Week 1: Introduction — The Ragamuffin Gospel

1.Manning opens by describing a Christianity that has become obsessed with performance, appearances, and moral scorekeeping. Does that description resonate with your experience of church, or your own inner life? Where do you see it most clearly?

2.The word 'ragamuffin' is Manning's term for the broken, bedraggled, and imperfect — in other words, all of us. How does that label sit with you? Does it feel like an insult, a relief, or something else?

3.Manning suggests that many believers assent to grace intellectually but cannot seem to receive it personally. What is the difference between believing in grace as a doctrine and actually living as a recipient of grace? Where do you fall on that spectrum?