Kooi, Brent

“Would the world be better off without religion?” Eighty-one percent of The Sydney Morning Herald’s readers answered yes. Australians are at the forefront of secularity and post-modernity, and only 8% attend worship services at least once per month. But with the elimination of the anti-immigration “White Australia policy” in the 1970s, Asians have become a significant minority in recent decades and are typically more open to the gospel.

As a global city of growing diversity, Sydney offers new gospel opportunities far beyond Australia. The Sydney team is working toward a healthy multi-cultural church-planting movement that will multiply missionaries throughout the whole of Asia-Pacific and beyond.

Brent works with several of the team’s ministries: Harbour City Church; Student Outreach to the World university ministry (on four campuses); and City Sanctum, where he mentors young working professionals. He previously served with MTW in Japan for nine years, most recently as interim team leader in Osaka. Brent also has 15 years of experience in university administration, including nine years at Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi, where he served as dean of student life. He is a graduate of Dordt University and Azusa Pacific University.