Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 13–15): By the river they spoke to the women who had come together; Lydia heard, and the Lord opened her heart; she and her household were baptized, and she had them stay at her house. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 14 and verses 10 and 13 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone, before reading the Bible or going to a meeting this week, first asks the Lord to open their heart. Next time, anyone who wants to can share; the rest need not.
Leader tip: The passage tells us only that Lydia was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, and one who worshiped God (v. 14); whether she was wealthy, whether she had a husband, who was in her household, and why she was in Philippi, the passage does not say, so there is no need to guess, nor to call her ‘the first believer in Europe’. Read ‘one who worshiped God’ as the passage gives it, with no need to explain what kind of person that was. Read “The Lord opened her heart” (v. 14) as the passage gives it, with no need to discuss predestination, election or the human will; this lesson does not sort out theological schools. Read “she and her household were baptized” (v. 15) as the passage gives it, with no need to discuss whether there were children in the household or whether infants are to be baptized, and with no pressing anyone to be baptized. Read “come into my house and stay” (v. 15) as the passage gives it, with no need to turn it into a call for everyone to open their own home. Why they went by the river, and why only women are mentioned (v. 13), the passage does not say, and there is no need to work it out. Read “When they had seen the brothers” (v. 40) as the passage gives it, with no need to say that her house was the church in Philippi, or to use it in a discussion of women’s roles in the church. There is no need to connect Thyatira with Revelation 2. Philippians does not mention Lydia by name, and there is no need to connect anyone in that letter with her. She has only this one lesson, so there is no look-back question; don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.