Editorial shortlist
Classic devotional writing and the true stories a church book club reads for the narrative as much as the theology. Every note says how demanding the prose is, because that decides more book-club studies than the subject does.
15 studies below, drawn from 22 in the library that fit this list. Catalog facts last updated .
A guide qualifies when its topics include classic devotionals, or when it is a biography or memoir whose classification also names book clubs as a strong audience fit.
by Corrie ten Boom
Why it’s on this list
Corrie ten Boom's account of hiding Jewish refugees in Haarlem and surviving Ravensbrück runs fifteen sessions, following the chapters. It reads like a book-club pick and still ends up being about forgiveness.
by John Bunyan
Why it’s on this list
Bunyan's allegory is broken into the stages of the journey — the Slough of Despond, the House of the Interpreter, Vanity Fair, Doubting Castle, the River of Death. Twelve sessions, and the guide's summaries carry a club through the seventeenth-century English.
by C.S. Lewis
Why it’s on this list
Six sessions on the notebooks Lewis filled in the weeks after his wife died, following his four sections in the order he wrote them. The shortest study on this list and the most personal — a club can finish it inside six weeks.
by Saint Augustine
Why it’s on this list
Augustine's prayer-autobiography is taken a book at a time: the stolen pears, Carthage, Ambrose, the garden, Monica's death. Twelve sessions on a text written around AD 401, closing on the patterns running through it.
by Oswald Chambers
Why it’s on this list
Chambers's 365 daily readings are regrouped by theme — surrender, faith, suffering, prayer, obedience, the Holy Spirit — so a club can discuss the book without reading a year of entries. Thirteen sessions and 104 questions.
by Brother Lawrence
Why it’s on this list
Brother Lawrence's conversations and letters are covered in seven sessions, which is the whole of this very short book. A fit for a club that wants a six-week study rather than a full term.
by A.W. Tozer
Why it’s on this list
Tozer's ten chapters get a session each — following hard after God, removing the veil, the gaze of the soul, meekness and rest — framed by the preface, a note on Tozer himself and a closing reflection. Short chapters, dense sentences; expect to slow down.
by Elisabeth Elliot
Why it’s on this list
Elisabeth Elliot's account of the five men killed in Ecuador in 1956 runs fourteen sessions, including ones on Jim Elliot's journals and on seeing the Huaorani as God sees them. History and ethics in the same study.
by Brother Andrew
Why it’s on this list
Brother Andrew's Bible-smuggling journeys behind the Iron Curtain are followed country by country across fourteen sessions. The middle sessions are about praying for provision, which is what most clubs end up discussing.
by Hannah Hurnard
Why it’s on this list
Hurnard's allegory follows Much-Afraid from the Valley of Humiliation to the High Places with Sorrow and Suffering as her companions. Twelve sessions, with the guide drawing out the allegory as it goes.
by Thomas à Kempis
Why it’s on this list
Thomas à Kempis's four books are taken in chapter groups across fifteen sessions, ending on the book about the sacrament. Written in Latin in the early fifteenth century, and the guide keeps each reading portion small.
by A.W. Tozer
Why it’s on this list
Tozer takes one attribute of God per chapter and this guide gives each its own session — 24 sessions and 170 questions. The longest study on this list; a club could take it a quarter at a time.
by Todd Burpo
Why it’s on this list
The guide for Heaven Is for Real runs 11 sessions with 68 discussion questions, filed under Biography & Memoir and Faith & Theology. It is on this list because its guide is classified under classic devotionals, or is a biography or memoir classified for book clubs; Week 1 is free to read before you decide.
by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
Why it’s on this list
The guide for Same Kind of Different as Me runs 12 sessions with 98 discussion questions, filed under Biography & Memoir, Christian Living and Grief & Loss. It is on this list because its guide is classified under classic devotionals, or is a biography or memoir classified for book clubs; Week 1 is free to read before you decide.
by Francine Rivers
Why it’s on this list
The guide for A Voice in the Wind runs 13 sessions with 93 discussion questions, filed under Biography & Memoir and Faith & Theology. It is on this list because its guide is classified under classic devotionals, or is a biography or memoir classified for book clubs; Week 1 is free to read before you decide.
Christian books for small groups
Titles a mixed adult group can study together, with session and question counts.
Women's Bible study books
Studies written for women's ministry, from Scripture studies to books on the thought life.
Men's Bible study books
Titles written to men, plus the leadership and apologetics studies men's groups pick up.
Books for new believers
Books that explain the faith from the ground up, ordered from the lightest reading to the heaviest.
Marriage books for couples
Marriage and relationship studies, with a note on how candid each one gets.
Books on prayer
Studies on prayer and spiritual warfare, from a seven-session challenge to a full systematic term.
Books on grief and loss
Studies on grief, suffering and loss for care ministries and groups walking through a hard season.
Christian books on anxiety
Studies on anxiety, the thought life, burnout and boundaries, ordered from plainest to most clinical.