What to read next
by Richard Foster
Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline lays out the classical spiritual disciplines — prayer, fasting, meditation, confession, worship, and more — as trainable habits that open us up to God's transforming grace rather than as hoops to jump through for the spiritually elite. It is a foundational, wide-angle book, so groups that finish it often want to go deeper into one discipline in particular, especially prayer, or to see the same ideas expressed through a different voice or genre. The books below fit a group that just spent 14 sessions building a vocabulary for the spiritual life and is now ready to either narrow the focus or wrestle with the spiritual warfare that surrounds these practices. Some are practical companions for deepening prayer, others are more narrative or reflective, so pick based on whether your group wants more structure or more room to breathe.
Our Celebration of Discipline guide runs 14 sessions with 99 discussion questions.
These are guides from our own catalog, ordered by how much each book shares with Celebration of Discipline: subject and themes first, then the kind of group it suits, then the same author. It is an editorial comparison of what the books are about — not a ranking of which is better, and not a claim about what other groups chose.
by Tyler Staton
Like Foster, Staton treats prayer as a posture to inhabit rather than a skill to master, and he draws on the same contemplative tradition Foster loves. The tone is a bit more conversational and story-driven, and at 12 sessions it works well as a narrower follow-up focused specifically on prayer.
by Timothy Keller
Keller shares Foster's conviction that prayer is meant to reshape the heart, not just check a devotional box, and he draws on many of the same historic writers Foster references. The approach is more theological and argument-driven than Foster's, with 12 sessions and 85 questions making it a slightly more compact study.
by John Mark Comer
Comer picks up Foster's underlying assumption that spiritual formation requires deliberate practice, but turns the lens toward spiritual warfare and the lies we absorb from the world, the flesh, and the devil. It runs 14 sessions like Foster's book but has a sharper, more diagnostic edge and a stronger self-examination component.
by Stephen Kendrick & Alex Kendrick
Where Foster treats prayer as one discipline among many, the Kendricks make it the whole subject, framing it as strategic and essential rather than optional. This is the longer and more practical of the two, 17 sessions and 119 questions, with a more urgent, action-oriented tone than Foster's measured reflections.
by C.S. Lewis
Lewis and Foster both care about the quiet, everyday obstacles to a genuine spiritual life, but Lewis approaches the subject through fiction and dark humor instead of direct instruction. It is the same length as Foster's book at 14 sessions, but the demon's-eye narrative makes for a very different, more literary discussion each week.
by Priscilla Shirer
Shirer's focus on recognizing God's voice complements Foster's chapters on meditation and listening prayer, both treating an intimate relationship with God as available to every ordinary believer. At 11 sessions and 78 questions it is a shorter, more focused study, with a warmer, more personal teaching style than Foster's.
by Richard J. Foster
This is Foster's own extended treatment of prayer, so the voice, the reliance on the Christian classics, and the three-movements structure will feel immediately familiar. It runs a bit longer at 112 questions across 14 sessions and works well as a natural next step for a group that wants to stay with Foster and go deeper into just one discipline.
by Priscilla Shirer
Shirer, like Foster, treats prayer as a discipline to be practiced with intention, but she narrows the focus to spiritual warfare and gives each session a specific strategy to work through. At 13 sessions it is close in length to Foster's book, though the tone is more direct and battle-minded than his reflective style.
Session and question counts checked .