Leadership

T. Scott Pegues, Pastoral Associate

Scott received his call to ministry at a very young age, growing up an active church kid in St. Paul, Minnesota. He first lived his call through community building, and a career in human services leadership, health promotion, and public health. Scott is now transitioning to serve God’s people through church ministry. He has considered Denver his home since 2001, while working extensively throughout the Midwest. Scott and his daughter joined FBCD in 2016, and was licensed to Christian Ministry in 2019. The divine presence of authentic love and inclusion called him to this congregation.

Kurt Kaufman, Ministerial Associate

Kurt Kaufman was born and raised in Green Lake, Wisconsin, where he served the Federated Church in Green Lake for several years running slides as well as in a number of other capacities. Kurt moved to Denver in 2017 to pursue a career in IT, though he is now a full-time student at Central Seminary pursuing a Master of Divinity and has been on staff at FBCD since May of 2021.

Kurt also is a staff member of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, serves on the Board of General Ministries for ABC-USA and the ABC Wisconsin region board, and serves as the webmaster for a number of Baptist churches and organizations. Kurt also enjoys skiing, playing bass, riding his longboard, and trying not to get stuck in the elevator.

office@rethinkbaptist.org 

Brendan Bassett, Director of Music

Music has always been Brendan Bassett’s greatest passion. From the tender age of 5, he began lessons with his neighbor Jill Larsen. Because of her inspired instruction, he stayed with her for nearly 15 years until he moved to the big city. During his childhood, Brendan discovered musical theater, performing professionally as Oliver in the musical “Oliver!” among many others. He also performed locally as a boy singer with the local symphony and with his church. In school, he took up singing and playing piano for the choir. There he discovered the great joy of accompanying, supporting and uplifting his friends in music. Similarly, at local churches he found places where his music could bring peace, joy, and inspiration to those around him. 

Ever since, he has continued to play piano for churches, soloists, choirs, musical theater, a hotel, and all kinds of special events. Since 2018 he has been playing piano with First Baptist Church of Denver and recently was promoted to Director of Music there. Recently, he has been learning choral conducting with Sine Nomine and FBCD under Kevin Crowe. In May 2022, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from MSU Denver in mathematics and computer science. He has completed extensive work in optical musical character recognition, helping software “decode” sheet music using neural networks. In the coming years he will continue to explore the complex world of music, with his heart and his mind and his soul.

music@rethinkbaptist.org

Ken Johnson, Building Manager

Ken Johnson has enjoyed a long and rich history as a member of FBCD staff, beginning in the 1990’s with his responsibilities as the Director of Music/Business Manager. He left in February of 2000 only to return in 2011 to help the church move forward when it lost its pastor. During that time, he cared for this historic building and prepared it for many of its current residents. He left again in 2015 and returned once more in June 2017.

propertymanager@rethinkbaptist.org