Chapters 5-7

Okay, ladies! It's time for our next chunk of chapters! Forgive me for getting these questions up a little later in the week. God bless and happy reading!

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”

1. “Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy” (68). Mack says he doesn’t tell Nan about the note for her own sake, but then admits that revealing this secret would mean revealing even deeper secrets that he has kept from her. Do you have secrets that you have justified? Are you ever afraid that honesty can indeed be too messy to bother with?

2. “I know it sounds crazy, but somehow I feel strangely drawn to find out for sure” (70). Have you ever felt “strangely drawn” to meet with God?

3. “…he was looking directly into the face of a large beaming African-American woman” (82). Surprised? Does this portrayal of God make us uncomfortable? If so, why? If you were to create a tangible image, what would God look like? What might that image reveal about your understanding or perception of God? What does this particular image suggest?

4. “And that gun?” (83). What defenses do you take / have you taken to meet with God? For example, do you find that you sometimes come to God with passive aggression? Denial? Seeming indifference? Excuses? How does God disarm us?

5. Reread the 3rd paragraph on page 85 beginning “Mack tried again…” What does this description reveal about the Holy Spirit?

6. Is it significant that God is described as a housekeeper, cook, gardener, and handyman? How do these occupations relate to Mack’s mental, emotional, and spiritual state?

7. “I somehow believed” (87). Has anything ever compelled you to believe?

“A Piece of π”

1. “I have no magic wand…” (92). I find this quote to be surprisingly challenging. Don’t we sometimes assume that God can wave His hand and remove evil, sorrow, etc.? Can’t He? And if He can, why does He sometimes choose not to? What is there to be gained through “time and a lot of relationship”? Relationship with whom?

2. According to Papa, what keeps us from falling back into our “religious conditioning” (93)? What is “religious conditioning”? To what extent have you been religiously conditioned?

3. “Although [Jesus] is also fully God, he had never drawn upon his nature as God to do anything. He has only lived out of his relationship with me…” (99) Consider the following verse from Philippians: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death.” How does the notion that Christ was fully human and never drew upon his divine nature affect you? What if we truly believed that the fullness of God and His power lived within us?

4. “Remember this, humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image” (100). What defines you?

5. “Not that I actually believed any of it…” (102). What truth do you find difficult to believe because of past experiences?

6. What do you make of the title, “A Piece of π”?

“God on the Dock”

1. As this chapter opens, Jesus spills a bowl of batter onto the floor. Do you think this scene reveals anything about the nature of our humanity and God’s reaction to it?

2. “As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes” (106). What is the purpose of prayer if God is all-knowing? (Some verses that might be helpful: Psalms 139:4, Hebrews 4:13, Matthew 12:25, Mark 2:8.)

3. “…a time of devotion…Something simple, warm, intimate, genuine; this was holy” (107). Do we tend to over-complicate our “quiet times”? What do you think God desires of us when we talk with Him?

4. “I feel more comfortable around you” (110). Are you more comfortable with Jesus than the Father? In what ways does that demonstrate itself?

5. “Yes. She is Creativity; she is Action; she is the Breathing of Life; she is much more. She is my Spirit” (110). How do you see or describe the Holy Spirit?

6. “Being always transcends appearance” (112). How much stock do we put in our own appearance and that of others while neglecting our being? How many of our insecurities stem from image?

7. “…the wastefulness of creation” (113). Can you recall a moment when you were awestruck by the beauty of our world? Why did God create such a lavish Earth?

8. “I feel so lost,” says Mack. Jesus responds, “You are not lost” (114). Have you ever felt lost on your spiritual journey?

9. How do you feel about the casualness of the conversation between Mack and the Godhead?

Chapters 1-4

Welcome to the Bookclub! We're so excited to finally meet all you fabulous women and introduce this semester's reading selection, The Shack. Each meeting will focus on a specific reading (see the schedule to the side). We'll use the following discussion questions to help guide our time together, but please feel free to bring your own questions, ideas, opinions, responses, etc. to our get-togethers. This can be a challenging book, but stick with it. (You may find "The Great Sadness" particularly hard to read, but I PROMISE it gets easier!).

I encourage you to really engage with the book; mark it up, write notes in the margin, and then bring all of that wonderful insight to our meeting. You never know how your understanding and perspective might be just what someone else is needing to hear.

Okay, so here are our first set of discussion questions. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PREPARE ANSWERS FOR ANY OF THESE! They are simply a way to get us all thinking about the same questions / topics.

The Foreword and “A Confluence of Paths”

1. The Shack is considered “theological fiction.” Do you find that to be a contradiction of terms? Can art, creativity, and theology be intermixed?

The Forward.

1. Mack is described as “not very religious” and as having a “love/hate relationship with Religion” (10). Why is religion capitalized? Do we tend to worship / love religion rather than God Himself? How would you describe your relationship with religion?

2. “While Mack’s relationship with God is wide, Nan’s is deep” (11). How would you describe your relationship with God? What does it mean to have a wide versus a deep relationship with Him?

3. Compare the ice storm (15) to Romans 1:19-20 (The Message):"But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being."How could Mack's understanding of who God is have changed if he had considered God in what he saw in the snow and ice storm? What things did he see in the ice storm that he could have seen was true about God?

4. Chapter 1, “A Confluence of Paths,” hinges on Mack’s invitation to meet “Papa” at the very place of his greatest suffering. Do we each have an invitation? How did Mack react to his? How have you reacted to yours?

5. Have you ever noticed that an invitation to pain (often deep pain) is also an invitation to grace (consider the story of Job)? Have you ever experienced this?

6. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. –A.W. Tozier. “Papa was Nan’s favorite name for God and it expressed her delight in the intimate friendship she had with him” (22). What does Nan’s name for God reveal about their relationship? What name / term comes to mind when you think of God? What might that reveal about your relationship with God?

7. “Finally, he gave up, folded the note, slid it into a small tin box he kept on the desk, and switched off the light” (22). What might be the significance of the tin box? Do you have any metaphorical tin boxes? What do you store away there?

“The Gathering Dark” and “The Tipping Point”

1. At the end of the chapter, Mack talks to Missy about the Multnomah princess story (27-28), which leads into a discussion of God. Who do you feel better understands the nature of God, Mack or Missy? With whom do you most relate?

2. “Then how come [God’s] so mean?” (31). Why is it sometimes easier to see God as anything but a loving Papa? What influences distort our understanding of God?

3. “The Gathering Dark” makes reference to the events in our life that change our relationship with God. In the book, a simple camping trip sets up events that forever change Mack and his relationship with God. What are the events in your life that have led you to where you are in your relationship with God?

4. “[Nan] even calls him Papa because of the closeness of their relationship…It just seems a little too familiar for me. Anyway, Nan has a wonderful father, so I think it’s just easier for her” (37-38). To what extent do your relationships with your parents, particularly your relationship with your father, affect your understanding of God?

5. The author uses an interesting play on words in the title for this chapter, “The Tipping Point.” Tipping refers to the canoe tipping, as well as the tipping point in a faith walk. The event of losing Missy starts a long process of Mack addressing his relationship with God. Have you experienced a tipping point?