Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and this website exists to help YOU know, trust, and apply the Bible. In addition to these basics, I also created the FREE Bible805 Academy, to help you TEACH the Bible.
I named the ministry Bible805 because I believe that the Bible, Jesus, and the Christian faith are as real as the place I live in (area code 805)—Ventura, California.
Actually, that is only secondarily true.
When I decided I wanted to take my Bible teaching ministry into the digital world, I did it primarily for the younger people in my life, who at the time were enjoying the 805 beer, which was quite popular at the time. I briefly toyed with the idea of naming the ministry, Bible805, better than the beer! But after some thought, I realized that might not be the best idea since I did want to reach and resource people of all ages and sensibilities.
I did, however, like the Bible805 name and, as I said, the reality of how it refers to our world, so that stuck.
Following is a bit more about who I am, what this ministry is not, what it is, and misc. information.
About Yvon Prehn, founder and primary content creator for Bible805
I am a writer and teacher for Jesus and Bible805 is my latest adventure in expressing my life-long calling in doing that.
Through the many twists and turns my life has taken, from the time I started helping kindergartners in Sunday School class when I was in third grade, to working with youth groups, teaching adult Bible classes, and working as an associate professor of church history at a Jesuit University, along with many other income supporting jobs, being a writer and teacher for Jesus has been part of my life.
Along the way, I’ve read through the Bible many times, studied it deeply, and as a lay person tried to share that the Bible is the source for truth, salvation, meaning, and purpose in life now and forever.
The podcasts, videos, blogs, and other parts of this site are my latest adventures in writing and teaching about the Bible. It’s a long way from the flannel graphs I used when I was teaching children over 50 years ago. I progressed from them to acetates and overhead projectors, then with Projected PowerPoints, but always the goal has been the same, to share Jesus, His Word and to help people grow as disciples. I’ve worked this goal since I was in high school, when I felt the Lord gave me Acts 1:8 as the defining verse for my life, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
I asked Him, “How?” as that seemed a rather overwhelming command. He answered, “Through your writing.”
I pursued a career as a Christian writer and teacher, writing articles and books and teaching Bible classes. I produced a lot without thinking specifically about His past clear call. Then one day, I launched my first website. As I did that, I burst into tears realizing that my written words, shared digitally in a way I never could have imagined, were now witnessing to Jesus “to the ends of the earth.”
We never know what God is going to do with our dreams and His promises.
Obviously, I didn’t stop at that point doing what I felt God called me to do, it has motivated me to do even more.
I continue to love, deeply love teaching people about the Bible; I am driven to do that no matter what else is going on in my life. And I do it, no matter what the challenges and there have been some big ones, but they don’t matter as I continously affirm, “that none of these things move me” and what matters most is that “I finish my course with joy and the calling I’ve received.”
My approach as I press ahead seems to be helpful to people and one (to me) of my favorite comments that people share with me about my teaching (and I’ve heard a similar comment expressed in a variety of ways) is ” you make hard stuff easy to understand.” I work hard to do that and spend many, many hours not only in research and study, but also in prayer asking the Lord for guidance in what He wants me to share from His Word with His people. In whatever results, I do not claim any special inspiration or insights for the ministry or my teaching. The content in all is, as C.S. Lewis labeled himself, from a “mere Christian.”
This ministry is not sponsored by any church, organization, or other ministry.
About Bible805.com structure
Bible805.com is currently the hub of my Bible-teaching ministry. It started out as podcast associated with an adult Sunday School class. People asked for copies of the content so I developed the website (www.Bible805.com) to share notes, link to the podcast that had developed into videos of the lessons, and additional Bible information. From that I developed the Bible805 Academy to make the resources available for others. It started out with requests from friends of friends in my classes, but I realized they might be useful to a wider audience. I started the Bible805Academy with a special prayer that they go to under-resourced and majority-world churches to freely use. The response has been beyond anything I could have imagined as people from all over the world have downloaded thousands of resources from it. Ethopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, the Philippines, many places in Africa, Europe, and North America are among the many who download lesson resources that include editable PowerPoints, notes, discussion guides, plus ad-free videos and audio files. All these resources are editable, can be used for free and no attribution is required.
My assurance to you of my editorial independence
As always, please know the only products for sale mentioned on this site are ones I create, primarily my books, either eBooks or various books on amazon.com. The Bible805 ministry and this site never has, and never will, take any advertising, in any way participate in affiliate or referral marketing, nor will it be accepting sponsorships of any kind. If I recommend something other than what I create, it is truly because I like it and not for any additional monetary reason.
If you are wondering how the site and ministry supports itself, I’m currently (as of 3-2026) trying to figure that out. You can click on the “Support” tab on the Bible805.com site for the latest updates on that.
About my educational and theological background
I hesitate to put this in, as there are few things I dislike more than talking about myself, but I know I want to know this information from anyone I read or learn from who teaches the Bible. None of what follows is a matter of debate or discussion, but for informational purposes only.
When I was growing up we were a military family and moved constantly. I never started or finished a school year in the same school through all of grade school.
No matter where we were, we always went to church. My mother was Mennonite, my father was Catholic. Though we primarily attended Presbyterian churches when possible, I also attended both denominations with extended family and I cherish both traditions.
When I was in sixth grade and we were stationed at Ft. Ord, CA, we were attending a little church in Marina, CA. From my earliest days, I knew about Jesus and was strongly influenced by a godly grandmother, but my faith had a large component of fear and I remember always praying, “Dear God, please let me go to heaven when I die and not to hell.” One summer at the little church they had a Child Evangelism club for a week and I remember the reality that Jesus came to save me forever finally made sense. I asked Jesus to be my Savior and never again did I worry about what would happen to me when I died. I knew I’d go to heaven to be with Jesus.
And I started walking more intentionally with Him. I also had my first very own little Sunday School class at that time–more on that in a minute.
When my father retired from the military we moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado where we attended Ivywild Presbyterian church, which was a solid, Bible-teaching church. From 3rd grade on (when I started helping to teach kindergarteners), I always taught a Sunday School class, and when I was a sophomore in high school, our youth group leaders moved away and no one wanted to run the group. I said, “I think I can do that” and went on to do youth ministry and teaching for many years.
I was heavily involved with the Navigator ministry in college as well as InterVarsity Christian Ministry. The Navigator’s emphasis on studying the Bible, sharing your faith in practical ways, and integrating life and ministry had a tremendous influence on my life. Living in Colorado Springs, I had the privilege of learning from some of the founders of the ministry, LeRoy Eims, Jerry Bridges, Lorne Sanny, Jerry White, and others who spoke to and led our college group.
Educationally, I have degrees in English and education, plus an additional major in history. I have a master’s degree in History, focusing on church history. I’ve done additional graduate work in Communications and have attended seminary (Fuller Seminary). I taught at a Catholic high school and briefly was an associate professor teaching church history at a Jesuit university.
My husband Paul, who has since been called home to Jesus, was a bi-vocational pastor for many years, and we ministered at Baptist, non-denominational, and Presbyterian Churches. A number of these were Purpose-Driven churches. In these settings, I served as an adult Sunday School teacher, Bible class teacher, and did communications for our shared ministries.
At the same time, I started my church communications ministry, Effective Church Communications, and for over 20 years traveled all over North America (I do it all online now) teaching church communication seminars to every imaginable denomination. The seminars were sponsored by a secular company, but I had total control over the content of the seminars. They were advertised to the entire church audience wherever I taught, and a huge variety of churches showed up. In discussions, interactions, and looking at their materials, I got to know and love the broad variety of expressions in the Body of Christ. From this experience, I sometimes have referred to myself as a walking ecumenical council.
For those many years, that I would travel and teach church communication seminars all over North America during the week, I’d then come home and teach Bible classes on the weekend.
I no longer travel and am in the process of folding much of the timeless Effective Church Communication Ministry materials into formats that are useful overall in whatever ministry someone might be doing in the church. I still teach Bible classes, both live and online.
Please go to the home page of www.Bible805.com (this site) for a listing and links to the various podcasts, videos, and other materials I have to enable you to know, trust, apply, and teach the Bible. I have recently started a series of podcasts that make my resources available in this popular platform. I also highly recommend my YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/Bible805. You can even listen to all the podcasts on the YouTube channel.
I currently live in Ventura, California (the most wonderful place on earth) and am joyfully and busily involved in Community Presbyterian Church (a most loving and incredible ECO Presbyterian church).