbath?
- Why did so many Bible heroes have a lot of wives? Why can’t we?
Questions About Christianity
- What makes Christianity different from other religions?
- Why are there so many different Christian denominations, and which one is right?
- How can I be a Christian when Christians have done so many bad things throughout history?
- What does it mean to be saved, and how can I be sure I am?
- If Christianity is true, then why are there so many other religions who think they are correct, and Christians are wrong?
- If Christianity is true, why haven’t most people in the world had an opportunity to hear about it?
- Can I be a Christian and still have doubts about my faith?
- How should Christians respond to issues like LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, and racial justice?
- What does Christianity say about relationships, dating, and sex?
- How can I practice my faith without seeming judgmental or out of touch with my peers?
Questions About Faith and Culture
- How can I maintain my Christian faith in a culture that often seems opposed to it?
- How should Christians engage with popular culture like music, movies, and social media?
- Can I enjoy secular entertainment, or must everything I do be explicitly Christian?
- How do we handle the pressures of social media in light of Christian values?
Questions About Christians
- Why are many Christians so close-minded and mean-spirited?
- Why do Christians hate gays and Hispanics?
- How come Christians still sin as much as everyone else?
- How come Christians dislike each other? Why are there so many denominations?
These questions reveal teenagers seeking authenticity and practical guidance in living out their faith in a complex, often contradictory world. Youth pastors and Christian educators can address these questions by creating safe, open environments for discussion, using Scripture as a foundational guide, and relating biblical principles to contemporary issues in a relevant, empathetic manner. Engaging with these questions thoughtfully can help strengthen teenagers’ faith and equip them to navigate their world as informed, compassionate followers of Christ.
Top of Form
Where to Start?
For You as a Leader
Set the Tone
Create an environment of exploration and explanation for your students. Asking and answering questions should be a central theme of the gatherings. Let them develop confidence that Christianity is open to examination and challenges.
Prepare Yourself
Every youth pastor should be conversant with apologetics. There is no shortage of resources available to inform yourself and your youth about the art of providing meaningful responses to questions about Christianity and the biblical worldview.
Lifeway has some excellent books providing apologetics resources (https://www.lifeway.com/en/searchpage.html?prod.taxonomy.lwc%5Bquery%5D=Apologetics&prod.taxonomy.lwc%5Bpage%5D=2)
AXIS (www.Axis.org) is the best source for up-to-date interaction with all things youth culture. They provide parent guides, discussion kits, etc. All free.
What Would You Say? (https://whatwouldyousay.org/) provides short but to-the-point responses to questions people ask about Christianity and Culture from the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. All Free.
Got Questions (https://www.gotquestions.org/questions_Christianity.html) is a good source for responses to the most common questions about Christianity (and many uncommon questions, too). All Free.
Of course, other resources are also available. If you have sites, YouTube videos, books, etc., you have found particularly useful, please leave a message below.
How do you get your students to ask questions?
Some youth programs encourage students to pose questions to the leaders in an open-ended “forum” (raise your hand; ask a question). I recommend this only if the leader(s) are comfortable and proficient in answering challenging apologetic questions.
When you receive questions, it is best to have time to research and respond in a way the students can understand and remember. One good way to do this is to have students ask the questions near the end of the meeting, expecting them to be answered at the next meeting or have students write out questions and leave them with you (or put them in a “question box”). Then, you can work on them before the next meeting (possibly using the resources I cited above).
Don’t forget that you can take control of the Q&A process by asking a question yourself. For example, you could say, “How many of you have heard someone ask, ‘How can God exist when there is so much evil in the world?’” Before you answer, you could get responses from the students individually or arrange them in small groups to discuss the issue.
How do you answer the questions for the students?
The easiest, of course, is to give your prepared answer to the group. If you find a good response on a YouTube site, you could show it to the students and have them respond to it. For example, I like to use a clip from one of John Lennox’s presentations or Q&As to answer a question about the relationship between Christianity and science.
Do what you think fits best with your group. Make it active, positive, and engaging.
The always-present goal
Let me encourage you to invest time in broadening your knowledge and proficiency in apologetics. Never forget that your students will be leaving you, and how you have equipped them to acknowledge and respond to faith challenges will have a lasting impact on their college and vocational life choices. Giving them confidence in their faith and helping them to know where to go for answers to challenges will be a precious gift.
A never-ending opportunity
Many people spend their lives in an environment where they are regularly called upon to “give an answer for the hope within them” (1 Peter 3:15). Here is a good example. Lynne and I have dear friends who are missionaries to foreign students at an American University. They serve the students in many ways, helping them navigate their new environment. Frequently they invite foreign students to their home for meals and conversation. They become the closest thing to family these students have. As you can imagine, they have many occasions to discuss their faith, raising questions among their guests. Every month, they send us a synopsis of some of their conversations. They are always fascinating and a blessing.
Here is an example of a foreign student, Peter, who had questions for Roger. Notice how the questions are honest and thoughtful. Roger’s responses are straightforward and biblical and point to Jesus.
Question 1
Peter: “Isn’t the Bible a book for Jews to allow them to find redemption in a Jewish heaven? So, what does that book have to do with me, a non-Jew?”
Roger: The sin problem affects all peoples of the entire earth, Jews and non-Jews.
- Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
- The sin solution is offered to everyone. As the Scripture says in Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Question 2
Peter: “Did God create everything? If yes, why am I and the fallen angels considered guilty when I and they sinned? God is actually the one at fault because He created evil?”
Roger: You are mistaken to say that sin originated with God. The Bible says:
- James 1:13-14: “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
- 1 John 1:5: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
Satan seeks to hinder people from choosing salvation and living a life of obedience.
- 1 Peter 5:8-10: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers worldwide are undergoing the same kind of suffering.“
God loves people and offers them salvation.
- John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.“
Question 3
Peter: “Japan is a modern developed country. It has a low crime rate and designs and builds some of America’s best-selling automobiles. The 2024 percentage of Christians who call Japan home is around 1%. So, Japan is a very successful modern country that does not need Christianity to succeed.
Roger: In 2023, Japan reported 17.6 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate is 14.2 in the USA per 100,000 inhabitants. The people are smart and hardworking but not happy. Besides, financial and intellectual success does not mean that a nation or an individual is in the right relationship with God. The problem for the Japanese is the same for all people. They are sinners and need a savior.
Pray for Peter, who is wrestling with a question: Who is telling me the truth, the internet or the Bible?
Finally, thank you for the privilege of serving you as Scholar-in-Residence for Youth Pastor Summit this year. Collaborating with Dr. Brent Crowe, one of my former students, and his outstanding team has been a blessing. Please let me know if there is any way I can be of service to you.
I pray for God’s presence and blessing on you and the ministry He has given you.
Eyes on Him!
Bill
William E. Brown, PhD
Senior Fellow for Worldview and Culture
The Colson Center for Christian Worldview