Nicole C. Mullen says a prophetic moment in Uganda two decades ago set her on an unexpected path from songwriter and worship leader to author, and that the result is a book intended to spur readers toward what she calls “courageous” faith.
The book, titled “It’s Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing,” collects stories Mullen describes as examples of people who made “small decisions” that yielded “huge blessings” and, she said, “have had ripple effects throughout the millennia.” The chapters aim to encourage readers, particularly women, to “step up to the plate, to be counted, to say yes to God, to say yes to his ways and his right paths,” she said.
Mullen, whose career spans contemporary Christian music and worship ministry, said the seed for authorship was planted about 20 years ago.
“Years ago, probably back in 2005 … we were in Uganda, and this guy in the lobby, he came, and he just started prophesying to me,” she recalled. “He was saying, The Lord was going to eventually change my name to ‘author,’ and I would write all these books.”
At the time, the idea seemed implausible. “I said to my manager at the time … I can’t think of not one book I want to write. It was just so far fetched.” Over the next two decades, she said, that impulse grew into what became the book’s collection of biblical reflections and contemporary testimonies.
Mullen also recorded an audiobook, a process she described as unexpectedly personal and difficult.
“I love reading now, but somehow or another, those old voices were trying to attack me again, and so I found it to be a little more laborious than I had expected,” she said.
Ultimately, she said, the project felt like an offering that was multiplied by grace. “I gave him my loaves and my fish, and he said, Watch me multiply into something that’s going to help people.”
The book is meant to be practical and pastoral, Mullen said, pointing readers to Scripture as the foundation for moral choices. “I think we really have to know what the word says in order for us to make the right decisions and live a righteous life,” she said. “I can’t live a righteous life if I don’t know what right is.”
Mullen emphasized the book’s focus on often-overlooked biblical figures she calls “she-roes,” and on the ways ordinary acts of obedience can influence future generations. She credits elders in her own family — “my grandmother and my grandfather, my mom and my dad” — with modeling decisions that shaped her faith even amid personal missteps.
Those missteps, Mullen said, have informed her view of ministry and accountability. She urged a posture of measured judgment and abundant grace toward fellow ministers and believers.
“We are called at one point to a higher standard, because we are in front of the people,” she said. “However, I believe we are called … to make it right as soon as possible.” At the same time, she said, “I want to give the same grace to other people … not grace to the sin, but grace to the person that I’ve received.”
Mullen spoke candidly about personal failings early in her career and the role of redemption in her life.
“Back in the day, when I was singing background for different artists, … in my 20s, I got pregnant out of wedlock. I needed the same grace of God,” she said. “I’m proof of God taking, sometimes a faithless and him flexing and showing his faithfulness.”
Music, she said, remains central to her ministry and identity. Her most recent album, released last year, is a musical rendering of Psalm 91 titled “War Songs.”
“The latest album I put out was last year, and it’s called ‘War Songs,’ and it’s all of Psalm 91,” she said. “I did a companion of that in Hebrew, a companion of it in chichiwa, which is from Zambia, and a companion of that same album in French.”
Mullen said she continues to balance speaking, singing and writing. “When I go out to speak, I still sing. And when I go out to sing, I still speak,” she said. “It’s still you’re getting Nicole C Mullen.”
Addressing recent controversies that have shaken parts of the Christian music world, Mullen urged humility and reform without wholesale condemnation of ministry leaders.
“Any of us that are on a platform singing and ministering to you, we’re still in need of the same grace, and we’re in need of redemption that you are,” she said. “We really haven’t arrived. … I consider my own self a work in progress. I feel like I should wear a hat that says I’m under construction.”
Mullen said church leaders and artists should “say that deed was wrong” when misconduct is exposed, while avoiding a posture that seeks to condemn beyond accountability. “I’m not allowed to judge in a way that condemns someone,” she said, explaining that repentance and restoration are ultimately in God’s hands.
The book was published by David C. Cook’s Esther Press and is available in print, Kindle and audiobook formats. Mullen said she hopes its stories will fortify readers facing what she described as a “scary and sometimes dark world,” and will inspire “courageous decisions” grounded in scripture and compassion.
“I believe my part is to help infuse the saints to be able to do just that,” she said, adding that the testimonies in the book are intended to encourage “men and women to be who God has called us to be.”
For more information on “It’s Never Too Late to Do the Right Thing” or “War Songs,” visit Nicole C. Mullen’s website.
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