Real Change for Students: Becoming More Like Jesus in Everyday Life (Study Guide with Leader's Notes)

Real Change for Students is a six-session small group study that guides young adults through a gospel-centered process of personal transformation.

Every student wrestles with thoughts, habits, and heart struggles that seem difficult to change—but the gospel offers real hope. This resource invites participants to explore one specific area of needed growth and then walk through how God’s promises and the power of Christ shape genuine change. Designed with reflection, conversation, and application in mind, this study is built to help students experience transformation not just in theory, but in the everyday realities of life and relationships.

Based on the CCEF model from David Powlison’s course, Dynamics of Biblical Change, this accessible, Scripture-rooted guide includes leader’s notes, personal reflection questions, and a practical change project. Through honest conversations and biblical insight, students will come to understand how God meets them in their struggles, reshapes their responses to pressure, and forms Christlikeness even in the hardest circumstances.

• Offers a simple, Scripture-based model of change rooted in gospel truth and God's promises.
• Includes leader’s notes, discussion questions, and a personal change project for practical application.
• Helps students understand how a relationship with Christ produces real, lasting transformation in life and relationships.

Andrew Nicholls, MA, MB, BChir, is a former doctor and pastor who is now the director of pastoral care at Oak Hill Theological College, London. He is married to Hilary, and they have two children.

Helen Thorne, BSc (Hons), MA, is the director of training and mentoring at London City Mission. She is a trustee of Biblical Counselling UK and involved in pastoral care within her local church. She is an experienced speaker and author of Purity Is Possible, 5 Things to Pray for Your City, and Walking with Domestic Abuse Sufferers.

David Powlison (1949–2019) was a teacher, counselor, and the executive director of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). He wrote many books and minibooks, including Speaking Truth in Love; Seeing with New Eyes; Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare; The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context; Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness; Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken;and God’s Grace in Your Suffering. David was also the editor of The Journal of Biblical Counseling.