Church and Family Life Podcast

With the 2024 election season in full swing, where are we to turn for answers as the presidential candidates exchange barbs and make competing claims? French Reformer Pierre Viret gives the right answer: “the law of God alone is the true standard by which all good and just government must be ruled and conformed.” Simply put: man’s law brings chaos, when it comes to the civil realm, while God’s law brings order and beauty.  In this podcast, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm unpack the wisdom of Viret, who had to learn to live with flexibility under multiple different governments during his public ministry. Writing in the 16th century, he gave valuable insights that were recently compiled into the book, When to Disobey: Case Studies in Tyranny, Insurrection, & Obedience to God. Viret’s contention is this: Whether believers face suffering or enjoy blessing, they always have a way forward because they can obey God as they engage the civil sphere. Be they under a king, aristocracy, or representative government, Christians should pull whatever levers they can to advance God’s law and leave the results to Him.  Click here to purchase Viret’s insightful book. 

At the height of the COVID crisis, state governments around the world forbade churches from gathering on the Lord’s Day and restricted pastors and loved ones from visiting the sick in the hospital. The lockdown policies were particularly severe in New Zealand, which compelled a number of committed pastors and Christians there to push back and form the group, Free to Be Church.  In this podcast, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm interview New Zealand pastors Kris Baines and André Bay, discussing lessons learned during this trying time. The first and foremost lesson is that Christ, not the state, is the exclusive head of the church, and His mandate for local churches to gather must be followed. Churches must worship and fellowship as God directs, not invent pragmatic online alternatives. And, finally, true love for our neighbor comes through obedience to Christ, not by seeking the favor of our community or civil leaders.

Conrad Mbewe was born into a tight-knit family in the African country of Zambia. Yet he entered a dark period at age nine, when his mother—the sunshine of his life—passed away. In response to her death, his father turned to the bottle, even as Conrad and his two siblings were taken in by other relatives.    In this Church and Family Life podcast, Conrad gives his life story, sharing how his elder sister’s faith in Christ floored him. As their father sold off treasured family belongings to buy liquor, his sister radiated joy—singing “Amazing Grace” while she prepared a meal that was next to nothing. But Conrad still thought his “good deeds” were enough. This changed when a friend declared to him that salvation is solely God’s work. Driven to his knees, Conrad repented and gave his life to Christ. After a short stint as a mining engineer, he accepted a call at age 25 to pastor Kabwata Baptist Church, located in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. Serving there since 1987, Conrad has helped to start roughly 40 other Reformed churches in countries across Africa. 

Growing up, Paul Carrington never heard the Gospel. A native of downtown Toronto, he took to sports and met his future wife Melinda at a nightclub when he was eighteen. In God’s sovereignty, Melinda was soon converted to Christ—a change which made Paul mad. While playing hip-hop music in his bedroom one night, he began to read the Bible in the hopes of dismantling Melinda’s faith. Yet, in a miraculous work, the same Spirit that had saved his girlfriend gripped Paul’s soul as he read the Scriptures, and he surrendered his life to Jesus.  Becoming radicalized for Christ, Paul married Melinda. And while they lost old friends due to their witness, their zeal for God led them to share their faith around the world in remote huts in the Kenya bush, in shacks in the slums of the Dominican Republic, and in Muslim strongholds of Western Turkey. Paul and his wife currently live in North Carolina with their six children and remain active in missionary work through the translation and distribution of Christian resources into Turkish, Farsi, Russian, and Arabic. 

Historically, Christian nations have welcomed the fruit of the womb as a great blessing of God. Yet over the last six decades, there’s been a stark shift away from fruitfulness, as selfishness has displaced a love for many children. In the U.S. alone, the total fertility birthrate per woman has dropped from 3.58 in 1960 to a low point of 1.77 in 1979. And 2022’s total was a meager bump up from there to 1.78.   So what’s at the heart of this fertility decline? In this podcast, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm, joined by data analyst Drew Davis, break down the global numbers, explaining how women leaving the home for the workforce, the rise of contraceptives and abortion, and a general valuing of more “worldly things” over eternal souls have led to this unbiblical shift. Despite these bad trends, Christians should joyfully return to the Scripture’s call to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). They should embrace the great Gospel impact they can have by raising more sons and daughters to fear the Lord—children who “shall not be ashamed, but [who] shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (Ps. 127:5). 

Alexander Strauch began his early boyhood in bustling Newark, New Jersey, surrounded by concrete in a tight-knit community of German-speaking immigrants. At age ten, his family moved to the country—a dramatic change from cramped city-life to sprawling forests, filled with beautiful streams and woods. Alex loved his new environment and began to hunt reptiles and fish almost every day.   In this podcast, Alex shares his life story, describing how God used his love for fishing to bring him to Christ. When he was invited by a friend to fish at a Christian camp in New York State, little did he know that his friend was fishing for his soul. Alex was saved there at age eleven and, by age thirteen, he was compelled to serve Christ in ministry. After attending Bible college, Alex landed at Littleton Bible Chapel in the midst of the Jesus Revolution. It was there he met his future wife, Marilyn, as they ministered to youth together. Alex served as an elder of this church for more than forty years and now devotes his time to helping other churches better conform to the Bible’s teaching on leadership roles and loving one another. His books Biblical Eldership, The New Testament Deacon, and Agape Leadership have been a great help to churches around the world. 

On October 3-4, churches around the world will be gathering for a Global Day of Prayer for Revival. In preparation for this event, Scott Brown and Jason Dohm, joined by special guest Jeffery Johnson, are encouraging Christians to highly value public prayer and to actively participate in it in their local church. And, in this podcast, they discuss nine practical rules for corporate prayer meetings.  First, pray from the heart. Suppress self-consciousness and pray fervently and sincerely. Second, prepare to pray. Make a short list or mental outline ahead of time of your praises and petitions. Third, pray short, not long-winded prayers. Fourth, pray to God; don’t preach sermons to men. Fifth, pray Scripture. Sixth, pray with confidence in our Savior’s work and sovereignty, knowing that He lives to make intercession for us. Seventh, pray engagingly. Pray loud enough for others to hear. And, as others are praying, don’t daydream, but join in affirming their appeals, either through silent prayer or out loud with “Amens.” Eighth, pray the promises of God. And, ninth, pray in faith, knowing God delights in giving good gifts to His children.  To learn more about the Global Day of Prayer for Revival and to join the effort, visit https://globalprayerforrevival.com/. 

In these dark days, the greatest need the world has is for revival. Yet without the work of the Holy Spirit, all our efforts to bring it about will be in vain. True revival only occurs when the Sprit moves mightily on a people as the Gospel is proclaimed.  In this podcast Scott Brown and Jason Dohm interview pastor Jeffrey Johnson, whose heart was gripped by this reality while ministering in Kenya several months ago. Compelled to action, Johnson contacted fellow pastors about the need for the church to actively pray for revival across the world. These discussions led to the establishment of October 3-4 of this year as a Global Day of Prayer for Revival. Such men as Paul Washer, Joel Beeke, and Tom Ascol have joined with Johnson in calling on local churches worldwide to devote this time to humble contrition and earnest fasting and prayer—appealing to God that His Spirit might move in an extraordinary way and revive souls across the nations. To learn more about this day of prayer and join the effort, visit https://globalprayerforrevival.com/.

Though the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the bloody genocide of abortion continues. Each day in America, more than 3,000 children are still being killed in the womb. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, abortion remains legal in all fifty states. Yes, many abortion mills have closed, but this has done little to stop the murder of the unborn. Under the reign of Roe, doctors typically perpetrated abortions, but now the mother, in increasingly more cases, has become the active killer, taking the life of her child through mail-order pills.     In view of this travesty, how can Christians who love life engage this battle? In this podcast Scott Brown and Jason Dohm, joined by special guest Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, outline a blueprint for engagement. In addition to heartfelt outreach to mothers, they outline a 4-part strategy for the civil sphere: Become an educated voter, a genuine encourager of civil office-holders, a grassroots mobilizer, and a principled pro-life candidate. While not everyone can be involved on all four levels, every Christian should seek to stand on principle for every life—born or unborn—as they have opportunity.