About Brenna
Brenna Rubio co-pastors alongside a friend at a small, radically inclusive congregation in California, City Church of Long Beach. She is a fully ordained minister and holds her Masters in Theology from Fuller, a prominent evangelical seminary. During her time there, Fuller recognized her with the prestigious Hubbard Award, showing their belief in her academic, spiritual, and professional potential. That certificate and her undergraduate degree hang quietly above the banged up, multipurpose desk in her family’s laundry room, a juxtaposition that somehow feels just right.
Because despite growing up in a faith tradition that was all about giving people answers, Brenna is so much more interested now with asking honest questions and inviting people to explore them with her. She is so much more concerned with how people love than with what they know.
Based on their pastoral experiences and studies, Brenna and her friend/co-pastor Bill cofounded a nonprofit, Small Church Big Table, that helps faith communities explore what LGBTQ+ welcome could look like in their own spaces. Bill continues to lead that important work.
Brenna delights in leading, preaching, and teaching as well as writing. She has contributed to conferences such as the Post-Evangelical Collective, blogs including Christians for Social Action, and podcasts like Space for Faith with Mike Goldsworthy, on topics ranging from sharing power in leadership structures to queer affirmation in churches.
Brenna and her big, colorful family, including her partner, four kids and a cat, live in a wonderfully walkable Long Beach neighborhood. She’s currently working on a book about the lessons in holy resistance to empire that can be found in the book of Esther, ideas first developed and shared in a church sermon series.