Free six-week study · men's small groups

Six weeks.
Six rungs.

A complete small-group study on what God actually entrusted to you — and in what order. Free to use, copy, and print for your whole group.

How to run it

Four to twelve men. Sixty to seventy-five minutes a week. The only rule that matters: real answers. This group fails politely and succeeds honestly.

Week One

The Estate Is Not Yours

Read aloud: Luke 16:10–12 · Genesis 2:15 · 1 Corinthians 4:2

You've been managing assets you don't own. The Bible's word for what you are is oikonomos — a household steward with full authority over everything and ownership of nothing. And there's exactly one metric: found faithful.

  1. Describe your version of the January notebook — how have you tried to organize your life, and how did it go?
  2. Which of your "accounts" quietly got the leftovers this past year? Be specific.
  3. What changes if you genuinely don't own any of it — your time, your marriage, your body, your income?
  4. "Faithful, not successful" — where does that distinction land hardest for you?

This weekDraw the six rungs from memory before you leave the room, then fill in nothing else. Just carry the order around for a week: Abide, Covenant, Legacy, Vessel, Provision, Overflow.

Week Two

Abide — the entrusted Presence

Read aloud: John 15:1–11

Not a category alongside the others — the trunk the whole ladder is bolted to. "Apart from me you can do nothing" isn't harder. It's nothing. And a branch on the ground stays green a surprisingly long time.

  1. What actually gets your first attention most mornings? No spiritual answers — the real one.
  2. Describe a "stored sap" season you've lived. How long before the browning showed, and where did it show first?
  3. Why do you think this rung fails without any immediate consequence, when every other rung protests?
  4. What's the difference between abiding and just doing a devotional?

This weekOne daily Abide rhythm, sized for your worst week — not your best. Word and prayer before the phone. Text the group when you've done it three days running.

Week Three

Covenant & Legacy — the vow and the generation

Read aloud: Ephesians 5:25–33 · Deuteronomy 6:4–9 · Psalm 127:3

Someone gets cheated of your time every week — the only question is whom. Work punishes cheating instantly; a wife absorbs it graciously for years. So cheat downward, never upward. And remember what the kids actually inherit: the marriage, not the intentions.

  1. Who got cheated last week — and was it upward or downward on the ladder?
  2. Why do you think Covenant is ranked above children? Does that sit right with you or not?
  3. "Your children will inherit your rhythms, not your intentions." Which rhythm of yours would you not want inherited?
  4. What would your wife say is the single thing she most wishes you'd protect?

This weekTen undistracted minutes daily. One one-on-one with each child. And if you're married, ask her once: "Where did I cheat you this week?" — then don't defend the answer. Report back.

Week Four

Vessel & Provision — the body and the capital

Read aloud: 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 · Matthew 25:14–30 · 1 Timothy 5:8

Health outranks career because the harvest runs through the tractor. And notice what condemned the third servant: not fraud, not loss — burial. Fear-driven passivity is the one strategy the Master calls wicked.

  1. Vessel above Provision — argue against it, then argue for it. Which argument is stronger?
  2. Which are you living: vanity, or neglect wearing a cape ("I'm burning out for the kingdom")?
  3. Where's your work right now — buried talent, faithful trading, or metastasized into the rungs above it?
  4. Over-provision is the most socially rewarded failure on this ladder. Who in your life would actually tell you if you were doing it?

This weekDefend a bedtime five nights running. Do one honest finance review — fifteen minutes, accounts actually open. Both, not one.

Week Five

Overflow — the entrusted surplus

Read aloud: Ezekiel 34:1–10, then John 15:8

Service ranks last — not because it matters least, but because it must be funded. When ministry sits first, it becomes the one socially unimpeachable way a man abandons his marriage, his body, and his prayer life while collecting applause.

  1. Go around the room, and answer honestly: is any of your current serving a hiding place? From which rung?
  2. Look at Ezekiel 34 again — those shepherds weren't fed either. What does that tell you about how burnout actually works?
  3. What would change about your serving if you needed nothing back from the people you serve?
  4. What is the one thing you should say no to before the next season starts?

This weekFill in your full one-page ladder — all six rungs, all three cadences. Bring the finished page next week. And book your first quarterly audit date; say it out loud to the group.

Week Six

Collisions, Repair, and the Joy

Read aloud: Matthew 25:19–23 · 1 Peter 4:12

Rhythms flex by season; the order doesn't. And the reckoning doesn't end in a performance review — it ends in an invitation: enter into the joy of your master.

  1. Show your page. What surprised you when you filled it in?
  2. Which rung is your most likely inversion under pressure — and what will this group be allowed to ask you about it?
  3. If a rung is already broken: what would "get help, and call it stewardship" mean for you this month?
  4. What's the one thing from six weeks that you don't want to lose?

Before you closePray Matthew 25:21 over each man by name — that he would be found faithful, and enter into the joy. Then set the date to reconvene: your first quarterly audit week, ninety days out. The group that audits together holds together.

Running this with your men?

Get the One-Page Stewardship Ladder your group fills in across the six weeks, plus the quarterly audit worksheet. Free — print as many as you need.

Want the launch night taught live or by video? Ask about a date. Planning a retreat instead? Grab the retreat schedule template.