Toggle navigation

About Nothing to Prove

The visionary behind the million-strong IF:Gathering challenges Christian women to discover what it means to do life with God rather than always striving to impress him, in this trade paperback edition of her perspective-shifting work, which now includes bonus material to enhance your book club experience, including discussion questions and easy-to-create recipes.
 
All too many of us struggle under the weight of life, convinced we need to work harder to prove to ourselves, to others, and to God that we are good enough, smart enough, and spiritual enough to do the things we believe we should.
Author and Bible teacher Jennie Allen invites us into a different experience, one in which our souls overflow with contentment and joy. In Nothing to Prove she calls us to…

* Find freedom from self-induced pressure by admitting we’re not enough—but Jesus is. 
* Admit our greatest needs and watch them be filled by the only One who can meet them. 
* Make it our goal to know and love Jesus, then watch what He does in and through us.
 
As you wade into the refreshing truth of the more-than-enough life Jesus offers, you’ll experience the joyous freedom that comes to those who are determined to discover what God can do through a soul completely in love with Him.
* * * * * 

“These pages are what your soul is begging for"
—Ann Voskamp
 
Nothing to Prove takes us on a journey toward freedom from the need to measure up.”
—Mark Batterson
 
We love this glorious and universally resounding message.”
—Louie and Shelley Giglio
 
“This book will help you take your eyes off your problems and put them back on God’s promises.”
—Christine Caine

Praise

CBA bestseller
ECPA bestseller
Publisher Weekly bestseller
USA Today bestseller
Wall Street Journal bestseller


“These pages are what your soul is begging for. In Nothing to Prove, Jennie Allen reminds us that when we drive ourselves mad chasing perfection, we miss the beautiful grace God designed us to live in. One of the most brilliant Bible teachers of our time, Jennie hands us all emancipation with these pages.”
—Ann Voskamp, author of The Broken Way

“All I know is that when I’m around Jennie, she makes me hungry to know God better. Her passion to be His above all others—at any cost—stirs something in my soul. Read Nothing to Prove and see if some of what she’s learning at His feet doesn’t spill over onto your yearning soul as well.”
—Kay Warren, Bible teacher and author of Choose Joy

Nothing to Prove takes us on a journey toward freedom from the need to measure up. With vulnerability and authenticity, Jennie Allen encourages us to wade deep into the streams of the Living Water and live secure in the knowledge that we have absolutely nothing to prove to God or to people.”
—Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church

“Way to go, Jennie! Loved this book! It’s one thing to write well about the high concepts of faith or, alternatively, about the nitty gritty of real life. To write well about both grace and Netflix, both the sufficiency of Christ and also homework—that’s very hard to do, and Jennie does it beautifully. I’ve watched her walk this path, and I’ve learned from her along the way. I’m so glad she’s inviting us all into this important conversation.”
—Shauna Niequist, author of Present Over Perfect

“Jennie Allen calls us to the best version of us—the version God intended. She calls us to rise above ‘woe is me’ and bring into focus ‘God is great!’ We love this glorious and universally resounding message. As a result of it, Jesus is being reflected and honored in new ways in and through this generation. Run, don’t walk, to read Nothing to Prove.”
—Louie and Shelley Giglio, cofounders of Passion Conferences and Passion City Church

“With honesty and raw passion, Jennie Allen invites us all to leave behind the proving and pretending that chokes the life out of us. There is more to life than this! Sharing the hard-won wisdom of her own journey, Jennie leads us to the foot of the Cross, where grace and mercy meet and we discover all over again that we have absolutely nothing to prove.”
—Jo Saxton, author, speaker, and board chair of 3DMovements

“Jennie Allen shares with great passion and transparency what every weary heart has been longing to embrace: Because of Jesus, we can stop striving. In Him, we are enough. And we have been all along.”
—Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times best-selling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

“In a time when rest is hard to come by, when our days are filled with the constant clamor to be more, do more, and have more, most people feel exhausted and overwhelmed. Jennie Allen shares from her heart, which is rooted in the Word of God, where true, deep soul rest is found. Using her own life as well as illustrations with which we can all relate, she faithfully proclaims that rest will only be found in Christ’s finished work.”
—Matt Chandler, lead pastor of the Village Church, Dallas, and president of Acts 29

“We live in a world that tries to steal our worth and identity on a daily basis. It shifts our hearts away from God and onto our own shortcomings. I am so grateful that my friend Jennie Allen, in Nothing to Prove, gives us all a realignment with the truth of Scripture. This book will help you take your eyes off your problems and put them back on God’s promises.”
—Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women

“Jennie is one of those rare people who holds a fiery and prophetic vision with such tenderness and grace. And because of that, hers is a voice I’m always reading and learning from. In this book she gets my nose in the Scriptures and my knees on the ground, and in my opinion a book that does that is as good as it gets.”
—Jefferson Bethke, New York Times best-selling author of Jesus > Religion

“‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’ Jesus shouted this to a crowd of confused, weak, spiritually thirsty people, tired from trying so hard to be enough and do enough—people like me and you and Jennie Allen. This honest, wonderful book is Jennie’s humble shout that Jesus is telling the truth. It’s her story of finding freedom and refreshment. And if we listen to her, it can be our story too.”
—Jon Bloom, cofounder of Desiring God and author of Not by Sight

About Jennie Allen

Jennie Allen is the founder and visionary of IF:Gathering as well as the New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head, Find Your People, Made for This, Anything, and Nothing to Prove. A frequent speaker at national events and conferences, she is a passionate leader, following God’s call on her life to catalyze a generation to live what they believe. Jennie earned a master’s in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. She and her husband, Zac, have four children.

Product Details

256 pages | Published by WaterBrook

On Sale Date: Feb 6, 2018

Trim Size: 5-1/2 x 8-1/4

Carton Quantity: 24

Sneak Peek

Read the first chapter of Nothing to Prove. No More Pretending. No More Performing. No More Fighting to Prove Yourself. Are you tired, inside and out? Are you trying your best to measure up—yet you still feel as if you’re losing ground and missing out on the best parts of life? You are not alone. Jennie Allen understands the daily struggle so many of us face with inadequacy and insecurity and the fear that we are not enough. And she invites us into a different experience, one in which our souls overflow with contentment and joy. In Nothing to Prove she calls us to… * Find freedom from self-induced pressure by admitting we’re not enough—but Jesus is. * Stop doing things for God, and start doing things with Him. * Admit our greatest needs and watch them be filled by the only One who can meet them. * Discover how God moves wildly through those who have nothing to protect and nothing to prove. * Make it our goal to know and love Jesus, then watch what He does in and through us. As you wade into the refreshing truth of the more-than-enough life Jesus offers, you’ll experience the joyous freedom that comes to those who are determined to discover what God can do through a soul completely in love with Him. Discover the answer to your soul-deep thirst Too many of us have bought into the lie that our cravings will be satisfied if we are enough and if we have enough. So we chase image, answers, things, and people—and we wonder all the while,Why am I still thirsty? My single goal with this book is to lead your thirsty soul to the only source of lasting fulfillment: Jesus. He is the living water, a limitless supply that will not only quench your thirst but will fill you and then come pouring out of you into a thirsty world. Because of Him, you are loved. You are known. You can take a deep breath. Because you have nothing to prove. —Jennie

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Beverly Rykerd
 VP/Publicity Director
(719) 268-1935
brykerd@penguinrandomhouse.com
 
NOW IN PAPERBACK
National Bestseller
Nothing to Prove: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard
by Jennie Allen, Founder & Visionary of IF: Gathering
 
 “By the time I finished reading, I felt freer and happier than I’d been in a long time. It’s amazing how taking on a new perspec­tive can make such a difference!”  FIRST FOR WOMEN Magazine
 
“These pages are what your soul is begging for. In Nothing to Prove, Jennie Allen reminds us that when we drive ourselves mad chasing perfection, we miss the beautiful grace God designed us to live in. One of the most brilliant Bible teachers of our time, Jennie hands us all emancipation with these pages.” Ann Voskamp, author of The Broken Way
 
“Allen’s work is sure to find an audience far beyond the many IF: Gathering faithful.” Publishers Weekly
 
IF:Gathering founder, in-demand speaker, Bible teacher, wife and mother of four Jennie Allen brings her signature raw honesty, transparency and wisdom to help women address their fears, fight feelings of inadequacy and stop walking through life numb to real emotions and real feelings in her national best-seller, now available in paperback, NOTHING TO PROVE: Why We Can Stop Trying So Hard (WaterBrook, February 6, 2018).
 
Following its January 2017 release, Nothing to Prove became an instant national bestseller appearing on the bestseller lists for USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, CBA and ECPA. The new trade paper edition features bonus book club material with discussion questions and recipes.
 
A brilliant entrepreneur and provocative thinker, Allen has become one of the world’s most trusted voices when it comes to empowering women. As the founder of IF:Gathering, one of the fastest growing conferences for women in the world, Allen reaches millions. The 2018 IF:Gathering will be held February 9-10, reaching hundreds of thousands of women internationally.
 
Allen has a clarity of vision for the issue of self-worth and value that burden many women today. “Numbing and striving are two indicators that we are trying to find our worth in something other than Jesus,” Allen writes.
 
Drawing on scripture and her own struggles with an eating disorder, ADD, social anxiety, supporting family and friends through crises, the social pressures of being a pastor’s wife, mom guilt, and loneliness, she is leading a generation of women to let go of their striving and attempts to measure up by embracing that they are not enough, but God is. Topics in NOTHING TO PROVE include:
 
The beauty in the mundane. Allen wants readers to wake up to the gorgeous, routine moments they think are mundane, and recognize that fulfillment doesn’t exist in a purchase or a break, but in the people and world they experience every day. “The small things aren’t only building eternity; we also find Jesus as we live them. Jesus is in the midst of each ordinary messy mundane moment. It is where we often meet with Him, as we build spreadsheets in our cubicles, as we drive carpools, as we share a meal with friends, as we do dishes,” Allen writes. “These are the places we dwell with Him. Vision and rest and work and joy and Jesus and difficulty are meant to co-exist. But too often, caught up in our own cycle of striving and numbing, we lose sight of the beauty and grand story unfolding.”
Mom worry and guilt. Moms everywhere will recognize the crushing weight of feeling like they’re not enough – and will find relief and hope in the subsequent advice Allen offers through her own stories and struggles of inadequacy and guilt.
Letting go of what you carry. Allen wants women to name their fears, their insecurities, their pain. She urges them to call a close friend and talk about the junk they carry. And then, let those things go. Take the weight of those things off yourself and feel free. “It is not enough to simply acknowledge that Jesus is our enough; we need to be freed from our backpack existence quite regularly,” Allen urges. “We are missing our lives. Striving is stealing our joy, our moments. We are not meant to simply tick off the days until we go to heaven.”
Marriage is not an idol. Marriage and family have become idols and markers of achievement in our society, especially in our church. Through a touching interaction with her young daughter, Allen reminds women that no man and no dreamy wedding are necessary to complete, nor fulfill them. Their purpose and God’s plan for their life may or may not include a husband and children, and either way, they will be 100 percent complete.
Adoption. Allen is candid about the struggles and feelings of not being enough for her adopted son. “We’d been home for several months and Coop’s English skills were coming along. But I noticed I felt as if I was carrying a heavy backpack. A new pressure was growing in me. Cooper’s needs were unlike the needs I’d grown familiar with in my other kids, so parenting the way I’d always done was actually hurting him, pushing him away.”
How to develop more calm. From meditation and journaling to fasting from technology and making time for rich conversations, Allen outlines crucial ways to cultivate inner peace.
 
With Allen’s open, convicting dialogue, readers are challenged to stop numbing out with the many distractions our society has to offer – Netflix, alcohol, social media, shopping, exercise, career and more – and start embracing and living God’s unique callings for their lives.
 
“What if I told you today you could stop trying so hard and simply rest?” Allen writes. “What if I told you today you could start enjoying yourself and your life without performing or striving for another minute?”
 
For more information on Nothing to Prove, visit www.waterbrookmultnomah.com or www.jennieallen.com.  An accompanying 8-week Bible study, PROVEN, is available through www.lifeway.com 
 
#  #  #

Contact Publicist

Beverly Rykerd