Faith in the Gray

Learning to lead without having all the answers

By Jamie Englehart

Did Jesus come to answer all our questions, or did He come to give us more? The truth is not as black and white as I was raised to believe, and the Bible is not nearly as “clear” about some things as many like to teach. If anything, life is full of gray areas.

Several years ago, I was rebuked by a Bible college president for ministering to the students by asking them questions. He said, “You need to minister the Word and stop ministering questions.”

I didn’t answer the president for a few days because I took his words to heart. I also didn’t want to harm anyone or teach error, so I began researching Jesus’ approach to the topic. In the process, I discovered that Jesus, the Word, ministered more with asking questions than He did with giving clear answers.

During His ministry, Jesus was asked approximately 183 questions. Depending on how you count them, He answered—at the most—eight of these questions. Not only that, Jesus asked nearly 340 questions!

“I will stick with the Word because He ministered with questions,” I responded to the president. “He was not merely trying to indoctrinate people with what to think but teaching them how to think for themselves.”

I don’t think it was an accident, or a mistranslation in Luke 10:27, that when Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, the greatest commandment of the law. He said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Jesus adds “mind,” which is not in Deuteronomy, which instead states, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

In John 1 the beloved apostle identifies Jesus the Son with the Greek word logos—the word from which we get the words “logic” and “reason.” God wants us to come and reason together. He is not afraid of our questions.

In the first century, rabbis taught not just by giving answers, but by encouraging questions and times of discussion and dialogue. I have a friend who studied with a Jewish rabbi, and he mentioned to me one day that if you were to tell a rabbi you were reading Scripture and got a revelation from it by yourself, the rabbi would ask, “Do you not have any friends?”

Rabbis interpret Scripture in community, as do non-Western Christians to this day. Perhaps that is why the apostle Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:20, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors, and when we surround ourselves with others who are asking questions, it keeps us from eisegesis and reading something into the text that is not there.

At 12 years old in the temple, Jesus confounded the teachers of the law: “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:46-47). The religious leaders were amazed at both Jesus’ questions and His answers. Asking the right questions is what leads us to better answers.

The apostle Paul calls the mystery that was hidden from the ages “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Maybe we should be less dogmatic about our answers and start questioning some of them. If what we believe cannot hold up under the scrutiny of being questioned, then it is not a belief we should hold too strongly. Let’s be authentic enough to be intellectually honest about things we struggle with in Scripture.

The younger generation is being indoctrinated against Christianity by our culture, and the Bible is being picked apart in philosophy and ethics classes in the universities they attend. We must learn to be less defensive of our tightly held beliefs and practices—the elephants in the room that we don’t have all the answers to.

Whether it’s the genocide and infanticide commanded during the conquest of Canaan, the stoning of rebellious children required by the law or Jephtha’s sacrifice of his virgin daughter in the book of Judges, many difficult passages of Scripture can make God seem less compassionate than we are. Perhaps the answer is to focus on being more Christlike rather than being biblical literalists.

We now live in the information age, but as leaders many of us were raised in the industrial age. I remember when it took more than a month to receive a book I ordered at a Christian bookstore. Today, I can push a button and be reading any book I want within seconds.

One of my mentors taught me to not say to my children or grandchildren, “When I was your age ...” because we were never their age, even if we were their years. While I can relate to a six-year-old boy and remember what I went through when I was six, he is being raised in a different world than the one I was raised in. In a sense, I was never his age.

I was raised in an era in which parents often answered questions with, “Because I said so,” and leaders in the church world said, “Don’t touch God’s anointed,” as if asking a question was the equivalent to questioning whether someone was of God.

As older leaders, we may feel threatened at times by the questions of the next generation, rather than embracing the fact that this is how we were always supposed to learn—the way Jesus taught. Rather than being intimidated, simply respond with, “That is a great question.” Then, either give an answer, or if you do not know, humbly admit it and then say, “Let’s look into that together.”

I am 58 years old, and I never seem to fit in the age I was raised in. I’ve always asked questions and pushed the boundaries. So much I was taught did not make sense to me, and my questioning nature has given me a desire to grow and learn. In fact, I was told when I was just a young boy growing up in the Pentecostal church that I had a “questioning demon.” They were never able to cast it out, nor have I wanted to be delivered from it.

I always thought the older I became, the more answers I would uncover. Instead, I have found that I have more questions. As a young leader I detested mystery. After all, I had the Holy Spirit and He leads us into all truth. “There is no mystery,” I would dogmatically declare.

Then I got older, and after 36 years of full-time traveling ministry and 21 years of leading a network of churches and ministries that has taken me to 47 states and 26 nations, I realize there is so much that I do not know. The more I do know, the more I realize I do not know.

Maybe this is why Paul writes as an older man in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We have all experienced grief and sorrow, lost loved ones and friends and perhaps at times screamed at God, “Why? If you are all-powerful and all-knowing, why didn’t you stop this from happening?”

Perhaps the life of Jesus is less about answers and more about God condescending as a human in the incarnation and walking with us in the mystery when we do not understand. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

The one thing that goes beyond our figuring everything out is peace in the midst of the mystery. Jesus, our Prince of Peace, guards our hearts and minds in the midst of all the questions, fears, doubts and misunderstandings. So, make up your mind to live life and keep moving forward, even in the midst of all the questions.

We seem almost afraid to let people wrestle with God, Scripture and their own unbelief rather than providing safe places in our church cultures and organizations to do just that without fear and judgment. I want to encourage leaders to open your hearts and minds to the possibility that none of us have God all figured out, and it is extremely arrogant to think we do. Let’s humble ourselves, embrace mystery and continue to learn as well as relearn and unlearn, for such is the kingdom.

Jamie Englehart is president and founder of Connect International Ministries, a family of churches, ministries, businesses and leaders. He is widely sought after for his unique, multidimensional understanding of the kingdom of God, the New Covenant and the heart of the Father revealed through Jesus Christ. Jamie is married to Wendy, who is a recording artist, and for over 35 years they have ministered across the globe, serving as elders, church planters, Bible school teachers, spiritual parents and itinerant ministers. They have two married children and three granddaughters.