Stumbling: A Sassy Memoir about Coming Out of Evangelicalism

"Pulled by the dialectics of joy and pain, certainties and uncertainties, life and death, first kisses and hookups, this is a tale of forging authenticity in a world that would rather shut it down."

Isaac Archuleta, LPC, Founder, Chief Executive Officer of iAmClinic, previous Interim Director of Q Christian Fellowship

"Stumbling will leave readers feeling seen and inspired to do their own self-reflection as they encounter Brandon's own journey regarding spirituality and identity after evangelicalism."

Adam Evers, CEO and Co-Founder of believr and nuFoundations

"Stumbling feels like a love letter to every ex-missionary, to everyone who has to leave their fundamentalist spaces for one reason or another, to every queer person wondering what faithfulness looks like. Brandon's storytelling is raw, communicating emotions on the page like a painter on canvas. If you need a companion as you are leaving hard places, this book is for you."

Kevin Miguel Garcia, mystic theologian, spiritual coach, author of Bad Theology Kills and What Makes You Bloom

"Brandon Flanery's memoir is riveting, exhausting, and damning. It is the story of the repeated and predictable spiritual torture inflicted on queer young people by most evangelical churches, of the damages inflicted by superficial theology and corrupt church cultures, and of the way refugees from these communities lack a point of reference outside them to process their thoughts about God, world, and self. This book will be an important contribution to the literature now being produced by evangelical exiles."

David P. Gushee, author of Changing Our Mind

"I haven't read a more honest, vulnerable, and therefore a more delightful and disturbing personal account of a queer believer's struggle with their own self, spirituality, family, friends, the church, and their God. I am certain Stumbling will help other LGBTQ+ Christians through their own stumbling, but I also hope it will help those who cause them to stumble to change their heart and minds to a posture of love and therefore affirmation."

David Hayward, NakedPastor, artist and author

"Brandon Flanery's memoir is evocative of a modern-day On the Road, with vignettes full of frenetic energy that carry the reader on a journey both around the world and through the writer's heart."

David and Constantino Khalaf, authors of Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage

"With wit and raw tenderness, Brandon Flanery's memoir is offered as an invitation into healing for so many other LGBTQ+ Christians who have walked the path of coming out. Flanery offers permission to doubt, rage, and perhaps even find hope in the midst."

Rachael McClair, author and Co-Pastor of Highlands Church Denver

"Raw, riveting, and healing. Brandon Flanery's Stumbling is an intimate and inspiring look into the journey through the rigid and repressive world of evangelical faith toward authenticity and an expansive faith as a queer wanderer."

Brandan Robertson, author of Dry Bones and Holy Wars

"Brandon's story is powerful and it serves as a helpful guide for those who are wrestling, doubting and growing."

Dave Runyon, co-author of The Art of Neighboring, Executive Director of CityUnite

"Read Stumbling as a part of the long-pent-up-release of witness calling the evangelical church to repent of its homophobic cruelty, especially to its gay children."

Ken Wilson, author of Letter to My Congregation, Pastor Emeritus of Blue Ocean Faith Church, Ann Arbor