Brent Wills - Any Way You Can Share The Love Of God
Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God. This is the Cumberland Road. I'm your host, TJ Malinoski. Even as a young child, today's guest realized he could contribute to the life and ministry of his home church from taking on the task of unlocking the church building and turning on the lights to now serving as a pastor. Reverend Brent Wells shares his faith journey. In our conversation for Cumberland Road, Brent takes me deeper into the minister's life and what it is like to be a second career pastor, to hold multiple jobs, and what keeps him grounded. He talks about how his faith has taken a unique turn in the arrival of his son, Benjamin. Enjoy this new episode of Cumberland Road with guest Brent Wells.
T.J.:Brent Wells, you are the minister at Jerusalem Cumberland Presbyterian Church. You are a bus driver for the Wilson County School System. You are director of Camp Crystal Springs. You are a seasonal worker of Cedars Of Lebanon, Tennessee State Park. What am I missing?
Brent:That's the four main jobs. So, of course, I realized that church work is a calling. Right. But that is the that is the big thing in terms of vocations with with what I do. Well,
T.J.:Brent, thank you for joining me on the podcast. How do you manage all of those different roles?
Brent:Well, TJ, thank you for inviting me to be a part of the podcast. It's truly an honor as I was, sharing with you. I saw a lot of the names that you've had previously, and you got some great folks that you have shared with here on the Cumberland Road, and it's an honor to be included in that group. To answer your question, to manage all the different between and that doesn't even count, of course, the family life, you know, with my wife and son. But to to just simply manage the the duties of of having, in essence, four four different jobs at the same time, it does take a lot of skill.
Brent:It takes a lot of putting things in priorities as well. It takes employers that are very cooperative and understand that you have other positions that are sometimes needed. Of course, you know, I tell everyone first and foremost, I feel like, you know, the primary one is, of course, minister. You know, all of my other positions know that as pastor of a church, you know, things can happen. The phone could ring at any minute, and a church member need you, and you gotta go.
Brent:And fortunately, I'm blessed that they all tend to understand that and work with that. Of course the the school bus driving is probably the one of the most time consuming positions, which a lot of people might find that interesting because they're thinking we get up in the morning run around, and you go back that afternoon run around. You also get field trips in there. Or in my case, I work full time for our bus garage. So even if I'm not on the route, I'm out there in the garage not working on buses.
Brent:If I worked on them, they'd never start up and run again. But I do a lot of the I'm the head gofer, I guess. I do a lot of the shuttling when they need one brought into the shop or or taken back out to to a driver. I get in the truck and go for parts runs at the dealership, things of that nature. It's the most consistent as far as time wise.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Brent:The church camp is, of course, during the summer, that's the peak season, but again there's always needs there, and of course now that we're year round at Crystal Springs, you can have camps at any time of the year down there, but I've got a good staff in place with site manager, an assistant site manager, and our cooks, some board members there to help me out if I need an extra helping hand, and we can pretty much take care of the groups when they come in to use our facilities at the campground. The seasonal position with the state park, they pretty much know it's if they need something, if I happen to be available, I will help them out. And they don't ask for much. They they know that I'm pretty busy with these other positions, but they do occasionally ask me when they have different programs or or different things happening at the park. They may call me in as an extra helper for that.
T.J.:Alright. Brent, I like starting our conversation with a question about journey and experiences. I find a good place to start on a faith journey is is asking, can you recall a meaningful experience with God? Something that could be recent or an early encounter.
Brent:You know, I I really don't know if I could single out one single experience because my faith journey, my whole life has pretty much been a faith journey. I do not know what life is like without God. I like to tell everybody I was pretty much born in the church. You know, I was born and then very shortly, probably the very following Sunday, was taken to church and grew up in the church. And so, you know, a lot of people that will share stories and will will will speak and and and give their testimonies per se, and, you know, their stories always, I was this type of person.
Brent:I did this, this, and this, and and then God came in and changed my life. And I don't have that story. God was pretty much there from the beginning. As early as I can remember, you know life always involved God. Growing up you know as a child in the church, participating in the programs and the ministries that the church offered for children, doing the things that most all of our children in our churches do now.
Brent:You know you you served as acolytes. You went to your children's Sunday school class. You went to vacation bible school. You went to, you know, your children's program on Sunday night or Wednesday night or whatever night of the week your church had a special program for the kids and youth. And then of course, in a sense, I'll use the word graduating.
Brent:Graduating into the youth group where you got to be in that senior youth group and and start doing more things as a teenager or going to presbyterial events and camps and things of that nature. And then of course finishing youth group and being a young adult in the church, serving you know as a college student or in a young adult ministry. If memory serves, I believe that's where you and I met each other originally was young adult events that the Senate was doing or the denomination was doing. And of course eventually working you know your way to becoming you know either being asked to serve as a deacon or an elder in the church. And just that whole sequence of events, growing up, God was always there.
Brent:You know, everything that I did, you know, every decision I had to make, knew that God had to be included in
T.J.:Is there any experiences in in your early life, we'll start there, and then we'll move gradually towards the present
Brent:Okay. That
T.J.:really stick out as pivotal moments for you in your growing closeness with this ever present God?
Brent:I think it was in some of the moments when I was asked to do things at church that were responsibilities you normally would not give to children in the church. And what I mean by that is, you know, I I grew up. I was the nerdy kid that, you know, worried about all the logistics of everything. I, you know, I was I was not the I'm sure I'm sure my parents could tell stories that, yeah, I probably did my share of running circles around all the pews or running up down the hallway of the Sunday school wing and things like that. I'm not gonna deny that, but that probably existed.
Brent:But I I think it was the moments when you really felt God calling you to step up, and you realized that you were probably doing a little more than what anyone expected of you to do. Right now, hanging on my wall here at my home, there is a certificate. It it's a certificate of appreciation. It was given to me by my home church. And the title they put on it was pastor's helper.
Brent:Wow. Because they said I did so much around the church on any given day that it was like I was a pastor's helper. And, you know, that was presented to me, around 1982 or 1983. And, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and admit my age. I was born in 1973.
Brent:So, you know, I would have been nine, 10 years old at this point. Mhmm. And, you know, one of the things, like after church, I would go through, I would turn off all the lights and lock up all the doors. And most churches probably don't account on a nine year old to lock their building down for them after worship. But you know I would do stuff like that.
Brent:I would try to be out there helping the guys if we were having a fellowship meal, setting up tables and chairs, and realizing that I was contributing. That God was using me even though I was a young child I could still do something to help out around the church. Even in you know youth group, you know I would have been the sixteen seventeen year old kid in youth group you know I had my own key to the church van. I was the guy it's like hey we've got an outing tomorrow night like will you make sure the van has gas before we leave and you know I would go fill the church van up with gas. And just routine tasks.
Brent:And yet moments that I realized that, you know, God had given me some responsibilities there that, you know, I was expected to fulfill. That I needed to fulfill and and that I could. And so, you know, even in those moments of routine tasks that in all maybe they gave me some of those jobs because the adults didn't want to do it, but at the same time, you realize that, it's an important responsibility because you're doing it for God and that God is, in essence letting you do that to learn and and to know that you're there, you know, that he is that God is there with you.
T.J.:Brent, you grew up in the Lebanon Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Is that correct?
Brent:That is correct.
T.J.:Okay. And so you were you were a lifelong member there, and that that's where you got your your faith grounding is is in the Lebanon church.
Brent:Yes.
T.J.:Now you didn't always have a a calling into ministry to the word and the sacraments. So share a little bit about that. You actually had a first career.
Brent:Yeah. I did. You know, after after doing all these things around the church, you know, just being regular member, doing the routine stuff that all members, you know, do to serve through their church. Mhmm. I finished college, and my my major was mathematics and secondary education.
Brent:So when I graduated college, I came out of college as a high school math teacher. Remember I told you I was the nerdy kid growing up. So, I got a position at Lebanon High School, which actually was the same school I attended in high school and graduated from and I taught math up there. I taught geometry that was a I taught high school geometry for eleven years And I loved it dearly. I certainly enjoyed that time, and I think God was using that time.
Brent:I tell I tell everybody now that was my years of youth ministry, working in the high school. But I certainly enjoyed it. I felt called to it. My first my first, I guess, go to when I started college was I was really fond of accounting. And I took a lot of accounting classes.
Brent:And, you know, the more I took, the more I just wasn't really fulfilled by them. I felt, you know, being pulled back into education. And so, I guess at that point I kind of gave in and said, okay, God, if you're trying to pull me toward education, I'll do that. And I went back and took, started changing my major and, got caught up on taking the teaching classes and the math classes. Any advice for any of our young, folks that are going to college that may be listening, whatever you do, do not take six math classes the same semester.
Brent:That's not a good idea. Don't recommend it. But, I had to do that in order to get caught up and still graduate on time and allow for the student teaching. But it was certainly a career I enjoyed. I loved watching the the students in high school, progress and mature and be successful.
Brent:I would, go to all of the different sporting events and cheer them on, as part with our school spirit. That's actually when I started driving a bus. I got my license and, drove drove our school's activity bus for the field trips and, took them to ball games and took them to the different club meetings and extracurricular things, took them on field trips, and loved every moment of that career. But then just, God pulled me away.
T.J.:Now while you were teaching, Brent, were you also active in the church? And if you were, what did that look like?
Brent:I was. I I was teaching during the week, but of course, as far as the church life, I was, of course, I was a member at the Lebanon Church, and I was very active, with being there, doing what I could and serving in various ways. I spent several years teaching in the church. On Sunday nights we had our children's program and I taught the fifth and sixth grade, children in that program. I would always teach fifth and sixth grade, during the school year.
Brent:Every summer I would work vacation bible schools. I would normally teach third and fourth grade because I'd see what kids I'd be would be getting that fall as fifth graders. And by then they had asked me to serve as a deacon in the church. And so I took more of a role in, you know, leadership in the church serving as a deacon. By this point in time, you know, I was also very active serving in the young adult ministries.
Brent:Our Tennessee Synod had a young adult ministry and I was very active serving in that as well. You know, more of teaching roles in the church cause I thought, well, hey, that fits perfect with the teaching that I'm doing in in school. I had the schedule to allow for it since I was on the school schedule. You know, we got summers off like all the teachers, and of course, you know, that's the go to folks you always need for your vacation bible schools and for church camps. And and that's really when I got most involved in camps.
Brent:It sounds almost strange that I'm a camp director now, and I attended one church camp growing up. I went my seventh grade year to junior high camp at Crystal Springs. That's because the Lebanon church had a big group going. Our pastor at the time, Don Acton, was the camp director for Murfreesboro Presbytery that year. So he took us that year.
Brent:So I was there that year. The other years, we didn't necessarily have a large group going. You know, we're two hours away from the church camp, and we just didn't get to go every year. And that's something I missed, and that's something that I I really felt a a sense and a burden for for the these kids in the church. If they wanna go to camp, we're gonna get them there.
Brent:Mhmm. And so I started working on staff for the church camps as well. I would work junior camp and junior high camp every year. You know, I I would live at the church camp for about at least three weeks every summer, and I would take the group from our church and serve as a camp counselor with them. So there was always something going on.
Brent:If anybody needed me, you know, this was a probably a few years before cell phones and GPS tracking and all that was popular, but you know if you needed me, you know, go by the church. I might have been there. And if you didn't see me, check and see if the van was there or not. And if it's gone, I'm probably out somewhere in the van. But if it's there, look around.
Brent:I'm probably there somewhere. Especially if my car truck was there.
T.J.:So let's talk about the the natural what appears to be the natural progression of of your growing involvement in church life in the leadership role. So kinda kinda walk me through the your calling and and what that felt like and and how how did you because sounds like things were going pretty well. You were active in the church, and you had leadership roles, and you had a full time job, and you were even doing ministries outside the local congregation, yet you still feel this pull to to the ministry to the word and sacrament. So, yeah, kind of describe that transition.
Brent:Well it boils down to God basically said that's not enough. Wow. And part of it was on me as well. Part of it was probably my attempt to try to do all this stuff, active in the church, and be involved in all these different programs of the church, and be involved with this committee and that committee and this group and that group. Part of that was, I guess so I could build my resume and say, look God at everything I've got going on, isn't this enough?
Brent:Can't you know is this is good I don't need to do anything else and I got to thinking about it one day I there was a point in time that I had done every job in the church with the exception of leading congregationals and choir singing and being nursery attendant. And of course nowadays you know having been a pastor for a small church I have had to lead the choir before or or not the choir, but lead the congregation before. So I think I've knocked one of those off the list, but, you know, I I tried to busy myself on all this all this work and stay active, which again I thoroughly enjoyed. You know, when it was all, you know, service and ways that I could live out my faith, by by sharing and by participating in the different missions we would do or or the different education programs that we had. But God kinda kept pulling at me that, know that I've got something else in mind that I really want you to do.
Brent:And, of course, I kept putting, god off saying, no. I've got a lot going on right now. I'm already doing this much for you. You know? This is what you need me to do, you know, thinking I knew better or something.
Brent:And and it just, you know, I kept sensing God call me more toward to, you know, the ministry, the the ordained ministry as a pastor for a church. You know, God's like, all this other stuff is great, and it's preparing you for what I have in store. You know, as a pastor, you're gonna teach. And so I've got you as a teacher. I've had you with experience in the children's program and the youth program, and you're in church leadership as a deacon.
Brent:It's like God was setting me up for all this and then said, okay. You know, you need there's something more. You know? There's other folks in the church that can now take over these duties, but I'm calling you to take off to seminary and become ordained as a minister.
T.J.:Was that
Brent:And I kept putting God off. I I did not see myself as a minister. You know? I saw myself as one of those guys behind the scenes. I I saw myself as, you know, I can you know, somebody else can be the youth minister.
Brent:I'll make sure that the van serviced and has gas in it before we go on the youth mission trip. You know, I'm I'm fine with that. Or, you know, someone else can be up front having to talk every morning. I'll I'll sit back here and operate the sound booth and take care of controlling the mic turning the microphones on and off when we need to. You know, I'll take care of that.
Brent:But God kept pulling at me and and saying, you know, no. There's more. And, I started talking with some folks. You know, the the call got a little bit stronger. And, I got to thinking, if I don't answer God's call, I am going to get probably the worst class of high school students you have ever seen before in your life if I stay in the high school.
Brent:And I I finally I I guess, like many ministers would say, I, you know, I surrendered to the call, and and I went and talked with with my pastor, which, you know, that's I had grown up with wonderful pastors in our church. And, of course, probably, I'll throw a name out. The one that probably was one of the more influential ones on my faith journey was, Reverend Steve Delashment, who's now at Bowling Green. He was in Lebanon for most of those years that I was growing up. Now I mentioned Don Acton when as a younger child.
Brent:Mhmm. But of course, I was a young child. You know, it was, Steve when I actually got old enough to really start thinking about, you know, God in my life. And then of course, he had since gone to Bowling Green, so Kevin Madeline, who is still at Lebanon, was was pastor. And I went and talked with him, and he shared a little bit of his story with me.
Brent:And he said, Brent, I know it's scary if to go into the ministry because you're leaving a stable job with the school system to go to seminary. You are, you know, everything you've known is about to change. He said, but really the most scary thing that's out there is if you're not doing what God is wanting you to do. And that statement really hit hit home with me and it struck a chord thinking that I'm worried about how scary it is to answer the call and and go before presbytery and go to seminary and and that. And yet he was right.
Brent:You know, it would be more scary to not do what God was calling you to do. And so, he shared with me about the process, and so we went before the next session meeting at the church. We went in there, they were discussing, you know, they were on a rotating session, they were discussing who they wanted to nominate to replace the elders who were rotating off, And they, I was sitting there, and they mentioned me. They're like they're like, well, it's about time we make you elder. I'm like, well, I appreciate the offer, but we've got something else going on right now.
Brent:So, I like to tell people, I I never made elder in the church. I was only a deacon. But, we we shared with them, you know, how I wanted to go before Presbyterian. Of course, they, wrote the the letter of recommendation. I met with the committee on the ministry, went before presbytery, shared the faith story, and I will never forget, you know, after when any candidate comes before pretty much any presbytery and you know they'll share their their calling and they'll share a little bit of their faith journey and then, you'll have a chance to ask questions.
Brent:Everybody sat there. Nobody asked me any questions. Of course, in all fairness, you know, I had been in this presbytery since birth, growing up as a child as a youth you know so in all fairness they had basically watched me grow up and a lot of them knew me.
T.J.:Right, right.
Brent:It wasn't they were slacking on their duty to examine. I think most of them pretty well knew me. And of course they, you know, they ask the questions from the confession, and then, you know, after that everybody comes forward and extends the Right Hand of Christian Fellowship. They, you know, most folks will tell you like, oh, congratulations, or, know, we're so excited that the god's doing this. And one of the ministers came down the line and reached out, shook my hand, and just looked at me and said, about time.
Brent:So I I think some of them might have known before I did.
T.J.:Maybe. Very well. Maybe. Well, Brent, let's jump up closer to the present now. We've we've kinda laid some foundation of how how god has been part of your life and how your faith has grown and the opportunities that you have served throughout your life.
T.J.:As someone who is juggling four jobs, four vocations, and a family, what is it about your faith in Jesus Christ that is keeping you grounded?
Brent:It is tempting at times to look at it to see, you know, how many boxes have I checked off or what can I get checked off? Mhmm. It's it it does take great effort to remind yourself that there are times you you just kinda have to back away a little bit and and either rest or one of the things that I constantly have to do is remind myself that in all these different things I'm doing, they're being done for God. And it's God's thoughts and opinions that matter on it. I mean, it's easy.
Brent:You can take any of those positions and start pulling things out. You know, I I'm I'm sure that I have folks in the church that would probably tell you, you know, he probably spends way too much time on a school bus instead of taking care of us. I'm I'm sure I get that criticism. You know, on the other hand, there's probably people at at camp right now saying, where is that, director at? Why is he not around here?
Brent:My group is here, and I haven't seen him at all this week. And, I have to remind myself that that everything that's being done it's it's it's all about God's approval not necessarily people's approval. I learned a long time ago that for most for a lot of jobs if not most of them probably if you do that job accurately, if you do it the way it's supposed to be done, most other people probably will not know you did that job. If you mess up in that job, everybody knows that you have just messed up. You know, on anything.
Brent:The I I spent all day moving buses around for the county. If I did my job correctly today and I got those buses moved to the right spots they need to be for when school starts, those drivers are going to jump on board, take off in them, they're not even gonna know I moved them. I did the job right. On the other hand, if if I forgot one of them and it was supposed to be on the other end of the county and I I I've got it in the wrong parking place, then, that driver's gonna be called in fussing, complaining. You know, who was supposed to move these?
Brent:I was expecting it to be in this location. And then everybody knows I messed up on that job. I've discovered it's a lot of times the same way in the church. And we all know those folks and and not just not just preachers. Any dedicated person in your congregation, There are countless jobs in our churches today.
Brent:No one knows what that person did until after you've had their funeral and that job goes undone. And then you realize the little things they did that you never knew it. Mhmm. And and I feel that way a lot trying to balance all this out, you know, with, you know, I I try to do everything I need to do to the point that you probably don't know what I did, but but it was done. And that applies for whether it's the church, whether it's the school system, whether it's the camp, you know, even if it's the state park.
Brent:It's, you know, you have to get it done. Knowing that, you know, there's gonna be criticism from probably all different directions saying, he could have spent more time here doing this. And fair enough. You know, I probably could have.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Brent:But I spent the time needed at that point to get the posit get the job done.
T.J.:Well, Brent, is there anything in particular about your faith that grounds you in those tough moments of juggling all those jobs? Is there a scripture? Is there is there a prayer? Is there anything that keeps you centered when everything is whirling by in the fast paced world that you live in?
Brent:I think it's the assurance of knowing that God is in control. Okay. That right now, you know, God has called me to to do those all of those jobs. And I keep saying one day I'm gonna grow up, maybe just get one job. But I don't know.
Brent:I've been someone who's done multiple things throughout life. And and the thing is, you know, God has given me a love for all those things. You know, I love pastoring the church and serving in that position. I love working the church camp. I've also I've often told folks that these days, can I go back over into the cabin as a counselor and be kept up all night by the boys in the cabin?
Brent:I don't know. I've kinda gotten used to having my own cabin down there as a director. I don't know if I could do that. I may have to when Benjamin starts going to camp. That's my son.
Brent:But I find that, you know, my love for each of those things, you know, even even the school bus, and I know there's countless people who who say, my goodness, I could never drive a school bus. I could not put up with those kids. There's days it's trying, but, you also have to remember, you know, I'm picking those kids up at the corner of their street or the end of their driveway. I don't know what life is like for them when they walk inside that house or go in back inside that apartment. There is that real possibility that I may be one of the few adults that smiles at them that day or, you know, even speaks a word to them.
Brent:And you you hope that, you do some some good in that. And that's what motivates you to come back the next day, you know, even though they were noisy that day. You you know, you you realize that, you know, hey. I I enjoy going and seeing the kids. You know, God's put me here.
Brent:You know, we we've all heard those old sayings, you know, about, preaching the gospel and if necessary, use words. I have learned that you share the love of God sometimes by preaching in the pulpit, sometimes by sitting in the driver's seat of a big yellow thing that says school bus on the side of it.
T.J.:Alright. I have another question for you. As a minister who is among many ministers who are juggling two or more more jobs. Brill, what words of encouragement and what words would you encourage us as Christians to share in terms of our faith with other people? Because you you get to encounter various different age groups, especially during the school year, all in one day.
Brent:I would I would say try to always take advantage of the opportunities that God gives you. You know, one of the ways I typically end our services at church at the very end, will say something to the effect of, you know, remember all the opportunities today and the opportunities in the week that's coming that God will give you to interact with others.
T.J.:I like that.
Brent:And of course that doesn't always mean, you know, preaching the sermon to them. You know, even though as preachers, you know, we sometimes try that. Obviously, you know, that, works on Sundays when I'm at the church. That doesn't work that well, you know, in the on the 15 ride to the high school on the bus. Or or if you're at the camp and it's time to go swimming, you know, they're just not listening that good at that point.
Brent:They're ready to go swimming. But, you know, try to in whatever way you can, share the love of God, you know, even if, you know, like I said, it may not you may not even say a word about God. But just let them see God's grace and God's love flowing through you. Let them see that, you know, you love being and doing what you're doing. You know, if you're wanting to inspire the kids at camp to come back one day as camp counselors, let them see how much you love being a camp counselor and serving in the Presbyterian camping programs.
Brent:You know, if you want to encourage folks to enter the ministry, let them see how much you love being a minister. You know, if you want to encourage even the kids at school in whatever career path they choose, Let them see how much you love doing the job you're doing, whether it's you know teaching in the classroom, or serving as the principal, or preparing the food in the cafeteria, or, or like me, you know driving around town, you know, running them back and forth up and down the streets in a bus. Let them see that, you're not, you know, all down and out like, I gotta do this. I gotta do that. Let them see that it's something enjoyable.
Brent:Let them see your love. Hopefully that will inspire them.
T.J.:Where do you see God working in your life today?
Brent:Probably one of the ways I see God working in my life is through my family. I have a wonderful wife, Robin. She is very active with the women's ministry of the church. She is currently the president of our local CPWM. She's been the president of our regional and she has been an officer for convention even.
Brent:And so, you know, I see God at work in her and through our family. And of course speaking of our family, we are blessed with a eight year old right now, Benjamin. If you've been to General Assembly, you know Benjamin. So I just start I I answer to Benjamin's dad. That's my new name and nobody knows me they just know Benjamin's dad.
Brent:But you know when when we when he became part of our family that was really a God moment for both me and Robin because we were after we were married and you know like most young couples we made that decision we're going to try to start a family. We found out we would not be able to have children on our own biologically. So we started the adoption process and it did not go well at first. We had we were turned down on a few occasions. We were by a couple of agencies.
Brent:We were basically told we were too old to adopt. That really happens.
T.J.:And
Brent:and we were very concerned about, you know, would we ever be able to have experience of sharing with kids in our our life. And, of course, we continued praying about it. We happened to be at the church camp. We were on we had took supplies down there. We were unloading my pickup truck with the different supplies.
Brent:And we got a call from our social worker. It said, there's a mother that's in the hospital about to give birth. Could you send us some pictures because I forgot your profile book? You know, now when you try to adopt, you have to kinda put together a profile book. I guess I could compare it to, a a dating profile for those young adults who are online dating.
Brent:But, you know, telling all about your family and what your hopes are and pictures of of yourself and where you live and what kind of fun stuffs in your neighborhood. Basically something that would make that birth parent want to choose you as the adoptive parents for that child. And so she called us and said, I forgot your book. Can you just send us a couple pictures you got on your phone? Robin did it, thinking all all along, yeah, right.
Brent:This like this mom is gonna pick us after seeing, you know, oh, here's some nice books and here's here's another picture on my cell phone you can see of another family. And lo and behold we get a call the next day that the birth mother had chosen us. And you know we're we're still not even fully aware that this is real. You know we had kind of given up hope because we waited four years to be chosen and we had had a few rejections. And so you can reach the point you're thinking well nobody's gonna choose us.
Brent:And we're thinking can this really be? And so we take off, he was Benjamin was born in Memphis. So we take off to Memphis, calling on the phone. My wife's parents live in Jackson, Tennessee. We call them on the phone and say we're on the way to Memphis to supposedly pick up this baby.
Brent:Could you meet us at the interstate exit with whatever you need to bring a baby home from the hospital? That's really the conversation. So they met us out at the interstate exit in Jackson with like diapers and a pack and play and some outfits to put him in and, some formula and stuff like that. And so we went on into Memphis. We birth mom that night.
Brent:The next day we went to the nursery. We met Benjamin for the first time, at a day old. And then at three days old they, they let us they discharged him from the hospital and let us bring him home. That's when it got we got real when they actually put him in the car seat in the back of our car. And we were like, this is really happening.
Brent:God has really made this happen. And, because, you know, it it was such a different experience than the way most people prepare for a child. You know, they've got nine months to kinda get ready. You know, we had like one evening, maybe nine hours to get ready. And, but it was such a blessing that we saw God at work in that baby that was now going to be part of our family.
Brent:And so we left the hospital and as they were discharging him they were going to discharge the birth mom too. And they told us, they said, y'all need to go ahead and get out before we discharge her. By the way he's probably hungry and needs a change. So here we are in in, you know, Downtown Memphis with a with a baby that honestly my wife and I really didn't know what to do with, and so we did what everyone would do naturally. We we thought, okay, we're in Memphis.
Brent:What do we do? Well, we we'll go over to the seminary. And so we took Benjamin over to the seminary. And, over there, we, we we changed him and gave him a bottle. And, of course, everybody at the seminary came out and looked at him and loved on him a little.
Brent:So I'm proud that, know, my son has already attended seminary. He went there three days old. And, of course, you will probably remember this part because, your wife works was working there at the seminary, and she called to brag to you on how she had seen the baby. And, my phone rang, and I got and it was you, and you called me. And, I don't remember the way you worded it.
Brent:I'm sure you worded it more tactful than this, but the message basically was, if you know what's good for you, you're gonna stop in Cordova at the headquarters and let us see this baby on your way out of town. And so our second stop after leaving the hospital after going to the seminary was we stopped at the Cumberland Presbyterian headquarters where you all got to meet Benjamin. And so really he met his Cumberland Presbyterian family before he even met his grandparents. But, know, seeing, you know, having that child in our family, seeing the love and support we were getting from both our family members that were there to get supplies to us, but also the love and support from our church family was certainly a God moment of just realizing, you know, here is God, you know, bringing this baby into our life. And, you know, now he's grown up into this eight year old that can run around and terrorize everybody at General Assembly if he wants to.
T.J.:And yesterday was the celebration of the day that you brought him home?
Brent:Yes. July 19. We celebrated it. That was the day the adoption went final. We actually got to bring him home from the hospital when he was three days old, but the date he born in April, but of course the date in July, that's when we went back to court and the court declared the adoption final, that he was officially ours.
Brent:So, we call that his gotcha day because, God brought him into our life, and he he has been one of our biggest blessings to to have him. And, you know, every day when I see him, it's a reminder that, you know, God is there for us, that, you know we you read all the stories in the Bible about these parents that you know couldn't have kids and then they pray about it and then you know you get they get a kid. You know you read about Sarah, you read about Elizabeth, and you know you read about Hannah and and you know in our case here modern day you know here we we we've got a child and you know it was it was certainly God being there for us and once again just wrapping us in God's love.
T.J.:What hopes do you have for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church as we move further in to this decade?
Brent:My, I have several. My hopes would be that one, I hope that our church would continue to grow and witness in the world. You know you look at the statistics and you look at the numbers and we all know that they're showing decline. And my hope is that somehow we can reverse this trend and begin growing again. I know our overseas are growing well, but here in The States we've we're kinda lacking a little bit.
Brent:So I would hope that we can grow. Not not just numerically, not only that. I mean, obviously, it would be great to have more churches and more CP churches and more towns and more cities, but not just numerically. You know, I want us to grow spiritually as well. I want us to grow closer to God as well.
Brent:I want us to stay I want us to be united. You know, we've got a lot of different, for lack of a better word, I'm gonna say factions, you know, going on in the church now. And I want us be united because together we can do so much more than we can do separate. I still have hopes that one day our church, the Cumberland Presbyterian and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America will one day come together. I know we just completed this general assembly and we we know how the Presbyterians voted.
Brent:It's not gonna happen now, but at some point in the future I want us to continue working towards that so that whenever that day comes, you know, whatever day God sets for that, that it'll happen.
T.J.:Mhmm. Alright. I think all of those are achievable hopes for the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination.
Brent:I I hope so. That's, that's what we're gonna try to work for.
T.J.:Well, Brent, as busy as you are, I like asking every guest this question. How can we continue to follow you on your faith journey?
Brent:Well, like like every other church right now, we we are on Facebook, and we I have I have a personal page with lots of lots of Cumberland Presbyterians on it. But as far as ministry goes, the Jerusalem Cumberland Presbyterian Church has a a page on Facebook. And, of course, like so many churches, we're we've had to stream our services, on Facebook live on Sunday mornings. And we we actually and we have several folks from around the denomination that will tune in. They've they've taken advantage to, you know, check-in on a lot of other churches since everybody's online, and it's, I guess it's one of those hidden blessings.
Brent:You know? At first, when everybody had to get used to going online, we really didn't like it. It's a poor substitute for seeing people in person. But at the same time, it has allowed us to at least check-in on one another and to to be able to say, hey. At least I I touched base with you this week or I saw you this week or caught part of your service this week.
Brent:And so it's a good experience to to see, all of the churches that are out there doing what they can, to minister in this pandemic. So I guess I would refer you to the the church Facebook page or or my Facebook page. Or if you're in the Middle Tennessee area, I'm I'm I'm right here. The church is in Murfreesboro. I still live in Lebanon.
Brent:Just stop in and see me too.
T.J.:Alright. Oh, Brent, thank you for sharing your time for this podcast. This Brent Wells, minister, bus driver, camp director, and state park employee, husband, father, and many other things. Brent, thank you so much.
Brent:Well, thank you for having me, TJ. I appreciate it.
T.J.:And thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a friend and travel with us on our next journey down Cumberland Road.
