Embracing Joy Introduction for Bible Study Group Leaders

If you're about to lead a Bible study group through Embracing Joy, this is the episode for you. I'll share a brief overview of Embracing Joy and tips for leading your group well, including how to kick off your first meeting. 

For more information on the Embracing Joy, listen to "Are You About to Study Embracing Joy? (Bible Study Introduction")

Get your copy of Embracing Joy on ⁠Amazon⁠ or ⁠Our Daily Bread Publishing⁠.

Visit my website for more ⁠Embracing Joy resources⁠.

For more resources for studying the Bible, visit JeanWilund.com

If you want information about studying or purchasing my books visit my website for more information on Embracing Joy and Ease into the Bible:

Embracing Joy: An 8-Week Transformational Bible Study of Habakkuk

Ease into the Bible: How to Wade into the Water of God's Word with Confidence

Transcript

Are you about to lead a Bible study group through Embracing Joy?

I’m Jean Wilund but It’s All About Him! Welcome to a fun place to get serious about Bible study—and to learn more about my Bible study, Embracing Joy: An 8-Week Transformational Bible study of Habakkuk.

If you’ve decided to lead a group through my study Embracing Joy, first let me say “Thank you!” Thank you for believing in the study enough to share it with your ladies.

I trust that it will truly be transformational. And I say this, not because I wrote the study, but because in the study we work through the book of Habakkuk, and God’s Word transforms. My words don’t have power. God’s words to His prophet do! 

To help you lead this study, I suggest you listen to my previous episode, entitled “Are you about to study Embracing Joy?

I created this episode to give those who want to study Embracing Joy an overview of how I structured the study and what they can expect from it. 

This episode is for leaders. I’ll share tips with you for leading a group through Embracing Joy. 

As I shared in the previous episode, the study is essentially divided into three parts: the 1st week is for introduction, Weeks 2 through 7 are for deep diving into Habakkuk, and Week 8 is for lingering. I talk about that more in that other episode if you’re wondering what I mean by that.

During the first week, you and your ladies will learn the Transformational Bible Study method we use throughout the study. This method has made a massive difference for me and for so many others who have shared with me their experience of using this method.

To help learn this method and to use it for future studies, I created free worksheets and samples you can download and print from my website: JeanWilund.com. Go to the Embracing Joy tab (under “Books”) to find the downloads. 

One worksheet helps us memorize the eight verses. I’ve made an episode with tips for memorizing the verses, so listen to that one. 

The other worksheets are for the Bible Study method. I also have episodes detailing the method. The free worksheet packet on my website includes a sample of a completed worksheet that shows how I’ve used this method when studying a verse. 

I suggest you practice studying several verses with this method before you meet with your group, if possible, just so you can be familiar with it. If you don’t have time before your first meeting, that’s fine. It’s in the book. And in podcast episodes. 

As the group leader, it’s best for you to be at least a week or two ahead of the ladies so you’re familiar with the material when you meet. The lessons are simple and not time consuming so get as far ahead as possible. 

As the title reveals, this is an 8-week study. But if you don’t have eight weeks available, you can have the ladies work through Weeks 1 and 8 at home. 

Week one is the introduction and background of the book of Habakkuk. It’s all very important information, but they can do that at home. 

Week 8 allows us to marinate in the truths we learned in the book of Habakkuk. I’ve heard it referred to as a “Bonus Bible study” because of how different it is. I believe this lingering time is so important for us so that we don’t rush away and forget the thigs we’ve learned too quickly. But it is something they can do at home if you’re pressed for time. 

I hope you can meet together all eight weeks, but if you only have six, this is a good option. 

I know several Bible studies who actually meet for nine weeks. They meet an extra week so they can come together for a meal and share the most impactful truths they learned through the study and how God has been using Habakkuk in their lives since they began the study. 

Now, as far as kicking off the study, there are two ways I recommend. If you have another idea, I would love to hear it from you so I can share it with others.

The first way is to

1.     Meet together and hand out Embracing Joy (which, by the way, ministries can get a discount on Embracing Joyfrom Our Daily Bread Publishing. Go to their website for more details.) In your first meeting, you can use this time to hand out the study and introduce the study to your group. You can play the Introduction Podcast during the meeting and pass out the worksheets. 

If you’ve had time to study the Transformational Bible Study Method, a great activity for your first meeting would be to practice studying the first Memory Verse (Hab. 2:14) together using this method. All you need is a white board, or everyone can use a blank copy of the worksheet from my website or, honestly, a plain piece of paper works too. They can draw a line down the middle of the paper. Then everyone open up their Bible to Habakkuk 2:14, and read it out loud. Then start calling out the truths that you see God is revealing about Himself (His character, nature, and ways) in Hab. 2:14 as well any the truths about anyone or anything other than God in the passage. I explain the method in detail in Week One of the study. We don’t study Hab. 2:14 in Week One—that comes later in the study— but you and your ladies can study it together in your first meeting if you like. 

2.     Another way to kick off the study is to have the ladies get the book and work through the first week on their own. Then come together for your first official meeting. At the end of each week, I give Discussion Group Questions for you to work through, plus the memory verse to recite. You might enjoy pulling out the white board (or paper) and studying Habakkuk 2:14 during that meeting, and then each week doing the same thing—use the white board or paper to study that week’s memory verse together. It’s fun to work together to pull out the truths God put into His Word and to practice memorizing God’s Word together and studying His Word together. 

As far as memorizing the verses, please, please encourage your ladies to follow through with this valuable discipline. When my mentor led a Bible study, she loved to make us recite our memory verse as we came in the door each week. We had to recite all the previous week’s memory verses, too. If the group was big, she’d tell us to grab a buddy and recite to each other. Then we had to check in and tell her we did do it. I strongly recommend your try this with your group as they arrive each week. Or when you break out into the smaller discussion groups of two to three people, have them recite the verses to each other and all the verses they’ve been learning up to that week. 

Finally, if you or your ladies have any questions, reach out to me on my website, and I’ll do my best to answer them in an Embracing Joy podcast episode. 

Thank you again for being willing to lead a group through Embracing Joy, and I pray that as you and your ladies work through the study, abiding joy and peace will fill your hearts to overflowing as you come to understand and believe the truths God taught Habakkuk. If we’ll trust and respond to these truths like Habakkuk, we will rejoice like he did no matter what we face tomorrow. I’m Jean Wilund. But It’s All About Him!