Last week I was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and, having failed to schedule a blog post on the first action day for 6 Questions for The United Methodist Church, I thought that today I should direct some traffic to this initiative and encourage participation on the part of those who occasionally click through my blog. 6 Questions is an effort to directly respond to God’s work in our lives that began prior to and through 40 Days of Prayer, giving voice to those stirrings that have taken place throughout the church as we have turned our collective face toward the One who has constituted the Church–Jesus, the Messiah from Nazareth. To borrow a phrase from James Surowiecki, we hope that through the wisdom of crowds we will be able to discern the right questions to be asking and addressing as the church moves forward toward the heavenly city. Our results will also help us better discern “What is going on?”, which, as H. Richard Niebuhr observed, is a question which should precede the asking of “What shall I do?”
When you visit the 6 Questions page, you’ll find a description of the project and a number of links on the left hand side of the page. These categories are specific initiatives, persons, or areas of church ministry that need good questions. At first it will seem a bit overwhelming, but I would encourage you to patiently click through each category, cast votes, and submit questions. I would also encourage you to bring together groups of friends (Christian or yet-to-follow Jesus) from your corner of the world to help us discern what we should be asking.
To learn more about 6 Questions you can click the links in the quotation below, or check out this video:
This update from Andrew Conard is encouraging:
By September 30, I believe that it is possible to see 10,000 people submit 2,500 questions and cast 75,000 votes.
What do you think?
To participate visit: http://bit.ly/6qumc
To read more, visit: http://www.umcyoungclergy.com/6qumc
Click the links. Watch the video. Visit the website. Vote. Submit questions. Help us better discern who we are and where we are going so that we can develop resources, direct conversations, and conspire together to be faithful to God’s calling on the church in this generation.
