Book Club Questions for The Good and Beautiful God

1.Smith opens by arguing that everyone operates out of 'narratives' — stories we believe about God, ourselves, and the world that shape our behavior more than our conscious beliefs do. How would you describe the narrative about God you grew up with? Where did it come from?

2.Smith draws a distinction between 'false narratives' and 'kingdom narratives.' In your own words, what is the difference? Can you think of a false narrative about God that you've encountered — in church, in culture, or in your own heart?

3.The book's central method is to look at Jesus in the Gospels as the clearest possible portrait of who God is. Why do you think Smith emphasizes Jesus specifically, rather than, say, the Old Testament or systematic theology? What does it mean that Jesus 'exegetes' the Father (John 1:18)?

1.Smith argues that our biggest problem is not that we don't believe God exists, but that we don't truly believe God is good. Do you agree that this is the more fundamental issue? Why or why not?

2.Jesus, when addressed as 'Good Teacher,' responds by saying 'No one is good except God alone' (Mark 10:18). Smith uses this to anchor the entire chapter. What is Jesus doing in that moment? How does the goodness of God differ from human goodness?

3.Smith draws on the image of a good father from Matthew 7:9-11 — a father who gives bread, not stones; fish, not snakes. How does this image challenge or confirm the picture of God you carry? What would it mean to relate to God as that kind of Father?

1.Smith distinguishes between believing that God is trustworthy as a doctrine and actually living as though God can be trusted. Where do you see the gap between these two things most clearly in your own daily life?

2.In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about food, clothing, or the future — pointing to birds and wildflowers as evidence of God's faithful provision. What makes this teaching feel easy to affirm and hard to practice? What does worry reveal about our operating narrative?

3.Smith identifies anxiety as one of the primary symptoms of a broken narrative about God's trustworthiness. What are the recurring anxieties in your life right now? If you held them up against Jesus's teaching in Matthew 6, what would Jesus say to each one?

1.Smith opens this chapter by sitting with the sheer scale of the universe — its age, its size, the number of stars — as a way of evoking the grandeur of God. How does that cosmic perspective make you feel? Awed? Insignificant? Both?

2.Isaiah 40 asks, 'To whom will you compare me?' and then describes a God who measures the waters in the hollow of his hand and numbers the stars by name. What false or diminished pictures of God does this passage correct? What false narratives do we carry that make God feel small or manageable?

3.Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 10 that not even a sparrow falls without the Father's knowledge — and that they are worth far more than sparrows. How does Jesus hold together God's greatness and God's intimate attention to individuals? Why is it important that the same God does both?

1.Smith points out that in popular usage, 'holy' has come to mean morally proper or prim — but in Scripture it means set apart, blazingly other, overwhelmingly pure. How has the thinned-down version of holiness shaped the way you've thought about God, or about what it means to live a holy life?

2.In Isaiah 6, Isaiah encounters the holiness of God and his immediate response is not worship but terror: 'Woe is me, I am ruined!' What does it tell us about genuine holiness that the first response it produces is a sense of one's own unworthiness, not pride in one's religion?

3.When Peter witnesses Jesus's miracle in Luke 5, he falls to his knees and says 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' Smith draws a parallel to Isaiah's response. What is it about genuine nearness to God's holiness that produces this reaction? Have you ever experienced anything like it?

1.Smith argues that grace is not merely God's reluctant willingness to forgive, but an active, overflowing desire to give good things to people who don't deserve them. How is this different from the way you typically think about grace? What would change if this were your working definition?

2.The parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) is the centerpiece of this chapter. Smith points out that the father in the story runs — not walks — to meet the returning son. In a culture where running was undignified for an elder, what does the father's running tell us about the nature of God's grace?

3.Smith draws attention to the elder brother, who has stayed home and worked faithfully but is furious at the father's grace toward his wasteful sibling. Which son do you identify with more, and why? What does the elder brother's anger reveal about a narrative that has turned grace into a transaction?

1.Smith observes that 'God is love' (1 John 4:8) is one of only two places in the Bible where the writer makes an equation of God's identity with an attribute — not merely that God loves, but that he is love. Why does that distinction matter? What does it mean for love to be not just something God does but something God is?

2.Smith draws on the theological tradition that sees the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as a community of eternal, self-giving love that existed before creation. If God is love within himself, what does that tell us about why he created the world? About why he redeems it?

3.There is a difference between knowing intellectually that God loves you and experiencing that love as a present reality. On a scale of 1-10, how real does God's love feel to you on an average Tuesday? What factors push that number up or down?

1.Smith argues that what makes the Christian God unique among conceptions of God is not just that he loves, but that he sacrifices — he gives himself away. What other pictures of God (from religion, culture, or personal experience) contrast with this self-giving portrait? What makes the self-sacrificing God surprising?

2.The 'kenosis' passage in Philippians 2 describes Jesus 'emptying himself' — setting aside the privileges of divine status to take the form of a servant. Smith dwells on the enormity of this. What does it mean to you personally that the Creator of the universe chose to be born, to be hungry, to be tired, to be crucified?

3.Jesus says in Mark 10:45 that he came 'not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.' Smith presents this as the deepest self-portrait Jesus offers. How does the servant-identity of Jesus challenge the way power and greatness are typically understood — in culture, in church, and in your own ambitions?

1.Smith opens with a distinction between believing that God forgives sins in general and personally receiving God's forgiveness for your specific sins. Which do you do more easily? What is the difference in how each one actually feels?

2.In Luke 7, the sinful woman anoints Jesus's feet with her tears and perfume — and Jesus says her 'many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much.' Smith focuses on the extravagance of her response. What does her posture suggest about how deeply she received forgiveness? What does our relative lack of extravagance in worship suggest about ours?

3.Psalm 103 says God removes our sins 'as far as the east is from the west.' Smith points out that north and south have poles — measurable distances — but east and west never meet. What is the psalmist doing with that image? What false narrative does it directly refute?

1.Smith argues that one of the most damaging false narratives is the belief that God is present only in certain times or places — in church, during quiet times, in moments of intense spiritual experience — and absent from ordinary life. Does this resonate with your own experience? What triggers the feeling of God's absence most strongly for you?

2.Psalm 139 asks, 'Where can I flee from your presence?' The psalmist searches the heights, the depths, the farthest seas — and finds God already there. How does the psalmist's language make the presence of God feel different from surveillance or control? What is the emotional register of this omnipresence?

3.Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17:28 that 'in him we live and move and have our being.' Smith uses this to argue that we are never outside of God's presence — we are soaking in it. What would it mean to actually live from that awareness? What would change in your Monday morning if you believed it?

1.Smith suggests that most people, if they are honest, picture God as patient but not particularly delighted — tolerant rather than joyful. Where did that image come from in your own formation? What would have to change in your picture of God for him to seem genuinely happy?

2.Zephaniah 3:17 describes God 'rejoicing over you with singing.' Smith calls this one of the most astonishing verses in the Old Testament. What does it do to you — emotionally, not just intellectually — to sit with the image of God singing over you? What makes it easy or difficult to receive?

3.In Luke 15, Jesus tells three back-to-back parables about things that are lost and found — a sheep, a coin, a son. Each one ends with a party. Smith points out that heaven itself erupts in joy over one sinner who repents. What does this say about what God values most? About what moves him most deeply?

1.Smith argues that the kingdom of God is not primarily a future location or a political program but a present reality — the rule and reign of God available here and now to anyone who will apprentice themselves to Jesus. How does this definition differ from how you have typically heard 'kingdom of God' described?

2.Jesus's first recorded proclamation in Mark is 'The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.' Smith points out that 'repent' (metanoia) means a transformation of the mind — exactly what this entire book has been calling for. How have the previous chapters functioned as a kind of 'repentance' — a re-orienting of how you think about God?

3.The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) begins 'Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' Smith reads this as a description of the life we are meant to live — not waiting for heaven but participating in the kingdom's arrival now. What does that participation look like in the specific details of your life — your work, family, neighborhood, and money?

1.At the start of this study, Smith asked you to identify the narratives about God that you were operating from. Looking back now: what were the one or two most significant false narratives you discovered you had been believing? Where did they come from, and how have they affected your life?

2.Which chapter or attribute of God was most transformative for you? Was it God's goodness, trustworthiness, holiness, grace, love, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, presence, or joy? Why did that particular portrait of God hit you the hardest?

3.Smith's method combines new narratives with soul-training practices — new thinking and new embodied habits working together. Which of the soul-training exercises (noticing goodness, practicing surrender, confessing, practicing presence, celebrating, serving without recognition) do you intend to continue as a regular part of your life? What will make that sustainable?