EXTRA Ideas for Adults—Connecting with Others—Meeting Needs

Date: June 7, 2026

Session Title: Meeting Needs

The Point: Meeting needs is an opportunity to introduce others to Jesus. 

Podcast—Bible Studies for Life: Adults

Find your weekly podcast that helps both leaders and group members dig deeper into the session, offering clarity, insight, and practical guidance you can use right away. Listen now to strengthen your preparation and maximize your group’s time together.

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Additional Teaching Options

Optional teaching ideas that incorporate current news, cultural trends, and real-world illustrations to help your group engage more deeply and view today’s issues through a clear biblical lens.

Getting Started

Read after discussing Getting Started—Question 1:

At the beginning of May, the IMB held their annual Celebration of Emeriti, honoring retiring missionaries. The week-long celebration celebrated the tenure of the missionaries, many of whom had served over thirty years. In between sharing testimonies, the emeriti were asked for advice and encouragement for a new class of missionaries. The advice included being flexible and open to whatever happens.

After serving several years overseas, sharing tips, testimonies, and trials is second nature. Using these stories to help edify the next generation of missionaries is one way to not only meet the needs of new workers, but also eventually meet the needs of people around the world. As each new missionary is called to their new home, they have had their own needs met and been equipped to serve on the mission field. With each person they help, it’s another opportunity to share the gospel with those around them.

Even if you’re not called overseas, you have a mission field in your community. And meeting the needs of those around you is a great way to open doors to gospel sharing.

To learn more about this article, visit IMB.org and search “New IMB emeriti offer guidance to fuel next generation of missionaries.”

Study the Bible (Option for Adult Leader Guide)

In advance, play a song that describes the importance of meeting people’s needs so they will know we love them and love Jesus. Spend a few moments worshiping the Lord together.

Study the Bible (Option for Adult Leader Guide)

Read after discussing Study the Bible—Question 4:

Lauren Hou grew up overseas as a child of missionaries and didn’t feel at home in the states when she returned for college. She’d originally planned on moving back overseas as soon as possible, but God had other plans. During a women’s retreat, Hou was convicted because she wanted to move for comfort, not to share the gospel. God used the twelve years she was in the states to equip her for missions and taught her how to be part of a community.

Hou is now a missionary in Tokyo, where building relationships is slow going. Her time in the states taught her how to take time to build relationships so she can more effectively share the gospel in her new community.

Even though Hou already had experience with missionary life, God had more preparation for His ultimate plan. Without her decade of community experience with college and seminary, she wouldn’t have been as prepared for her work. Just as God used a combination of experiences to fully prepare this missionary, He uses the blend of your experiences to prepare you to share the gospel with those around you.

To learn more about this article, visit IMB.org and search “Missionary Kid’s Journey Back to the Mission Field.”

The week’s writer for Extra is Emily Duncan. Emily is a Southern California native who lives in west Georgia with her husband and daughter. God saved her from Wicca when she was sixteen while at a youth retreat. Emily’s a member of Midway Church in Villa Rica and mentors young women as they transition from high school to college.

[Linked material and sources serve as background illustration only and does not imply endorsement beyond our biblical application.]

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Additional Questions

Optional, thoughtfully crafted questions designed to warm up group conversation and guide engagement throughout each Bible passage—helping your group think critically, connect personally, and process Scripture through a clear biblical lens.

Icebreakers

• What are some needs you especially enjoy meeting for others?
• Which organizations have impressed you by the way they meet others’ needs?
• How can we point others to Jesus by meeting their needs?

Luke 5:12-16. Be willing to help people when you can.

• What does the leper’s request demonstrate about his faith and understanding of Jesus’s authority?
• How does Jesus’s withdrawal to pray shape our understanding of spiritual priorities in the midst of ministry?
• Why do you think the leper went to such lengths to meet Jesus?

Luke 5:27-28. As you help, invite others to follow Jesus.

• What can we learn from these verses about who might be ready to hear the good news of the gospel?
• Who invited you to follow Jesus?
• What practical ways can believers share the gospel while helping others?

Luke 5:29-32. Don’t limit your help and invitation to the “right” people.

• How can religious pride or self-righteousness keep someone from recognizing their need for repentance?
• How can we accept people where they are while also sharing the message of forgiveness of sin?
• How might selfish pride limit our help and invitation to the “right” people?