Running a study

A session is one meeting. That is the only unit a study uses, which is what lets a group meet every other Tuesday, or twice a week, or on a rhythm that skips a month.

Each session holds one or more chapters, and the material travels with the chapter rather than with the session. So if you do not get through everything, moving a chapter to the next meeting takes its questions along with it. Nothing is lost and nothing needs rewriting.

Go to Studies and tap the + button. The form reveals itself a step at a time, so you are never looking at more than the next decision.

1. 1Name it. A title is all that is required. Everything else can wait.
2. 2What are you studying? Choose a book of the Bible and pick it from the list, which shows what each book is about and who it suits. Or choose something else and say how many sessions you want.
3. 3When do you meet? Tap your meeting days, then say how often each one comes around (see Meetings & RSVPs).
4. 4Which chapters, and how fast? The whole book is selected by default. Set chapters per session and the plan lays itself out, with the finish date shown as you change it.
5. 5Content. Every chapter arrives prefilled. Read it, change anything you like, or leave it alone.
6. 6Publish. Add any links, tick set as the current study if it starts now, and create it. Your group is notified.

Step 3 is the whole meeting schedule, and it is the only place it lives. There is no separate settings page to visit afterwards.

1. 1Tap the days you gather on.
2. 2For each day, say how often it comes around: every so many weeks, or particular weeks of the month such as the 2nd and 4th.
3. 3Add the time and place. A meeting can be in person, virtual, or both, so a room and a video link can sit side by side.
4. 4With more than one meeting day, tick same time & place for every meeting, or untick it to set each day separately.

Each day carries its own rhythm, so “every Sunday, and every other Wednesday” is one schedule rather than a workaround.

The rhythm you set is only a suggestion. Underneath it you get the actual dates, on a calendar, and any of them can be moved.

• There is no separate start date. The first meeting is simply the first date on the calendar.
• Tap a day to add it or remove it, whether or not it fits the rhythm, because “we are meeting Saturday that week instead” is an ordinary thing for a group to do.
• Removing a date moves the study a week later rather than dropping a session, so you still cover everything.
• Reset puts the dates back to what the rhythm would have produced.

Under which chapters, tap Pick chapters to choose exactly the ones you want. They do not have to run together, so six psalms scattered through the book is a perfectly good study.

Every chapter of every book carries the same five things, written to describe the chapter and nothing else:

• A short overview of what happens and why it sits where it does.
• Three reading review questions, about what the chapter actually says.
• Three life application questions.
• Three key takeaways.
• Two or three key verses, with the text already filled in and a note on why that verse carries the chapter.

Edits you make are your group’s own copy. They change nothing for any other group, and you can undo any change back to the original.

• Home shows the next meeting and a question from the current session, which changes daily and can be answered right there.
• Every session has its own discussion thread.
• Members can set a preferred Bible translation in their profile, and reading links open in it automatically.

• Members RSVP going, maybe, or can’t, and everyone sees the count.
• Anyone can add the meeting to their calendar with one tap (“Add to calendar”).
• As a leader, take attendance for a meeting, including a guest who came along, whom you can later invite to join.
• Right below attendance, tick off what we covered (see After a meeting).

Open the study and tap Edit. Everything is editable: the title, the schedule, which chapters sit in which session, and the content itself. Nothing already discussed is disturbed.