The Vision Behind Awake A Nation
Awake A Nation exists to help people rediscover the transforming power of the Gospel by learning to live from their identity in Christ.
Why Awake A Nation Exists
Many followers of Jesus sincerely desire to grow in their faith. They want to experience freedom, transformation, and deeper relationship with God. Yet for many believers, faith gradually becomes shaped more by effort than by identity.
Instead of living from the finished work of Christ, people often find themselves striving to overcome struggles, prove their worth, or maintain spiritual progress through discipline alone. When those efforts fail to produce lasting change, discouragement and shame often follow.
Awake A Nation exists to address this deeper issue.
The Gospel does more than offer forgiveness. It restores identity. Through Christ, believers are invited into a new way of living — not striving to become someone they are not, but learning to live from who they already are in Him.
Our mission is to help people rediscover that truth and experience the transformation that flows from it.
Our Mission
Moving From Performance to Identity
Awake A Nation is a nonprofit ministry dedicated to helping people move from performance-based faith to identity-centered discipleship.
Through teaching resources, coaching environments, and spiritual formation tools, we help individuals and leaders learn how to live and lead from their identity in Christ.
This work is built on the conviction that real transformation does not come from trying harder. It comes from learning to live from the truth of the Gospel.
Our Formation Pathway
The resources and coaching experiences offered through Awake A Nation are built around a simple formation pathway designed to guide people into deeper alignment with the Gospel.
Together, these resources provide a clear pathway for spiritual formation and leadership development.
Prison Ministry & Leadership Development
Transformation Where It Is Deeply Needed
Awake A Nation is also committed to bringing identity-centered discipleship into environments where transformation is deeply needed.
Through partnerships with prison-based ministry programs in California, these teachings are helping incarcerated men rediscover their identity, develop leadership capacity, and prepare for lives of purpose and contribution.
This work reflects a central conviction of Awake A Nation: that the transforming power of the Gospel is not limited by circumstance, background, or past failure.
Identity in Christ opens the door to a new future.
About the Founder
Brendan Bagnell
Awake A Nation was founded by Brendan Bagnell, a leadership coach, educator, and ministry leader with a passion for helping people experience the kind of transformation that comes from understanding their identity in Christ.
For many years after becoming a Christian, Brendan struggled with the same challenges that many believers face today — cycles of striving, discouragement, and the sense that spiritual growth depended primarily on effort. While serving in ministry and pursuing theological education, he began to recognize that many sincere believers were experiencing the same struggle.
Brendan holds both a Master of Divinity (MDiv) and a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership (MACL). Before founding Awake A Nation, he served in a variety of leadership environments, including law enforcement as a police officer, pastoral ministry as an executive pastor, and higher education as a Bible college professor. Through these experiences, along with years of teaching, ministry leadership, and leadership development, he began to notice a recurring pattern within Christian communities: many sincere believers understood the language of faith but still struggled to experience the freedom and transformation the Gospel promises.
His academic training and real-world leadership experience helped him recognize that the deeper issue was often not a lack of commitment, but a misunderstanding of identity. This realization became a key foundation for the work that would eventually become Awake A Nation.
Through a season of coaching, spiritual formation, and deeper reflection on the Gospel, Brendan discovered that lasting transformation does not come from behavior modification or increased effort, but from learning to live from the identity believers already possess in Christ.
That discovery became the foundation for the work that would eventually become Awake A Nation.
Today, Brendan develops teaching resources, coaching environments, and leadership formation tools designed to help individuals and leaders rediscover the life-changing freedom of living from their identity in Christ. His work continues to serve churches, ministry leaders, and communities seeking deeper spiritual formation and lasting transformation.
Our Coaching Philosophy
Transformation Centered on Identity
Awake A Nation approaches transformation differently than many traditional models of discipleship or leadership development.
Rather than focusing primarily on behavior change, our work centers on identity formation. We believe lasting transformation begins when people learn to see themselves through the truth of the Gospel and begin living from the identity they already have in Christ.
For many believers, spiritual growth becomes focused on effort — trying harder to overcome struggles, improve habits, or maintain spiritual disciplines. While discipline has its place, transformation ultimately flows from something deeper than effort alone.
It flows from identity.
Our coaching environments are designed to create space for honest reflection, Gospel-centered teaching, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to fix people, we help individuals recognize the deeper patterns that shape their thinking, emotions, and leadership.
Our goal is not simply to help people change what they do, but to help them experience the kind of transformation that comes from living from their identity in Christ.
Our Vision
Awakened. Abiding. Aligned.
Awake A Nation exists to help individuals, leaders, and communities rediscover the freedom that comes from living from their identity in Christ.
Our vision is to see people awakened to the truth of the Gospel, abiding in a living relationship with Jesus, and aligned to live and lead from the identity God has given them.
Transformation begins when identity is restored.