How to lead a Bible study.

For a new group, a single book of the Bible read chapter by chapter is the simplest place to start: everyone knows where you are, and nobody has to buy anything. Shorter books suit a first study. Mark, James, Philippians, Ruth, and Jonah each run between four and sixteen chapters.

If your group would rather follow a topic or a published curriculum, that works too. What matters is that everyone knows what to read before the next meeting.

1. 1Read the chapter twiceOnce straight through, then again slowly, noticing what surprises you, what repeats, and what you would ask the author.
2. 2Know what it is aboutSay in a sentence or two what the chapter actually says. If you can, that sentence is your plan for the meeting.
3. 3Pick your questionsThree questions about what the text says, then three about where it lands in your own lives. Write them down in that order.
4. 4Choose a verse or twoPick the verses that carry the chapter, and plan to read them aloud when the conversation needs an anchor.

Every chapter in the Kingdom Groups study library has this done already: an overview, three reading review questions, three life application questions, takeaways, and key verses, free to read and print.

1. 1Open simplyA few minutes of catching up, then a short prayer. Do not let catching up eat the hour.
2. 2Read the passage aloudEven if everyone read it at home. Hearing it together puts everyone in the same place.
3. 3Start with what it saysAsk the reading questions first. People answer more freely when the first question has an answer on the page.
4. 4Then ask where it landsMove to application once the group has the text in view. Go first if nobody does, and keep your answer honest and short.
5. 5Close with prayerGather requests, pray, and say what you will read for next time.

• Silence: wait longer than feels comfortable. Count to ten before you rephrase. Someone is usually thinking.
• One person talking the whole time: thank them, then ask the room, "What did others notice?" or call on someone by name with an easy question.
• A tangent: ask, "Where do you see that in this chapter?" It brings the conversation back to the text without shutting anyone down.
• A question you cannot answer: say so, and offer to look into it before the next meeting. Nobody expects the leader to know everything.
• A debate between traditions: point back to what the text plainly says and move on. A good study question should not need the group to settle a doctrinal argument.

Groups drift between meetings, not during them. Send the reading for next time, follow up on prayer requests, and notice who has missed a few weeks so you can check in. A short question about the chapter midweek keeps people in the text.

Kingdom Groups does this in one place: the study plans itself across your meetings, members RSVP and you take attendance in a tap, the prayer board keeps its updates, and a daily study question goes to the group chat.