Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry
Week 1: Introduction — Before We Begin
Read the Preface and Introduction of Gay Girl, Good God. Key Scripture: Psalm 139:1-18; Romans 1:16
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Before Jackie tells her story, she tells us why — and the reason matters as much as the memoir itself. Take this week to consider what you are bringing to this book, and why you picked it up.
Discussion Questions
6 questions1.Jackie opens by saying she is not writing primarily for people who used to be gay, but for anyone who has ever loved something more than they loved God. Does that framing expand or narrow your sense of who this book is for? How does it change the way you approach your own reading of it?
2.She is direct from the first pages that this is not a "how I stopped being gay" story, but a "how I met God" story. Why does that distinction matter? What would be lost — or distorted — if the book were framed the other way?
3.Jackie writes with the assumption that God is genuinely good — not just powerful, not just morally demanding, but good. Before reading further, where does that assumption feel easy for you to accept, and where does it feel like something you have to convince yourself of?
4.The subtitle signals a tension: "gay girl" and "good God" sit side by side. What assumptions do you carry about how those two things relate — either from the church culture you grew up in or from the broader culture around you?
5.Romans 1:16 describes the gospel as the power of God for salvation. Jackie's whole story turns on this. What does it mean for the gospel to be a power, not merely a message or a set of instructions? How have you experienced — or doubted — that power in your own life?
6.If you are reading this in a group, take a moment to share briefly: what drew you to this book, and what do you hope to walk away with? What are you willing to have challenged?
Closing Prayer
Lord, we come to this story before we have read much of it, and we already sense that it will ask things of us. We confess that we often approach hard topics with our conclusions already formed — either by a church culture that reduced sexuality to a rule, or by a broader culture that reduced identity to a feeling. Teach us to read with open hands. Teach us to trust, as Jackie learned to trust, that You are genuinely good — that Your commands are not obstacles to joy but pathways into it. Give us honest hearts for every week ahead. Amen.
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