Summer planning guide

Summer Studies for Small Groups

Summer attendance moves around — vacations, camps, ball games. These studies are shorter or more story-driven than a fall curriculum, so a member who misses two weeks can still come back in. Session and question counts are on every card.

12 studies below. Catalog facts last updated .

How these studies were chosen

Summer picks lean toward true stories, memoir, and practical books with short chapters — the kind of reading that survives a month of uneven attendance. Nothing here is ordered by what other people chose.

This is editorial judgment plus catalog facts — nothing here is ordered by sales, downloads, or ratings, and no title is claimed to be better than another. Read Week 1 of any guide free and decide for your own group.

Do Hard Things

by Alex Harris

Schedule
10 sessions
Full guide
71 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Ten sessions written by two eighteen-year-olds arguing that the teen years are not a waiting room. The obvious summer study for a youth group that finally has time on its hands.

Show the 10-session schedule
  1. 1.Introduction — The Rebelution Begins
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — Rebelutionaries in Action
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — The Myth of Adolescence
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — Counterfeit Comfort and the First Hard Thing
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — Hard Things That Are Beyond You
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — Hard Things That Are Unglamorous
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — Hard Things That Are Opposed
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — Hard Things That Require Together
  9. 9.Chapter 8 — Start Here, Start Now
  10. 10.Review & Reflection
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Gay Girl, Good God

by Jackie Hill Perry

Schedule
10 sessions
Full guide
70 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Ten sessions of memoir — Jackie Hill Perry’s account of conversion, identity, and the body — with the last sessions turning to what the church owes people who are in the middle of it.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Before We Begin
  2. 2.Part One — The Making of Me
  3. 3.Part Two — The Meeting
  4. 4.The Practicalities of Walking in Newness
  5. 5.Identity — Who Am I, Really?
  6. 6.The Body — Sexuality, Celibacy, and Covenant
  7. 7.The God Who Is Good — Theology for the Struggle
  8. 8.For the Church — How We Treat Each Other
  9. 9.For the Struggler — Hope for the Long Road
  10. 10.Review & Reflection — The Whole Journey
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Just Do Something

by Kevin DeYoung

Schedule
10 sessions
Full guide
72 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Ten sessions against the anxious hunt for God’s “perfect will.” DeYoung is brief and funny, and summer is a natural time for a group to stop deliberating and simply pick something.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Our Approach to God's Will
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — Mobile Phones, Frozen Chosen, and the In-Between
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — The Idol of Certainty
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — What God Wills
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — Ye Old Wives' Tale and Other Dubious Guidance Methods
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — The God Who Is There
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — Wisdom: Tastes Like Chicken
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — Passion and Priorities
  9. 9.Chapter 8 — Just Do Something
  10. 10.Review & Reflection
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The Treasure Principle

by Randy Alcorn

Schedule
9 sessions
Full guide
60 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Nine short sessions on Matthew 6:19–21 and what giving does to a heart. The chapters are brief, which helps in a month when half the group is somewhere else on any given week.

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  1. 1.Preface & Introduction — Buried Treasure
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — Buried Treasure and the Treasure Principle
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — This World Is Not Our Home
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — Compounding Joy: Giving as Investment
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — Six Keys to the Treasure Chest
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — Getting There From Here
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — Eyes on Eternity
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — Becoming a Hilarious Giver
  9. 9.Review & Reflection — The Treasure Principle in Your Life
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Liturgy of the Ordinary

by Tish Harrison Warren

Schedule
11 sessions
Full guide
78 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Eleven sessions built around a single ordinary day: waking, making the bed, losing the keys, sitting in traffic, sleeping. Summer is when ordinary days are most available to notice.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Loving Ordinary Time
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — Beginnings: Waking
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — Making the Bed: Liturgy, Ritual, and What Forms Us
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — Brushing Teeth: Boredom and the Daily Office
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — Losing My Keys: Fragmentation and the Thin Place
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — Eating Leftovers: Abundance, Scarcity, and Gratitude
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — Checking My Phone: Attention, Distraction, and the Presence of God
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — Sitting in Traffic: Anger, Liturgy, and the Slow Work of Peace
  9. 9.Chapter 8 — Wasting Time: Sabbath and the Gift of Rest
  10. 10.Chapter 9 — Sleeping: Surrender and Trust in the Dark
  11. 11.Review & Reflection — The Whole Day, the Whole Life
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Garden City

by John Mark Comer

Schedule
12 sessions
Full guide
79 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Twelve sessions on work, rest, and what humans are for, running from Genesis forward, with a session on Sabbath and one on a theology of enough. Fitting reading for the season that is supposed to include rest.

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  1. 1.Introduction — The Question Nobody Is Asking
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — In the Beginning
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — The Image
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — The Garden
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — East of Eden
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — Calling
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — The New Humanity
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — The City
  9. 9.Chapter 8 — A Theology of Enough
  10. 10.Chapter 9 — Sabbath
  11. 11.Chapter 10 — The Practicing Life
  12. 12.Review & Reflection
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Same Kind of Different as Me

by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

Schedule
12 sessions
Full guide
98 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Twelve sessions on a true story about an art dealer, a homeless man, and the woman who put them in the same room. Book-club shaped, so a group that reads narrative in the summer will not feel the change of gear.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Two Worlds, One Story
  2. 2.Denver's World — Life on the Streets
  3. 3.The Mission and the First Meeting
  4. 4.The Diagnosis — When Everything Changes
  5. 5.The Friendship Deepens
  6. 6.Ron's Reckoning — Facing His Own Failures
  7. 7.Denver's Transformation — A New Name and a New Life
  8. 8.Deborah's Dream and Her Fight
  9. 9.Loss and What Remains
  10. 10.Keeping the Promise — Ron and Denver After Deborah
  11. 11.Same Kind of Different — The Book's Deepest Claim
  12. 12.Review & Reflection — The Whole Journey
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Tortured for Christ

by Richard Wurmbrand

Schedule
9 sessions
Full guide
64 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Nine sessions with a Romanian pastor who spent fourteen years in Communist prisons. It reads like a story rather than a curriculum, which is usually what a summer group wants.

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  1. 1.Preface & Introduction — A Voice from the Underground
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — Rumania: Mission Field Behind the Iron Curtain
  3. 3.Chapter 2 — Persecution in Rumania
  4. 4.Chapter 3 — Christ Alone
  5. 5.Chapter 4 — The Underground Church
  6. 6.Chapter 5 — Winning the Communists to Christ
  7. 7.Chapter 6 — Have You Heard Their Cries?
  8. 8.Chapter 7 — Let's Keep the Faith — Epilogue
  9. 9.Review & Reflection — What Has This Book Done in You?
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Everybody, Always

by Bob Goff

Schedule
13 sessions
Full guide
92 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Thirteen sessions of Bob Goff’s stories about loving difficult people. Light on the surface and demanding underneath, which suits a season when attendance keeps moving.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Becoming Love
  2. 2.Catching Air — Love Without a Safety Net
  3. 3.The Witch Doctor — Loving the Difficult and the Different
  4. 4.Afraid of the Dark — Facing Fear to Love Freely
  5. 5.The Positive Effects of Negative People — Loving the Difficult Ones
  6. 6.Don't Be an Extra — Being the Main Character in Your Own Story of Love
  7. 7.Tom Thumb and The Land of Enough — Contentment, Identity, and Love
  8. 8.On Getting Out of the Boat — Doing What Jesus Said, Not Just What He Did
  9. 9.We're All Cannonballs — Living With Abandon and Contagious Joy
  10. 10.What Love Talks About — The Conversations We Have With God
  11. 11.Finding the Right Friends and the Upside of Failure
  12. 12.Becoming Love — The Life That Waits on the Other Side
  13. 13.Review & Reflection — Looking Back, Moving Forward
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The ruthless elimination of hurry

by John Mark Comer

Schedule
13 sessions
Full guide
104 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Thirteen sessions, four of them practices: Sabbath, simplicity, slowing, silence and solitude. If a group is going to attempt an unhurried summer, this gives them the words for it.

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  1. 1.Preface & Introduction — The Problem with Hurry
  2. 2.Part One, Chapter 1 — Hurry: The Great Spiritual Danger of Our Day
  3. 3.Part One, Chapter 2 — The Unhurried Jesus
  4. 4.Part One, Chapter 3 — What We're Actually After
  5. 5.Part Two, Chapter 4 — A Rule of Life
  6. 6.Part Two, Chapter 5 — Practice One: Sabbath
  7. 7.Part Two, Chapter 6 — Practice Two: Simplicity
  8. 8.Part Two, Chapter 7 — Practice Three: Slowing
  9. 9.Part Two, Chapter 8 — Practice Four: Silence and Solitude
  10. 10.Part Two, Chapter 9 — What to Do with Your Evening
  11. 11.Part Two, Chapter 10 — What to Do with Your Morning
  12. 12.Conclusion — The Unhurried Life
  13. 13.Review & Reflection — The Whole Journey
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Heaven Is for Real

by Todd Burpo

Schedule
11 sessions
Full guide
68 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Eleven sessions on a four-year-old’s account of what he says he saw during surgery, and on his father’s own doubt about it. Narrative, and easy to hand to a member who has never done a study before.

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  1. 1.Introduction & Background — The Burpo Family
  2. 2.Chapters 4–7 — The Crisis and the Operating Room
  3. 3.Chapters 8–10 — Colton Starts Talking
  4. 4.Chapters 11–13 — People Colton Met in Heaven
  5. 5.Chapters 14–16 — What Heaven Looks Like
  6. 6.Chapters 17–19 — Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Throne Room
  7. 7.Chapters 20–22 — Angels, Spiritual Warfare, and the Coming War
  8. 8.Chapters 23–25 — Doubt, Evidence, and Todd's Wrestling
  9. 9.Chapters 26–27 — Heaven and the Cross
  10. 10.Chapter 28 & Epilogue — Heaven Changes Everything
  11. 11.Review & Reflection — Looking Back, Looking Forward
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Through Gates of Splendor

by Elisabeth Elliot

Schedule
14 sessions
Full guide
98 discussion questions

Why it works for Summer: Fourteen sessions on the five men killed in Ecuador in 1956, told largely through their own journals and letters. It reads as history, and the later sessions turn the story back on the reader.

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  1. 1.Introduction — Setting the Stage
  2. 2.Chapter 1 — A Canopy of Jungle
  3. 3.Chapters 2–3 — The Men and Their Calling
  4. 4.Chapters 4–5 — Making Contact
  5. 5.Chapters 6–7 — 'Palm Beach'
  6. 6.Chapters 8–9 — 'The Silence'
  7. 7.Chapter 10 — The Response of the Wives
  8. 8.Chapter 11 — 'The Outcome of Their Faith'
  9. 9.Chapter 12 — Epilogue: The Rest of the Story
  10. 10.Jim Elliot's Journals — Faith, Prayer, and Surrender
  11. 11.Nate Saint — Skill, Creativity, and Consecration
  12. 12.The Huaorani — Seeing the 'Other' Through God's Eyes
  13. 13.Counting the Cost — What This Book Asks of Us
  14. 14.Review & Reflection — Looking Back Across the Gates
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