Let Jesus Take the Wheel: How Dr. Brian L. English Found His Purpose by Surrendering the Driver's Seat

The Honest Confession Every Leader Needs to Hear

For years, Dr. Brian L. English had a relationship with God that looked fine from the outside. He prayed. He talked to the Lord. He stayed connected. But there was one problem — he was still driving.

"I was with him and talking to him, but I was driving," English admits with the kind of honesty that only comes from hard-won wisdom. "Jesus was a passenger."

It's a picture that stops you cold, because most of us recognize ourselves in it. We consult God, we even thank him along the way — but we keep both hands on the wheel and one foot on the gas. For English, a Dallas Baptist University professor, licensed minister, and purpose coach, the turning point came when he finally asked himself a question that changed everything: What if I actually let him drive?

Roots That Held

Brian L. English grew up in Dallas, Texas, shaped by two churches and one unforgettable example. His parents split his Sunday church experience — Baptist with his dad, United Methodist with his mom. But it was his father's spiritual fervor that left the deepest impression on his faith, while his mothers was on education and working with excellence.

"He was a deacon, he sang in the choir, he taught Sunday school, he delivered food to the sick and shut in, he was over the men's brotherhood ministry," English recalls. "As a boy growing into a man, that was very, very impactful for me."

His father passed away just weeks before this interview, on April 28th. English speaks about it with a grief tempered by genuine peace. "I know where he is," he says quietly. "He wanted to be with the Lord. I'm actually excited for him." That kind of faith — rooted deep enough to hold through loss — doesn't grow overnight. It's planted by men who live what they believe, year after year, Sunday after Sunday.

Still, faith planted in childhood has to become personal. English didn't attend a Christian high school or college, and like many young men, he drifted. The anchor that pulled him back? His wife, Ashley.

"She had expectations of what her future husband would be," he says with a smile in his voice. "I started following her around." That journey led them to Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, where Dr. Tony Evans was pastor. Sitting in a mid-week Bible study, hearing the Word broken down with depth and precision, something in English came alive. "I had never really heard the word broken down that way. Once I was really being fed spiritually, we just took it from there." They are currently members of Concord Church, where Bryan Carter pastors and continues to impact their lives.

From Passenger to Purpose

The professional path to Dallas Baptist University wasn't a straight line. English confesses that early in his career, he was impulsive, frustrated by poor leadership, and prone to making moves on his own terms. "I've left jobs, I've moved around, I've done what I could within my own human, fleshly power to navigate my own career."

The shift came gradually, then decisively. Working at a faith-based ministry, he felt the Lord signaling it was time to move — not in a dramatic, burning-bush moment, but in a quiet, persistent clarity that wouldn't go away. Instead of reacting, he did something different. He waited. He prayed. He fasted.

"I just went into an extended time of prayer and fasting. I was not in a rush. In my mind, the things I was thinking were one thing — but then the Lord just laid out this path for me that was like a lamp to my feet, a light unto my path."

That path led to an assistant professorship at Dallas Baptist University — a role that, on paper, traced back to a relationship with a former church colleague who became a dean. But English sees the fingerprints of God all over it. "I just let him drive," he says. "And I've just been blown away by how allowing him to lead the way is way more fruitful than what I can do."

Today, Dr. English has three beautiful children, Joseph, Joshua and Faith, and he teaches freshman success course, introduction to business, principles of management, and business communications — instructing students standing at the threshold of their professional lives. At DBU, integrating faith into the curriculum isn't just permitted; it's encouraged. For English, that's the whole point.

"That's the secret sauce," he says. "If you can impress upon students God's plan, God's purpose, God's way, God's perspective — a Christian worldview — that enhances everything they do, even after they graduate."

The One-Trick Pony With a Powerful Message

Ask Brian L. English what drives him, and he'll laugh and call himself a one-trick pony. But the "trick" he keeps returning to is anything but small: helping people discover and walk in their God-given purpose.

He's a Gallup Clifton Strengths certified coach. He teaches spiritual gifts classes at his church. Through his GAPP Coaching practice, he works as a Principal and Purpose Coach. The thread connecting all of it is one conviction: when people understand how God wired them, everything changes.

"If I can get as many people as the Lord allows me to walk in their God-given purpose, I just believe the world would be a better place. If we understand how God made us, how he wired us, what he gave us — but also what he didn't give us — we would be doing ourselves a tremendous service."

That last part matters to him as much as the first. Knowing what God didn't give you is just as liberating as knowing what he did. English readily admits he's not gifted in mathematics. Rather than straining against that reality, he leans into partnership. "I could focus on the areas where I know he's given me talent and partner with other people" for the rest, he explains. It's a model of leadership humility that most of us talk about but rarely practice.

Time, Treasure, and the Parable We Keep Forgetting

With his father's passing fresh in his heart, English speaks about time with an urgency that isn't anxious — it's clarifying. "The older I get, the more valuable time is," he says. "In Ecclesiastes, it's a vapor. We can get so caught up in certain things on this earth, but we ought to be storing up heavenly treasures."

He returns again and again to the parable of the talents — not as a financial principle, but as a life philosophy. "If the Lord gives us two talents, we'll probably be on his good side if we turn those two into four," he says. "We have to flip what the Lord has given us. We cannot bury it in the ground."

That means being intentional with every resource: time protected for family and the people who matter most, money managed with monthly budget meetings and a commitment to generosity, and talent deployed — not hoarded — for the good of others. "Someone is in need of the gift and talents that each and every one of us have," he says. "We would be doing a disservice if we didn't embrace our authentic selves and use it for his glory."

The Leadership Advice That Cuts Through the Noise

When asked what he'd say to Christian business leaders, English doesn't reach for a motivational framework. He goes straight to identity.

"We connect with people through our spaces of vulnerability," he explains. "If you constantly boast about what you do well, someone who doesn't have that talent can see it — but they can't connect with it. But if you share your shortcomings, your failures, your humanity? That's where connection happens."

And connection, he argues, is what makes leadership work. You lead from your strengths, but you build relationships through your honesty. The leader who knows both — where they're gifted and where they fall short — is the leader who earns trust and creates real impact.

"The sooner a leader understands who they are, how they lead best, and where they have the most influence — which is often tied to their talents — the better their leadership will be."

He anchors it all in Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." For English, this isn't a memory verse. It's a job description.

Your Move This Week

Brian L. English's story is ultimately an invitation — to stop white-knuckling your career, your leadership, and your legacy, and to hand the wheel to the One who actually knows the route.

Here's where to start: Take one honest hour this week to ask two questions. What has God genuinely wired me to do well? And what has he not given me — that I should stop pretending he has? Write down the answers. Share them with someone you trust. Then build your leadership from that foundation, not from comparison, competition, or fear.

"The Lord only made one of each of us," English says. The world doesn't need your imitation of someone else's strengths. It needs you — fully known by God, fully surrendered to his purpose, fully deployed for his glory.

That's not a destination. It's a daily decision to let him drive.