What do you think?
Rate this book
The Edge of the Inside: When Losing Your Place Means Finding Your Soul
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 an audiobook 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 audiobook 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.
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 an audiobook 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 audiobook 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.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 31, 2026
About the author
Jeremy Jernigan
3 books23 followersJeremy Jernigan is a writer, speaker, and recovering megachurch pastor. After two decades in full-time ministry, including serving as a Lead Pastor, he now focuses on helping people rebuild their faith after it breaks. He’s the author of The Edge of the Inside, and he hosts the weekly Rebuilding Faith series and the biweekly Cabernet and Pray podcast. He also hosts an online community where listeners and readers continue the conversation together. Jeremy lives in Arizona with his wife and five kids.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 17, 2026
I did not expect to feel so seen while reading this book. Jernigan has given me language to describe something I have been wrestling through in my faith for over 10 years now. It has been a lonely and isolating experience at times, and this book gave me the freedom to let go of the need to be understood in the midst of this journey.
Highly recommend to anyone who has been wrestling with tough questions for a long time, and who can’t reconcile a lot of church culture/history with who Jesus is.
“So when you’re standing on the rubble of the old images, wondering if there’s anything left to believe in, when the God you were handed looks nothing like the Jesus you’re meeting, then take heart. You’re not losing your faith. You’re finding it.”
Highly recommend to anyone who has been wrestling with tough questions for a long time, and who can’t reconcile a lot of church culture/history with who Jesus is.
“So when you’re standing on the rubble of the old images, wondering if there’s anything left to believe in, when the God you were handed looks nothing like the Jesus you’re meeting, then take heart. You’re not losing your faith. You’re finding it.”
March 31, 2026
This isn’t just Jeremy’s story - it’s our story. It speaks to what many believers feel when questioning the system begins to create distance, instead of belonging. Thank you Jeremy for sharing your heartfelt account of your journey from the center of Evangelical Christianity to the edge.
April 3, 2026
A must for all potential & current Jesus followers, extra valuable for the restless & Jesus curious
If you’ve ever winced when someone says the word 'church' but still find yourself drawn to the person of Jesus, please pick up The Edge of the Inside. Jeremy Jernigan articulates the 'unraveling' of faith so well, but he doesn't leave you there. He shows that the 'edge' isn't a place of exile—it’s a place of discovery. It’s honest, funny, and incredibly challenging in the best way possible.
Jeremy writes with incredible vulnerability yet does so without a hint of bitterness. It’s part memoir, part guide, and entirely healing. This book doesn’t give you easy answers or a new set of rules; instead, it gives you permission to be honest, to ask hard questions, and to find God in the uncertainty. If you’ve felt lonely in your deconstruction or reconstruction, read this. You’ll realize you aren't alone—you're just finding a better view.
If you’ve ever winced when someone says the word 'church' but still find yourself drawn to the person of Jesus, please pick up The Edge of the Inside. Jeremy Jernigan articulates the 'unraveling' of faith so well, but he doesn't leave you there. He shows that the 'edge' isn't a place of exile—it’s a place of discovery. It’s honest, funny, and incredibly challenging in the best way possible.
Jeremy writes with incredible vulnerability yet does so without a hint of bitterness. It’s part memoir, part guide, and entirely healing. This book doesn’t give you easy answers or a new set of rules; instead, it gives you permission to be honest, to ask hard questions, and to find God in the uncertainty. If you’ve felt lonely in your deconstruction or reconstruction, read this. You’ll realize you aren't alone—you're just finding a better view.
May 6, 2026
I don’t know if I’ll ever finish this book.
Every page and a half or so, I hit something that stops me in my tracks. It’s usually one of two things:
Affirmation.
I’ll read a line and think, That’s how I see it. Then I stop. I go back into my own experience, my own perception. I see my truth. That kind of affirmation does something—it strengthens me. It quiets that voice that says I’m the only one thinking this way. There’s real power in realizing you’re not alone. In finding allies.
Or this:
A great question.
Jeremy asks them constantly. And they stop me just as much. I’ll pause and start searching for the answer. Thinking. Pondering. I’ve always believed the question is greater than the answer. A good question opens something. It keeps you moving.
That’s what this book does.
Wherever you are in your deconstruction journey, you can pick it up, land on a blue highlighted passage, and find something that meets you there—something that steadies you or pushes you forward.
Every page and a half or so, I hit something that stops me in my tracks. It’s usually one of two things:
Affirmation.
I’ll read a line and think, That’s how I see it. Then I stop. I go back into my own experience, my own perception. I see my truth. That kind of affirmation does something—it strengthens me. It quiets that voice that says I’m the only one thinking this way. There’s real power in realizing you’re not alone. In finding allies.
Or this:
A great question.
Jeremy asks them constantly. And they stop me just as much. I’ll pause and start searching for the answer. Thinking. Pondering. I’ve always believed the question is greater than the answer. A good question opens something. It keeps you moving.
That’s what this book does.
Wherever you are in your deconstruction journey, you can pick it up, land on a blue highlighted passage, and find something that meets you there—something that steadies you or pushes you forward.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
After being given an ultimatum to silence himself for a month or leave his church after speaking about racial injustice, Jeremy Jernigan chose to walk away from a new posting as a pastor that he had once been so excited about.
From there, he shares his and his family's journey as they found themselves in a free fall that had them questioning the Christianity they had been an integral part of.
Jernigan shares insights on interpreting scripture from a lens of love instead of exclusion and hate, and depicts the experience of being on the "edge" of Christianity - a phenomenon Richard Rhor wrote about where you are part of a community, an insider, but also critical of the community, like an outsider.
If you have experienced religious trauma, have felt uncomfortable for your church's choice to tiptoe around social issues Jesus would have advocated for, or something just feels off for you in your current faith community, this book is a salve of solidarity and true community.
From there, he shares his and his family's journey as they found themselves in a free fall that had them questioning the Christianity they had been an integral part of.
Jernigan shares insights on interpreting scripture from a lens of love instead of exclusion and hate, and depicts the experience of being on the "edge" of Christianity - a phenomenon Richard Rhor wrote about where you are part of a community, an insider, but also critical of the community, like an outsider.
If you have experienced religious trauma, have felt uncomfortable for your church's choice to tiptoe around social issues Jesus would have advocated for, or something just feels off for you in your current faith community, this book is a salve of solidarity and true community.
April 17, 2026
The Edge of the Inside is the only nonfiction book to ever genuinely hold my attention, which I was surprised by considering the hundreds of other books I’ve read. It reignited my dwindling faith by answering all the questions and grievances I’ve had with Christianity, as the way the religion is most commonly practiced doesn’t capture the Christianity I’ve always wanted to believe in. I encourage anybody who’s ever felt the same way to try out this book and see if it changes the way you view yourself, Jesus, and the world as a whole — it certainly did for me. I had my mind changed about several aspects of Christianity and faith in general, one of which completely morphed how I view God as a Deity. Using witty comments and relevant references to keep you entertained while taking in unique perspectives (and, yes, they ARE unique) that you might have never even considered, this book is a great example of nonfiction, philosophy, and religion done RIGHT. Very impressed. 10/10
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews