Using a quiz for discipleship

Have you ever taken one of those personality quizzes online? For a while, quizzes from Buzzfeed and such places were very popular on Facebook, with people trying to find out which Mean Girls character they are, which state they should live in, how 80s they are, and whatever. Recently a group of digital strategists used an online quiz for discipleship.

A team of missionaries in Romania launched an online quiz asking the question, “Who are you really?” Well, except it was in Romanian. The quiz was featured in Facebook ads targeting local students and featured 12 multiple-choice questions, such as:

What movie genre represents your life?
What song do you like?
What do you want most?
What makes you feel joy in your soul?

As you can tell, the questions ranged from shallow to pretty deep, which is important for such a quiz. If all of the questions are deep and require a lot of introspection, people might not want to take the quiz. It will seem too demanding or even intimidating. But if everything is surface level, you’re not going to get important insights. So a balance between the two is key.

Taking the next step

After completing the quiz, the students got a result that describes what type of person they are. This result came in two parts, a personal section that is about their personality, likes and dislikes, and a spiritual section that describes their spiritual outlook and offers suggestions for how to explore faith further. For many of the students, this would have been the first time anyone has suggested exploring their spiritual beliefs.

For those who wanted to take a next step, in the click of a button they were offered an opportunity to sign up for a mentoring appointment. The mentors then had the chance to coach the students in how they can grow personally and spiritually. Those coaches shared the Gospel when appropriate.

Quiz response

“For just a small amount of money spent, almost 600 students filled out the survey … and all 20 mentoring slots were filled fairly quickly,” says Tom, a leader on the project. “There were also students that signed up for an online Bible study course and watched an evangelistic video.”

Applying this lesson

You may not have a budget for Facebook ads, but even if you don’t, you can still apply the basic principles of this strategy. There are a number of free quiz builders that you can find online. If you create a quiz, you can start by sharing it with your own friends and contacts on social media. Any of your friends who take it will be even more open to talking about the results because they already know you. When talking to them about the results, make the conversation about them, not you, asking lots of questions. Look for opportunities to share your own story and, ultimately, to share the Gospel, if it becomes appropriate.

Run

Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. (Habakkuk 2:2)

Create a quiz that has a mix of fun and insightful questions.
Share it with your friends and social media contacts.
For anyone who takes it, talk with them about the results.

Jeremy Lukens

Writer, musician, and cream cheese eater. Follower of Jesus. Indigitous Story Architect.

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Using a quiz for discipleship