In an age where information is abundant and attention spans are short, the pulpit remains a sacred space where truth is proclaimed and lives are transformed. Yet, not all preaching is created equal. Some sermons stir the soul, while others barely register. What makes the difference? Why do some messages feel alive while others fall flat?

The answer lies not in eloquence or education alone, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual vitality of the preacher and the urgency of the message.

Seminary Training Is a Foundation, Not the Fire

A theological education is invaluable. It equips preachers with the tools to interpret Scripture accurately, avoid doctrinal error, and understand the rich nuances of the biblical text. But while seminary can make someone a good teacher, it doesn’t automatically make them a vibrant preacher.

Vibrant preaching requires more than intellectual understanding—it demands spiritual vitality. …

You can read the rest of the article here: The Difference Between Vibrant and Flat Preaching: Rekindling the Fire in the Pulpit or just listen to the podcast.

We are working through the May/June issue of FrontLine which just came out on the theme "The Christian School Revival." Today I am talking to a recently retired pastor who happened to be a classmate of mine way back in the day, Dan MacAvoy.

His article is in the middle section of the magazine, the part that's called, "The Pastor's Insert." As I've said before, this section isn't just for pastors. It always has something every Christian can profit from.

Dan's article is called, "Preparing for Ministry." He is talking about ministry training, especially through relationships with other pastors. We talked about that article but along the way had a wide-ranging conversation on ministry. Our recording software produces a transcript for us and uses AI to create headings and so on to help with the editing process. Here are the keywords it produced for this episode:

ministry, mentoring, church leadership, academic training, pastoral transition, church growth, spiritual guidance

That pretty well sums up what we talked about. I hope you will truly be blessed as you listen to Dan talk about the ministry and not only the part pastors play, but all Christians play in the work of the Lord.

* FrontLine Contents and Editorial May/June 2023: FrontLine: The Christian School Revival

* Dan MacAvoy’s article (for subscribers, preview for everyone else): Preparing for the Ministry

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that [a]moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28

This is the first command God ever gave to human beings—before any other commandments including not to eat of the Tree. It is a pregnant command that demands the union of a man and woman in marriage, the establishment of a home, and passing the command on to succeeding generations to be obeyed. In the 1980’s some argued that this mandate was already fulfilled, but a demographic collapse in many of the world’s leading nations, it only takes one generation disobeying it to utterly destroy humanity.

While born-again believers tend to look at the entirety of scripture through the lens of the gospel, we often fail to see the sociological commands that God gave as the basis for human survival. Among these are the establishment of marriage between one man and one woman in Genesis 2, and human government in Genesis 9.

The Canary in the Coal Mine

Consider the situation in Colorado and the unintended consequence of the failure to obey the Genesis 1:28 mandate. In an article on Realclearreligion.com entitled, Colorado Could Be the Parental Rights Canary in the Coal Mine, J.P. De Gance[1] points out a startling corollary regarding Colorado’s horrible law HB 25-1312.

The dystopian state house bill, HB 25-1312 or better known as the “Kelly Loving Act,” allows the Colorado government to remove a child from her parents if parents refuse to go along with her gender dysphoria and self-styled new identity. It represents the most totalitarian legal destruction of parental rights in American history.

How can this happen? How can a state like Colorado, not long ago a swing state, vote for such a destructive ideology and how have Colorado parents allowed it? …

Read the full post here: Satan Doesn’t Want People to Be Fruitful and Multiply – Proclaim & Defend or just listen to the podcast.

[1] De Gance is the director of Communio which describes itself as “a nonprofit ministry that trains and equips churches to share the Gospel through the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family.” Care should be taken regarding the definition of “gospel” since this ministry seems to be primarily Roman Catholic in its bent, although it does work with some protestant churches.

Today we are starting to look at a new edition of FrontLine, the May/June issue which came out just this week. We will publish the FrontLine promo article on Proclaim & Defend this coming Tuesday.

The theme of this edition is "The Christian School Revival." I'm going to include a copy of a brief note in the magazine, "Why This Topic?" from our president, Kevin Schaal, as part of today's show notes.

Since the Covid years, Christian schools are seeing increased interest among the public, and Christians and Christian leaders need to talk about how to promote and implement Christian education as part of their ministries.

We are going to start with Dr. Lynn McCool. She teaches at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa, in the department of education. I'll let her introduce herself to you.

The article is very much a foundational article, "Rooted in Truth: The Biblical Framework for Christian Education." Dr. McCool is talking about education philosophy historically and how we should think about education in the present. I really was blessed by our conversation and hope you will be too.

Before we get to the interview, let me remind you that Lynn's article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

* The article for this episode: Rooted in Truth: The Biblical Framework for Christian Education

* FrontLine Editorial and Contents: coming soon

Why This Topic?

The Christian school movement is exploding, thanks to changes in educational choice laws that are sweeping across our nation. The Christian school movement gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s amid rising concerns over public schools, including busing programs, drugs on campus, and the removal of prayer. The movement faced huge growing pains from the 1980s through the 2000s. Many Christian schools could not compete with the growing homeschool movement. There were financial, spiritual, and ministry challenges that were overwhelming for many churches.

Now, however, two factors have led to a revival of Christian school education.

Public schools across the country have become institutions for indoctrination with evil. In the last four years, the transgender movement has pushed biological boys into girls’ bathrooms and girls’ sports. Students are being encouraged to transition while parents are being kept in the dark. Trust in the public school has vanished, especially for people of faith.

At the same time, school choice laws are springing up everywhere as a result of the Carson/Makin Supreme Court decision in June of 2022. As of the time of this writing, thirteen states plus Washington, DC, have near-universal school choice, and six more states are about to pass legislation. In almost all cases, parents are given the freedom to decide where to spend their children’s education dollars.

The result of these factors is an explosion in the demand for Christian schools. At the same time, however, Christian colleges are graduating a record-low number of teachers. Our Christian school turns away almost as many children as we enroll because we lack both the teachers and the space to meet the need. As we scramble to find space and teachers, we have the luxury of being more selective with enrollment, but that is only a matter of local ministry convenience. The need for Christian schools in our country is huge.

Explosive growth often comes with unintended consequences. In the 1980s the hot topic was how local church Christian schools completely overshadowed church youth ministry. We need to keep Great Commission priorities and local church integrity as we address the avalanche of demand for Christian education.

The Christian school discussion is one that we must have again. Let’s start here.

Kevin Schaal, Editor

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-26)

One of the enduring legacies of “market-church” Christianity is “entertainment worship.” Gen Z and many millennials are turning away from popular churches because they feel the worship is fake. Often it is. Overly rehearsed performances—to the point of rehearsing what is intended to look like spontaneity—produce a worship similar to the multitudes of fake foods that occupy our grocery stores. In many cases these young people are abandoning the contemporary evangelical service for the mystical liturgy of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Leaving one false form for another is not the solution, and all churches need to take a long hard look at what they do and why. This should include fundamentalist churches that pride themselves in traditional worship. “Fake” can be another expression for empty worship—going through the motions without real mental or spiritual engagement in what is happening.

One worship tradition over another is not the test of genuine worship. Both can be fake. Enthusiasm is not a measure either. People can sing the right kind of music enthusiastically and still be nowhere near true worship. Consider some biblical essentials for true worship. …

Read the rest of the article here: Fake Worship is a Problem Everywhere – Proclaim & Defend (or just listen to the podcast).

Our episode this week is a little unusual in that we have no FrontLine article as the background. We do have a FrontLine issue in mind, the January/February edition on "AI: Developing a Christian Perspective."

There is much to consider on this subject and our authors got me thinking a lot about it as I worked through their articles. Whether we like it or not, AI will be part of our lives going forward. We should learn what we can and think more and more about how Christians should use this technology in our world.

We touched on ethics and AI to some degree in the magazine and our podcasts, but something one of our authors, Erik Hanson, mentioned in the podcast led me to think more about the subject and also to include Dave Shumate, the Associate Editor in charge of that FrontLine edition. Dave has a law degree but is not a lawyer. His training does help us understand legal issues to some degree and we appreciate his insight.

What we did this week was to have a longer discussion on AI and ethics in various applications. We could have kept talking, but we decided to cut it off after almost an hour.

I hope you find the discussion helpful. While we don't have an article to point you to this week, we still encourage you to subscribe to FrontLine, to our substack, and to support the FBFI and the good work we are able to do in partnership with Christians around the world.

FrontLine contents and podcast links: AI: Developing a Christian Perspective – Proclaim & Defend

I arrived home yesterday from two weeks of ministry in the Philippines. Sandy and I were able to minister in two FBFI related meetings, one in Cebu hosted by Pastor Rogelio Baladjay at Bible Baptist Fellowship Church in Mandaue. The church is an energetic and active congregation, and they treated us with such a servant’s spirit. The entire church participated in the conference, including many wonderful musical presentations by various groups from the church. Pastor Baladjay runs a seminary (Bible Institute) that was established by his father and Dr. Peter Moriyama. There were more than 60 pastors in attendance along with many of their wives. Almost all were graduates and church plants out of pastor Baladjay’s church and seminary.

It was a great privilege to minister there alongside Dr. Bob Jones III and Karen Jones, David Ennis, and Missionary Forrest McPhail along with his wife Jennifer. Both in their mid-80’s, Dr. Jones and Dr. Ennis are still very sharp and delivered excellent messages.

In the second week, Sandy and I joined the Jones’ and the McPhail’s in ministering at the Bob Jones Memorial College’s PRISM conference in Manila. That conference included pastors from all over the Philippines and Southeast Asia as well as students, faculty, and staff from the college. The school there is thriving under the leadership of Dr. Phil Kamibayashiyama and an excellent staff and faculty. The school has a wonderful facility and the music ministry of the students was excellent. We were especially blessed by Atan and Rachel Taclob and their four precious children. They are missionaries our church supports and we were with them for an entire Sunday of ministry.

God is doing great things in the Philippines. …

Read the rest of this article at On Ministering with and Standing with Worthy Friends – Proclaim & Defend — or just listen to the podcast.

We bring you another interview from the March/April edition of FrontLine Magazine which was on the theme, "The Self-Deception of Substance Abuse."

Our guest today is Ben Hicks, the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ben has joined our podcast before and is a frequent contributor to FrontLine and to Proclaim & Defend.

Ben has done a lot of work on the topic of Christian liberty and he brings his study of that topic to the issue of substance abuse. We had a great conversation about it this week which I think you will really enjoy.

Ben's article is available on our Substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber and subscribe to FrontLine magazine.

Article: Christian Liberty, Drugs, and Alcohol

P&D FrontLine introductory article: FrontLine: The Self-Deception of Substance Abuse – Proclaim & Defend

What we often presume.

Our imagination about the world prior to the Great Flood is likely highly inaccurate. We typically think of a planet sparsely populated with limited technological advancements and primitive living conditions. We might speculate that it was more advanced than we typically consider, but nothing like our modern age. Looking at the biblical data might lead us to an entirely different conclusion.

What we know from the biblical text.

There were ten generations from Adam to Noah. These are the named generations. Biblical genealogies are not always complete, they sometimes skip generations. This is not an inaccuracy. In biblical thinking a grandfather is the progenitor of a grandson. Not every generation is necessarily mentioned. But for the sake of our evaluation, let’s take these generations as complete.

The average lifespan before the flood, according to the genealogies mentioned in Genesis 5 was 912 years. The average age of siring a child mentioned in Genesis 5 is 117.3 years. That is we leave out Noah who is mentioned as 500 years old when he has three sons in Genesis 5:32. …

Read the rest of this article at: Rethinking the Pre-Flood World – Proclaim & Defend — or just listen to the podcast.

Today we're joined by Dave Shumate to discuss his article, "Why Marijuana Is (Still) Wrong." This is part of a series of podcasts from the March/April edition of FrontLine magazine on the theme, "The Self-Deception of Substance Abuse."

As marijuana legalization spreads across North America—now legal in 24 states for recreational use and 39 states for medical purposes—Christians need stronger arguments beyond "it's illegal" to address this issue from a biblical perspective.

In this episode, we'll explore how marijuana produces its intoxicating effects, examine the biblical principles that apply to its use, and discuss both the short and long-term consequences of cannabis consumption. Dave will help us understand the scientific research on marijuana's impact on cognition, mental health, and the concerning rise in cannabis potency in recent years.

We'll also address the growing conversation around medical marijuana and explore whether there are legitimate therapeutic applications. This discussion comes at a crucial time as cannabis becomes increasingly mainstream in our society, with significant investments from alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies pushing its normalization.

Dave's article is available on our Substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber and subscribe to FrontLine magazine.

Article: Why Marijuana Is (Still) Wrong

P&D FrontLine introductory article: FrontLine: The Self-Deception of Substance Abuse – Proclaim & Defend