Study Guides
Mental Health & Wellness
Find peace, healing, and emotional health through honest conversation. These guides create space for groups to talk about anxiety, burnout, identity, perfectionism, and the path toward wholeness.
Necessary Endings
by Henry Cloud
Henry Cloud's Necessary Endings (2011) makes a counterintuitive but liberating argument: endings are not failures — they are necessary conditions for growth. Just as a rosebush requires pruning to thrive, our businesses, relationships, and personal lives require us to cut away what is dying, what is already dead, and what is simply not able to become what we need it to be. Cloud draws on his experience as a clinical psychologist and business consultant to show that the inability to end things — to fire an underperforming employee, leave a destructive relationship, or abandon a strategy that isn't working — is one of the most common and costly sources of personal and professional stagnation. The book's central thesis is that hope is not a strategy: wishing things will get better without doing something different is a form of magical thinking that keeps us stuck. Learning to end well, Cloud argues, is a learnable skill, and this guide is designed to help you develop it.
View Discussion GuideThe Emotionally Healthy Leader
by Peter Scazzero
Peter Scazzero's The Emotionally Healthy Leader begins with a provocative claim: the vast majority of Christian leaders are, in Scazzero's words, leading out of a state of emotional immaturity — and it is killing their churches, their families, and themselves. Forged out of twenty-six years leading New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church in Queens, New York, Scazzero argues that the interior life of a leader is not a secondary concern to be addressed once the "real" work of leadership is done. It is the work. The book is structured around two movements: first, four foundational "being" areas that shape who we are as leaders (facing our shadow, leading out of our marriage or singleness, slowing down for loving union with Jesus, and practicing Sabbath delight); and second, four "doing" areas where that inner life intersects with the practical tasks of leadership (planning and decision-making, culture and team building, community and dual relationships, and endings and new beginnings). The thesis throughout is simple and searching: you cannot give what you do not possess.
View Discussion GuideLeading on Empty
by Wayne Cordeiro
Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordeiro is a courageous and searingly honest book written by one of America's most effective church-planting pastors — a man who ran himself into the ground and nearly lost everything in the process. Cordeiro describes his descent into burnout and clinical depression, and then, drawing on Scripture, the wisdom of counselors and doctors, and hard-won personal experience, he maps a way back to sustainable ministry and life. The book's central thesis is both simple and countercultural: the tank you lead from must be regularly refilled, or you will one day find yourself leading on empty — and the consequences reach far beyond yourself to your family, your church, and your calling. Cordeiro does not treat burnout as a character flaw or a faith failure; he treats it as a physiological, emotional, and spiritual reality that demands honest diagnosis and intentional renewal.</p><p>This study guide is designed to be used week by week, one chapter at a time. Before each group meeting (or your own personal study session), read the assigned chapter slowly — perhaps with a journal open beside you. Let the questions marinate for a day or two before you discuss or write your answers. Some questions ask you to recall what Cordeiro said; others ask you to examine your own patterns honestly; still others invite you to think theologically about what the chapter implies for your understanding of God, the gospel, and the nature of ministry. Together they form a full-orbed engagement with the text. If you are using this guide in a small group, covenant with one another at the outset to be honest — burnout and depression thrive in silence, and this book is an invitation out of silence.</p><p>By the end of this guide you should have done more than finish a book. You should have a clearer picture of your own energy reserves and what depletes or replenishes them, a realistic plan for sustainable rhythms of rest and renewal, and a deeper theological conviction that God is not honored by your exhaustion. Whether you are a pastor, a ministry leader, a volunteer, or someone who simply gives more than they receive, Leading on Empty offers you both a diagnosis and a remedy — and this guide is designed to help you receive both as personally and as practically as possible.
View Discussion GuideCrash the Chatterbox
by Steven Furtick
We all have a chatterbox — that relentless inner voice that whispers (and sometimes screams) that we are not enough, that our situation is hopeless, that God is distant, and that our failures define us. In Crash the Chatterbox, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church argues that the greatest battle of your life is not fought on a visible battlefield but in the six inches between your ears. Drawing on Scripture, personal stories, and sharp pastoral insight, Furtick identifies four core lies the enemy uses to silence us — "God won't," "You can't," "You don't deserve it," and "It won't last" — and shows how the living Word of God is the only weapon powerful enough to silence those voices for good.
View Discussion GuideYou Are Free
by Rebekah Lyons
In You Are Free, Rebekah Lyons writes from the hard-won place of personal exhaustion, anxiety, and striving — and from the surprising discovery that Jesus has already declared freedom over every one of those struggles. The book's central thesis is simple but radical: Christ does not say you can be free or might become free. He says, in the present tense, you are free. Drawing on her own story of battling anxiety, depression, and the relentless pressure of performance, Rebekah unpacks the many forms of bondage that quietly hold women captive — people-pleasing, self-condemnation, ungrieved loss, fear of failure — and then sets each one against the liberating truth of the gospel. The result is both a personal memoir and a theological call to action: freedom is not a destination you earn; it is a gift you receive, and then courageously give away.
View Discussion GuideAnxious for Nothing
by Max Lucado
Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World by Max Lucado is built around one of the most countercultural promises in all of Scripture: "Be anxious for nothing" (Philippians 4:6–7). Drawing on Paul's letter written from a Roman prison cell, Lucado argues that peace is not the absence of problems but the presence of God. The book's central thesis is captured in the acronym CALM — Celebrate God's goodness, Ask God for help, Leave your concerns with him, and Meditate on good things — a four-part framework drawn directly from Philippians 4:4–8 that Lucado believes can genuinely quiet the restless, worried heart. With characteristic warmth and storytelling, Lucado weaves together personal confessions, real-life stories, medical research on anxiety, and rich biblical exposition to show that anxiety is a real and serious struggle, and that God's Word offers a real and sufficient answer.
View Discussion GuideThe Best Yes
by Lysa TerKeurst
The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst is a book about one of the most quietly exhausting struggles in the Christian life: the inability to say no. Lysa argues that when we say yes to everything — out of people-pleasing, fear of disappointment, or the sheer rush of being needed — we rob ourselves of the ability to say a wholehearted, God-directed "Best Yes" to the things we were actually made for. Drawing on Scripture, personal stories, and practical wisdom, she walks readers through what it looks like to make decisions with a wisdom-based process rather than an emotion-driven reaction. The central conviction of the book is that our decisions shape our days, our days shape our lives, and a life with God at the center requires us to steward our yeses carefully.
View Discussion GuideThe Next Right Thing
by Emily P. Freeman
Emily P. Freeman's The Next Right Thing (2019) offers a quiet, countercultural approach to decision-making in an age of overwhelming options and constant noise. Freeman's central thesis is simple but profound: rather than striving to discover "God's perfect will" for every major life choice, we are invited to practice the habit of doing the next right thing in love — one small, faithful step at a time. Drawing on her own experience of decision fatigue, as well as the wisdom of spiritual directors, contemplative writers, and everyday moments of ordinary life, Freeman builds a practical and deeply spiritual framework for soul-care in the midst of uncertainty. The book is organized around a series of short, accessible practices — like "becoming a student of yourself," "naming your arrow," and "building a rule of life" — that gently clear the inner clutter and make space for God's voice to be heard.
View Discussion GuideHaving a Mary Heart in a Martha World
by Joanna Weaver
In Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, Joanna Weaver uses the familiar New Testament story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42) as a lens for examining the tension every woman feels between doing and being — between the kitchen and the living room, between busyness and intimacy. Weaver's thesis is simple but piercing: God does not want us to choose between loving Him and serving Him, but He does want us to get the order right. "Living-room intimacy" with Jesus must come first; "kitchen service" will then flow out of it naturally, joyfully, and without the resentment and exhaustion that so often plague busy Christian women. Drawing on her own story, Scripture, and the lives of women throughout Christian history, Weaver offers both theological grounding and practical strategies for women who feel they are never quite godly, loving, or doing enough.
View Discussion GuideUninvited
by Lysa TerKeurst
Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst is a deeply personal and biblically grounded exploration of one of the most universal human experiences: rejection. From the sting of being left out of a social gathering to the soul-level wound of abandonment by someone who should have loved us, rejection has a way of writing stories over our hearts — stories that tell us we are unwanted, not enough, and destined to be on the outside looking in. Lysa TerKeurst dismantles those stories with gut-honest vulnerability, pointing us instead toward a love that is handpicked, intentional, and completely unshakeable. Her central thesis is this: we are not defined by the rejections we experience, but by the One who chose us before the foundation of the world. When we learn to live from that truth rather than react from our wounds, everything changes.
View Discussion GuideGet Out of Your Head
by Jennie Allen
In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie Allen confronts one of the most intimate battlegrounds of the Christian life: the mind. Drawing on her own struggle with spiraling, anxious, and toxic thought patterns, Allen argues that the enemy's greatest weapon against us is not circumstances or suffering — it is the thoughts we allow to take root and run unchecked. Her central thesis, drawn from Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 10:5, is that we are not helpless victims of our own minds. We can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, choose what we think. That choice — practiced deliberately, repeatedly, and in community — is nothing less than a spiritual battle with eternal stakes.
View Discussion GuidePresent Over Perfect
by Shauna Niequist
Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist is a deeply personal memoir-meets-manifesto about leaving behind the exhausting pursuit of busyness, achievement, and performance in order to return to a slower, more connected, more honest way of living. Niequist writes from the middle of her own unraveling — a season when the life she had carefully built (full of yes's, travel, productivity, and public presence) began to collapse under its own weight. Her central argument is deceptively simple: the frantic, "more is more" pace many of us have accepted as normal is not just unsustainable — it is a kind of soul-sickness. And the antidote is not a better schedule or a smarter self-help strategy, but a genuine return to what is most alive, most true, and most beloved in our lives. This is a book for anyone who has ever arrived at a season of exhaustion and wondered how they got there.
View Discussion GuideEmotionally Healthy Spirituality
by Peter Scazzero
Peter Scazzero's Emotionally Healthy Spirituality begins with a confession most of us quietly recognize: it is entirely possible to be deeply involved in church, committed to the Bible, and actively serving God — and still be emotionally immature. Scazzero, a pastor who built a growing congregation in Queens, New York, discovered through a painful personal and marital crisis that his spiritual life had a gaping hole in it. He had been using ministry to run from himself, suppressing his anger and sadness in the name of Christian niceness, and leading others while his own soul was starving. His central thesis is both simple and radical: emotional health and contemplative spirituality are not optional add-ons to discipleship — they are its very foundation. You cannot be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.
View Discussion GuideBoundaries
by Henry Cloud
In Boundaries, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend tackle one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Christian life: the idea that loving others well sometimes requires saying no. Drawing on Scripture, psychology, and decades of counseling experience, the authors argue that a "boundary" is a personal property line — a marker that defines where you end and someone else begins. Far from being selfish, they show that healthy limits are essential to love, responsibility, and spiritual maturity. The book walks readers through why so many Christians struggle to set boundaries, what the Bible actually teaches about personal responsibility, and how to apply these principles across every major relationship in life: parents, spouses, children, friends, coworkers, and even oneself.
View Discussion GuideThe Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
by John Mark Comer
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer is a passionate, pastoral argument that the greatest threat to the spiritual life in the modern West is not heresy or persecution — it is hurry. Drawing on the wisdom of Dallas Willard, the rhythms of Jesus, and the ancient practices of the church, Comer contends that we have mistaken busyness for productivity and noise for meaning. The cure, he argues, is not merely time-management but a wholesale apprenticeship to the unhurried Jesus — learning to live the way he lived, at the pace he lived it. The book is structured in two movements: first diagnosing the disease of hurry and its spiritual consequences, then prescribing four ancient practices — Sabbath, simplicity, slowing, and silence/solitude — as the path back to a life with depth, joy, and genuine connection with God.
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