Editorial shortlist
Marriage and relationship studies with a guide written for every chapter. Each note says what the book argues and how personal the conversation is likely to get, because that matters more than length when a couples' group is choosing.
15 studies below, drawn from 19 in the library that fit this list. Catalog facts last updated .
A guide qualifies when marriage and relationships is one of its topics, or when its classification names couples as a strong audience fit.
by Timothy Keller
Why it’s on this list
The Kellers argue marriage is a covenant rather than a contract, and the nine sessions move from the secret and power of marriage through loving the stranger and sex. Short enough for a couples' group that meets for a single term.
by Gary Thomas
Why it’s on this list
Thomas's question — what if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy — runs through all thirteen sessions. Groups where some couples are in a hard season generally find it more honest than a communication-skills study.
by Emerson Eggerichs
Why it’s on this list
Eggerichs builds everything on Ephesians 5:33 and the Crazy Cycle, then spends sessions on the C-O-U-P-L-E and C-H-A-I-R-S patterns. 104 questions across thirteen sessions, and most of them are for spouses to answer to each other.
by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Why it’s on this list
Cloud and Townsend apply their boundaries framework to marriage: values, guarding the marriage, resolving conflict, and what to do when a spouse resists. The later sessions are candid enough to need a settled group.
by Francis Chan
Why it’s on this list
The Chans open by arguing that marriage is not that important, then build ten sessions on eternity, mission and children. It is the least technique-driven study here.
by John Piper
Why it’s on this list
Piper reads marriage through Ephesians 5 as a display of covenant love, with sessions on forgiveness, headship and submission, singleness, divorce and remarriage, and dying well. Groups should know going in that it takes clear positions.
by Willard F. Harley Jr.
Why it’s on this list
Harley's chapters alternate his needs and hers — sexual fulfillment and affection, recreational companionship and conversation, and so on — so each session pairs one of each. Fourteen sessions, ending on affair-proofing.
by Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick
Why it’s on this list
The book is forty daily dares; the guide groups them into weekly sessions — patient and kind, not selfish, forgiveness, covenant — so a group can meet weekly while the reading stays daily. Nine sessions and 72 questions.
by Ben Stuart
Why it’s on this list
Stuart takes the four seasons in order, with sessions on singleness and mission, purpose and purity in dating, preparing for marriage, and communication and conflict inside it. The one study here that a group of mixed relationship status can all use.
by Shaunti Feldhahn
Why it’s on this list
Feldhahn reports what her surveys of men found, from respect and the fear of not measuring up to what men wish women knew. Written to women about men, so couples' groups usually pair it with a men's study rather than reading it together.
by Michael Todd
Why it’s on this list
Todd covers friendship, dating, engagement, marriage and sex in ten sessions, starting with the work a person does before any of it. The most accessible study here for a young-adult group.
by Gary Chapman
Why it’s on this list
This guide covers the Singles Edition, so it applies the five languages to friendships, family and dating as much as to marriage. Choose it when the group is not all married couples.
by C.S. Lewis
Why it’s on this list
The guide for The Four Loves runs 8 sessions with 63 discussion questions, filed under Faith & Theology, Marriage & Relationships and Christian Living. It is on this list because its guide is classified under marriage and relationships, or as a strong fit for couples; Week 1 is free to read before you decide.
by Henry Cloud & John Townsend
Why it’s on this list
The guide for Safe People runs 11 sessions with 87 discussion questions, filed under Mental Health & Wellness, Marriage & Relationships and Christian Living. It is on this list because its guide is classified under marriage and relationships, or as a strong fit for couples; Week 1 is free to read before you decide.
by Chris Fabry
Why it’s on this list
The guide for War Room runs 12 sessions with 96 discussion questions, filed under Prayer & Spiritual Warfare and Marriage & Relationships. It is on this list because its guide is classified under marriage and relationships, or as a strong fit for couples; 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.
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 classics for book clubs
Devotional classics and true stories, with a note on how demanding the prose is.
Christian books on anxiety
Studies on anxiety, the thought life, burnout and boundaries, ordered from plainest to most clinical.