About Brian
Helping people take their next step toward Jesus.
Pastor by vocation. Speaker by primary expression. Coach by relationship. Author by extension.
Brian Drinkwine has led churches and ministries for twenty-five years as a pastor, primary communicator, strategist and vision-caster. He has preached to a handful of people gathered in a living room and spoken in rooms filled with thousands. Across every setting, the question underneath his work has stayed remarkably consistent: What helps people become more fully formed in the way of Jesus?
Raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of a Baptist preacher and once a political partisan himself, Brian knows from the inside how easily faith and political identity braid together. His own journey out of political captivity shapes how he teaches: with conviction, and without contempt.
His ministry has included planting and leading a network of house churches in Nashville’s urban core, serving in executive leadership in Santa Cruz, leading next-generation ministries, guiding a church through replanting and renewal, developing leaders and teams, and coaching pastors and churches through change.
Brian is strategically wired and naturally future-oriented. He sees systems, culture, obstacles and possibilities quickly, and his instinct is collaborative: put the real issue on a whiteboard, gather the people who carry it, and work toward clarity together. But strategy is never the destination. It serves the deeper pastoral work of helping people find clarity, recover hope and move faithfully through uncertainty.
His own experience with ministry conflict, loss, burnout and recovery has changed how he understands leadership. He believes healthy ministry grows from a life rooted in being with God rather than performing for God. He is especially drawn to leaders and communities experiencing disorientation—the moment when familiar categories stop working and a more faithful future has not yet come into view.
His teaching is anchored in the historic essentials of the Christian faith and marked by confidence about the center, curiosity about secondary questions, and a conviction that allegiance to Jesus must run deeper than every political, cultural and institutional loyalty. He is the author of Kingdom Over Empire, an Amazon bestseller.
Experience
- Twenty-five years of pastoral and ministry leadership
- Primary communicator and vision-caster for most of that time
- Lead-pastor experience in church planting and replanting
- Planted and led a network of four house churches
- Executive leadership for nineteen staff, including six direct reports
- Aligned a $1.8 million budget with ministry priorities
- Led teams of as many as thirty-six paid staff
- Next-generation ministries reaching up to 1,200 students in a summer and 250 weekly
- Community gatherings reaching thousands
- Speaker and coach for camps, retreats, churches and pastors nationally
- Deep experience with seekers, starters, returners and people in spiritual disorientation
- Author of Kingdom Over Empire, an Amazon bestseller
Education and credentials
- B.A. in Religious Studies, minor in Ancient Biblical Languages, Belmont University, magna cum laude
- Graduate theological studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Licensed for gospel ministry in 2005; ordained in 2009
- Assessed and approved as a church planter across multiple traditions
- Two V3 Movement graduate-level cohorts in healthy church methodologies
- Ridley-certified church-planting assessor
- SYMBIS-certified marriage facilitator
Family
At home
Brian is married to Sarah, a therapist, clinical leader and worship leader. Together they are raising two daughters, Shiloh and Eliyah.
Clear enough to enter quickly. Thoughtful enough to stay with you.
Brian’s work is for people willing to ask what has been shaping them—and churches courageous enough to imagine what faithfulness could look like next.