Garden City by John Mark Comer
Week 1: Introduction — The Question Nobody Is Asking
Read the Introduction of Garden City. Primary Scripture: Genesis 1–2.
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Comer opens by suggesting that most of us have never been taught a theology of work — and that this gap is costing us our sense of purpose and passion. Come ready to examine what you actually believe about work and why.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.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?
4.Comer describes a kind of low-grade dissatisfaction or restlessness that many people feel about their work — a sense that it doesn't quite mean anything. Have you experienced that feeling? What did you do with it?
5.The introduction sets up the idea that 'spiritual life' and 'ordinary life' have been falsely separated in much of Western Christianity. Where do you see that split in your own thinking or habits?
a.Can you think of a moment when something 'non-spiritual' — a meal, a piece of music, a good day's work — felt deeply meaningful or even sacred? What was that like?
b.What would it look like practically if that divide started to break down in your daily life?
6.How does the opening of Genesis — God working, creating, making — challenge any notion that work is somehow beneath God or beneath us?
7.What is the one question you most hope this book will help you answer? Share it with your group or write it in your journal as a prayer.
Closing Prayer
Father, we confess that we have often lived as if our 'spiritual life' and our everyday work were two separate worlds — and that you cared deeply about one and only tolerated the other. We come to this book with questions we haven't known how to ask, and a restlessness we haven't known how to name. Give us eyes to see what you saw when you looked at the garden and called it good. Teach us what it means to be made in your image, to be workers and makers and rulers of the earth. Begin, even now, to renew our sense of calling and purpose. Amen.
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