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.
Lesson 1 · He Lived with Them and WorkedActs 18:1-11
Focus 1 (vv. 2–3): Because of Claudius’ command they had left Rome and come to Corinth only ‘recently’; “He came to them”, and “he lived with them and worked.” Ask the group: reading these two verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verses 9–10 and verses 2–3 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of someone who has recently arrived near them, and invites this person for tea or a meal this week. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: This lesson reads how a husband and wife lived and worked with Paul; it is not teaching on marriage. Someone in the group may be single, widowed, in a difficult marriage, or married to someone who does not believe. Read “by trade they were tent makers” (v. 3) as the passage gives it; there is no need to turn it into teaching on ‘bivocational ministry’. When or how they came to faith the passage does not say; there is no need to guess. Read “a year and six months” (v. 11) as the passage gives it; there is no need to suppose that Paul lived in their house all that time. Read Claudius’ command as the passage gives it; there is no need to work out its date. Someone in the group may have left home without choosing to; only those who want to answer question 9 need to. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10.
Lesson 2 · The Way of God More AccuratelyActs 18:18-28
Focus 1 (vv. 24–26): Apollos was “mighty in the Scriptures” and “fervent in spirit”, “although he knew only the baptism of John”; when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, “they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” Ask the group: reading these three verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 21 and verses 27–28 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one place they would like to understand more fully, and asks a brother or sister they trust about it this week. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: This lesson does not discuss whether women may teach in the church. Read verse 26 as the passage gives it; there is no need to guess which of the two led or who did the speaking. In verses 18 and 26 Priscilla’s name comes first; read it as the passage gives it, with no need to explain it. Read “they took him aside” (v. 26) as the passage gives it; there is no need to guess where they took him. Read “He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow” (v. 18) as the passage gives it; there is no need to discuss whose vow it was or what the vow was. Read “although he knew only the baptism of John” (v. 25) as the passage gives it; there is no need to develop it into teaching on baptism, or to pass judgement on Apollos. The weight of this lesson is on verses 24–26; read verses 20–23 as they stand, without turning them into a lesson on Paul’s journeys. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to.
Lesson 3 · My Fellow Workers in Christ JesusRom 16:3-5
Focus 1 (vv. 3–5): Paul greets them as “my fellow workers in Christ Jesus”, who “risked their own necks for my life”, and greets “the assembly that is in their house.” Ask the group: reading these three verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 3 and verse 4 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of someone who has worked alongside them and helped them, prays for this person this week, and writes a few lines to thank them. This does not need to be shared in the group.
Leader tip: What “risked their own necks for my life” (v. 4) refers to the passage does not say; there is no need to guess, or to connect it with events elsewhere in Acts. Whether they later went back to Rome, and in which city “the assembly that is in their house” (v. 5) met, the passage does not say; there is no need to guess. Read “the assembly that is in their house” as the passage gives it; there is no need to turn it into a discussion of church order or house churches. Someone in the group may live where it is hard to welcome people; question 9 asks ‘in whose home’, and there is no need to ask who opened their home. In verse 3 Prisca’s name comes first; read it as the passage gives it, with no need to explain it. Read the second half of verse 5, about Epaenetus, as the passage gives it; there is no need to develop it. Don’t press on question 9; only those who want to share need to. Question 10 looks back over the three lessons; allow ten minutes for it.
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.