Who Is Byron Yawn? The Former Pastor Is Also a Book Author

Byron Yawn is a former pastor and elder at the Community Bible Church in Nashville but will always be remembered as the man that used his pastoral counseling capacity to carry on an affair with one of his most trusted friend's wife.

Byron Yawn rose to fame after appearing in all the media through his connection to Ben Zobrist, the former American professional baseball second baseman and outfielder.

Byron Yawn carries many titles. Besides his role as the former pastor at the Community Bible Church in Nashville, he also spearheaded several projects in the community. During his tenure, he rose to become the executive director of Patriot Forward, Zobrist's non-profit charity.

As a high-ranking official of the group, which was aimed at caring for the welfare of the professional athlete, Yawn provided couples with marriage counseling and promoted athletes' health and career development by helping them deal with anxiety and depression.

Yawn is also an author with several books, including "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" and "Suburbianity: What Have We Done to the Gospel? Can We Find Our Way Back to Biblical Christianity?" He has co-written the third one, "What Every Woman Wishes Her Father Had Told Her," with his wife, Robin Yawn.

After exiting his previous role as the Executive Director for Patriot Forward, the former clergyman, whose real name is Byron Forrest Yawn, started a business consulting firm in Nashville, Forrest Crain & Co., where he serves as the CEO.

Is Byron Yawn Married? Who Are His Wife and Kids?

Based on a short bio on the website of Hope Church in Madison, Alabama, where Yawn served as a guest speaker many a time, he and his wife, Robin, grew up down the street from each other and were neighbors all their childhood. They became high school sweethearts and discovered faith around the same time they started dating.

That said, they fell in love and married in 2001, a union that has been faith and gospel-based from the very start. They also became parents to three kids, Blake, Wade, and Lauren.

When announcing the launch of his book "What Every Man Wishes His Father Had Told Him" in 2011, Yawn revealed that he wrote the essays with his sons in mind to help them navigate the barrage of the world that they would inadvertently face. He shared that he wanted to teach his sons how to grow up to be Christ lovers.

The book focuses on reminding his children that they are neither alone nor crazy for experiencing life's challenges, such as sexuality and money issues. He wanted them to know that many more before them had lived, thrived, and survived those realities of life, and so could they.

Yawn Had an Affair That Made Headlines For Months

While Yawn had been ministering at the church for years, he only came to the limelight after former Chicago Cubs outfielder and close friend Ben Zobrist hit him with a lawsuit in 2021. The court papers claim that Zobrist and Yawn first became acquainted at the Community Bible Church, where Yawn ministered for years.

Besides being their pastor, Yawn also provided Zobrist and Julianna with pre-marital counseling before their wedding in 2005. Over the years, they sought advice from Yawn, something Zobrist thinks Yawn took advantage of to earn the family's trust. Due to Zobrist's celebrity status — he is the 2016 World Series MVP — Yawn reportedly began capitalizing on him.

He would request tickets to baseball games and ask Zobrist to send personalized videos to church members during baptism. He even appointed Zobrist as a church deacon, hoping his celebrity status would attract new parishioners.

Zobrist claimed he had donated tens of thousands of dollars for the Yawn family to take a pastoral trip in addition to his $10 000 monthly contributions towards the runnings of the church. He also claimed that Yawn had defrauded his charity by continuing to pay himself a salary of $7000 a month even after he stopped working there.

However, the final nail on the casket was when Zobrist discovered that Yawn was having an affair with his wife Julianna, with whom he has three children. Yawn and Julianna reportedly began communicating daily in 2018 using burner phones, with a sexual relationship commencing a year later.

Zobrist remained in the dark about the affair until Yawn's wife, Robin, let him in on the secret. Robin had discovered that her husband had a burner phone to allow him to keep his affair with Julianna a secret and threatened that if Yawn did not come clean to Zobrist about it, she would do it herself.

In the lawsuit, Zobrist claimed that Yawn had taken advantage of his pastoral counselor capacity to betray and violate the trust bestowed upon him by Zobrist and Julianna. He deceitfully used that trust as well as his access as a counselor to engage in inappropriate sexual relationships with Julianna.

Following the discovery, Ben Zobrist took a four-month break from playing to help sort out his marital problems. As a result, he lost over 8 million dollars in salary. He was thus suing Yawn for $6 million in damages, for the emotional distress he underwent.

He then filed for divorce from Julianna, who countered the suit, going for her husband for $4 million. Suspiciously in 2021, Zobrist withdrew the lawsuit with a "without prejudice" notice, allowing him to refill the case in the next year.