Many people have read the best selling book The Shack. Churches around the country are using this
book in Sunday School classes, Bible Studies, and more. This book opens doors for discussion on
theology, the nature of God, forgiveness and more. It can be a great resource for your volunteer team,
small group, or even youth leadership team. We are thankful to Jennie Stockard for donating this original
resource to the GBOD. It is well thought out and a valuable piece of work.
Jennie Stockard is a 20-plus year member of Hillcrest United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
As a life-time United Methodist, she was right at home working for 13 years at the General Board of
Higher Education and Ministry before becoming a full-time mom and professional church volunteer!
Volunteer activities include Sunday School teacher, adult and youth Bible study leader, choir and
handbell choir member, church office worker, and altar guild coordinator. She has also served in many
officer capacities at Hillcrest as well.
“Writing a study guide for The Shack has probably been one of my most challenging projects as I felt
overwhelmed by the subject matter and there was a lack of published resources available for use as
reference material,” said Jennie. After scouring the web, reviewing scripture, and consulting with her Dad
(retired UM clergy), she developed this 4-session discussion guide. “I hope that by reading The Shack
and discussing it, people are able to broaden their personal relationship with God through the Trinity and
explore how the United Methodist Church’s theology and doctrine apply to the ideas addressed in this
story.”
The Shack
by William P. Young
(Windblown Media, 2007)
Notes
Chapter 1
Mack – Main Character
Willie – Friend
Nan – Wife
Kate – older daughter
Josh – son
Missy – youngest daughter
(There are also two other older boys in the family.)



Mack receives a note from “Papa.” He falls on the ice getting it.
Mom is praying for Kate but feels like God isn’t listening.
The term “Papa,” which Nan uses for God, denotes an intimate relationship.
Chapter 2
 Mack kept the note a secret from Nan.
 What are Mack’s reasons for not sharing the note with her? (Page 24)
 How is the GREAT SADNESS described? (Page 25) Draped around his shoulders,
heavy guilt, dulled his eyes, stooped his shoulders; like the coils of a constrictor. He had
somehow become a part of it.
 Mack and kids went camping.
 Missy wants to hear the Legend of the Indian Princess (Multnomah tribe).
 Missy asks Mack if she will have to die.
Chapter 3






At Wallowa State Park they meet two other families.
Mack talks about Nan: She’s an oncology nurse, and she helps people think through
their relationship with God as they face death.
Mack explains his hesitancy of calling God “Papa”— it’s too intimate.
On the last day the older Josh and Kate go out in canoe while Mack is packing; Missy is
coloring.
The canoe flipped, and Josh was in imminent danger of drowning.
“One seemingly insignificant event can change the course of entire lives.”
Chapter 4
 Missy is missing. The search is on.
 A boy told of seeing her in a truck.
 Mack wanted a “do-over”; he asks... “God, how could this happen?”
 Mack and their friend Emil stay to continue the search. Nan, Josh, and Kate go home.
 Searchers find a ladybug pin, a hubcap, the shack, and the blood-soaked dress.
 Mack plays the “if-only” game, which ends nowhere.
 He experiences a growing sense of separation with God, but manages a stoic faith.
 Does God even write notes?
 Mack had been to seminary.
 He felt like he was being toyed with. He felt stuck—like God could love Nan, but not him.
Chapter 5
 Mack has hypotheses about the note: 1) really from God, 2) cruel joke, 3) from Missy’s
killer.
 He makes plans to go, but told no one—especially not Nan (“to protect her”).
 He tells Willie and borrows his jeep.
 Page 71 – “I guess part of me would like to believe that God would care enough about
me to send a note.”
 Mack wonders, “Maybe this happened because of what I did to my father.”
 Mack goes to the shack and plunges into the horror again.
 Mack’s questions for God: 1) Why did you let this happen? 2) Why did you bring me
here? 3) I hate you! 4) Was it too much to ask for us to find her to bury? 5) Where are
you when I need you? He’s in despair that he couldn’t protect Missy.
 He wanted to stop the pain of his GREAT SADNESS, which had become so familiar it
was like a friend.
 Everything changes. The shack becomes a home; winter becomes spring. Mack is
greeted at the door by “Papa.”
 “Papa” came as an African-American women, with lots of hugs, who spoke Mack’s name
and made him feel good; she seemed to be the house-keeper and cook. Elousia was the
name she gave. She introduced the others:
 Sarayu/Holy Spirit: Hard to keep her in focus, Asian woman, collects tears, groundskeeper/gardener.
 Jesus: Middle Eastern, wearing jeans and tool belt, muscles, keeps things fixed, enjoys
working with his hands.
Chapter 6
 Conversation with Papa
 Pictures of kids’ artwork on wall
 What kind of music would God listen to?
 To call God “Papa” is a struggle for Mack.
 Mack is there to heal.







FREE WILL (Page 94)
Images of God (Pages 93–94)
Papa has scars on her wrists too.
Story of bird flying.
Who/what is God? (Page 98)
Nature of Jesus
Who would want to worship a God that can be fully comprehended? (Page 101)
Chapter 7
 Dropping a bowl of batter; laughter; cleanup; God in relationship; no fault or blame.
 Humor at dinner table. Does God have a sense of humor?
 Conversation about family. The Trinity already know everything, but the telling is
important. (Page 106)
 Stargazing with Jesus—Mack feels more comfortable with him.
 Sarayu/Holy Spirit—Wind
 Elousia—El = Creator God / Ousia = that which is truly God
 Mack questions Jesus’ looks.
 Mack questions Jesus about his Spirit and about how he can live in us. (Page 112)
Chapter 8
 Flying dream
 Stuck in the mud
 Questions to Papa: 1) Are there any people you are not especially fond of? 2) Do you
ever get mad? 3) Don’t you enjoy punishing those who disappoint you? (Page 119);
Isn’t one of you more the boss than the other two? (Page 121)
 Hierarchy discussions (Pages 122–24)
 Mack doesn’t trust Papa; he doesn’t believe that God is good.
Chapter 9
 Mack and Sarayu gather flowers in the garden and clear a plot of land.
 Did you create poisonous plants? mosquitoes, and such?
 “Freedom involves trust and obedience inside a relationship of love.” (Page 132)
 Good and evil discussion (Page 136)
Chapter 10
 Jesus is sanding what looks like a casket.
 Jesus invites Mack to go on a walk with him to a special place.
 Question from Jesus: 1) Where do you spend most of your time in your
mind/imagination…in the present, in the past, or in the future? (Page 141)
 Free will, not forced will (Page 145)
 The Trinity have a relationship of submission—of love and respect.
Chapter 11
 The scene shifts to a cavern, where Mack meets Sophia. She is an olive-skinned
woman, with Hispanic features, wearing a dark, flowing robe; she was regal in her role of
high-court judge.
 He is there for judgment.
 He is asked, “Which of your children do you love the most?”
 Mack doesn’t believe God is good or that God loves all of God’s children since Missy
suffered so.
 Mack is asked to sit in the judgment chair. He freaks.





He is supposed to judge God and the human race, including Missy’s killer. (Page 160)
He is asked to choose two of his children for heaven—and three for hell, but he asks to
go in their stead. He gets a glimpse of Jesus’ love but still struggles to understand God’s
love.
Mack is asked to give up being God’s judge.
Mack sees his kids playing—including Missy, who signs “It’s OK; I love you” to him
through a waterfall.
Mack learns that judgment is not about destruction but about setting things right.
Chapter 12
 Mack’s constant companion, the GREAT SADNESS, is gone.
 Jesus is waiting for Mack. They talk about how Jesus was with Missy during the ordeal,
and that Missy was worried about Mack and prayed for his peace.
 Mack walks into the water; and as he focuses on the fact that Jesus is there, he begins
to walk on the water. “This always works better when we do it together, don’t you think?”
Jesus says.
 “Darkness hides the true size of fears and lies and regrets.” (Page 174)
 God had been talking to Mack a long time, but this was the first time Mack could hear.
God had been “preparing the soil,” however.
 Their conversations include What is heaven like? What is the church, the “Bride of
Christ”? And how religious machinery can chew people up. (Pages 177–179)
 Systems can’t provide security, only God can. “Be in them, but not of them.” (Page 181)
 It’s hard to save someone who is drowning unless the person trusts you. Jesus asks for
Mack’s trust.
Chapter 13
 On the porch with God. Talk turns to not sharing with Nan—Mack says he didn’t want to
hurt Nan, but really he was protecting himself.
 God says, “Just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedy, doesn’t
mean I orchestrate the tragedy.” (Page 185)
 Most people look to God for judgment and to Jesus for forgiveness.
 God knows it will take “46 situations” for Mack to hear and rejoices when there are only
45 more to go. (Page 187)
 We don’t see what God stops from happening.
Chapter 14
 Mack goes canoeing “by himself,” but Sarayu has been with him all along.
 Mack worries about making mistakes and expresses fear of emotion; in response,
Sarayu makes the link between perceptions, paradigms, and emotions. (Page 197)
 Relationship is more complicated, messier than rules; it’s a process.
 Dinner together is filled with talk and laughter and good food.
 Mack begins to wonder what to do when he gets home.
 Mack raises the question, “Why do you love me when I have nothing to offer?” (Page
200)
 The discussion turns to the Ten Commandments (Page 202) “Trying to keep law is a
declaration of independence—a way of trying to keep control….It grants you the power
to judge others and feel superior to them.”
 The discussion explores expectation and responsibility versus expectancy and the ability
to respond. (Pages 204–207)
 Jesus doesn’t want to be on a list but at the center of everything.
Chapter 15
 Devotion time
 Touching of eyes
 Forgiveness of Mack’s father
Chapter 16
 Papa appears today as a man.
 Papa and Mack hike up to where Missy’s body is.
 Papa talks about allowing bad things to happen. (Page 222)
 Mack says he trusts Papa.
 Papa wants Mack to consider forgiving Missy’s killer: “Mack, for you to forgive this man
is for you to release him to me and allow me to redeem him….Forgiveness is not about
forgetting, Mack. It is about letting go of another person’s throat.” (Page 224)
 “Forgiveness does not establish a relationship….Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver,
to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your
ability to love fully and openly.” (Page 225)
 “Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and
behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible.” (Page 225)
 They talk about how his dad’s change allows for Mack to love him again.
 Mack is finally able to forgive Missy’s killer and let go.
 Papa and Mack retrieve Missy’s body.
Chapter 17
 They bury Missy in the casket made by Jesus in the garden prepared by Sarayu and
Mack.
 Sarayu scatters Mack’s tears on soil and flowers bloom. A small tree grows.
 Mack has to make to choice to stay with Papa and see Missy or go back to Nan and his
other children.
 Mack asks if what he will do back home is important. “Every time you forgive, the
universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world
changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are
accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.” (Page 235)
 Papa tells Mack that Kate believes she is to blame for Missy’s death.
 They share bread and wine together and say their good-byes.
 Everything goes back—the shack is old and ugly; it is winter once again.
 Mack is exhausted and has a car wreck.
Chapter 18
 Mack is in the hospital.
 Willie asks if God was at the shack.
 The “weekend” happened on Friday.
 Mack thought it was strange that he would get into a wreck after spending the weekend
with God.
 He shared the story with Nan. She believes.
 Mack assures Kate that she is not to blame. Missy’s death is not her fault. Kate begins to
heal.
 After his recovery Mack leads the authorities to the cave with Missy’s remains;
ultimately, the killer is tracked down.
Afterward
 Mack continues the transformation, which is having a ripple effect of transforming others.
Discussion Guide
Session One
What appealed to you about reading The Shack?
What caused you to read it?
Did someone give you the book, or did you purchase it?
What The Shack is not…
 a theological study
 a study based on specific Scripture
 a replacement for Scripture
What The Shack is…
 a fiction story with truths in it
 an invitation to new ways to think about relating to God
 a glimpse into how to experience God
Why do you think Mack’s encounter with God took place at the shack?
What were Mack’s stumbling blocks to his belief in God and having a relationship with God?
Consider these:






Protector
Guilt
Blames God
Evil
Fear
Lost illusion of control when Missy died
How do our life experiences cloud our relationship with God?
How does your understanding of the Trinity compare with and differ from the images of Papa,
Jesus, Sarayu in the book? What parts do you like and what parts didn’t you like?
Which part of the Trinity do you relate to the easiest? Why?
Questions to Ponder Until Session 2
If God were to invite you somewhere to encounter your obstacles in your relationship, where
would that be?
If God wrote you a note to meet and you went, what image might God portray to you that would
be easy to accept? What image might God portray that would be hard to accept?
Session Two
Invite the group to talk about the assigned questions-to-ponder during the week.
The Nature of God
Revisit the Trinity discussion from the prior session. Then read the quotation on page 101 about
the nature and mystery of God:
“To begin with, that you can’t grasp the wonder of my nature is rather a good thing. Who
wants to worship a God who can be fully comprehended, eh? Not much mystery in that.”
Does this thought give you comfort or discourage you? Why?
Humor
Does God have a sense of humor? Where in the book do you see evidence of that?
Suffering
Talk a little about what happened to Missy and how it affected Mack and his relationships with
his family and with God.
Talk about Mack’s rant on pages 78–79 about his hurts. Mack felt abandoned by God. In what
ways do you identify with Mack?
Mack questions Papa (page 185) about the reason behind Missy having to die. Mack gets it all
backwards.
Do you think suffering makes people closer to God or causes them to distance
themselves from God?
What is the pattern for your life?
What circumstances cause us to pull away?
What circumstances cause us to draw near?
Talk about the story of the bird flying and self-imposed limitations. (Page 97)
What things do you see in life that “clip our wings”?
Where you satisfied with God’s answers to Mack about suffering? Why or why not?
Do you struggle with believing God is good in light of all the tragedy in the world?
(Pages 125–127)
What questions do you have?
Free Will/Choices
Was Mack free to come to the shack or was the visit orchestrated and inevitable? (Page 94)
Mack asks Papa if there were any folks he was not “especially fond of.” (Page 118) Discuss
Papa’s answer.
Sarayu talks about good and evil. Read the section on page 136 and then talk about that
concept.
On page 145, Jesus says, “To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do.” The book
goes on to talk about how “submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all
about relationships of love and respect.” What does that description mean to you? What
questions does it raise for you?
“Freedom involves trust and obedience in a relationship of love.” (Page 132) What does that
statement mean to you? What questions does it raise for you?
The Bible
Sarayu insists that the Bible is not a rule book. She also insists that no one can do any of what
is good and right without God’s help.
How does the Bible help us?
What are the limitations of the Bible?
According to this story, what is the purpose of the Bible? (Page 197)
Questions to Ponder Until Session 3
On page 141 Jesus asks Mack, “Where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your
imagination, in the present, in the past, or in the future?”
Mack answers, “I suppose I would have to say that I spend very little time in the present. For
me, I spend a big piece in the past, but most of the rest of the time, I am trying to figure out the
future.” The conversation continues on page 142.
Where do you spend most of your time in your mind? Why?
Where would God want you to spend most of your time? Why?
Session Three
Invite the group to talk about the assigned questions-to-ponder during the week.
Feeling Unloved and Unworthy
On page 71 Mack says to Willie, “I guess part of me would like to believe that God would care
enough about me to send a note.” What feelings do you think are beneath that statement?
How did not being able to protect Missy affect Mack? What feelings did he struggle with?
On page 78 Mack accuses God of never being around when he needed God, not when he was
little, and not now. What feelings come out in that accusation?
What help for such feelings do you find in this story?
Judgment
Review the conversation between Sophia and Mack about which of his children he loves the
most. (Pages 154–155) What insight does that provide about God’s love?
Review the conversation (Pages 159–161) about judging God. Do you agree with Sophia’s
conclusion that judging the Father is “what fuels the GREAT SADNESS”? Why or why not?
Review pages 161–163 and how Mack responds to the demand that he judge which of his
children will go to heaven and which will go to hell. How does this exchange help you? What
questions does it raise for you?
Why do bad things happen? Where is God in all of that? These are ultimately Mack’s questions
as he deals with the tragedy of Missy’s untimely death. According to this story, how would you
answer those questions?
What does Mack come to realize in Chapter 11 after talking with Sophia?
Forgiveness
Papa asked Mack to forgive the man who murdered Missy. Review the conversation. (Pages
224–225) Which of the statements do you connect with? Why?
Do you agree that forgiveness is “to release you from something that will eat you alive;
that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly”? Why or why not?
“Every time you forgive, the world changes.” (Page 235) Give some examples.
Being in Relationship With God
Jesus doesn’t want to be in the top three of a list of priorities—he wants to be at the very the
center. (Page 207)
What do you see as the differences in the two ways of thinking
about a relationship with Jesus?
What do you do to allow Jesus to be at the very center of your life?
Mack asks God, “Why do you love me when I have nothing to offer? (Page 200)
In what ways do you identify with Mack’s question?
What do you think of God’s answer?
Has your religious tradition emphasized performance or relationship?
What helps us to be in relationship and to grow closer to God?
Sharing God With Others
Why didn’t Mack share Papa’s note with Nan?
What were the consequences of not sharing?
In the Foreword and in the Afterward Willie describes Mack as changed. (Pages 10 and 247)
How has Mack’s experience in the shack affected him? How is he sharing God with others?
How has your experience in The Shack affected you?
What did The Shack teach you about God’s love and faithfulness?
What one thing stands out among all that we have talked about?
What has The Shack taught you about sharing God’s love with others?