Documentary Interview Questions: Crafting Stories That Reflect Transformation

This guide offers a thoughtful framework for conducting interviews that reveal transformative personal stories, rooted in faith. Inspired by The Hero’s Journey, the questions are designed to help interviewees share their unique experiences with clarity and depth, while recognizing cultural sensitivities and contextual nuances.

The Journey of the Interview

The questions are structured to follow a narrative arc, starting with the interviewee’s background (Act 1: Departure), exploring their challenges and the pivotal moments that led them to encounter Jesus. This initial section establishes the character and their context, highlighting early life struggles and spiritual voids.

The middle of the journey (Act 2: Initiation) dives into their search for meaning, encounters with Jesus, and the transformative process of faith, including the doubts, pushbacks, and eventual moments of clarity and surrender.

Finally, the guide concludes with Act 3: Return, where interviewees reflect on the life-changing impact of their faith, how their identity and relationships have been reshaped, and their ongoing journey of walking in the Spirit.

Purpose and Sensitivity

These questions are crafted to uncover raw, emotional stories of redemption and hope, offering powerful narratives for documentary storytelling. A reminder is given to handle sensitive topics with care, emphasizing the importance of gaining consent and fostering trust.

This resource is a tool for ministries and creatives seeking to honor the depth of individual stories while pointing to the overarching story of God’s work in their lives.

Preface Notes: 

1. It’s not necessary to share the titles for each of these sections. That might cause a little confusion if they don’t understand The Hero’s Journey. 
2. You know your ministry and culture best. If these questions use “Western” language that will not translate well in your particular context, please feel free to make adjustments to the questions to fit your ministry’s context. This should serve only as a guide.

Introduction

a. What is the best way to communicate? Email, Face to face, etc.

b. Are you willing to share your story with our donors?

Act 1 | DEPARTURE – Establish the Character

1. What is your name?
2. Where do you live?
3. What was life like for you growing up?
4. Was your Father around growing up?
5. Was your Mother around growing up?
6. What was life like where you grew up?
7. How did you spend your time?
8. What were the best parts of your childhood?
9. What were some hard parts of your childhood?

 Act 1 | DEPARTURE  – The Problem or Need | Part 1(Something isn’t right)

1. What did you place your hope in prior to knowing Jesus?
2. What was it that caused you to realize your need for a savior?
3. When did you start realizing something was missing in your life?
4. When did you first start experiencing or first realize God’s pursuit of your heart?
5. If you’ve followed Jesus your whole life, you were still dead in your trespasses prior to saying yes to Him. When did you come to that realization?
6. When did you realize there was something broken in the world?

* These questions will be specific to the storyteller’s story, so this is clearly not an exhaustive list. The goal is to reveal the hardships, difficulties, challenges, and pain points of the character’s story. What was the conflict like and how did it make them feel? These questions can be extremely difficult to answer for the subject. Handle with care, this is why we ask permission. 

Act 1 | DEPARTURE – GO | Crossing the Threshold  – Character Meets a Mentor Who Calls Them to Adventure (Jesus)

1. Can you tell us about the first time you heard about Jesus?
2. When did you first experience Jesus pursuing you and stirring in your heart?
3. Was there a conversation that sparked your interest?
4. Did the Bible play a role in Jesus revealing Himself to you?
5. Did Jesus show up to you in a dream?
6. Was there someone in your life that kept introducing Jesus to you, or modeling a relationship with Jesus for you?
7. When did you meet the ministry, church, or individual who introduced you to Jesus?
8. How long have you been in a relationship with that church, ministry, or individual?
9. How has that church, ministry, or individual come alongside you in your time of need?
10. What difference have you seen in your life since meeting the church, ministry, or individual?
11. How did the church, ministry, or individual engage with you during your time of difficulty?
12. Did you feel the church, ministry, Bible, or individual called you to something more for your life than what you were experiencing?

Act 2 | INITIATION – Search

• What challenges and struggles did you face as Christ began opening your heart?
• What was the journey like as you started to explore/experience/learn about Jesus?
• When you first heard about Jesus how did you respond?
• Did you experience pushback from your family/friends/community?
• Were there things in the Bible that were hard to reconcile with?
• Was there doubt about what was happening in your heart or doubt about Jesus, the Bible, or your faith?

Act 2 | INITIATION – Find

• What happened when you realized that Jesus is who He said He was?
• Was there a recognition of His righteousness in exchange for your sin?
• Was there some kind of miracle that took place?
• Was there a prayer that was answered?

Act 2 | INITIATION – Take

1. When did you say yes to Jesus and submit to His authority in your life?
2. What did you do to accept His gift of salvation? Was that a defined moment in time that you can point to, or has it been a journey or obeying Him and submitting to His authority in your life, or both?
3. What happened when you accepted His gift of salvation?

Act 3 | RETURN – Return

1. How would you define how your identity has changed since saying yes to Jesus?
2. We established early in your story what Jesus saved you out of. How would you describe what He has saved you into?
3. How do you approach life differently now that you’re a disciple of Jesus?
4. How would you define your relationship with Jesus?

Act 3 | RETURN – Change

1. How has your faith in Christ changed your life?
2. What is different about your life now than before Christ?
3. Now that you have a new life and are walking in the Spirit, what differences do you or others recognize about your life?
4. How have the things you’ve learned or the things God has revealed to you about yourself affected your relationship with others?
5. How has your relationship with Jesus helped you walk in your identity and fulfill His call on your life to love God, love others, and make disciples?
6. How has your life change in Jesus affected the man or woman you have become?
7. Where do you feel the Lord is taking or leading you?
8. Can you describe what it’s like to walk in power, love, and self-control over your sin, rather than walking in a spirit of fear?
9. What are you excited about in regard to what God is doing through you?