About Brent

Brent has been a pastor for over 30 years and a preacher for almost 40.  He has always been fascinated by the Bible and convicted to teach it faithfully and correctly.  If asked what his favorite part of ministry was, he would say it was Bible teaching.

The hardest lesson he has had to learn, however, is that knowing doctrine and teaching the depths of scripture doesn’t necessarily translate into effective ministry.  He was always aware of the importance of relationships but only after connecting with his best friend, Frank, and discussing relationship skills over the course of a couple of years did it sink in how central relationships were to the ministry and stewardship of every believer.

Because developing authentic and effective relationships was secondary in importance at best, Brent found that his growing love for and knowledge of the Bible would not by itself prevent disappointment, fatigue, and failure in church ministry.  He finally learned that every pastor, missionary, evangelist, small group leader, church staff member, elder, and deacon has to do the work of being authentically relational to others, just like everyone else.

By the time Brent and Frank began considering the type of ministry that has emerged into 95FIVE, Brent was at a low point in his church ministry career.  He was at the point of giving it up and pursuing something else.  He didn’t feel that he fit into the modern church anymore; no one cared about change and growth, really, only ingesting the religious products served to them by professional clergy.

What he had forgotten, though, and had to learn again, was that people do care more than we sometimes realize.  However, they need more than sermons, Bible curriculum, and personal admonitions with scripture verses attached.  They need relational leaders.  They need to learn relationship skills from other Christians who live by them.  That was what Brent had been missing.

When Brent and Frank started working on this ministry approach, they were both exhausted, anxious, nursing their own wounds, and worrying about their problems, ones that were products of their own ineffectiveness in relationships with people in their lives.  They began by rebuilding their own friendship according to the principles they learned from God’s wisdom and the result is 95FIVE.  

Neither of them have “arrived” at relationship proficiency in all the skills they have identified, but they feel that the principles they share with others in the teachings of 95FIVE are critical to their own effectiveness.  Both have experienced genuine change as they articulated them in writing their book and program.  They look forward to expanding on them in the years ahead and seeing how those principles change others who are burdened with the stewardship of their own relationships.