The order of things

Start Bible studies with finding out where everyone's at, what going on and praying about it. Then do the Bible study. This is what my Bible study group does and it makes me feel really valued as my stuff isn't just squashed in somewhere, and it also means that you get personal stuff out of the way so you can focus on what the Bible says. I can see benefits to not doing it this way, but it just seems to work better.