Six-Week Program
Week 5 Group Meeting: An Easier Kind of Change
Leader Guide
Meeting notes & overview
This meeting invites participants to share their experience of “An Easier Kind of Change” in a reflective, open, honest way. The goal is not perfection, but awareness—becoming more attentive to what has been happening in both their outward and inward lives.
As people share, some may speak easily, while others may be more reserved. Everyone is welcome. Creating a space of attentiveness, respect, and openness to all is central to this gathering.
Your role in this meeting is not to guide people to conclusions, but to help create a space where honest sharing can happen.
A calm, attentive presence—along with simple encouragement—is often more powerful than many words.
Time allotments are based on a one-hour meeting and can be adjusted as needed.
Opening activities (approx. 15 minutes)
Opening prayer
Open with a brief prayer, or invite someone else to offer one.
Readings
Read the following aloud, or invite one or two attendees to do so.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30)
Active repentance is extremely difficult to practice, for a number of reasons…. Therefore, here is an easier kind of repentance: When we are considering doing something evil, and are forming an intention to do it, we say to ourselves, “I am thinking about this, and I am intending to do it, but because it is a sin, I’m not going to do it.” Doing this counteracts the enticement that hell is injecting into us and keeps it from making further inroads. (Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity, paragraph 535)
Check-in
Invite each person to share a highlight of their day or week, or an opening comment.
To keep the process moving, each person should share only a sentence or two.
During this time, the group simply listens without comment or discussion, though as the leader, you may allow some flexibility.
After each person shares, respond with “Thank you” before moving on.
If the group has more than eight participants, consider breaking into smaller groups of four to eight.
Group business
Share any announcements or decisions that need attention.
If there is nothing to address, skip this portion. Like Check-in, it should move quickly.
Task for this meeting
Read the following aloud:
This past week, your task has been to practice the “Easier Kind of Change.”
You were asked to read Section C of the Sourcebook, which explains this practice, and to begin putting it into action.
Whenever you noticed yourself thinking about doing something harmful or destructive—something other than the primary sin you’ve been working on in the BNL process—you were to say these words to yourself, and mean them:
“I am thinking about this and intending to do it, but because it’s a sin, I’m not going to do it.”
Pause here and invite any questions before moving into group sharing.
Group sharing (approx. 30 minutes)
Transition by saying something like:
“Let’s take some time to share about your experience of the easier kind of change.Begin the sharing by asking:
“What was your experience of Step 1?”Allow sharing to unfold naturally, giving space for each person to respond as they feel led. If needed, use any of the following questions to encourage further reflection and sharing.
As you moved through the past week, what was your experience of other forms of evil trying to work their way into your heart or mind? How often did they show up? In what kinds of situations? Were there specific triggers? How did you feel about them showing up?
How effective did you find the easier kind of change in holding off these additional forms of evil? How quickly did you feel a difference, and how fully did you experience it?
Were there times when the easier kind of change seemed more effective, and other times when it felt less so? If so, what seemed to make the difference?
When you noticed the easier kind of change wasn’t as effective, what did you do? And what impact did that have?
At this point, you’ve been working with two responses to sin—one used at the end of the full BNL process, and one used in the moment as part of the easier kind of change. Those responses are:
“I do not want this—or more deliberately, ‘I do not will this’—because it’s a sin against God.”
“I am thinking about this, and I’m intending to do it, but because it’s a sin, I’m not going to do it.”
Since the two responses sound quite similar, you might wonder why the full four-step process is needed at all. Why not just rely on the easier kind of change? With that in mind, how would you describe your experience of the full four-step approach compared to the easier kind of change? What does each one seem to do in your life—what place does each one hold? Do they serve different purposes, or do they feel essentially the same?
What was it like to use these two responses side by side in your spiritual work this past week?
During the week, were there times when any “additional” evils came forward and you found yourself acting on them? If so, did it occur to you afterward—after you had acted—to say the words of the easier kind of change in relation to those evils? What effect, if any, did that have? What do you make of that experience?
Closure (approx. 15 minutes)
Task for the next meeting
Read the following aloud:
Your task for the coming week is to do the following:
Use a new set of worksheets and go through all four steps of the BNL process for your chosen issue.
Come to the final meeting prepared for the following:
A final time of sharing about your experience with the BNL process.
Holy Communion—a unique, symbolic ritual of life change and spiritual transformation.
Closure for the six-week program.
Leader for the next meeting
If your group shares leadership, take a moment to decide who will lead the next meeting.
Closing comments
Invite each person to share a brief closing comment.
This is not a time for further sharing—just a simple word or brief reflection.
It’s a time to listen, without comment or discussion.
After each person shares, respond, “Thank you,” before moving on.
If the group is larger than eight, consider breaking into smaller groups of four to eight.
Closing prayer
Invite the group to say the Lord’s Prayer together.