About
Hi, I am Bryant...
That is how he introduces himself on his own website. It is a fair summary of the whole approach, from a man with a Master of Divinity who calls himself a normal human.
Bryant Benitez is a communicator seeking to connect himself and others with Jesus. He is a pastor, leader, creative and pioneer who loves communicating how we can connect with God, and God with us. He has over ten years' experience leading Christian churches across a variety of denominations.
His heart is for those outside of the church.
He also describes himself as a normal human who enjoys creating all sorts of stuff, which is a considerable undersell from a man with a Master of Divinity from Fuller.
Where he comes from
Bryant is a Southern California native. He received his Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and served as Senior Pastor at Woodland Hills Christian Church alongside a range of other leadership roles across Southern California.
The house-church years
He led HNC:CHURCH, which stands for House. Neighbor. Community. Instead of a building it formed Mission-House-Churches: small groups meeting in homes for a season at a time, with three goals. Gather as a team. Grow in commitment as followers of Jesus. Go into the neighbourhood, find a need, and meet it. Then repeat.
It is a plain idea and a demanding one, and it says more about how he thinks than a statement of faith would.
The chaplain part
Bryant has served as a hospital chaplain. It is a particular kind of ministry: mostly sitting with people on the worst day of their lives, and saying considerably less than you feel you should.
You can see it in the books. Nobody in them gets handed a tidy answer either.
The upside down one
He hosts Upside Down Church, a podcast built on a premise most pastors would not risk: letting non-believers do the preaching. Turn the church upside down, he reasoned, and you are forced to look at it from a different angle.
He is credited on the feed as The Heretic and calls the whole thing shenanigans. Thirteen episodes exist and they are worth an hour.
See him talk about it
From 2016, when he was launching the house-church work. It is the only footage of him telling this story in his own words, so it is here despite its age.
Bryant on camera, telling the story himself.
And then the books
Two are out. A third, The Bones and The Breath, is being written. They are adventure stories for younger readers with the hard questions left in, aimed at the kid who has those questions and nowhere obvious to ask them.