No More Christian Nice Girl

When passivity and false niceness don't bring the abundant life Jesus promised, some Christian women try even harder to hide behind a fragile façade of pleasant perfection. Paul Coughlin and Jennifer Degler give women the empowering message that they have options far beyond simply acting nice or being mean--if they will emulate the real Jesus Christ and face their fears of conflict, rejection, and criticism. Brimming with enlightening information, thought-provoking questionnaires, real-life stories, and biblically based teaching from both the male author of the pioneering No More Christian Nice Guy and a female clinical psychologist, this book will motivate women to allow God to transform them into authentic, powerful women of loving faith.

A refreshing perspective on being good reveals how being nice doesn't necessarily mean being good and utilizes the biblical model of Christ as an example of a real man, showing men how to become genuinely masculine by being both gentle and bold. Reprint.

You already know the women you'll meet in this book. They may sit beside you in the pew . . . or join you at small group . . . or touch your heart from a speaker's podium. They have all been saved. They all love the Lord. And yet . . . One struggles with sucidal despair Another is involved with adultery, pornography, or a same-sex attraction Another endures regular beatings – or worse – by someone who claims to love her Another is divorced . . . or thinking about it This one drinks secretly or "doctor shops" for pain pills That one wrestles with depression or bipolar disorder And many others feel they can never be thin enough, beautiful enough, successful enough . . . or Christian enough to be loved or accepted They're all good Christian girls who have been broken by sin – their own and others. They all needed the honest, life-giving truth at the heart of this book. Do you? Tammy Maltby addresses issues that aren't discussed much in church circles – private sins that she and other women have battled.

“I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.

Amanda Vaughn needs some heaven-sent help. Her husband has betrayed her in the worst possible way, and, newly divorced, she's fled with her pre-teen children to her hometown of Hillside Park, an upper-class Dallas suburb. She's happy to leave behind the shallow, Godless life she lived in California and return to the welcoming, Christian world where she grow up. But things aren't that simple. When Amanda returns to the town and church she remembers so fondly, nothing is as she remembers it. She encounters a cast of old friends, neighbors and fellow church members who are sweet and pious as can be ... until Amanda's back is turned. Then the claws come out. Amanda realizes she's encountered a group of Good Christian Bitches, or GCBs. Sharon, Heather, and Darlene are as fake as their costume jewelry. In the whirling midst of salacious rumors, Botox, and fraud, Amanda realizes that her so-called friends are out to destroy her reputation. And what's worse, it's all under the guise of old-fashioned Christian caring. Will the Good Christian Bitches get the best of her, or will Amanda find a way to rise above the drama and triumph?

How one woman's soul-searching journey led her to the Mormon church and how her discovery of Jesus, helped her leave despite horrific persecution.

Emily Freeman offers advice to the Christian woman on letting go of expectations and trusting in God.

Originally published: San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, 2006.