Brandon Petty grew up in a home most men would never recover from. Born to a teenage mother who was married six times by the age of 25, Brandon cycled through apartments, motel rooms, and relatives' couches throughout his childhood. He was raised primarily by women while the men in his life rotated in and out — most of them carrying their own unhealed wounds of addiction and abuse.
Between the ages of 8 and 11, Brandon was sexually abused by three different people, including a stepfather who was also a cocaine dealer and violently abusive toward his mother. The one stepfather who felt like a real dad — a man who took him fishing, taught him basketball, and loved him like his own — eventually lost his battle with alcoholism and walked away without warning, never to be seen again. Brandon's mother, exhausted by decades of trauma, eventually turned to drugs and ended up in prison. He finished high school living with his aunt and uncle. He met his biological father for the first time at 15, only to lose him to a sudden heart attack just as their relationship was beginning to heal.
By 18, Brandon was the first person in his family to graduate high school and go to college. On a sick Sunday morning when his aunt gave him permission to stay home, he chose instead to walk into a tiny country church with bullet holes in the wall — and fell on his face at the altar. God radically saved him. But as Brandon describes it, he got out of Egypt and spent years still circling the desert. He became a pastor, planted a church, built a ministry — and was doing all of it out of a broken place, trying to earn love he'd never received.
In 2015, the man who had sexually abused him at age 10 showed up as a volunteer at his own church. What followed was two months of nightmares, depression, and hiding in plain sight — until Brandon finally broke down in the shower and told his wife everything. That moment of confession became the beginning of his deepest healing. Counseling, spiritual formation, solitude sabbaticals, and the community of men he built around him helped him discover what it actually meant to be a disciple — not just a leader.
Today, Brandon leads Generation Church in Portland, Tennessee, is writing a book about his journey toward wholeness, and is helping men find freedom through confession, community, and the teachings of Jesus. His closing words in this episode may be the most powerful thing you'll hear this year.
Books mentioned: The Body Keeps the Score, An Invitation to a Journey, The Leader's Journey, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, The Wounded Healer, The Wounded Heart
Connect with Brandon: generationchurch.me | YouTube: Generation Church Portland Tennessee
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