Bible Questions to Ask Your Pastor
Twenty questions to ask your pastor about scripture, starting with how they read a difficult text and moving through salvation, suffering, money, marriage, church leadership and the contested questions congregations argue about. Written for anyone who wants to understand how their church reaches its conclusions, not only what those conclusions are.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How do you approach interpreting difficult or seemingly contradictory passages?
Why ask it
The answer describes the method behind every sermon you will hear afterward. Listen for whether they name a way of working, comparing texts, reading in context, consulting commentaries, or whether difficulty is treated as something to smooth over.
What role does historical and cultural context play in understanding the Bible?
Why ask it
Two pastors can hold the same view of scripture's authority and read a given passage very differently depending on how much weight they give its original setting. This question surfaces that difference before it turns into an argument about a specific verse.
How do you decide when a passage is describing something and when it is prescribing it?
Why ask it
Much of the disagreement between churches sits here rather than in doctrine: whether a text records what happened or commands what should happen. A pastor with a consistent principle will be able to state it and give an example.
How do you read the creation account in Genesis?
Why ask it
You are asking about the relationship between scripture and scientific claims, which shapes what can be discussed openly in the congregation. Answers range widely, and the useful part is whether they can hold their view without dismissing people who hold another.
How do you understand the God of the Old Testament in relation to the God of the New?
Why ask it
A long-standing tension, and the answer tells you how they handle continuity, covenant and the passages people find hardest to read. Watch for whether they engage the difficulty or move quickly to reassurance.
What does it mean to be saved, and how does someone come into relationship with God?
Why ask it
The centre of most differences between traditions, and worth hearing in the pastor's own words rather than from a statement of faith. Ask what role baptism, repentance and church membership play in their account.
How do you understand the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life today?
Why ask it
This is where churches diverge most visibly in practice: whether spiritual gifts are expected in the present, and what people are encouraged to seek. The answer tells you what a service is likely to look like as much as what is believed.
What is your view on predestination and free will?
Why ask it
An old debate that still determines how a church talks about assurance, evangelism and why some people believe and others do not. Pastors who can state the strongest objection to their own position have usually thought about it seriously.
How do you understand hell?
Why ask it
Answers differ considerably even within one tradition, and the question also reveals how they talk about judgment from the pulpit. It is a reasonable thing to ask plainly, and how comfortable they are being asked is part of the answer.
How do you read Revelation, and how should we think about the end times?
Why ask it
The practical question underneath is whether the church's teaching produces anxiety, disengagement from the present, or something steadier. Ask what difference their reading makes to how a congregation should live now.
What does the Bible teach about suffering, and how do you counsel someone in pain?
Why ask it
The second half matters more than the first. A pastor who describes sitting with people, listening and not rushing an explanation is telling you what they will do if you are ever the one in the hospital room.
How do you counsel someone who is doubting their faith?
Why ask it
You are asking whether doubt is treated as a stage of belief or as a failure to be corrected. Ask whether they have doubted, since a pastor who can speak about their own uncertainty is usually safer to bring yours to.
What does it mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus, in everyday terms?
Why ask it
Moves discipleship from language to practice, and the answer tends to reveal what the church actually asks of people. Listen for whether the cost described falls on everyone or mainly on the congregation.
What does scripture say about wealth, poverty and our responsibility to people in need?
Why ask it
Ask what the church itself does, not only what the texts say. The gap between the teaching and the budget is where you learn how the passages are being applied in practice.
What does the Bible teach about divorce and remarriage?
Why ask it
A question many people in any congregation are living inside, often quietly. Beyond the position, ask how the church treats people who have been divorced, since that is the part that affects them week to week.
What role do women play in church leadership, in your reading of scripture?
Why ask it
Ask both for the position and for how it is enacted: who preaches, who is ordained, who holds the budget. Churches sometimes state one view and practise something narrower, and the specifics reveal which.
How should Christians relate to LGBTQ+ people in light of scripture?
Why ask it
Ask about conduct as well as doctrine: what membership, participation and pastoral care look like in this church. Whether the answer speaks about people rather than about an issue tells you a good deal about how they would be received.
What does scripture say about other religions, and can people be saved outside Christianity?
Why ask it
The answer shapes how the church regards neighbours, in-laws and colleagues who believe differently. Ask what follows from their view in practice, since two pastors with the same doctrine can act very differently toward the same neighbour.
How should Christians engage with politics, injustice and civic life?
Why ask it
Ask for examples of what this church has done or declined to do rather than a principle. A pastor who can name a specific decision, and the criticism it drew, is describing something real.
What would you suggest to someone who wants to read scripture more closely, and what are you reading?
Why ask it
A good closing question, and the second half is where it earns its place. A pastor who is currently reading something, including something they disagree with, is a pastor still working at it.
How to Have This Conversation with a Pastor
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting It Up
- Ask for a scheduled half hour rather than raising these in the doorway after a service, when there are twenty people waiting.
- Send one or two of the questions in advance if they are the kind that deserve a considered answer.
- Say why you are asking. Curiosity, a decision you are facing and a conversation with a friend all call for different answers.
- Bring the passage with you if your question is about a specific text, so you are both reading the same words.
- Expect that some questions need two conversations, and say at the start that you are not looking for everything at once.
Asking Well
Ask about method before conclusions
How they read a passage explains most of what they will conclude from it, so starting there saves you working through twenty separate positions. It is also a less adversarial place to begin than a contested topic.
Ask for the strongest case against their view
Anyone who has studied a question can state the best objection to their own answer. If the opposing view only comes back in caricature, weigh their conclusions accordingly.
Distinguish the church's position from their own
Pastors serve inside denominations and statements of faith that may bind them further than their own reading goes. Asking which is which is a fair question and usually answered honestly.
Accept an unresolved answer
Faithful readers have disagreed about several of these questions for centuries, and a pastor who says the text is genuinely difficult is often being more careful than one with a tidy answer for everything.
What to Notice in the Answers
- Dismissal of the question itself, or of your reason for asking it.
- Unwillingness to engage a difficult passage, as opposed to admitting it is hard.
- Language that treats doubt or disagreement as disloyalty.
- Answers about people that never mention any actual person.
- A position on money or leadership that the church's own practice does not match.
- Pressure to reach a conclusion in the room rather than to keep thinking.
Afterward
- 1Ask for one commentary or book on the question you care most about, and ask what they disagree with in it.
- 2Write down what you heard while it is fresh, including the parts you did not follow.
- 3Read the passages yourself before you settle the matter, rather than adopting the summary.
- 4Talk with someone in another tradition about the same question, which is the fastest way to see which parts were assumptions.
- 5Go back with the follow-up question. Most pastors would rather have a second conversation than leave one unfinished.