historical fiction/revival sermon series1.
What is your emotional response to this book? Did it challenge you?
2. If you choose to follow In His Steps, where do you envision yourself in five years? Would it change your life?
3. Some people might be guilty of reducing all of the teachings of the Bible into what Jesus would do, or rather just the Gospels. What else of importance about Christianity does the Bible teach
besides this idea? Consider both the Old and New Testaments. Also, are there things that we can do that Jesus would not have done?
4. Do you feel that WWJD
has become so cliché due to mass marketing that it has lost its meaning, or do you think it is still powerful, especially to young people?
Chapters 1-4
1.
What was the basic challenge Henry Maxwell made to his congregation? (I Peter 2:21; Luke 15:27) If Maxwell pastored your church, would you have been among those volunteers who went to the lecture room after the Sunday morning service? Why or why not?
2. What was good and what was bad about suggesting that this commitment be for a year?
3. Edward Norman, the newspaper editor, faced his work with feelings akin to fear. What
would be your feelings in a similar situation?
4.
In the conflict over the prizefight story between Norman and his managing editor, with whom did you side and why? Also, how did you feel about the issue of running alcohol and tobacco advertisements? Is it feasible to run a newspaper on such an ideal as WWJD? Would our world be ready for it today? Is there any newspaper today that comes close to matching Norman's standards?
Chapters 5-9
5.
The author writes that Maxwell's challenge to "Do as Jesus would do was working out a revolution in his past and throughout the city." Do you feel the story is realistic at this point? Why or why not?
6. Discuss which problem you would find harder to resolve, how Rachael should use her talent, or how Virginia should use her wealth?
7. Would your family influence you positively
or negatively if you chose to follow in Jesus' steps? What did Christ say about family misunderstandings of the type portrayed in this story?
8.
Maxwell and Milton Wright both listed what Jesus would probably do in their position. What are 5 things Christ might do in your position?
9.
First Church was now marked by a "distinct wave of excitement in the pews." Do you have memories of such a time in your past church experiences?
Chapters 10-13
10. The friends
of Virginia Page joked about her new dedication to Christ. Have you ever experienced ridicule from friends? Why or why not? Would ridicule make it harder on you?
11. What did you think when
Donald March, President of Lincoln College, confessed that he had avoided the duties of citizenship? In what ways might this be true of you? Why is it that Christians are often apathetic about social evils?
12. Rachael said with conviction that "I want to do something that will cost me something in the way of sacrifice." Have you experienced similar feelings regarding your relationship to Christ?
Chapters 14-18
13.
In this story an election was lost because more than a hundred Christians failed to go to the polls. How serious a problem is voter apathy among Christians today? Discuss the reasons for apathy.
14.
Is it easier to be called by God to work among the poor or to be challenged to minister to the more privileged class like Rollin Page was? Explain.
15. When the initial 12 months were over the author
writes, "The year had made history so fast and so serious that the people were not yet able to grasp its significance." Could this be true? Can one year make a huge difference in the life of a congregation and
a community?
Chapters 19-24
16.
Rose Sterling told her younger sister Felicia, "I have always regarded the Raymond movement as fanatical." Does following in Christ's steps make someone a religious fanatic?
17.
In Rev. Bruce's letter he reports that the Raymond church was divided into two distinct groups of members. "Those who have not taken the pledge regard the others as foolishly literal in their attempt to initiate the example of Jesus." How could a split like this have been avoided?
18. Rose Sterling said to her sister, "Felicia, you can never reform the world. What's the use? We're not to blame for the poverty and misery." How would you answer her?
19. How would someone who does not have either money or talent answer the question "What Would Jesus Do?" Do you think this story is primarily addressing people who have money? (see Mark 10:21) Would
someone who is very poor be able to get anything out of this story? Explain.
Chapters 25-29
20.
"Never before had Rev. Calvin Bruce realized how deep the feelings of his members flowed. He humbly confessed that the appeal he had made met with an unexpected response from men and women who. . . were hungry for something in their lives that the conventional type of church membership and fellowship had failed to give them." What do you think ministers would find is true about church members today?
21.
If Christians feel called to minister to deprived areas of our major cities, how important is it that they actually live in these neighborhoods? What kind of suffering exists in the city nearest where you live?
Chapters 30-31
22. How relevant was Maxwell's sermon when he preached to the crowd in Chicago about the call for a new discipleship? See pages 235-238 for a discussion.
"There is a great
quantity of nominal Christianity today. There is a need of more of the real kind. We need revival of the Christianity of Christ. We have unconsciously, lazily, selfishly, formally grown into a discipleship that Jesus
himself would not acknowledge . . . [I]f our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the privileges of worship, [to] be generous at no expense to ourselves, [to] have a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant
friends and by comfortable things, [to] live respectably and at the same time avoid the world's great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much to bear it, . . . surely we are a long way from following the steps
of [Jesus] . . ."
** Study Guide questions excerpted from David and Karen Mains
