Working Through the Come Follow Me Study Guide 2023 When You Have Zero Time
The Come Follow Me curriculum dropped its 2023 updates and suddenly everyone's Sunday preparation schedule changed. I've been teaching these lessons for years, so I know what the study guide actually contains and what it doesn't. Let me walk you through how to use it without losing your mind. The official materials live on ChurchofJesusChrist.org under the Come, Follow Me section. The 2023 edition reorganized several quarters and shifted some scripture readings. If you're looking for a PDF download, the Church doesn't host standalone files, but many stakeholders compile their own printables. That's where things get murky. The official site is always the authoritative source. Any third-party guide you find online is somebody's personal interpretation layered on top of the official curriculum. Use those as supplements, not replacements. I once spent a full hour trying to print a lesson that turned out to be from 2022, not 2023. The URL structure changed mid-year when they adjusted the book of Moses lessons. The workaround is simple: always check the publication date in the footer of whatever page you're looking at. If it doesn't explicitly say 2023 or show the correct scripture block for your current quarter, it's probably outdated. I keep a bookmark for the main Come, Follow Me hub and navigate from there instead of searching, which saves me from ending up on stale pages.
What the Study Guide Actually Contains
The 2023 edition breaks into three tracks: individual and family gospel study, Melchizedek Priesthood, and Relief Society. The study guides for each track share the same scripture assignments but diverge in supplementary material and discussion questions. The individual guide is the most flexible. You can work through it at your own pace without worrying about coordinating with a class schedule. The priesthood and Relief Society versions assume you're preparing to teach or participate in a weekly lesson. One thing the guides don't tell you outright: the suggested reading order within each lesson is arbitrary. The Church published them sequentially, but you can rearrange the scripture blocks. I typically skim the whole week's assignment first, pick out the passages that resonate most with my audience, and build around those. The guide's structure works well for beginners who want a preset path. Once you've done this a few times, you'll notice the guides lean heavily on a small set of teaching techniques. They repeat the same question patterns week after week. Don't feel obligated to follow them verbatim.
How I Actually Use It Each Week
My process takes about twenty minutes on Sunday afternoon. I open the study guide for that week's lesson, read through the assigned scriptures in the Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants, then cross-reference the guide's questions with what I already know from prior study. The guides include helpful background notes, but they rarely add anything new unless you read extensively outside the assigned material. I skip the extra resource links unless something in the main text doesn't make sense to me. Those links are useful for teachers who need to answer unexpected questions from class members. They're overkill if you're just studying on your own. The real value in the 2023 edition comes from the updated lesson framing for the Bible portions. Previous years had lighter coverage of biblical history and context. This year they added more background on ancient Near Eastern culture and Jewish customs. It helps when teaching or discussing passages that otherwise read like abstract theology. I used that material to clarify a confusing section in Genesis for my own family study last fall, and it made the text significantly more accessible. The guides aren't designed to turn you into a scholar, but they do give you enough context to stop missing the obvious cultural references.
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Pitfalls to Avoid
The biggest mistake I see people make is treating the study guide like a script. It's not. It's a planning tool. If you read through it and memorize talking points, your class or family study will feel stiff and rehearsed. Let the guide point you toward ideas, then adapt them to who's actually sitting in front of you. A teenager hears something different than someone going through a career change or a family crisis. The guide can't account for that. You have to. Another issue is the assumption that one guide fits every situation. The standard edition works fine for average weekly classes. But if you're teaching a missionary class, a disability-adapted group, or a ward with a heavy influx of new converts, the pace and depth might miss the mark entirely. In those cases, I layer in additional resources or simplify the guide's questions rather than trying to force everyone through the same material at the same speed. I also recommend ignoring the "daily reading plan" sections if you already have a reading habit. The guides try to bolt a daily scripture routine onto an existing program, but most people either already read daily or they won't start because the plan feels like homework. Pick one consistent time and stick with it instead of adding another layer on top.
When the Guide Falls Short
The 2023 edition has genuine gaps. It barely addresses modern prophetic counsel beyond the assigned scriptures. If you want to connect a lesson to recent general conference talks, you're on your own. The guides also don't update in real time. When the First Presidency issues a clarification or new guidance on a topic, the study guides won't reflect that until the next annual revision. I've seen this happen twice in the past four years where a lesson was clearly running slightly behind current Church emphasis on a particular doctrine. Not wrong, just behind. For those gaps, I supplement with the Gospel Topics essays on the Church website and recent conference sessions. They take five extra minutes to review and fill in the blanks the guide leaves open. The guides are structured to stay evergreen and timeless, which means they sometimes miss the moment. That's by design, not negligence. Just be aware of it so you don't feel lost when you notice the disconnect.
Quick Takeaway
Use the Come Follow Me Study Guide 2023 as a starting framework, not a finished product. Verify the version before you print or download anything. Skim the whole lesson before diving in. Adapt the questions to your actual audience. Supplement the gaps yourself. And don't treat it like a script you have to deliver word for word. It does its job when you use it flexibly.
