Summary

Jesus’ eight Beatitudes are programmatic for the Christian life, and any attentive study to their content will bear fruit in the believer’s walk. These nine studies will lead a group in reflection on each of the eight Beatitudes in turn, after opening with a brief study of the word ‘blessing.’ Each lesson contains basic discussion questions, followed by some ‘deeper reading’ questions, and the recommendation of a spiritual practice.

How Best to Use These Studies:

Naturally, every homegroup leader will need to tailor these studies to fit the needs of a particular group, but here are some suggestions to help you get started:

1. You could read the lesson aloud to the group, then work through one or more of the basic discussion questions.
   
2. You could ask the group to read the lesson on their own (either at the gathering, or beforehand), and to bring their reflections on the basic questions to the meeting for discussion. If you choose this option, it would be a good idea to prepare a short summary of the lesson yourself ahead of time. Alternatively, you could begin the meeting by asking your attendees to summarize the lesson.
   
   NB: Remember, there’s no prize for getting through all the questions. If one week you have a great discussion that only addresses one question, that’s great! Other weeks you might blaze through all three.
   
3. Each lesson contains a section labelled ‘Some Deeper Questions.’ These questions will require more reading, more reflecting, and more preparation on the part of a leader. I expect you will find it much easier to engage with these questions if you choose option #2 above, but you’ll want to make a decision based on the capacities of your group. The questions aren’t there to stress you out, but rather to give you an opportunity to dig deeper if that’s right for your group.