Hidden Seasons
For leaders · Read together
Team Discussion Guide
For staff, elders or small-group leaders reading the book together. The five sessions match the five weeks of the series, and the last includes the book's chapters on shepherding others. Read before you meet, and let quieter people answer first.
Session 1
The misunderstood season
Read: Chapters 1–3
What you call stagnation, God may call preparation.
God is not primarily developing your visibility. He is developing your depth.
- How does our church usually talk about seasons when nothing seems to be happening?
- Where have we, as leaders, mistaken formation for failure?
- What would change if we taught people to ask “What is God forming in me right now?”
Session 2
Obscurity and delay
Read: Chapters 4–5
The person God calls is rarely the same person He sends.
Anointing reveals calling. It does not establish timing.
- Who in our church has a real calling but is still in a season of waiting?
- How do we honor calling without rushing people into roles before they are formed?
- Where are we as a team tempted to seize what God has promised?
Session 3
Contradiction and isolation
Read: Chapters 6–7
What appears to contradict the promise may be preparing you to sustain it.
Public authority is built in private dependence.
- How can we speak about God's purposes in suffering without excusing real injustice?
- Who in our church feels isolated right now, and who is walking with them?
- What does private dependence on God look like for each of us this month?
Session 4
Formed before revealed
Read: Chapters 8–10
The wilderness does not make the message. It prepares the messenger.
If Jesus was formed in hiddenness, no servant is exempt.
God is not preparing your platform. He is preparing your person.
- Do our systems reward visibility more than formation?
- Which unseen roles in our church most need to be honored?
- What is God forming in each of us that no platform could give?
Session 5
Shepherding and coming out formed
Read: Chapters 11–16
Gifting may open the door, but character determines how long it stays open.
The way a season is named determines how it is navigated.
Do not try to fix what God is forming.
Maturity responds. Immaturity strives.
- How do we recognize when someone in our care is in a hidden season, not simply drifting?
- Where are we tempted to fix what God is forming in someone?
- Which of our leaders is in a hidden season right now, and how will we help them survive it?
- What will we look back on three months after the series to see what has changed?