Brian Bedell – The Joyful Expectation of Fulfilling God’s Calling

When Brian Bedell was about four years old, he was in church listening to his grandfather preach when he noticed everything go quiet and felt a strange peace wash over the room. He remembers a voice saying to him, “Brian, that’s going to be you someday.”

He’s known since then that God called him to preach, but life did not go in a straight line from that day to this.

Instead, his grandfather passed away quite early, and after spending his early years participating and even leading Bible studies at church, Brian began to run from God. He compares some of his youth to Jonah’s trip toward Tarshish – knowing his calling yet not doing it.

That time of running from God was dangerous for Brian, but when his moment of turning came, he did still know where to turn. He was visiting his mother in the hospital when, “I had my moment of clarity,” he testifies, “and fell on my knees in the hospital and called out to God.” That was when he finally submitted to following God’s will for his whole life.

Since making that commitment, Brian has worked consistently in his local church, volunteering in hospitality, getting new people acclimated, helping with community engagement, leading small groups, and teaching.

In fact, he became so comfortable serving at church that when God called him to further ministry, Brian realized he had been putting his own limits on God. “I didn’t really think about what more He could have in store for me outside of my comfortable little bubble.”

He realized it was time to pursue ministry education and then found NBC. At first, he considered it a gift just to be able to attend classes while still in ministry at his home church in New Jersey. Then, as he met classmates and professors from all over the map, God opened Brian’s eyes to the wideness of ministry going on through his fellow NBC students, and God called him into a “joyful, longing expectation of fulfilling whatever role God has set out for me.”

“There are people who are suffering, and there are people who need God, and there are people who want to know Jesus right here in my backyard.”

As he took each class, he was able to apply what he learned in his active ministry, showing that what his professors taught was not just theoretical. “The church is a living, breathing things right now, and I could apply it in real time!”

One of the things Brian says he appreciated most about his learning experience at NBC was the opportunity to be asked a question, realize he didn’t know the answer, but share what his current thoughts on the subject were. “Having my professor in real time even through the internet be able to say, “Well, you’re on track with this part but not so much this part and what about that?” This gave him an individualized experience, both challenging his thought processes and teaching him how to find the answers he needs in Scripture.

“Everything I’m learning right now,” he said of his final year of classes at NBC, “is to do a better job of worshiping God and loving and serving others.”

In May 2026, Brian Bedell graduated from NBC with a Bachelor of Arts in Ministry with an emphasis in Bible and Theology.