Excited to have met Q Place!

As a seasoned Christian, I have heard many a message derived from Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus tells us to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you….” Not only have I heard the scripture, but I have also read it several times, and, without equivocation, I truly believe it, as it is the Great Commission; however, I must admit that I have not been as proactive as I should be in fulfilling this commandment by our Savior. To me, it has been hit and miss, with a few hits and a lot of missed opportunities. 

I could sincerely deliver to you a myriad of reasons why I have not been too productive in living up to my evangelistic responsibility, but none of them matter—the bottom line is that I have been negligent. Now, before you begin castigating me and looking for some tweezers to take the mote out of my eye, you may want to grab some tongs to first remove the beam from your own, because I am sure I am not the only Believer who has been slack in meeting this expectation; however, I now have a method to use to be more effective, a method introduced to me through my involvement with a ministry called Q Place.

In January, a friend invited me to join a series of Q Place coaching sessions that she was helping to pilot. The sessions were held by video conference call once a week for seven weeks. Six of us joined, and two coaches who have a lot of experience as Q Place initiators led us through the book How to Start a Q Place, with weekly practice and scriptural principles to support what we were learning. 

The basic approach used in the Q Place ministry is that of inductive reasoning and discovery through asking good questions. Now, this approach I am familiar with, because of my experience as an educator. I used strategic questioning with my students and got very rich results, so when I realized the strong emphasis placed on asking questions in a Q Place, I was very excited. Who knew it could be used in evangelism! The whole idea of this process is to help people feel safe to ask and consider meaningful questions. As they explore answers to the questions together in group discussions of the Bible, God uses Scripture to help them make discoveries about Jesus and their own need for salvation. How exciting!

Now that the seven weeks are over, I can honestly say it was a blessing. Learning more about the Q Place mission; finding out how to walk through the stages of starting a Q Place; becoming familiar with a number of Q Place resources; and engaging with other Believers who, like me, have a desire to find out how to be better in fulfilling our Savior’s commandment to us—all of this culminated in a most rewarding experience. Because of my involvement in the Q Place ministry training, I now feel more equipped to go into the world and make disciples of all people.

Yolanda Willis
Friend of Q Place