Book Club Questions for Crazy Love

1.Chan opens by inviting the reader to watch a short video about the scale of the universe before reading the book. Why do you think he starts there? What effect does contemplating the size and complexity of creation have on how you think about God — and about yourself?

2.The chapter title is "Stop Praying." What does Chan mean by this provocative command? How is it possible that our prayers can actually become a way of avoiding a real encounter with God?

3.Chan describes God as "holy, consuming, inevitable, and all-powerful" and then asks why we approach Him so casually. Where do you see casualness or familiarity replacing genuine awe in your own prayer life or church culture?

1.The title "You Might Not Finish This Chapter" is a deliberate jolt. How did you feel reading it? Did it strike you as gimmicky, or did it land with genuine weight? Why?

2.Chan uses the image of our lives as a "vapor" or a "mist" — here and then gone. How does the brevity and fragility of life change the urgency of his message? How does it change the urgency of your own daily choices?

3.Jesus tells the parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12, a man who builds bigger barns and plans for a long, comfortable future — only to have his soul required of him that very night. Chan invokes this parable to ask: what "barns" are you building? What are you planning for and hoarding that assumes you have unlimited time?

1.Chan describes God's love as "crazy" — not sentimental or safe, but wild and relentless in a way that defies logic. In what ways does the love described in Romans 5:8 ("while we were still sinners, Christ died for us") qualify as "crazy" by any normal human standard?

2.Chan uses the analogy of a parent's overwhelming love for a newborn child to illustrate a small shadow of how God feels about us. Did that illustration resonate with you? What emotions did it surface? If you are a parent, how did it reframe your understanding of God's love for you?

3.One of Chan's key moves in this chapter is distinguishing between knowing facts about God's love and actually feeling loved by God. Why is that gap so common? What causes it in your own experience?

1.Chan opens with the chilling words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea: "Because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:16). Why is lukewarmness more nauseating to God, in some sense, than outright coldness? What does lukewarmness say about what we actually believe?

2.Chan offers a long list of characteristics of the lukewarm Christian — people who attend church, tithe occasionally, pray before meals, and consider themselves good people, but whose lives are fundamentally shaped by comfort and culture rather than Christ. Which characteristics on his list struck you most personally? Why?

3.One of Chan's most pointed observations is that lukewarm Christians are "more concerned with avoiding sin than actively pursuing righteousness." What is the difference between those two postures? Which one more accurately describes your own spiritual life?

1.Chan draws on Malachi 1, where God rebukes the priests of Israel for offering blind, lame, and sick animals on His altar — the castoffs they wouldn't dare bring to a human governor. What are the modern equivalents of bringing "leftovers" to God? What do we typically give Him what's left of?

2.Chan uses the powerful image of the widow's offering in Mark 12 — she gave all she had, while the wealthy gave out of their surplus. What is the difference, in God's eyes, between the size of a gift and the cost of a gift? How does that reframe what generosity actually means?

3.Chan asks readers to honestly audit their time, money, and energy — not to produce guilt, but to reveal where their treasure actually is. What would an honest look at your schedule, your bank statement, and your emotional energy reveal about your real priorities?

1.Chan uses the analogy of being newly in love — the way a person in the early stages of a relationship thinks constantly about the other person, rearranges their schedule for them, and gives with abandon. How does that kind of love describe what our relationship with God could and should feel like? Does it feel aspirational, foreign, or both?

2.Paul describes in Philippians 3 counting everything he once valued as "garbage" (skubalon — a very strong word) compared to knowing Christ. Have you ever had a season where your love for God felt like that — where everything else genuinely paled? What was life like in that season?

3.Chan argues that the problem with lukewarm Christianity is not just disobedience — it's that we have stopped being in love. How is falling out of love with God different from simply sinning? How do you "fall back in love" with someone — or with God?

1.Chan pushes back hard against the idea that God's primary goal is our comfort and prosperity in the present life. Where do you see this "best life now" mentality showing up — in popular Christian culture, in your own prayers, or in what you expect from God?

2.Hebrews 11 describes the great heroes of faith as people who were "strangers and foreigners on the earth" who were "longing for a better country — a heavenly one." Chan uses this to argue that radical sacrifice makes perfect sense if your citizenship is in another place. How does your daily life reflect — or fail to reflect — a heavenly citizenship?

3.Chan makes the provocative point that living for heaven actually makes us more effective, more generous, and more courageous in the present — not less engaged. How does an eternal perspective free you from the fears and self-protections that make radical generosity so difficult?

1.Chan describes the "obsessed" as people who risk their security, give away their possessions, and look foolish by the world's standards — but are simply living in response to what they believe is true. Who in your life comes closest to this description? What is it about them that stands out?

2.In the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:44-46), the men who find the treasure and the pearl sell everything — joyfully — to obtain it. Chan uses these parables to argue that radical sacrifice is not grim duty but delighted exchange. Does your experience of giving up things for God feel more like joy or more like loss? Why?

3.Chan lists several characteristics of the obsessed, including: they are consumed with loving God and people; they do not live for their own approval; they are not troubled by the cost of following Jesus. Which of these characteristics feels most foreign to you personally? Which feels most present?

1.Chan profiles several real people in this chapter — including George Müller, who fed thousands of orphans through radical faith; Mother Teresa, who left comfort to serve the dying in Calcutta; and Lucy, a young woman from Chan's own congregation who gave away nearly everything she earned. Which story affected you most, and why?

2.George Müller is famous for never asking anyone for money but praying directly to God for the needs of his orphanages — and recording thousands of specific answered prayers. Chan holds him up as an example of someone who took God's promises about prayer literally. How does Müller's story challenge or encourage your own prayer life?

3.Chan includes the story of a woman in his congregation (he calls her "the rich young ruler" in reverse) who gave away her car, her savings, and ultimately her apartment to care for orphans. The rich young man in Matthew 19 walked away sorrowful from the same kind of invitation. What was the difference between them? What made one able to let go and the other unable?

1.Chan argues in this chapter that the crux of the matter is not trying harder to be a better Christian — it is dying to yourself and being filled with the Holy Spirit. How does that reframe the problem? If the issue is not willpower but emptiness and surrender, how does that change your approach to change?

2.Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Chan holds this up as the template for the Christian life. What does it mean, practically, to let Christ live in you rather than trying to live for Christ in your own strength? Is there a difference that shows up in your experience?

3.Chan uses Jesus' words in John 15 — "apart from me you can do nothing" — to argue that fruitfulness is not produced by discipline or effort but by abiding. What does abiding in Christ look like in your actual daily life? What practices help you stay connected to the vine?

1.Chan's appendix and closing material include additional profiles of ordinary people living radically for God. Did any of these later stories hit you differently than the earlier ones — now that you have more context from the rest of the book? Why or why not?

2.One of Chan's consistent themes throughout the appendix is that radical Christianity is not a solo project — it happens in community. How has (or hasn't) your small group, church, or close friendships supported you in the kind of life this book describes?

3.Chan writes that the goal of the book is not to get you to do more religious activities but to be so in love with God that obedience flows naturally. As you finish the book, which is more true of you: are you inspired to do more, or are you genuinely more in love with God? What is the difference, and why does it matter?

1.When you read the title *Crazy Love* before beginning this study, what did you expect the book to be about? Now that you have finished it, how would you describe its central message in two or three sentences to someone who has never read it?

2.Which chapter or idea from the book had the greatest impact on you? What was it about that particular section that got through your defenses in a way that other things didn't?

3.The book presents two contrasting portraits — the lukewarm Christian in Chapter 4 and the obsessed Christian in Chapter 8. Honestly, where do you see yourself on that spectrum, and how has your self-assessment changed (or been confirmed) over the course of this study?