Announcing My New Book!

I've been waiting to share this news for a long time now.

After I stepped away from my role as a Lead Pastor in 2020, I began a brutal unmaking of so many things I believed about myself, the church, and God. I expected to retire in my role and never gave much thought to any other future. The New Testament professor James F. McGrath captures what I felt:

While the loss of something that seemed permanent was almost inevitably traumatic for you, what hurt more than the falling beliefs was the loss of a feeling of certainty, of stability, of safety that you had because of that structure's illusion of permanence.

Time slowly revealed his point. What I lost was the illusion of something I never actually had. In the months and years that followed, I sat in the pain rather than rushing on to something new to replace it. I asked hard questions and let the discomfort become a partner.

I slowly noticed as new parts of me came to life. The despair and grief I felt were eventually joined in equal measure by something new: hope. And before long, I began to realize that my wounds didn't bleed anymore when you poked them. They had become scars. They will always be part of my journey, but they no longer hurt in the same way.

I am often asked some version of the question: "What happened?" The backstory of my departure from full-time ministry didn't lend itself to public sharing at the time. I knew I needed to heal before I could tell it. Otherwise, the bitterness would be too loud for any beauty to emerge. As the poet Khalil Gibran wrote, "If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in your hands?"

In the years since then, I have tried four different times to write a book about it. Each time I would get into it and realize it didn't feel right. The tone wasn't what it needed to be. I wasn't ready. I'm reminded of an insight from Diana Butler Bass about writing advice she once received:

An editor of one of my early books gave me some of the best advice I've ever received, as both a writer and a human being. "Don't write about a meaningful experience," she warned. "Until it is well past." "How long?" I asked. "Five years is a good benchmark," she replied.

Coincidentally, we've now passed the five-year mark since I left full-time ministry. And as I recently attempted to write the story again, something finally clicked into place. The water turned into wine. I was finally ready to share my journey and the insights about God that it produced.

That's why I'm beyond excited to announce that The Edge of the Inside: When Losing Your Place Means Finding Your Soul will be published through Quoir Publishing on March 31, 2026.

Here's what the back cover says:

What if the problem isn’t that you’re on the outside, but that you were never meant to live in the center?

In The Edge of the Inside, Jeremy Jernigan shares the raw, unvarnished story of walking away from a dream job at the center of megachurch life, not because he lost faith, but because he found a better one. After spending decades at the center of American evangelicalism as a pastor, leader, and insider, it all eventually unraveled. What felt like failure became an invitation to see faith differently.

This is a book for the ones who can’t unsee what they’ve seen. For those who feel the growing tension between the Jesus they love and the Christianity they were handed. It’s for the wanderers, the wonderers, and the quietly restless. With humor, honesty, and hard-won hope, this book is for anyone who feels disillusioned with the church but not done with Jesus.

The truth isn’t hiding at the center. It’s waiting on the edge.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part explores my journey from the center to the edge, inviting you to reflect on whether you may have experienced a similar shift. In part two, we explore how we perceive God differently when viewed from the edge of Christianity. Many doctrines we assume we must accept turn out to be more subjective than they appear. And finally, in part three, we envision a better way to move forward once we let go of the center. It takes a bit of spiritual imagination to navigate our faith and community from the edge.

If you're interested, you can read chapter one right now in our online community. I've already posted the chapter there and will post the entire book eventually (you'll also get access to an upcoming online course that accompanies the book).

I'm also looking for people to join a launch team for the book. Here's what you'll get if you join me in this:

• A digital copy in advance of the book's release
• Invitation to a private online group to discuss the book
• Behind-the-scenes content leading up to the launch
• Invitation to a private online Q&A about the book before launch

I can't wait to share stories I've never shared before. These are stories that have profoundly shaped who I am and will hopefully offer a satisfactory answer to the question, "What happened?" But more than that, I think many of you will find yourself in these stories. This type of journey is not unique to me.

In addition, I can't wait for you to read some perspectives about God that I haven't shared before. These are the ideas that tend to require a different path to see. I'm excited to see how Jesus meets us in these conversations and where they lead. I appreciate your support of my content and hope you will be encouraged by this new book!

👉🏻 Click here to join the launch team.