Book Club Questions for Garden City

1.Before reading this book, how would you have answered the question: 'What are human beings here for?' How has the church you grew up in (or the broader culture) shaped that answer?

2.Comer challenges the common Christian assumption that what you do doesn't matter — only who you are does. Where have you heard that idea? Does it feel true to you? What's right about it, and what might be missing?

3.The book's title, Garden City, points to two images from Scripture: the Garden of Eden in Genesis and the City of God in Revelation. What do those two images stir up in you? What do you think Comer is suggesting by connecting them?

1.Comer makes much of the fact that the very first thing the Bible shows us about God is that he works. Why does it matter that God is, before anything else, a Worker and a Maker? How does that change how you think about work?

2.Genesis 1 depicts God bringing order out of chaos — forming and then filling the formless void. Comer draws on this structure to suggest that all human work follows the same pattern. Can you identify a project or task in your own life that fits this 'forming and filling' pattern?

3.The phrase 'it was good' rings like a refrain through Genesis 1. What does it mean that God evaluated his work and called it good? What might it look like for you to do the same with your own work?

1.Comer explains that in the ancient Near East, a king would erect an 'image' (a statue) in a territory to represent his rule and presence there. How does this historical background reshape how you understand the phrase 'made in the image of God' in Genesis 1:26–28?

2.If being an 'image-bearer' means representing God's rule and care over creation, what does that imply about what you do with your time, your work, and your creativity? Does this feel like an elevation of ordinary life or a burden — or both?

3.Comer emphasizes that the image of God is not primarily about intellectual capacity or moral ability — it's about function and calling. How does that shift affect how you think about human dignity, especially for people who are marginalized or unable to perform at a high level?

1.Comer draws attention to the Hebrew words used in Genesis 2 for Adam's work in the garden: 'abad' (to work or serve) and 'shamar' (to keep, guard, or protect). These are the same words later used for priestly work in the tabernacle. What does it mean that Adam's gardening was priestly — that ordinary work was always meant to be an act of worship?

2.The garden is described as a place of beauty, abundance, and delight — not just a farm for survival. How does the aesthetic dimension of Eden (the gold, the precious stones, the rivers) inform how you think about beauty and creativity in your own work?

3.Comer notes that Adam was given work before the fall — before sin entered the picture. This means work is not a result of the curse; it is part of God's good design. How does this correct any theology you may have absorbed that treats work as a necessary evil or a post-fall punishment?

1.Comer describes the fall not just as a moral failure but as a vocational failure — Adam and Eve abandoned their calling to rule and protect the garden by failing to guard it against the serpent. Does that framing change how you understand the gravity of what happened? Why or why not?

2.After the fall, God's words to Adam in Genesis 3:17–19 introduce 'painful toil' into work — thorns and thistles, sweat and futility. Comer distinguishes between work itself (good, pre-fall) and the painful toil that now accompanies it (a consequence of sin). How do you experience that distinction in your own work life?

3.Comer identifies two primary ways sin distorts our relationship to work: we either underwork (laziness, passivity, escapism) or we overwork (workaholism, identity-through-achievement, the restless pursuit of significance). Which of these two distortions do you most recognize in yourself?

1.Comer draws a distinction between 'calling' (the broad human vocation to be an image-bearer) and 'vocation' (the specific shape that calling takes in your particular life). How does it help to separate these two ideas? How do they fit together?

2.The word 'vocation' comes from the Latin vocare — to call. Comer argues that every legitimate kind of work is a calling from God, not just pastoral ministry or missions. How does that land for you? Does your current work feel like a calling, a job, or something in between?

3.Comer pushes back on the idea that 'full-time ministry' is a higher calling than other forms of work. Where did you first absorb the hierarchy of 'sacred' versus 'secular' work? How deeply does it still shape your instincts?

1.Comer describes Jesus as the 'new Adam' — the one who succeeds where the first Adam failed, not just morally but vocationally. How does seeing Jesus as the model of true humanity and true image-bearing change how you read the Gospels?

2.Paul says in Colossians 1:20 that God was pleased to reconcile 'all things' through Christ — not just souls, but the whole created order. What does a salvation that broad mean for how we engage with culture, work, and the physical world?

3.Comer argues that the resurrection of Jesus is not the rescue of a soul from the world, but the first act of the renewal of the world itself. How does that vision of resurrection shape your understanding of what you're working toward — and working for?

1.The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a city. What does that trajectory — from garden to city — suggest about God's intention for human civilization and culture? Does it surprise you that the eternal state is described as a city?

2.Comer points out that in Revelation 21, the kings of the earth bring their 'glory and honor' into the New Jerusalem — suggesting that the best of human culture and achievement is somehow carried forward into eternity. How does that change how you think about your work's ultimate significance?

3.The New Jerusalem is described in stunning material terms — gold streets, precious stones, rivers of water. What is the significance of the new creation being so thoroughly physical, beautiful, and cultural rather than purely 'spiritual'?

1.Comer argues that the Western economy runs on manufactured discontent — the constant message that you don't have enough, aren't enough, and need to acquire more. Where do you feel that pressure most acutely in your own life?

2.Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about food and clothing — that life is more than these things (Matthew 6:25). Comer takes this seriously as a lifestyle, not just an attitude. What would it look like to actually order your life around Jesus' teaching here rather than around cultural norms of financial security and advancement?

3.Comer distinguishes between working hard (good) and working anxiously (a sign of misplaced trust). What is the difference between diligent work and anxious overwork in your experience? How do you tell them apart?

1.Comer describes Sabbath as a protest — a weekly act of defiance against a culture that defines us by our productivity. Does Sabbath feel like protest to you, or does it feel more like deprivation? Why?

2.The commandment to keep the Sabbath is rooted in creation (God rested on the seventh day) and in the Exodus (God delivered Israel from slave labor). What does it mean that Sabbath is simultaneously an act of worship and an act of liberation?

3.Comer is honest about how difficult he found it to implement a real Sabbath practice. What are the biggest obstacles to Sabbath in your own life — practical, psychological, or spiritual?

1.Comer invites readers to see all of life — work, rest, relationships, creativity — as a single integrated practice of following Jesus rather than a set of separate compartments. What would have to change in your daily or weekly routine for that integration to become real?

2.Paul says 'whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters' (Colossians 3:23). What does it look like practically to do your specific work — your actual job tasks — 'as for the Lord'? What would change about how you show up?

3.Comer talks about the importance of practices and rhythms — not just good intentions but actual habits that shape a life over time. What are two or three practices (daily, weekly, or annual) that you think would most help you live out the vision of Garden City in your own life?

1.Looking back over the whole book, which chapter or idea had the greatest impact on you? What made it hit so hard — was it something new you learned, something you already knew but had never articulated, or something that challenged a belief you'd held for a long time?

2.Comer's arc moves from Creation (the garden) through Fall (east of Eden) through Redemption (the new humanity in Christ) to New Creation (the garden city). How has your understanding of that story — and your place in it — shifted over the course of this study?

3.Garden City argues that the sacred-secular divide is a lie — that all of life, when lived in response to God, is holy. Have you experienced a breaking down of that divide in your own thinking during this study? Where do you still feel it most strongly?