Book Club Questions for WayMaker

1.Ann opens with the image of standing before what feels like an impassable sea. What is the 'impassable sea' in your own life right now — the place where you see no obvious way forward?

2.Voskamp distinguishes between a God who points to a way and a God who IS the Way. Why does that distinction matter practically, especially when you are in crisis?

3.She frames the book around the ancient Exodus story as a living map for modern life. What assumptions or resistances do you bring to the idea that an ancient desert journey could be a 'map' for your circumstances today?

1.Voskamp argues that God didn't lead the Israelites the short way because the short way wasn't the safe way. Where in your own story has God's 'longer route' eventually proven to be the wiser one?

2.She draws a distinction between the way we want and the way we need. How do you typically respond when those two diverge — with protest, with grief, with quiet surrender, or something else entirely?

3.The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night is presented not as a GPS but as a Presence. What is the difference between wanting God to give you directions and wanting God to be with you in the journey? Which do you more naturally seek?

1.Ann introduces STOP as the first letter in her SACRED acronym. In her framework, stopping is not passivity — it is an act of faith. What is the difference between stopping in defeat and stopping in trust?

2.'Be still and know that I am God' (Psalm 46:10) is one of the most-quoted and least-practiced verses in the Bible. Why do you think stillness is so threatening to us? What does your busyness protect you from feeling?

3.Voskamp connects the practice of stopping to the Jewish concept of Sabbath — a built-in weekly protest against the idea that everything depends on us. How seriously do you practice any form of Sabbath, and what does your answer reveal about your functional theology?

1.Ann points to Moses at the burning bush as the model of attending: he 'turned aside to see' (Exodus 3:4). What does it mean that God waited to speak until Moses turned? What does that suggest about the relationship between our attention and God's communication?

2.Voskamp's practice of 'one thousand gifts' (from her earlier book) is woven through WayMaker as a form of attending — deliberately noticing goodness. How has or hasn't gratitude functioned as a spiritual discipline in your own life?

3.She describes attending as a kind of holy noticing — looking for God in the small, unglamorous details of a day. What small moment from the past week, if you had attended to it more carefully, might have been a burning bush for you?

1.Moses spoke with God 'face to face, as a man speaks with his friend' (Exodus 33:11). What does that image stir in you — longing, skepticism, something else? How does your actual prayer life compare to that description?

2.Voskamp distinguishes between praying at God and communing with God. What is the difference in practice, and which posture characterizes most of your prayer time?

3.She writes about the way suffering can either drive us away from God or into a deeper intimacy with Him — and that the direction depends largely on whether we bring our honest pain into His presence. When you have suffered, which direction did you tend to move, and what determined that?

1.The Israelites collected manna daily — just enough, not more. When they tried to hoard it, it rotted. Where in your life are you trying to stockpile security, certainty, or control rather than receiving daily grace?

2.Voskamp writes that receiving is a spiritual posture, not just a momentary act. What is the difference between a person who is fundamentally in a posture of receiving versus one who is fundamentally in a posture of achieving or performing?

3.She is honest about how hard receiving is for high-achievers and caretakers — people who are better at giving than being given to. Do you identify with that struggle? Why is it sometimes harder to receive grace than to extend it?

1.Ann describes ENTER as an act of will — God's presence is available, but we must choose to step into it. What are the internal barriers (shame, distraction, doubt, unworthiness) that most often keep you at the threshold rather than walking through?

2.God promised Moses, 'My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest' (Exodus 33:14). What does it mean to 'enter into' that rest — and how is rest here more than just sleep or relaxation?

3.Hebrews 4:16 invites us to 'approach the throne of grace with confidence.' Voskamp explores the audacity of that invitation — the throne of the universe is accessible. How does your prayer life reflect (or fail to reflect) that confidence?

1.Voskamp defines spiritual clutter broadly — not just physical possessions, but anxieties, grudges, addictions, toxic relationships, and competing loves that block our path to God. What comes to mind first when you hear 'de-clutter your spiritual life'?

2.Hebrews 12:1 calls us to 'throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.' Ann distinguishes between 'sins' and 'hindrances' — things that aren't necessarily sinful but still slow us down. What are the hindrances (not sins) that most quietly slow your walk with God?

3.She writes about phone and screen use as a form of clutter that is uniquely damaging to attentiveness and presence. How do you respond to that challenge — with conviction, defensiveness, fatigue, or something else? What does your response reveal?

1.The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were walking away from Jerusalem in defeat, not knowing they were walking with the risen Christ. Describe a time when you were 'walking away' and later realized God had been with you all along.

2.Voskamp notes that Jesus asked the disciples questions and walked with them before He explained anything to them. What does His patience in that story say about how God relates to our confusion and grief?

3.They said afterward, 'Were not our hearts burning within us?' Ann writes about paying attention to the burning — the moments when something in a conversation, a Scripture, or a landscape stirs an inexplicable warmth. Have you experienced that kind of 'burning heart' moment? What were the circumstances?

1.Ann writes about the particular anguish of watching a child make choices that break both their life and your heart. Whether or not you are a parent, what relationship in your life involves that kind of helpless, loving grief?

2.She draws on Hosea 2:14–15 — 'I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her... and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.' How does the image of God wooing His people back through the wilderness rather than forcing them reframe the story of a prodigal?

3.Voskamp makes the observation that in Jesus's parable, the father ran — an undignified act in that culture. What does the father's running reveal about the character of God that a dignified reception at the door would not have shown?

1.The publisher description uses the phrase 'God pens poetry out of pain.' How does that metaphor land with you? Does it feel comforting, presumptuous, or something in between — and why?

2.Joseph's declaration in Genesis 50:20 — 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good' — is one of the most stunning reversals in all of Scripture. What is the theological engine behind that claim, and what does it demand of our view of God's sovereignty?

3.Voskamp writes in a style that itself embodies her message — her fragmented, image-laden sentences feel like poetry made from broken pieces. Does the beauty of her language make her claims about beauty-from-pain more persuasive or more suspect to you? Why?

1.Ann shares with remarkable candor about her marriage entering a severe wilderness season. What makes this kind of vulnerability in a Christian author's writing both powerful and risky? How did you respond to reading it?

2.She draws on Hosea — God commanding the prophet to take back an unfaithful wife as a living parable of His own love for Israel — to frame what faithful, costly love in a marriage can look like. What does Hosea's story say about the nature of covenant love that romantic love alone cannot bear?

3.Voskamp writes that the wilderness in a marriage can become the place of renewal — 'I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her' (Hosea 2:14). Have you experienced a difficulty in a close relationship that ultimately deepened it rather than destroyed it? What made the difference?

1.Peter stepping out of the boat has been called the most audacious act of faith in the Gospels — and also a scene of sinking. Ann holds both parts together. What does Peter's story say about the relationship between bold faith and inevitable failure?

2.Isaiah 43:2 promises: 'When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.' Note it does not say 'you will not pass through waters.' How does the specificity of that promise ('I will be with you') actually give more comfort than a promise to remove the waters entirely?

3.Voskamp writes that we cannot control life's storms; we can only learn to walk through the waves. In what area of your life are you still spending energy trying to control the storm rather than learning to walk through it?

1.When you began WayMaker, where were you standing — what was the 'impossible sea' you named in Week 1? Looking back now, how has your relationship to that circumstance changed, even if the circumstance itself has not?

2.Which week or chapter of this study had the most significant impact on you, and what specifically landed so hard? Was it a particular illustration, a Scripture, a personal story Ann shared, or a discussion question that drew something out of you?

3.The SACRED pathway is designed to be a lived rhythm, not a one-time read. Which of the six practices — Stop, Attend, Commune, Receive, Enter, De-clutter — are you most committed to building into your daily or weekly life, and what does that practice look like in concrete, practical terms?