Ochorus for campus ministries

Free Christian classics for campus ministries and students

Pascal, Chesterton, Augustine and C. S. Lewis on faith and reason, and the students who changed the world: the Cambridge Seven, John R. Mott and the Student Volunteer Movement. Free on any phone, with nothing to buy for a student budget.

books
295
sermons
251
reading plans
36
languages
10

Why campus ministries use Ochorus

  • Faith that thinks

    Pascal’s Pensées, Chesterton’s Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man, and Augustine’s Confessions take the hard questions seriously.

    See the books

  • Students who changed the world

    C. T. Studd left Cambridge for China, David Brainerd left Yale for the frontier, and John R. Mott led the Student Volunteer Movement. Their stories are here.

    Read their stories

  • A plan for the term

    Reading plans give a student group one short reading a day: on the Puritans, on holiness, or on four great teachers of the faith.

    See the plans

  • Free for every student

    Nothing to buy and no account needed. Share one link in the group chat and everyone can read that night.

    Browse the books

Good places to start

Plans to read together

One short reading a day. Start on the same day and everyone reaches the same chapter together, each reader ticking off their own progress as they go.

Everything for Christ: A Life Poured Out

25 days·~25 min/day

What does whole-hearted surrender cost, and what does it yield? David Brainerd's searching missionary diary, followed by the stories of men and women who gave everything for the sake of the gospel — a call to consecration told through lives that answered it.

Day 1 ·The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

The Puritan Heart

54 days·~11 min/day

Eight weeks with three masters of the inner life. Richard Sibbes binds up the bruised reed, John Owen wages war on the sin that still dwells within, and Thomas Watson rests the whole struggle on the promise that all things work together for good.

Day 1 ·The Bruised Reed

The Pursuit of Holiness

63 days·~19 min/day

Nine weeks on being wholly the Lord's. Andrew Murray traces our holiness to our union with the Holy One, William Law calls us to a life devout in every ordinary hour, and John Wesley sets out plainly what Christian perfection is — and is not.

Day 1 ·Holy in Christ

See every reading plan

Start a reading group

Choose a plan and the day you begin, then pass on the link. Everyone who opens it is on the same day of the plan. Nobody needs an account, and nothing about anyone is collected.

Read on

A sermon series for your group

Read one sermon at home each week, then talk it through together. Every sermon here comes with study questions and their answers, at the foot of the sermon.

Six weeks of big questions

Sin, the cross, salvation and grace: one sermon a week for a student group, with questions to argue over.

  1. Week 1

    The Cross Is a Radical Thing

    A. W. Tozer

    4 study questions 4 min read

  2. Week 2

    So Great Salvation

    Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Hebrews 2:1-4

    4 study questions 39 min read

  3. Week 3

    Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jonathan Edwards, Deuteronomy 32:35

    4 study questions 36 min read

  4. Week 4

    God Will Have All Men to Be Saved

    John Calvin, 1 Timothy 2:3-5

    4 study questions 26 min read

  5. Week 5

    The Meaning of the Cross

    Elisabeth Elliot

    4 study questions 58 min read

  6. Week 6

    Grace and Truth

    Alexander Maclaren, John 1:17

    4 study questions 14 min read

One event a week naming the sermon to read, with a reminder that morning. Send the file to your group so their calendars have it too.

Meet the writers

The lives behind the books: each one has a full biography, with the books and sermons they left.

See every biography

“Our understandings, if we stretch them never so far, cannot reach up to his divine glory.”
Jonathan Edwards, The Excellency of Christ ¶18

Ways to use it on campus

  1. A book club for skeptics

    Read Orthodoxy or the Pensées with friends who are asking whether Christianity is true.

  2. A term’s reading plan

    Start a plan at the beginning of term and meet weekly to talk about what you read.

  3. Mission week

    Read The Evangelization of the World in This Generation, Mott’s call to students, before a mission week.

  4. For the long vacation

    Give each student a classic to read over the summer, and a reading plan to keep them going.

Pass it on

A message ready for a bulletin, a group chat or an email. Copy it as it is, or make it your own.

Our student group is reading the great Christian classics together on Ochorus: Pascal, Chesterton, Augustine and more, free on any phone with no sign-up. https://ochorus.com/plans
WhatsApp Email

Questions

Is Ochorus really free?

Yes. Every book and sermon on Ochorus is free to read, with no paywall, no subscription and no ads. The classics themselves are in the public domain, and Ochorus is a ministry, not a business.

Can students cite these books in essays?

Yes. The classic texts are in the public domain and can be quoted freely, and each book page names its author.

Do students need an account?

No. Anyone can read without signing up. A free account is optional: it keeps notes and progress in step across a phone and a laptop.

Bring the classics to campus

Start a reading plan with your group, or hand a friend a book for the big questions.