On October 10th The Other Journal at MHGS hosted a book launch party and book reading for Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical.  The event was held in the main classroom at MHGS and was attended by roughly 75 people.

This just-released book is a collection of essays by both established and up-and-coming women writers who tell about growing up in their Evangelical cultures.  The event was held in the main classroom and was a festive night that included readings by 6 of the 22 authors.

Jesus Girls is a anthology of essays collected by The Other Journal’s creative writing editor, Hannah Notess, a project that she has been working on for three years.  When she came on staff with TOJ last year we worked together to publish her collection through a book series that we were developing with Cascade Press called, “Experiences in Evangelicalism.”

As a graduate of MHGS and as the editor of The Other Journal, I am thrilled to be involved with the publication of this book.

Jesus Girls talks openly about what it is like, for better or worse, to be a woman within the context of Evangelicalism.  Some women have grown within the church, and matured deeper in their faith, while others have grown outside of, and developed apart from Christian faith commitments.  The diversity of the stories allow for new ways of understanding testimonies, or narratives, that are honest about how messy and often times painful life is, and what hope might look like amidst the chaos.  This is clearly something both MHGS and TOJ are deeply interested in.

This book is also important because it provides a needed platform.  Women’s voices are heard less than men’s in many strains of Evangelicalism (sometimes women are not even allowed to speak at all in front of their faith communities or teach boys in Sunday School).  To hear the stories of women is to listen to needed perspectives, vital corrective voices that Church needs to thrive.

If you are interested in the book, you can buy it online at www.wipfandstock.com

Recently Publishers Weekly reviewed the book, and I’ll end with their review:

“Written by experienced women writers from diverse evangelical Christian backgrounds, the tales are honest, approachable and revealing. Each author has put aside her inhibitions about exposing the flaws of her home church—from power struggles to the indoctrination of shame—and takes evangelicalism to task for its ‘carefully filtered’ yet ambiguous conventions. Yet all of the authors tell of a more realistic, meandering faith, enduring even while rife with doubt. Readers will be inspired to re-examine their own beliefs and perhaps even create their own un-testimonies.”

Chris Keller is the editor of The Other Journal and an alum of the MHGS Master of Counseling Psychology program.