Week 1: Introduction — The Ruined and Restored Gospel

1.Willard opens with the provocative image of two bumper stickers — one that says "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" and another that represents a moralistic, rule-keeping religion — and suggests both represent a failure of the gospel. What does he mean, and which of the two tendencies do you think is more common in your own experience of church life?

2.Willard describes what he calls "bar code Christianity" — the idea that what matters about a Christian is simply that they have been "scanned" by God as saved, regardless of how they actually live. Have you encountered this view? How does it differ from what you believe discipleship should look like?

3.The book's title, *The Divine Conspiracy*, refers to God's hidden, persistent, and joyful plan to reclaim all of reality through the redemption of human beings. In what ways does this framing — conspiracy rather than, say, "plan" or "program" — change how you picture God's work in the world?

4.Willard argues that the church has largely abandoned the task of producing disciples — people who are actually learning to live as Jesus lived — in favor of simply producing converts. Do you think this is a fair critique? What evidence, for or against, do you see in your own community of faith?

5.Jesus's announcement, "The kingdom of the heavens is at hand" (Matthew 4:17), is at the center of Willard's argument. What does Willard mean when he says the kingdom is not merely a future destination but a present reality we can live in now?

6.Willard is deeply concerned with the interior life — the heart, the will, the soul — as the seat of genuine transformation. Why does he insist that behavior modification without inner change is not what Jesus was after? Do you agree?

7.If Jesus appeared in your city today and began teaching what he taught in Galilee, Willard suggests he would seem strange and out of place to most churchgoers. What does that say about the gap between the Christianity we have inherited and the life Jesus actually proclaimed?

8.How does Willard's opening challenge connect to the gospel itself — the good news that Jesus brought? Is the good news primarily about life after death, or does Willard argue for something larger? What do you think?