Lesson 49 · Unit 8 · From Reading to Leading
When You Are Stumped
The most powerful sentence a leader can say is, "I don't know. Let's go and find out together."
Open
Ask enough people why they will not lead a Bible study and the reasons vary, but the one pressed down at the bottom is often the same: fear of being stumped. "What if somebody asks me something I can't answer?" As though a leader's qualification hung on having an answer for everything.
Put that load down first. What you are leading is a Bible study, not a press conference; you are a guide walking the same road, not an all-knowing encyclopedia. And here is something that may surprise you: the most powerful sentence in a Bible study is very often not an elegant explanation, but a leader saying honestly, "I don't know. Let's go and find out together."
This lesson is about the moment you are stumped: how to think about it, how to handle it, how to guard against it, and when to call for reinforcements.
Scripture
One verse that splits knowledge into two columns, and a righteous man with his hand over his mouth. (Deuteronomy 29:29, WEB)
29The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
3You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
See
A theology of "I don't know"
Deuteronomy 29:29 puts knowledge in two columns: the secret things belong to Yahweh; the revealed things belong to us and to our children. God never promised to hand us every answer. What he promised is light enough to walk by - "that we may do." So "I don't know" is not a breach in your faith; it is this verse used correctly: admitting that some things are in God's column. Job is the living example. He had stored up a whole stomach of "why," and when God answered him out of the whirlwind, not one "why" was explained - and Job said, "things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know," put his hand over his mouth (Job 40:4), and his heart came to rest. He never got the answer. He got God. Sometimes the best thing a leader can model is exactly this: no pretending in the presence of truth.
Three steps in the moment
When you are stumped, take three steps. Step one, thank: "That's a really good question." Let the asker know that asking is safe; if the embarrassment of being stumped is written on your face, from then on the group will only ask safe questions. Step two, throw it back and write it down: ask the room first, "what do the rest of you think?" - often someone can carry it and you only need to hold the direction. If there is still no answer, write it into the question book in front of everyone: "I've noted it. I'll look into it and come back with an answer next week." Step three, deliver: come back next week and actually answer it - or better, bring the reference books and look it up together. "Let's go and find out" turns a crisis into a demonstration: what they see is not an encyclopedia, but a person who knows how to find an answer. That is exactly the next generation of readers you are trying to raise.
Guardrails, and when to call for help
Not knowing is not dangerous. Teaching something wrong is. Set three guardrails in front of your mouth. One, stay inside the context: do not let a verse say what it does not say; when unsure, shrink the claim down to "what this passage at least clearly says is..." Two, sort first-order from second-order: on first-order doctrine - the deity of Christ, the atonement, the resurrection - stand firm and say it plainly; on second-order questions - end-times sequence, mode of baptism and the like - learn to say the sentence: "On this question, Christians who are faithful to Scripture have come to different understandings - take these passages and ask the pastors of the church you belong to." Three, do not invent on God's behalf: where Scripture is silent, we are silent too. "The Bible doesn't answer that directly here" is a complete and perfectly good answer.
There are four more situations where you should not carry it alone but bring it to a pastor: a doctrinal argument that keeps fermenting in the group; someone facing a major decision about marriage or a move who wants "the biblical position"; a question with trauma or a mental-health crisis behind it; and a first-order doctrine you have researched and are still unsure about. Take the question to them, and better still take the person with you - referring on is not incompetence. It is care.
Deeper
Secret and revealed (Deut 29:29)
God's knowledge comes in two columns; admitting that the secret column belongs to God is reverence, not dereliction.
Job's rest (Job 42:3-5)
God answered not one "why," and Job was satisfied because he saw God - presence is greater than explanation.
First-order and second-order
teach first-order doctrine plainly and firmly; on second-order questions take no side and point to the pastors - the first guardrail against teaching error.
Referral is care
bringing a question beyond you to a pastor is a normal link in the chain of shepherding, not a failure of leadership.
Story
A-Xiong runs an auto parts shop in a county town, and was reading John's Gospel one-to-one with the young man who works for him. In the seventh week the young man suddenly asked, "Brother Xiong, my mother worshiped Guanyin her whole life. She died last year. Where... is she?" A-Xiong said afterward that his teacup stopped halfway to his mouth, and ten different answers went through his head, every one of them like a knife. What he finally said was: "That question is too heavy. I'm not willing to give you a careless answer. What I don't know, I won't pretend to know. But I know two things: the Judge of all the earth will do right; and he loves your mother more than you do. Let me go and ask our preacher this week, and let's talk again next week. All right?"
The young man said later that it was the "I don't know" that kept him there. "If he'd handed me some beautiful answer on the spot, I might have walked out. You can hear it when an answer is made up." The next week A-Xiong took him to see the preacher. That long conversation became a turning point on his road to faith.
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1What does Deuteronomy 29:29 assign to God, and what to us? What does the purpose clause, "that we may do," tell you?
2Job never got the answer and did get rest - "presence is greater than explanation." Have you experienced that yourself?
3Is there a question you are always afraid of being asked? By this lesson's two columns, is it one you can research, one to bring to a pastor, or one of the secret things?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
God to whom the secret things belong: thank you that you did not hand me every answer, and did give me light enough and your own self. Save me from the temptation of pretending to know everything, and from the fear of losing face, so that I can say plainly, "I don't know," then go and study honestly and come back honestly. Where I have no answer, let your presence be the answer. In Jesus' name, amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 15 min
Start your question book (one sheet of paper or a note on your phone is fine). Write three questions of faith you still cannot answer, and mark each one: researchable, to be taken to a pastor, or among the secret things.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Practice an honest "I don't know" once this week - in a study, at home or at work: when you cannot answer, say "I don't know; I'll find out" - and then actually come back and deliver.
Memory verse · Deuteronomy 29:29
ThesecretthingsbelongtoYahwehourGod;butthethingsthatarerevealedbelongtousandtoourchildrenforever.
Walk further
God's answer out of the whirlwind; the lesson on suffering and the goodness of God in volume two; a straight treatment of the end-times questions; and the theme of faith.