Christian Teacher of the Year: Jennifer Brenner builds ‘kingdom architects’ who turn faith into real-world solutions 

For Jennifer Brenner, a Christian education isn’t a shelter from the world, it’s a training ground for entering it.

Brenner is one of 12 instructors awarded 2026 Christian Teacher of the Year honors by the Herzog Foundation, publisher of Heartlander News. 

The eleventh and twelfth grade sociology and American history teacher at Orange Lutheran High School in Orange, California, wants her students to learn how to solve real-world problems through a biblical lens. 

“I am a big proponent of Christian education being a foundation and a launching pad for students being rooted in Christ and their identity in Christ,” Brenner told Heartlander News in an interview. “I very much want our students to not feel as if they’re in a bubble and having to just stay in that bubble, but how do they navigate the world?”

With 29 years in the classroom, including eight at Orange Lutheran, Brenner said she wants her students to be equipped to stand firm in their faith and navigate the culture around them with confidence.

“The culture that they live in, it’s through social media, everything that they’re just inundated by,” she said, adding that a Christian education provides a “cornerstone” for students that she has witnessed in her own children as well.

“Christian education isn’t just a protective bubble, but it is designed to give our students the tools and the resources and the knowledge and the foundation that gives them that biblical lens, so that they can take on anything, knowing that their identity rests in Christ,” Brenner said.

In the classroom Brenner uses an innovative teaching method to help students become “kingdom architects,” which she defines as a “student who doesn’t just see a problem but feels equipped to build a Gospel-centered solution.”

“I think Christian educators actually are architects of experience,” Brenner said. “The way I run my classroom is built on real-life simulation, giving our students hands-on, real-life simulations that allow them to work through things and navigate things from a Christian point of view.”

Rather than telling students their leadership will matter in the distant future, Brenner wants them to practice leading and serving now.

“A lot of times students are told, ‘Well, this will be in the future, or when you get older,’” she said. “But I want our high school students to know how to lead and to serve now. And so these real-life simulations, as they’re building out God’s kingdom as a worker in God’s kingdom, give them the opportunity to do that.” 

In her honors sociology classes, Brenner said her family life segment – where students explore what it means to be a body of believers in Christ’s family – and her teachings on intentional dating stand out. She also teaches a forensics and criminology unit, which includes a mock crime scene on campus, where students explore not only justice, but also how “mercy and grace fit into that.”

Former students have returned to tell Brenner how her lessons have shaped their lives, whether through family relationships or friendships or dating.

“I do get a lot of students that will reflect on the things that we’ve learned, and they’ll come back and share personal stories,” she said. “They tell me all the time, ‘Ms. B., this is like a real class. We talk real life in here.’”

Asked what makes the work worthwhile, Brenner pointed to her faith.

“I think knowing that God is working in and through me, I think that I don’t do any of this on my own,” she said, adding that she prays for her students. “I know that no student is placed with me by chance.”

The Christian Teacher of the Year honor is part of the Herzog Foundation’s Excellence in Christian Education award series. Each of the 12 winners was invited to attend a special professional development and recognition event.