Dear Bethesda Elementary

June 17, 2022

Dear Bethesda Elementary teachers,

I know these past two years have been extraordinarily draining. I suspect some of you all have thought about changing careers. Is any of this even worth it, you ask?

I attended Bethesda Elementary from 1972-1979, except for one lonely year in California thanks to my Dad’s job. I walked to school from Park Lane each day, almost a mile carrying a Raggedy Ann lunchbox with a glass thermos. Which I broke, of course.

Those were magical years, years of color and social change, warmth and confusion. Mrs. Gaylord was the principal and the first real African American presence in my life. She was a gentle and cheerful woman with glasses as big as saucers.

The Great Society had hit its stride, milk for a nickel. Later 7 cents. Boxy, square televisions were mounted in the corner of each classroom. We gathered under them on little rugs to watch Zoom and The Electric Company and to see rockets propel towards the Moon.

The library was an array of colors top to bottom, thin books a kid could carry. Bill Peet, William Pène du Bois, My Father’s Dragon, Harriet the Spy. I can still smell them all.

The blue mimeograph machine in the office churned out worksheets with boxes and numbers and trains for us to color in and fill out. Hand cranked pencil sharpeners on the wall were our mainstay. Fancy teachers had electric ones on their desks and would let you use them if you asked nicely. Maybe that’s still the same.

Mrs. Phelps gave us cookies every Friday, and Mrs. Jeweler would get out her guitar and sing us songs if we had been good. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants. One day my friend, Ian, drew a swastika on his hand for fun, and Mrs. Jeweler looked him straight in the eyes and said, “That’s an ugly symbol. Wash it off.” There are some things that stick with a kid.

But Ian was like that. He once flicked a piece of banana at the cafeteria ceiling and it stuck. To my knowledge, it’s still there. One time, for no reason at all, he scratched the blackboard not with his fingernails, but with his buck teeth. Excruciating.

This was the latchkey era, and parents did not really know what they were doing. Ian and I got into so much trouble after school, usually involving some sort of spray paint and lighter fluid. We used to play the Beatles records backwards hoping to hear what happened to Paul.

Mrs. Alexander – who played the bagpipes, by the way, who plays bagpipes? – did not make fun of me when I told her I had seen ghosts. There are some things that stick with a kid.

When we got back from California, I was a scared, confused little guy, and at my first recess I punched David Bouvé right in the jaw. I remember sobbing in Mrs. Gaylord’s office and she hugged me and told me to take it easy on myself and welcome back. And to stop hitting my friends. David, in case you are wondering, recovered just fine and is now a retired Navy Captain.

I’m 55 now and tired. Chronic illness and the pandemic have me looking back into my life to find those places where there has been light and love. Those teachers loved us, they really loved us. I suspect that has not changed. The blackboards and mimeographs may be gone, but I am sure you each enter your classrooms with the same joy and dedication that greeted me each day.

So sure, I learned my multiplication tables and how to write capital Q’s in cursive. But if you are like me, you don’t write capital Q’s in cursive anymore. No one does. That’s not what sticks with a kid.

Is it worth it? Have the past two years been worth it? Ask your students in 50 years. But I think you already know.

With gratitude for all you do,

Chris Hutchinson

Blacksburg, VA

My book on humility now in Portuguese

I found out, somewhat randomly, that a Brazillian publishing house associated with the Assemblies of God has translated my book into Portuguese. So honored.

You can check it out here.

The reviews are fun:

“Livro muito bom, conteúdo sensacional.”

Que livro incrível! Todo cristão deveria ser este livro. Muuuito necessário para nossos dias.

Esse livro aborda um tema pouco abordado não só no meio cristão, a humildade. O Autor teve a coragem de compartilhar a visão bíblica e de homens que vieram antes de nós, lembrando que esse é uma questão importante a ser vivida!

Substack Blog Started

PSA for immediate release: I have started a new substack blog (free) and will begin posting there for now. Cheers!

A letter from a Dad to his son on the brink of war

Sep 25, 1990

Dear Christopher

I continue to pray for a peaceful solution.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts about not being free while trapped in the Army. I, too, have had in my naval career those same thoughts. They seemed to rise to the surface more frequently during times of crisis. At the Naval Academy, especially during the first year which was really rough on the plebes, I thought often about quitting. I missed my home, my freedom, my family, whom I was not allowed to see. And later, after marriage (as in your situation), when I was forced to leave on extended submarine cruises, I, in my slight depressed state, wondered why I had to be part of such treatment. Why I had to leave my wife and deploy for freedom’s sake. The last time I really felt that way was when I was ordered to Guam and knew I had to separate from my wife and children. Again, I felt trapped. I still had an obligated service my MIT schooling, so I couldn’t resign my commission. In my mind, and you have correctly identified it, it is the “lack of freedom” that is the major drawback to serving in our armed forces.

As for declaring as a Conscientious Objector, I admit the thought did cross my mind more than once during my career, but I could never rationalize for that in any of my assignments. Of course, your present assignment is far worse than any I faced. I would not recommend you pursue that course because of what our country and, indeed, most other major countries are attempting to do in the Middle East. I think, for what it is worth, Saddam Hussein is evil, but not crazy. And I believe that we, as a Christian nation, should attempt to thwart evil.  And not sending forces to the area would be letting down brothers and sisters who would great suffer if that evil were to subject them to his rule.

I know that you really think things through logically, for you have one of the most rational minds I have known. And I know you desperately miss Kirstan and all of the niceties of home. And we all know that those emotions will cloud the normal process of logically thinking things through to a proper conclusion. I know that if you could properly place those emotions aside, you could arrive at the conclusion that our national policy in the Persian Gulf Crisis is one of helping peace loving people who are scared of the evil Iraqi leader – and that help comes in the form of troop deployment for defensive purposes and in a cautionary use of force while exploring every avenue to resolve the issue without bloodshed. And I believe in that approach, even though I hate to see you and our forces in such a perilous situation. And I believe that policy is working. I would certainly submit such a serious decision to prayer and seek other opinions. My advice would be to continue to pray, ask others whom you feel close to and respect, and to try to put all emotions aside when you think it through.

Grandmother called last night and said she has been praying so hard for you and your men. She said she finally made up her mind last night that she was definitely going to remain at the Presbyterian Home.

I love you, admire, you, and am very proud of what you stand for.  Dad

Twitter Poem

 

I am no Horatio at the gate

standing tall in the flood blow by blow

I am no RAF pilot over Dunkirk

gently gliding my craft to certain fate

I am no Cranmer at the stake

thrusting unworthy hand into flame

Why should I be who only asks for quiet

and do some small good before the End

 

~ CA Hutchinson, August 2019

A time for prayer

 

Note:  The following is an article I found in my parents’ attic by Michael McManus that appeared in The Morning Call on January 19, 1991. It is too old to appear on Mr. McManus’ website archives, but he gave me permission to hand copy and post it here. It is an extremely personal piece of history for me, and a striking reminder how many people were praying for me at the time, especially my new wife, Kirstan, and my faithful parents.

 

A time for prayer

As war intensifies, every church can take this step

 

ETHICS & RELIGION

Michael J. McManus

 

Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. – “Prayer does work. We ought to use it,” said the Rev. Karl Johnson, at Neighborhood Church overlooking the peaceful Pacific Ocean on the Sunday before the United States attacked Iraq. “We pray for soldiers on both sides. Their death is not what we want.”

His voice was one among millions praying for peace. But it was more neutral than most Protestant and Catholic leaders, such as Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, who prayed America would not strike Iraq militarily:

“The presumption is still for blockades, not bombs, diplomacy, not destruction, words, not war,” he said on Jan. 15, Iraq’s UN deadline.

Some 18 Protestant and Orthodox leaders, the heads of denominations – the Episcopal Church, American Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian Church (USA), and United Church of Christ – said “Our Christmas pilgrimage to the Middle East has utterly convinced us that war is not the answer. We believe the resort to massive violence to resolve the gulf crisis would be politically and morally indefensible.”

Billy Graham sounded a distinctly different note: “I felt a sense of gloom and pessimism until I began to pray and realize that God is ultimately in control,” he said Jan. 10. “Only God can reverse the trend toward war. The Bible reminds us that ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble… He makes wars to cease’ (Psalm 46:1,9).

“No sane person wants war. At the same time, it has well been said that there is an ethical responsibility that goes with power. Sometimes it becomes necessary to fight the strong in order to protect the weak.”

(No wonder Graham was with President Bush the night of the attack!)

Hours before the fight began, I called Dwight Hutchinson, a retired Navy Commander, whose son, Christopher, 23, is an Army medic on the Kuwait border and a committed Christian. He wrote his dad about “high the chances are that I can get wounded, killed, or captured. Of course, with God, there are no chances. Only ‘Thy will be done.’ I just want to make sure you know how close I will be to enemy fighting – one to ten kilometers.”

I asked his father to explain his own prayers. “I pray for protection, safety, peace of mind, and for God’s will for my son and his forces. I have a general prayer for peace and I pray for wisdom and guidance for our president and his tough decisions, and that the heart of the enemy be touched by the light of Christ – that his heart be softened.”

I asked if he prayed for victory. “I pray for God’s will to be done, not for victory. God’s will is victory,” Dwight said. In fact, before the war began, this retired submarine officer opposed U.S. aggression:

“We have not mounted enough of a diplomatic offensive. We have got him where we want him with sanctions, with unfriendly neighbors willing to gobble up his territory, and we have him contained. We did the containment thing for peace in Europe. It took a long time, but it came without war.”

A few hours after we spoke, the United States attacked.

Early reports by the government indicated that the fears of top Protestant leaders were unfounded that “war will destroy everything.” The strikes were pinpointed on military targets, few planes were reported lost by the United States or its allies and no initial fighting by ground forces was reported.

For his reaction, I called Dwight back up. “I prayed. I cried. I prayed,” he said unabashedly. “I got down on my knees and prayed that it would be swift, without loss of life, and that God’s will be done.”

His wife, Lydia, who was 40 miles away, told me that she too, went to her knees to pray: “I started my prayers by being thankful God is in control, and that His will be done. I wanted there not be war, but have not prayed specifically for that. I prayed for peace, but not necessarily that it be peace without a shot being fired. I have really felt quite a sense of calm, and have not been overwhelmed by fear.”

Much of her prayer was “in tongues,” sometimes called “in the spirit.” Why? “I don’t know how to pray in a situation like this, but the Holy Spirit does. I let the Spirit take hold of me, and use a language that God understands, but that I don’t. That brings peace to me.”

Earlier this week, an Episcopal priest whom the Hutchinsons knew in San Diego called to say he was praying for Chris at the College of Preachers in Washington, when the group’s leader, Will Willimon, Duke University chaplain, also prayed for “Chris.” They discovered they were praying for the same soldier!

Willimon had just received a letter from Chris which asked, “Why not create a prayer alert group from all Duke Christian groups, including staff, to pray 24 hours a day in shifts if this damn war breaks out?”

Every church could take that step. Prayer does work.

Michael J. McManus is a syndicated columnist.

 

Reviews & Podcasts of “Rediscovering Humility”

 

Now that 2018 has drawn to a close and my book has been out six months, here are links to a few of the most thorough reviews and podcasts, for any interested:

 

REVIEWS

Keri Hui, Immeasurably More

Michael Philliber, PCA Pastor

Wendy Lin, The Gospel Coalition (Australia)

 

PODCASTS

Confessing our Hope with Zach Groff (Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary)

Equipping You in Grace with Dave Jenkins

Iron Sharpens Iron with Chris Arnzen

 

I continue to pray that this book will be a help and comfort to all who pick it up, as God blesses. SDG.

 

 

 

The Pool is my Temple

 

Author’s note:  I don’t claim to be good at poetry, but I find it therapeutic and have to file them somewhere.  This one is still a work in progress.

 

The Pool is my Temple

 

My arms pull and glide

legs dangling behind a tadpole

blue and white above clouds float by

Breathe… breathe

Try not to snap at butterfly guy

who tells me I go slow

doesn’t he know it’s therapy hour

Breathe…

Help doc with his last few feet

the dude has MS, and really

I don’t know how he does it

Breathe… breathe

Matt cannonballs beside

splashing me with joy always

oblivious to the world outside

Breathe…

Sobbing, they pat me on the back

and give me cherries to eat

staining their fresh white towels red

Kids look at me funny

as a grown man puts on

a life vest just as they learn how to swim

Fight… fight

Hobble out a three-legged mess

and back again tomorrow

legs dangling behind, a merman

Blue and white above

clouds float by

The pool is my temple

Breathe

Breathe.

 

 

 

 

No Little Gifts

 

As my Lyme’s disease decreases my energy so that I am forced to contemplate purposely doing less, I was reminded of an unpublished portion of my Humility manuscript click here that had to be cut for the sake of space.  I hope it encourages others who also can only do so much:

 

“Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift”

~ Ephesians 4:7

 

Sometimes, we get discouraged and fail to do what we can because we think it is not good enough. You are not called to have greater gifts than what you have; only to be faithful to the measure God has given you. Not everyone can write a dozen books, or fix a score of mercy meals, or bear five children. We are to walk in the good works God has prepared for us, and no more (cf. Ephesians 2:10). That also means we show kindness and mercy to others as they are faithful to the measure God has given them. One of my favorite, and oft overlooked, episodes in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy comes towards the end, as King Aragorn leads the united army of Rohan and Gohan in their march towards the dreadful Black Gate of Mordor. As they approach the gate, Tolkein writes:

So time and the hopeless journey wore away. Upon the fourth day from the Cross-roads and the sixth from Minas Tirith they came at last to the end of the living lands, and began to pass into the desolation that lay before the gates of the Pass of Cirith Gorgor; and they could descry the marshes and the desert that stretched north and west to the Emyn Muil. So desolate were those places and so deep the horror that lay on them that some of the host were unmanned, and they could neither walk nor ride further north.

Aragorn looked at them, and there was pity in his eyes rather than wrath; for these were young men from Rohan, from Westfold far away, or husbandmen from Lossarnach, and to them Mordor had been from childhood a name of evil, and yet unreal, a legend that had no part in their simple life; and now they walked like men in a hideous dream made true, and they understood not this war nor why fate should lead them to such a pass.

‘Go!’ said Aragorn. ‘But keep what honour you may, and do not run! And there is a task which you may attempt and so be not wholly shamed. Take your way south-west till you come to Cair Andros, and if that is still held by enemies, as I think, then re-take it, if you can; and hold it to the last in defence of Gondor and Rohan!’^[1]

I have often seen myself as one of those frightened soldiers, not able to be the hero or great man that others may be – but still perfectly able to man my own post; to be useful in that small place of service that God has assigned to me. Or do I think that assignment unworthy, as if God were somehow unwise? What a glory and privilege it is to serve God wherever He would have me, content to fill a little space, as God ordains.^[2]

 

^[1] JRR Tolkein, The Return of the King (New York: Ballantine, 1965), p 199.

^[2] As Anna Waring puts it in her hymn, “Father I Know that All My Life:”

I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do
Or secret thing to know;
I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go….

So I ask Thee for daily strength,
To none that ask denied,
And a mind to blend with outward life
While keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If Thou be glorified.

 

 

Study Questions for Rediscovering Humility

 

STUDY QUESTIONS FOR “REDISCOVERING HUMILITY”

click here to order the book from New Growth Press

 

All rights reserved, Christopher A. Hutchinson, 2018

Permission is hereby granted to reproduce these questions for individual or group use, provided credit is given, and no profit garnered from their use.

Click here to download this as a .pdf:  STUDY QUESTIONS FOR REDISCOVERING HUMILITY  Click here to download as an MS Word document: STUDY QUESTIONS FOR REDISCOVERING HUMILITY

 

 

CHAPTER ONE: Whatever Happened to Humility?

 

1. Do you agree with the author that humility is at the very heart of the Christian faith? Why or why not?

 

2. What most frustrates you about today’s Christian culture? How could a more explicit emphasis on humility lead to a healthier approach?

 

3. What most frustrates you about your own Christian walk? How can an increased humility help point you in the right direction?

 

4. Do you agree with the author’s assessment of the dangers that may accompany the phrase, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God?” Why or why not?

 

5. In the closing lines from T.S. Eliot, what does it mean “to care and not to care,” and how does humility aid us in this balance?

 

 

CHAPTER TWO: Wide is the Road

 

1. What is one way that you have sometimes tried to produce a false humility? What were your motives?

 

2. What is one area in your life you are fairly humble about, by God’s grace? What is one area that you see pride creeping in more quickly?

 

3. Have you ever been offended by someone else’s pride? Why did it offend you so much, and what can you learn about your own pride from taking offense?

 

4. Have you ever “run yourself down” too much, and if so, why? How does the Gospel allow us to have a realistic view of our failings without causing us to despair?

 

5. According to the author, what are the antidotes to these four false forms of humility?

 

 

CHAPTER THREE: Return of the Jester

 

1. Where have you seen humility practiced well by a church or fellow Christian? How so?

 

2. Which of the Biblical examples of humility that the author cites most inspire you? Why?

 

3. Which of the sample questions of how humility should inform our lives most hits home for you? Why?

 

4. What was a time in your life when you pursued something good, but forgot to do it with Christ’s help, depending upon His work as central? What was the result?

 

5. Which part of the prayer at the end of the chapter most strikes you as needful for your life? Why?

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR: Lest Anyone Boast

 

1. What is the first fruit you look for when you consider what it means to be a good or growing Christian? Why?

 

2. According to Isaiah 57, where does God dwell? How does this reflect the truth of the Gospel? With whom does God apparently not dwell? Does God in fact dwell with you?

 

3. In what ways in your life have you been like the praying Pharisee of Luke 18, and in what ways have you been like the Publican?

 

4. How wide do you believe the gap is between God’s holiness and your own? How does grasping the breadth of that gap assist us in seeing our need for grace?

 

5. Had you ever before noticed how Paul goes straight from justification by faith alone to humility as his first application? If not, why do you think that was?

 

6. According to I Corinthians, who normally makes up the majority of the Church? If you are not one of these, is there any hope for you? Why?

 

7. What is the connection between a salvation that is by grace alone, and God alone receiving all the glory for our salvation? How does that help our growth in humility?

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE: Hope for a Fool

 

1. Do you believe it is possible that one religion may be the only true way? If not, why not?

 

2. What has God proclaimed as true in His word that you simply do not want to believe, and yet humbly submit to it?

 

3. When is a time in your life that you trusted your own opinion too much instead of keeping an open mind?

 

4. Why must God work on our hearts as well as our minds if we are to come to a knowledge of the truth? How does Proverbs 1:7 reflect this?

 

5. What is a time when you were in fact correct about something, but did not express that truth humbly, and thus ended up doing more harm than good?

 

6. What is an area of doctrine or interpretation of God’s providence about which you have been too inflexible, not allowing enough room for mystery or disagreement?

 

 

CHAPTER SIX: Not Unto Us

 

1. When you think of what it means to grow in grace, what first comes to mind? Why?

 

2. What is a way you can become more childlike in your faith, even as you seek to grow in Christian maturity?

 

3. What is an area in your life that you can “pick up your cross daily” in order to better follow Jesus and so look like Him? What can you do to start?

 

4. Why is it important to see both Christ’s glory and his humiliation in the offices of Prophet, Priest and King? Which side should more characterize our lives now? Why?

 

5. Which aspect of Christ’s character outlined in this chapter would you like to see more fleshed out in your life? Why?

 

6. According to the author, what does it mean to rest in Christ’s humility? Why is this important to remember?

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN: Bold Nobodies

 

1. When is a time that you “invited yourself up” before it was time or tried hard to work your way into an inner ring? What were the results?

 

2. Which of Sharrett’s list of pride’s hidden recesses most hits home for you? How can you better address and repent of it?

 

3. What is one way that you need to abase yourself more before God? What is the one aspect/talent of your life of which you are most proud or defensive?

 

4. When is a time where you failed to follow Christ as you should, but only to discover afterwards that you actually grew in a greater meekness and love for Him as a result?

 

5. Where is a place where God has gifted you and used you for good, but for which you are reluctant to thank Him for or take proper joy?

 

6. How does the Gospel cause us to be both humble and bold at the same time?

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT: Seeking the City to Come

1. What is your eschatological position, and how have you let humility inform what you believe about the trajectory of the world and the Second Coming of Christ?

 

2. How does the hope of heavenly reward affect the way that you treat others?

 

3. Where in today’s church have you seen an “over-realized eschatology?” How does Baxter’s quote help us keep things in balance?

 

4. As the hymn puts it, when have you seen God give you “days of gladness?” How does that temper your attitude when He also ordains for you “days of sadness?”

 

5. How does your personal suffering point you to your true, heavenly hope?

 

6. Why did Paul boast in his weaknesses? How do your weaknesses and suffering remind you to cast your hope on Christ alone? Give an example.

 

7. Why does Christian humility ultimately end in an uplifting and glorious result? How does this knowledge keep you going through your valleys?

 

 

CHAPTER NINE: Tales from the Lower Totem Pole

 

1. Which of the five listed areas of serving others do you need to most grow in? Which are you already pretty good at, by God’s grace?

 

2. Who are some folks above and/or below you to whom you can show greater humility?  How, practically, will you plan to do that, with God’s help?

 

3. Why is it important to serve those who cannot pay you back? What might that look like in your life?

 

4. What is a way you have let worldly thinking influence the way you have judged someone else’s worth, even in church ministry?

 

5. Do you agree with the author’s application of humility to how social status should be approached in light of such passages as I Peter 2 and Philemon? Why or why not?

 

6. What is a way you can apply humility to cross-cultural relationships in your life and help heal the racial divide that has often plagued our society?

 

 

CHAPTER TEN: The Assembly of Egos

 

1. Do you agree with the author that humility normatively requires formal membership in a local, visible church? Why or why not?

 

2. How can a departure from the three simple Means of Grace distract our churches from growth in humility? What does it mean that pride feeds the eyes?

 

3. In which of the three Means of Grace does your church most show its humble reliance upon God? Which of the three could it pursue more humbly? How can you help?

 

4. How does active church discipline help keep us humble both individually, and as congregations? If you were confronted by your church leaders regarding a serious sin, how do you think you would respond?

 

5. Do you agree with the author’s take on James 5, and its connection to church discipline, even though it is primarily addressing physical illness? Why or why not?

 

6. If you are a church leader, in what ways have you sometimes promoted your own church brand rather than Christ alone? What can you do to repent of that?

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Like Men Sentenced to Death

 

1. Do you agree with the author that the primary goal of Christian leadership ought to be growth in humility? Why or why not?

 

2. Why does Paul commend Timothy and Epaphroditus in Philippians 2? What did they actually accomplish? How do they illustrate the famous, earlier section of Philippians 2?

 

3. Why does Paul say that true leaders of his day were like “scum and dregs,” at the end of the parade? What do you look most look for in a Christian leader today?

 

4. Do you agree with the author about academic titles and honors being used sparingly in the Church? If so, how could this application go awry if we are not careful?

 

5. How does your church treat children, and how well does that treatment reflect the Gospel of grace?

 

6. How well does your church’s public image reflect the full priesthood of believers which make up the congregation? Are some leaders elevated too much? How can you show your leaders proper honor without robbing Christ of His glory?

 

7. Why is it important for the cause of humility that there be a plurality of leaders within a church? If you are leader, how can you be more thankful for the different gifts and emphases that other leaders bring to your congregation?

 

CHAPTER TWELVE: The Assembly of Fools

 

1. Where have you felt the sweetness of Christian unity most? What made it so sweet?

 

2. Where have you seen church unity strain or even break apart? What was the cause?

 

3. How does Ephesians 4:1-6 provide a clue as to how Christian unity can be kept? Why is it important that Ephesians 1-3 precede Ephesians 4-6? What is the glue between grace and unity, and where have you seen that practiced well in this regard?

 

4. What role do creeds and confessions play in safeguarding Christian unity? How can denominations actually aid unity in the context of Christian freedom?

 

5. Give an example when you may have turned a “twig doctrine” into a “trunk doctrine,” and thus strained unity with fellow believers. Give an example of when you stood for the truth of a “trunk” or “branch” doctrine, even though it may have caused some tension.

 

6. Even when there is the need for doctrinal disagreement, what are some practical ways we can still let humility be our guide, and thus promote our spiritual unity in Christ?

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Turning Woes to Blessings

 

1. How can you do a better job of “becoming weak to the weak” in your evangelism?

 

2. What is a way your church shows a Gospel humility in the way it conducts worship? Is there anything that distracts from Christ being central to your worship?

 

3. How can we confront our culture’s sins humbly, without backing down from Biblical truth? Over whom does the Church have authority and how does that help us with this?

 

4. What are some ways that you have practiced your righteousness to be seen by men?

 

5. Does your church do anything which promotes pride in giving, prayer or fasting? How can you pray publicly in a way that is sincere and does not draw attention to yourself?

 

6. How does humility help our churches become refuges of grace in a weary world?

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Turning Factories into Gardens

 

1. What are some other markers of Christian growth that have sometimes supplanted humility as central in today’s Church?

 

2. How can church planting help a growing congregation to remain humble? In what ways might it actually feed its pride?

 

3. How does supporting foreign missions reflect the humility of Christ? In what ways might it actually feed a church’s pride?

 

4. In what way does your church reflect a garden cultivating godliness and humility as foremost, and in what way does it more reflect the factory mindset of our culture?

 

5. Now that you have finished the book, in what ways are you now different, and in what ways are you just the same you were before? Are you content to keep your royal robes hidden until Christ’s return?