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 · I Am He, the One Who Speaks to YouJohn 4:3-26
Focus 1 (vv. 25–26): She said, “When he has come, he will declare to us all things”; Jesus said, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.” 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 6–7 and verse 23 — 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 a question about God that they have carried for a long time, and tells Jesus about it just as it is this week. Next time, anyone who wants to can share; no one has to.
Leader tip: Read verses 16–18 as the passage gives them: the passage does not say how she came to have five husbands, so there is no need to guess, or to judge her; no words of rebuke follow what Jesus says, and there is no need to supply any. This lesson is not about marriage; someone in the group may be divorced, remarried, widowed, or living with a partner, and there is no need to ask anyone about their own marriage. “It was about the sixth hour” (v. 6) is only the time of day; there is no need to guess why she came to draw water then. “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (v. 9) is about the two peoples; there is no need to turn it into her being looked down on as a person. Read ‘living water’ (v. 10) as the passage gives it, with no need to explain what it is; if someone in the group asks, they can be pointed to John 7:37-39 to read for themselves, and this lesson does not go into it. Read verses 20–24 as the passage gives them, with no need to discuss places, forms of worship, or denominations; which mountain ‘this mountain’ (v. 20) is the passage does not say, and there is no need to work it out. Read verse 26 as the passage gives it, with no need to discuss the original language. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 28–30, 39–42): She left her water pot, went into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done”; many first believed “because of the word of the woman,” and later they said, “we have heard for ourselves.” 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 34 and verse 40 — 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 the person whose words first brought them to know Jesus, prays for this person this week, and writes a few lines if they can still reach them. This does not need to be shared in the group.
Leader tip: Read the disciples’ marvelling (v. 27) as the passage gives it; there is no need to guess what the disciples thought of her. Read “the woman left her water pot” (v. 28) as the passage gives it, with no need to turn it into a picture of leaving something behind. Read ‘testified’ (v. 39) as the passage gives it; there is no need to call her the first woman preacher or the first missionary, or to use her in a discussion of whether women may preach. Read verses 31–38 briefly, as the passage gives them; there is no need to turn them into a method of evangelism, or to press the group to go and evangelize; nor is there any need to work out a season from “There are yet four months until the harvest” (v. 35). Read “not because of your speaking” (v. 42) as the passage gives it; there is no need to say that the people of the city looked down on her, or that her witness was not enough; the passage says that first they believed because of her word, and then many more believed because of his word. This lesson reads John’s Gospel only; there is no need to connect it with Samaritans elsewhere in the Gospels. Don’t press on question 9; only those who want to share need to. Question 10 looks back over the two 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.