Look at the people we are aiming to connect with.

What questions are they asking? I love the Alpha Course and we run them continually at Ivy but the supposed ‘Questions Of Life‘ it aims to help find answers to are not the first ones most people I meet spend a lot of time on.

Too often the church is answering questions nobody is asking.

If we are going to build life changing churches we have to address the real questions of life.

As communicators, if we preach, how do we bring a message that connects?

It seems to me the questions we ask through the years include the following;

Children are asking “Who am I?” (IDENTITY)

Teens are asking – ‘Who am I becoming, that’s different?’ (CONFUSION). 

Twenties – ‘What will I do with my life, and with whom?’ (DIRECTION). 

Thirties – ‘How do I make a difference while managing all my commitments and responsibilities?’ (ORDER)

Forties – ‘How do I deal with my disappointments, and successes?’ (ASSESSING).

Fifties – What parts of my life need to be rearranged for a good second-half (INTENTIONALITY)

Sixties – What contribution of value do/will I leave? (LEGACY)

Older – How do I deal with the increasing amounts of loss in my life? (LOSS/LONELINESS)

What is my place in a youth focused world that tends to regard me as obsolete? Does anyone know or care what difference I made? (WISDOM/WITHDRAWAL)

How do I deal with the inevitability of death? (IGNORE or PREPARE).  This question hangs over us all throughout life but is only allowed to be faced personally when we lose someone.

We must talk about eternity, but we must not only talk about eternity!

Jesus speaks into all these questions. He is the Lord of life!