Living the Lord's Prayer · Leader's Guide

Leading a group through the Lord’s Prayer

This guide is for anyone leading a small group through Living the Lord’s Prayer. It follows the book’s own study guide: thirteen weeks, one chapter at a time, with the same rhythm every week. Read Together, Process, and So What?

The study is built for a mixed table. Longtime members, brand-new believers, and honest skeptics can sit in the same circle, and every question is written so that anyone can answer it, whatever they believe so far.

Each session below gives you the Scripture to read together, the big idea, a warm-up question, the book’s discussion questions, and one small step for the week. Take what fits your group.

Before you start

• You don’t need all the answers. “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” builds more faith than a bluff.
• Read the chapter aloud together. Begin each meeting by reading the week’s chapter out loud, rotating readers, or by watching the video podcast of the chapter if one is available. Reading ahead is great, but nobody gets left behind for arriving unprepared.
• Nobody is required to read aloud or pray. “I’m just listening tonight” is always honored.
• So What? questions are answered honestly, never forced. That is personal application, and it only works when it is freely given.
• Watch the clock on Process. Never skip So What or squeeze out the prayer. Those are where the book becomes a life.
• Skeptical questions are welcome. An honest doubt at the table is better than polite distance.

A 90-minute gathering

Thirteen-week plan

Twenty minutes of reading followed by forty minutes of discussion is a great minimum. Ninety minutes total is better, especially with unhurried time at the end to pray for each other by name.

Session by session

Session 1: One prayer, five contexts

Read: Preface and Introduction, “One Prayer” · Open with: Matthew 6:5–15

The big idea: Jesus answered the biggest question — how do we approach God? — with sixty words. Our church walks them as a path.

To open: When is the first time you remember hearing the Lord’s Prayer, and where were you?

1. What has been your experience with prayer — in childhood, in crisis, or not at all? What did you assume prayer was for?
2. Read the Lord’s Prayer slowly, out loud. What surprises you about what it includes — or what it leaves out?
3. The introduction calls the prayer “the most compact description ever given of a whole human life aimed in the right direction.” Which petition feels most relevant to your life right now, and why?
4. So what? Look at the five contexts: Worship, Group, Serve, Covenant, Invest. Which of them are already part of your life today — and which is missing?
5. So what? What would you like to be true of you by the end of this thirteen-week study? Tell the group; let them pray toward it.

This week: Pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly once a day this week, pausing after each line. Notice which line you are most tempted to rush past.

Session 2: A Father who paid the bill

Read: Chapter 1, “The Prayer Jesus Taught” · Open with: Luke 15:11–24

The big idea: God is not a distant force or an angry judge. He is a Father — holy and loving — who paid our bill at the cross and adopts us as His children.

To open: When you were a kid, who was the grown-up you ran to when something went wrong?

1. “Father” is the prayer’s first word. What does that word stir up for you — good, painful, or both? How does the chapter handle those with father wounds?
2. The chapter uses two garage pictures: the diagnostic (God’s law showing the fault codes) and the bill that was paid (the cross). Which is harder for you to accept — that something is genuinely wrong in us, or that someone else settled the account? Why?
3. In Luke 15, what does the father do that no dignified man of that culture would do? What did the son expect, and what did he get instead?
4. So what? The “Our Stories” section says we don’t start with our lives put together — we start broken. Where do you see that in your own story?
5. So what? The chapter ends with an invitation to talk to the Father in your own words. Have you ever? If you were to tonight, what would you honestly say?

This week: Talk to the Father in your own words at least once this week, even for a minute. If you don’t know what to say, borrow the book’s words: “Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Show me who You really are. Help me trust You through Jesus.”

Session 3: Everybody hallows something

Read: Chapter 2, “Treasuring God” · Open with: Matthew 6:19–24

The big idea: Everybody hallows something. The substitutes wear off; God is better — a baseline betterment, not another temporary high.

To open: What is something you saved up for or waited a long time to get? How long did the thrill last?

1. One elder named his former treasures: partying, entertainment, approval, tech toys. What would be on your list? How can you tell when something you enjoy has quietly become something you worship?
2. “Not that I stopped liking them, but my worship of them died.” What’s the difference between enjoying a gift and serving a god? Can you give an example from your own life?
3. Jesus says your heart follows your treasure (v. 21). What do your time, money, and daydreams say your treasure currently is?
4. So what? Where do you tend to chase “the next high”? What would “baseline betterment” look like in an ordinary week of your life?
5. So what? Try the chapter’s daily prayer this week: “God, be big in my thoughts today. Be precious in my decisions.” Report back next week on what, if anything, shifted.

This week: Pick one good gift you enjoy (a team, a show, a hobby) and thank God for it out loud the next time you enjoy it. Gifts stay good when they stay gifts.

Session 4: No solo Christianity

Read: Chapter 3, “Why We Gather” · Open with: Hebrews 10:19–25

The big idea: There is no solo Christianity. Every week the people of God gather around the Word and the Table — and the gathering quietly forms us.

To open: What is a meal or gathering you look forward to every year, and what makes it worth showing up for?

1. What has kept you — or people you love — away from church gatherings? Which of those reasons does this chapter actually answer, and which still stand?
2. The chapter claims the most isolated among us are the most likely to hold a false picture of God. Do you agree? How does isolation bend a person’s view of God?
3. Why do you think our church refuses to livestream Table time? What is lost when church becomes something you watch?
4. So what? What’s your honest posture on a Sunday morning: performer, spectator, or family member? What would move you one seat closer to family?
5. So what? One elder was carried by the church on a Sunday when his whole life was burning him out. Who might be “going under” near you right now — and what would it look like to come around them this week?

This week: Be in worship in person this Sunday and stay for the whole morning, Word and Table. If you are already there every week, learn the name of one person you don’t know yet.

Session 5: Your will, not mine

Read: Chapter 4, “Your Kingdom Come” · Open with: Luke 22:39–46

The big idea: The kingdom is God’s reign breaking into a world that isn’t supposed to be like this — and “your will be done” is the hardest, best sentence a person can pray.

To open: Tell us about a plan of yours that got changed on you. Did it turn out better or worse?

1. Where do you most feel “it’s not supposed to be like this” — in the world, or in your own life? What does the chapter say that feeling points to?
2. The kingdom is “already and not yet.” How does knowing the ending change how a person lives in an unfinished story?
3. In Gethsemane, Jesus prays “not my will, but yours” while sweating blood. What do you notice about how He got that sentence out? What made surrender possible?
4. So what? Where are your plans and God’s will currently colliding? What would “your will be done” actually cost you there?
5. So what? One elder said surrender was hard at the start, “but the people around us made it easier.” Who makes obedience easier for you — and who are you making it easier for?

This week: Each morning this week, before you pray about your own needs, pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done” over one specific plan on your calendar.

Session 6: Circles, not rows

Read: Chapter 5, “Why Circles Beat Rows” · Open with: 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12

The big idea: Rows form audiences; circles form family. You’re not mainly in a group to get — you’re a fountain, made to give yourself.

To open: Think of a table where you felt truly known: a family dinner, a break room, a team. What made it that way?

1. Rows and circles: where have you experienced each? What did each one produce in you?
2. Paul shared “not only the gospel of God but also our own selves.” What keeps you from sharing your actual self in a group — warts, doubts, and all?
3. The chapter says a believer who only ever receives goes stagnant like a stopped-up spring. Have you seen that happen — in yourself or someone else?
4. So what? What have you been holding back from this group that you could give — a question, a story, a meal, a hard truth, a prayer with someone’s name in it?
5. So what? If you’re not yet committed to a group weekly, what would that commitment actually require of your calendar — and what’s the real obstacle?

This week: Give one thing to someone in this group before you meet again: a text to check in, a meal, or a prayer that uses their name.

Session 7: Our daily bread

Read: Chapter 6, “Daily Bread” · Open with: Exodus 16:13–21

The big idea: God cares about ordinary needs and teaches daily dependence — and because we pray for our bread, other people’s needs become our business.

To open: Tell us about a time a car, or something like it, broke down on you at the worst possible moment.

1. Why do you think God fed Israel one day at a time instead of a month at a time? What was the manna teaching them — and what does our culture teach instead?
2. What’s your version of the self-sufficiency illusion? Has anything ever punctured it?
3. “God’s normal delivery system for bread is people.” Where have you seen that work — in either direction?
4. So what? What need within your reach could you be the delivery for this week? Be specific: a name, a date, an action.
5. So what? One elder said receiving help after his accident was “sobering.” Which is harder for you — giving help or receiving it? What does that reveal?

This week: Pray “Give us this day our daily bread” every day this week, and each time, name one neighbor whose need is inside that “us.”

Session 8: Worship with a wrench

Read: Chapter 7, “Worship with a Wrench” · Open with: John 13:1–17

The big idea: Serving is worship: love received from a God who got His hands dirty, passed along with interest — and the gospel travels across real friendships.

To open: What is a practical skill you have that you have never thought of as spiritual?

1. Jesus — knowing He came from God and was returning to God — picked up the lowest servant’s towel. What does that do to your picture of God? Of greatness?
2. People can tell within minutes whether they’re a person or a project. What’s the difference between serving with someone and serving at them?
3. When the elder gets asked “why do you people do this?”, his answer is paying grace forward — “it’s what neighbors do.” If someone asked you that question while you served, what would you honestly say today?
4. So what? What skill or gift do you have — even one that seems unspiritual — that could meet a practical need? (Remember: the Garage needs coffee-pourers as much as mechanics.)
5. So what? Make it concrete: what would serving regularly with one of our ministry interest groups look like for you this season?

This week: Pick one serving team and show up once before the month is out. Hold the flashlight, pour the coffee, learn a name.

Session 9: Forgiven people forgive

Read: Chapter 8, “Forgiven People Forgive” · Open with: Matthew 18:21–35

The big idea: The only petition with a condition attached: people who have been released release others — and that takes commitment deep enough to stay in the room.

To open: Think of something broken that got fixed and ended up stronger than before. What was it?

1. Why do you think Jesus attached our forgiving to this prayer — the only petition with a catch? What does stubborn unforgiveness reveal about what we’ve understood?
2. Sit with the parable’s math: a debt of millions forgiven, then a chokehold over pocket change. Where does that comparison land on you?
3. The chapter separates forgiveness from reconciliation and from trust. Why do those distinctions matter — especially for someone who has been badly hurt?
4. So what? Whose debt are you still charging interest on? What would releasing it — which takes only you — look like this month?
5. So what? The elder’s three questions before walking away from any relationship or church: Did I cause this? Can I help solve it? Or am I leaving because I didn’t get my way? Is there a place in your life where you need to sit with those?

This week: Pray “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” each day this week with one specific name in mind.

Session 10: Partnership, not privileges

Read: Chapter 9, “On the Same Team” · Open with: Romans 12:3–13

The big idea: Membership isn’t privileges — it’s partnership. A covenant closes the exits so relationships can finally bear weight.

To open: What membership card is in your wallet right now, and what do you get for it?

1. “Membership has its privileges” versus “we’re on the same team”: how does that flip change what someone should expect from a church — and what a church should expect from them?
2. Read a few promises from our covenant (Appendix B) out loud. Which feels most countercultural to you? Which would cost you most to keep?
3. Why does our church make covenant membership the gate to leadership? What would be lost if it didn’t?
4. So what? On the line from consumer to contributor, where are you — honestly?
5. So what? If you’re not yet a covenant member: what’s actually holding you back, and is it a reason or a fear? If you are: which covenant promise most needs renewing in your life right now?

This week: Read the church covenant in Appendix B once through at home and mark the one promise you most need to keep this week. Then keep it.

Session 11: Log before speck

Read: Chapter 10, “The Battle Is Inside” · Open with: Romans 8:1–13

The big idea: Log before speck: the primary battle line runs through our own hearts, and we overcome by the Spirit — never alone.

To open: What small, ordinary distraction eats more of your week than you would like?

1. Where is it easiest for you to point at evil “out there”? What changes — in you, and in how you treat people — when the battle line moves inside?
2. Romans 8 says both “no condemnation” (v. 1) and “put to death the deeds of the body” (v. 13). How do those fit together? What happens when a person holds only one of them?
3. Walk through the elder’s motorcycle moment — see it, name it, answer sin’s promise with a better one. Now pick a temptation you actually face and run it through the same three moves.
4. So what? Who actually knows about your battles — not vaguely, but by name? If the answer is nobody, what’s one safe step toward the light this week?
5. So what? Choose one verse to memorize as a carried promise for your most persistent temptation. Share which one with the group next week.

This week: When a temptation shows up this week, try the three moves out loud, right where you are: see it, name it, and answer it with a better promise.

Session 12: Maturity is making disciples

Read: Chapter 11, “Invest in Someone” · Open with: 2 Timothy 2:1–7

The big idea: Maturity is a disciple making disciples. The bar is intention, not scale — and leaders never stop being led.

To open: Who taught you how to do something practical, like drive, cook, or fix something?

1. Trace your chain: who invested in you, even imperfectly? Who invested in them? Say the names out loud — the chain deserves it.
2. “Character, not competence” — and F.A.T.: Flexible, Available, Teachable. Which of the three is your growth edge, and how do the people close to you experience that?
3. Every week our elders ask the man in the chair, “Any unconfessed sin?” What does that kind of leadership culture make possible in a church? What does its absence make possible?
4. So what? Name one person you could intentionally invest in — or, if you’re newer to all this, one person you could ask to invest in you. What’s the first concrete step, and when?
5. So what? Is leading stirring in you? What would attending Leadership Training cost you — and what might it multiply?

This week: Send one message this week: either “Would you meet with me?” or “I’d like to meet with you.”

Session 13: Your next step

Read: Conclusion, “Your First Step” · Open with: Philippians 1:3–11

The big idea: One prayer, walked — and a partnership in the gospel. The study ends the way the book does: with your next step.

To open: Of everything we have talked about in thirteen weeks, what one line has stuck with you?

1. Read the whole Lord’s Prayer aloud together, one petition per person, slowly. After thirteen weeks, which petition has changed most for you — and how?
2. The conclusion opens with our youngest elder’s story. Where does his path mirror yours? Where doesn’t it — yet?
3. “Our church has an agenda for you.” How does it strike you that a church would say that out loud? What’s the difference between an agenda for you and an agenda to use you?
4. So what? The book’s final question is also this study’s: what is your next step — and when, specifically, will you take it? Tell the group, and let them hold you to it.
5. So what? Who will you hand this book to? Pray for that person by name — then close by speaking the benediction over one another, the way we do every Sunday.

This week: Take your next step this week, not someday. Then put this book in the hands of the person you prayed for.

A note for leaders

The book describes a normal group night plainly: often food, always catching up, an open Bible, honest discussion where questions are genuinely welcome (including skeptical ones), and prayer for each other. Nobody is forced to read aloud, pray aloud, or answer anything. Tell a first-timer to come twice before deciding. The first visit anywhere is always weird.

Groups are not a side program. The book calls them the place where most of the actual discipleship happens, and it asks people not just to attend a group but to give themselves to one. Model that. Bring your real questions and your real self, and look for what you can give: a listening ear, a hot meal, a hard question, a prayer that uses somebody’s name.

Leaders never stop being led. If you are leading this group, make sure someone is also investing in you.

Closing the last session

Week 13 ends the way every service at Living Faith ends. Turn to one another and speak the benediction over each other: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26)

Questions are from the Small Group Study Guide (Appendix C) in Living the Lord’s Prayer by Mark Sentell with the Elders of Living Faith Church. The book is available in 1 format on Amazon. marksentell.com/books/living-the-lords-prayer/