Life Pacific University is celebrating Trustee Jessie Cruickshank, Ed.M. following the successful launch of her new book, Becoming Good News: Reimagining Discipleship Through Identity, Story, and Science, co-authored with Julia Schmaltz.
Released August 4 by NavPress, the book quickly reached No. 1 among Amazon New Releases in Christian Discipleship and No. 2 in Christian Leadership. It also rose to No. 14 among Amazon Best Sellers in Christian Discipleship and No. 4 among Best Sellers in Christian Leadership.
Cruickshank said that the book continued to rank among Amazon’s leading titles in its categories, including No. 3 among new releases in Christian Leadership and No. 7 among new releases in Christian Discipleship.
Purchase Becoming Good News on Amazon.
“We celebrate this timely and practical resource, deeply grounded in truth and equipping people to embody the good news with hope, wisdom, and faithfulness,” said Life Pacific University President Dr. Angie Richey.
Moving Beyond Behavior to Transformation
At the heart of Becoming Good News is a reimagining of what Christian discipleship can look like.
Cruickshank and Schmaltz challenge approaches to spiritual formation focused primarily on behavior modification, information or simply trying harder. Instead, the authors explore how identity, personal story, relationships and even the way the brain processes experience contribute to meaningful transformation.
The book asks readers to wrestle with five central questions:
Who is God? Who am I? Who do I belong to? Who am I becoming? Who do I represent?
Through biblical teaching, neuroscience and practical tools, the authors invite readers to examine the narratives shaping their lives and learn how those stories can be brought into alignment with the truth of the Gospel.
Learn more about Becoming Good News and the ideas behind the book.
For Cruickshank, the project builds on years of work at the intersection of neuroscience, education, discipleship and Christian formation.
A Harvard-trained expert in the neuroscience of transformation, Cruickshank founded Whoology to equip churches and leaders with brain-based approaches to discipleship. She is an ordained Foursquare minister, author of Ordinary Discipleship, speaker and longtime leader in experiential and neuroeducation.
Her work also connects naturally with LPU’s commitment to integrating rigorous learning, spiritual formation and leadership development.
A Resource Already Finding Its Way Into Churches
The early response to Becoming Good News has extended beyond book sales.
Cruickshank shared that readers have begun organizing book clubs around the material and that personal responses to the book have been especially meaningful.
Churches and ministry leaders can also access a collection of practical resources designed to help them take the book beyond individual reading.
Through Whoology’s Becoming Good News Church Kit, readers can access resources including sermon outlines, a small group guide, a promotional video and an Identity Formation Table designed to help churches and groups engage the principles of the book together.
The resources reflect one of the book’s primary convictions: discipleship is not meant to remain an individual or purely informational experience. It happens through relationships, community and the process of learning to live from an identity grounded in Christ.
Leaders Respond to Becoming Good News
The book has also received endorsements from prominent voices in Christian leadership, discipleship and ministry.
Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women, highlights the book’s emphasis on equipping every believer to become a disciplemaker, describing its message as an important call to rediscover spiritual formation for a new generation.
Dave Ferguson, CEO of Exponential and author of Multiplier, points to the connection between healthy leadership and healthy identity, noting that the book helps leaders move away from striving and toward formation rooted in Christ.
Author and neurotheologian Jim Wilder highlights the importance of what he describes as the “identity rebuilds” believers experience throughout spiritual formation.
Derwin L. Gray, cofounder and lead pastor of Transformation Church, specifically points to the relevance of the book in the midst of today’s mental health challenges and its integration of pastoral wisdom with scientific insight.
Together, those endorsements reflect the wide-ranging conversation Cruickshank and Schmaltz are hoping to encourage across churches, ministry teams and Christian communities.
Where Story, Science and Faith Meet
Becoming Good News represents an intersection of disciplines that have shaped Cruickshank’s work for years.
She completed her Ed.M. through Harvard University’s Mind, Brain and Education program and has spent more than a decade exploring how neuroscience and cognitive psychology can inform learning, discipleship and transformation.
Her previous book, Ordinary Discipleship: How God Wires Us for the Adventure of Transformation, similarly examined how people learn and change within Christian community.
In 2023, Life Pacific University welcomed Cruickshank to campus for a book signing, panel discussion and night of worship centered around Ordinary Discipleship.
Becoming Good News carries that work forward by focusing more deeply on the stories people live from and the role identity plays in spiritual development.
Co-author Julia Schmaltz brings three decades of ministry and leadership experience to the project and serves as Chief Operating Officer of Identity Exchange. Together, the two authors bring complementary backgrounds in neuroscience, storytelling, discipleship and ministry formation to the book.
Becoming the Good News We Share
The title captures the book’s central invitation.
The Gospel is good news to be proclaimed, but Cruickshank and Schmaltz argue that it should also increasingly become visible in the lives of people being transformed by Jesus.
That means discipleship is not simply about knowing more. It is about becoming.
For Life Pacific University, Cruickshank’s work reflects the type of thoughtful, faith-rooted leadership the university seeks to cultivate in its own students and community.
Through her service on the Life Pacific University Board of Trustees, her work with churches and ministry leaders, and the growing reach of Becoming Good News, Cruickshank continues to contribute to important conversations about how Christians are formed and how the Church can faithfully make disciples in a changing world.
Becoming Good News: Reimagining Discipleship Through Identity, Story, and Science by Jessie Cruickshank and Julia Schmaltz is available now.
Purchase Becoming Good News on Amazon.
Access the Becoming Good News Church Kit and additional resources.
Learn more about Jessie Cruickshank and her service on the LPU Board of Trustees.
