2016 Episode 39

Show open and exercise-craze banter

The episode opens with the produced show intro, then the hosts trade banter about pre-show stretching rituals and dated exercise crazes -- Tae Bo, P90X, and CrossFit. One host jokes that he assumed CrossFit was a Christian program because of all his Jesus-following Facebook friends. Loose comedy-bit warmup before the guest arrives.

Guest introduction: Trevor of Federated Church in Bondurant

A host introduces guest Trevor, associate pastor at Federated Church in Bondurant, who describes coming from a business background into ministry about three years earlier after his pastor asked him to join staff. The hosts lay out the night's lineup: a round of Secular vs. Solomon (with Boova absent), a pope-style advice segment, and a Dear LFTP letter. Trevor is immediately saddled with the running nickname Guestman and a series of mangled surnames.

Congregational reading and the Manila trip story

• Why is congregational reading waning in churches?

The hosts react to an article claiming congregational reading is waning in churches, joking about monotone chanting, seventies Planet of the Apes cult vibes, and the Lord's Prayer 'debtors vs. transgressions' camps. A host then tells an extended story from a six-week stay in Manila: a 'no Wang Wang zone' airport sign (Wang Wang mimics a siren's wail, used for self-important entourages with noisemakers), a Filipino church service where he laughed at Tagalog punchlines he didn't understand, and the one time he heard congregational scripture reading done well -- a near-full chapter of John read together, loud and unified.

Trevor on youth ministry, phones, and divided attention

Trevor describes youth ministry today: students with divided attention who cannot put down their phones, church treated as just another weekly activity, and kids specialized into single pursuits like travel dance or ball. He paints a sunset on the Gulf Coast of Florida -- a God-moment spoiled by the urge to capture it for retweets instead of being still -- and urges pastors and youth workers to stay in fellowship with one another.

Progress, affirmation culture, and craftsmanship

The hosts riff on Trevor's picture: progress has consequences that land on the next generation, and modern life is 'a mile wide and an inch deep' -- shallow relationships, shallow experiences, and identity sought from affirmation in the wrong places. One host contrasts this with a Renaissance-fair potter who simply 'makes cups,' and describes sitting his daughters down to read the Tower of Babel and overlay it on their technology habits. The segment lands on the shared conviction that God's design for life was never complicated -- people add the tangles themselves.

Pre-flood technology and Noah the cosmonaut

• What was life and technology like before Noah's flood?

Trevor notes Nebraska football's experiment with blue-light-filtering glasses to fix players' sleep, then asks the episode's signature question: what was pre-flood life and technology like -- computers, cars, internal combustion before Noah? The hosts riff on 'Noah the cosmonaut' with CAD drawings and forklifts, then play a clip from 10/14/2011 of a host's earlier Noah discussion (its five-year anniversary), and Trevor cites the secular book 'We Are Not the First' on unexplainable archaeological finds.

Pope-style advice: persistent sin and unchanging grace

• When struggling with persistent sin, is it better or worse to surround yourself with scripture and prayer, or does that bring more guilt?
• Why do we have to understand everything?

Framed as 'Pope Mike' advice after online commenters mistook a host for the pope, the host addressed on-air as Mike recounts counseling a young believer battling persistent sin: the devil let in the front door who 'farts in the chair' and acts like he owns the place, and Jesus as the renovator building walls in the house. His counsel: God's opinion of you did not change; borrow someone else's walls (community) while Jesus builds yours. Discussion follows -- Trevor's father's line about prayer and sin, why we must understand everything, science and faith in sync, Paul's Ephesians prayer to comprehend God's love, Ephesians 3:9-12 read aloud, a David Platt book on God not needing us -- closing on being faithful in the means.

Secular vs. Solomon game

• Can you colonize a heap of ash?

The full Secular vs. Solomon game: the host reads nine proverbs and the panel guesses secular or Solomon plus a country of origin. Solomon hits include Proverbs 9:17 ('Stolen water is sweet'), 14:30 (tranquil heart), 12:8 (commended good sense), and 10:7 (memory of the righteous); secular hits include the Namibian beer proverb, the Dutch 'only a fool knows everything,' the Nigerian rhinoceros, and the Ghanaian 'ruin of a nation.' A fourth, never-introduced participant addressed as 'Josh Guestman'/'Guessman' plays along. The host closes by pointing listeners to past games on the site, framing the point as knowing where wisdom comes from.

Dear LFTP: the tractor-and-trailer borrowers

• What comeback can my husband use when his friends tell (not ask) him they will borrow his tractor and trailer, without offending them?

The reader reads a Dear LFTP letter: a woman's husband owns a small tractor and a large trailer, and his friends announce -- not ask -- that they will borrow them; she wants a comeback that won't offend. The hosts reframe it: the husband doesn't mind, so the problem is hers; the fix is asking politely and putting the onus on the owner, not arming him with zingers. They read the 'secular answer' -- 'you, not your husband, appear to be the person with the problem' -- and warn never to blame your wife for your own decisions.

Sign-off, guest info, and closing jokes

Sign-off: thanks to Trevor, who gives his church (Federated Church in Bondurant, Iowa) and its Facebook page for contact; complaints go to Facebook because it 'generates traffic.' Closing comedy: a Halloween Moses-coffee joke ('He brews it'), a weak Satan-argument joke, and Trevor's pastor's-mother joke from his Tuesday bingo calling at Brick Street Market. The host plugs the 'sad little church joke' YouTube clip and closes with the night's benediction: 'be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends.'