Gary Yagel, Executive Director

Gary Yagel began his ministry as a volunteer Young Life leader while attending Penn State University.  He continued to work as a Young Life leader after moving home to the Washington DC suburbs and working for the Department of Labor.  He later graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with an MDiv.  He served four years as a youth pastor at the Presbyterian Church of the Atonement in Silver Spring Maryland, where his favorite part of ministry was discipling the high school guys. 

In 1982 Gary began a twenty year career in the Presbyterian Church in America as a church planter and senior pastor.  In 2002, after reading Bob Buford’s book, Halftime, he realized that God was calling him to focus 100% of his energy on his real passion—helping the church disciple men.  With his courageous wife, Sandy, Gary stepped out in faith to begin Family Builders, Inc. Together, they wrote the booklet, Intimacy, God’s Design for Marriage: Three Conversational Dates to Rediscover Intimacy In Your Marriage, and speak together on the topics of marriage and the family.

For the past four years, Gary has headed up the men’s division of Family Builders, Inc.  In this capacity, he is busy nearly every Saturday speaking on men’s retreats, leading men’s seminars such as “Great Dads,” or seminars he has designed like, “Called to Sexual Integrity.” He has taught his discipleship course, “Called to Be Men” for the past four years at Quantico Marine Base in Quantico, VA and is the author of the popular booklet, Forging Bonds of Brotherhood, which includes the accountability tool, Check 6.  

Besides discipling men, Gary’s great passion is equipping lay men’s ministry teams to build strong, lasting men’s ministries in local churches.  He has equipped and coached many men’s ministry leadership teams in the Greater DC area, is the editor of the PCA men’s e-newsletter, “Get In the Game,” and serves as Regional Director of Men’s Ministry in the Presbyterian Church In America. He is on the speaking faculty of Man in the Mirror as a presenter of the “No Man Left Behind Seminar”.  He is currently enrolled in the DMin. program of Reformed Theological Seminary and plans to write his doctoral thesis on the subject, “Reaching the Hearts of Men.”

From the time Gary was in high school, God always provided him with one or 2 Christian brothers to meet with regularly for encouragement and accountability. In 2003, he was asked by a church to develop some tools to help men who worked at the Pentagon build similar brotherhood bonds in groups of two or three meeting weekly for lunch.  The tools for these groups became the Forging Bonds materials. Since then, through a Thursday morning phone call, Mark Wennstedt (below) has become a Check 6 brother to Gary, even though he lives across the country.

Gary and Sandy celebrated their 25^th anniversary in 2006.  They have five children ranging from age 11 to age 22 and reside in Olney, Maryland.

Mark Wennstedt,
Field Staff

Mark Wennstedt married his high school sweetheart, Stephanie, in 1977 at the ripe old age of 18. Their first son, Zachary, was born shortly thereafter. Mark chose to work in the building materials field and ride motorcycles on the side.  At this time, he was also using and selling drugs.  His daughter Jasmine was born a few years later but not long after she was born, shedied of S.I.D.S. This tragedy brought Mark and Stephanie to their knees, where they found the Lord, and accepted Jesus as their personal savior.

They continued to grow their family with their daughter, Phoebe, born in 1982, and their son, Nash, born in 1986. Mark continued his career in building materials, and in 1989 was blessed to start Source Products Group Inc. in Broomfield, CO along with Stephanie. This company grew beyond all expectations, and became a multi-million dollar company.

While growing Source Products Group together, Mark and Stephanie became involved in the Christian Motorcyclists Ministry as officers.  They also worked closely with their church as Bible study leaders, and Mission team leaders.  During this time, the Lord continued to put men's ministry heavily on Mark's heart.  He saw how superficial guy relationships usually are—even among Christians, and how much men need a deeper connection with each other. 

Then on July 7th 2004 Mark and Stephanie’s son, Nash, was killed.  Through this deep and painful grieving process, the Lord connected Mark with Gary Yagel and the Forging Bonds of Brotherhood ministry, where Mark now serves on the field staff.  The Lord also used this tragedy to lead Mark and Stephanie out of their business and into church planting in Eagle Rock, Missouri.

Eric O'Neill,
Board Member/Treasurer

Eric O’Neill is currently the Director of Finance & Human Resources for the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, a position he has held since October 2000.  Prior to joining the ASLRRA, Mr. O’Neill held several accounting positions in the private sector dating back to 1989 while attending school in Northern Virginia. 

Eric graduated from Strayer University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.  In addition to his position with Family Builders, he serves as co-treasurer of his church with his wife, with whom he resides in Brunswick, MD with their two sons.