Ep 174: Pastors Conference Recharge

Please click on the underlined links throughout.

"Today on Plays on Word Radio, we get a behind-the-scenes story from the Calvary Chapel East Coast Pastors conference in Philly. We also get a quick preview of a possible John the Baptist presentation that is currently downloading."

A nine-hour drive, a tight schedule, and one missing sermon upload set the stage for a chain of events we still can’t stop laughing about. We’re fresh back from the Calvary Chapel East Coast Pastors Conference in Philadelphia, and the encouragement was real: thousands of pastors worshiping hard, singing hymns and new songs, and getting poured into by seasoned Bible teachers. That kind of gathering doesn’t just inspire you for a day, it refuels you for the long haul of ministry leadership.

But the funniest moment hits when we’re trying to solve a very practical problem: getting the Sunday message online while conference Wi-Fi crawls. A quick request for help turns into an unexpected walk through the back offices, a fast connection, and a conversation we never saw coming. Then the plot thickens when a true Calvary Chapel legend sits down right next to us, and we’re doing everything we can to stay calm, keep it respectful, and not completely geek out.

We also share why these conference relationships matter for church planting and for Plays On Word Theater. They lead to real partnerships, prayer support, and invitations that open doors for gospel-centered creative work. To top it off, we preview what’s coming next: a 'PETE' presentation and a new John the Baptist play idea that starts at the chopping block and digs into humility, bold truth-telling, prison, and the hard questions that surface when obedience costs you something.

East Coast Pastors Conference / 2026 Resources (click this underlined link)

If you enjoy Christian podcasts, Calvary Chapel stories, ministry behind-the-scenes moments, and biblical storytelling that sticks with you, hit play and come along. Subscribe and share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so others can find the show. Review Us Here!

Visit our website, where you can donate to help us out... If you want to do a one-time donation, or if you want to become a monthly partner - PLEASE DONATE HERE: https://playsonword.networkforgood.com/

Please keep this ministry in prayer. This program was made possible by the Plays One Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our NEW & IMPROVED Website at playsonword.org

Stay Up To Date with our: Plays On Word E-News Sign Up
The Plays on Word Theater team is always setting up new performance dates! Want us to visit your church/venue/community? Please check out: Book It!

To See the Vision Behind the Mission of Plays On Word Theater & Radio, please visit: https://www.playsonword.org/support

Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Facebook
Plays On Word Instagram
Email us: team@playsonword.org

Transcript

John The Baptist Cold Open

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Lord, you know you're now listening to play is the best goes to baptize when Jesus comes to him and he feels so unworthy to baptize Jesus. He wants to be baptized by Jesus, and Jesus is saying, you know, baptize me. Then when he's thrown in jail for calling out Herod, and he really did call out Herod too. It isn't right for you to have your brother's wife. He called him out. He didn't back down. He called right, right, and wrong wrong and was not afraid of the consequences. Man, if we had men like that today.

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Today on Plays on Word Radio, we get a behind-the-scenes story from the California Capital East Coast Plus Conference in Philly. We also get a quick preview of Hustle's on the pastors presentation that is currently done.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discussed, analyze, work, and play on the word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion today. Let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr., the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.

Philly Conference Highs And Worship

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Okay, okay, okay. Welcome to all of you listening to Plays on Word Radio. Thank you very much, Katie Kenny and Josh Taylor, for the introduction. We got another week here, y'all. Yeah. Oh man. This well, this past week has been the busy, eventful, I should say. We went to the Calvary Chapel East Coast Pastors Conference in Philadelphia at Calvary Chapel, Philly. And we had, oh my goodness. It is one of the highlights of my year. Like I have my let me make sure I say this right. My anniversary, the where I married the love of my life, my beautiful bride, Katie Kenny. I have that. I have Christmas Day, what we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, even though it technically is not when he was born, but it's okay. It's you know, it's a I'm just what I'm doing is celebrating the fact he came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Resurrection Sunday. And the East Coast Pastor's car. I don't know if it's elevated up to that level, but let me tell you, spiritually, man, I uh man, we had like 2,000 dudes, man, and just praising God to where the ground was shaking. Praising the Lord, getting encouragement. It's like an injection of just uh adrenaline of uh, you know, I and I'm pretty amped up as it is anyway. So those of you that know me, I'm pretty amped up as it is, man. I'm pretty like charged up, encouraged, and allured. This is like me on steroids or something. And uh, for those of you that are thinking, yeah, he's probably on steroids. I've said have you seen that guy lately? I'm not on the juice, okay? I'm not on the juice. Not at all. I just it's Holy Spirit-inspired workouts and eating, sleeping. You know, I've just learned I'm a much smarter lifter now than I was when I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. Just yeah. And it's really a ripoff. This whole getting old thing is a ripoff. Because it's like, okay, now finally I'm finally I'm getting, I'm old enough for I under I'm starting to understand how things actually work. And the deterioration is is way more than back then, and it's like, but I'm falling apart more, and it takes way longer to recover. Oh my goodness. If I could recover like when I was 20, people thought I was on the juice back then. I've been accused of being on the juice my whole life. Well, maybe not my whole life, because I was I was skin and bones for until I was about 15, till I saw who did I see? I saw a muscle magazine with Franco Colombo and Arnold and them dudes. And then I saw Lee Haney and I was like, wait, what? Lee Haney, he was the standard for me growing up. And then Dorian Yates kicked in and all these bodybuilders. I was, you know, anyway, I'm off the rails with the podcast here. The point is, it's it was like spiritual steroids, and many of my shepherd brothers have been refreshed and recharged. We sang old hymns, we sang new songs, we had uh excellent teaching and encouragement from the old heads of the Calvary Chapel movement. Because I'm a Calvary Chapel pastor, for those of you that don't know, and we planted our Calvary Chapel in Southport, North Carolina in 2024 in my living room. And now we're downtown in Southport, right next to Oak Island, North Carolina. And uh we are growing, and the Lord is growing us as a family and uh and a congregation, and well, and we have satellite people. I I'm not gonna call members because they're we don't have members, but we have satellite folks that might not we might not be their home church, but some some folks we are. But I think of Aunt Bev, Aunt Bev in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Yeah, she's not just an honor, she's not even, she's more than like an honorary member. You know, if we had members, but she's part of the fellowship. You know, we I think of my family, uh Calvary Chapel Wapaka in Wisconsin. The whole church, yeah, the whole church. They've been praying for this work that the Lord's been doing since we started. I think of our family over in Jacksonville, North Carolina. They've been praying. The the congregation has been praying for what's happening and what the Lord is doing. So we're, you know, and and think of Chambersburg, my man over in Dan Schunk over in Chambersburg. They they prayed for us, you know. So yeah. Uh we have satellite folks, and and then there's individual folks. I'm I too many to to name right now, so because I'm gonna inevitably get somebody say, You forgot about me. But all y'all know, because I usually reach out to you all the time and either ask for prayer or keep you updated on what's happening. But we have yeah, and we're so grateful for for all you folks, yeah.

The Upload Problem Turns Into A Story

SPEAKER_02 7:27

So I wanted to I wanted to tell you this story that happened while I was at the pastor's conference. And me personally, I think it I think it's funny. And I think most of you that know me are gonna think it's funny because I was at a loss for words and I I couldn't even speak. I didn't know what to say. I had to upload the message for Calvary Chapel Southport. I usually take care of it Sunday after church. After church, right after church, we go to get some grub, get some food, then I come home and I edit up the message and make sure that the notes are all up on the website and everything, stuff like that. Make sure that's and then I send it out to those individual folks I just told you about. Aunt Bev and the whole crew. And so last Sunday, we me and this dude Chris from our fellowship, we had to drive to Philadelphia. That's like a nine-hour drive. If nine hours on the on just the calculation, that's not counting time to stop and gas up and and you know, use the bathroom or whatever. And so it's more like 10, 11 hours. And so we got out of Dodge, man. We after church service was over, we didn't even stop to eat. We just unloaded the equipment, whatever we had to do, and then got on the road. And we headed up to the pastor's conference. So I didn't have the the message edited, I didn't have the stuff ready to go. Because we were driving. And so I when we finally got there, man, we got there, I don't know, 11 o'clock at night. And it was a long drive. I was tired, man. I was like, oh man, so I'm gonna I'll try to get this. Uh I get I got as much as I could done. And I said, I'll I'll have to do the rest tomorrow, man. So we the next day. Yeah, the next day I started to uh we had, you know, we got registered and everything like that. And I did a little bit more on the editing, but I could I just man, I couldn't get it all done. So I so fine. Tuesday rolls around, that's when the text starts coming in. Hey, where where's the message at? Are you gonna upload it? And I'm like, all right, man, all right, okay. So so I I did what I could, I finished it up in between sessions. And but the problem was over there, the you know, the the the Wi-Fi service, the connectivity is is not is not good at all. I mean, it would have taken days probably to upload because it was the connection was so slow. So I went to this, I went to this guy, Jerry, who is the assistant pastor, and he's been the assistant pastor to Joe Foch for a long time. I went up to Jerry, and I said, and Jerry is is really the like the contact guy for the conference, you know, and and the church there. They have a a school, like I think kindergarten through 12th grade, full school. I mean, it's a big operation over there, man. Calvary Philly. And I mean, he's been there. Joe, Joe, and Calvary Philly has been there since 81, 1981. He came when he came out here, they were the only Calvary Chapel east of the Mississippi. Now there's like a gazillion of them. But yeah, he was the he was the Lone Ranger when he came out. Anyway, I go up to Jerry, I said, Jerry, man, is there any way that I you could give me an Ethernet connection or just give me Wi-Fi or something? Just I just needed, I don't know, just for I don't know, 10-15 minutes so I could upload the message because I got people reaching out to me. Where's the message? So he said, I he he looks at me and says, Yeah, sure. Hang on, come here, follow me. So he starts taking me, he brought me into the office area. You know, it's open office area. You can see the everybody in the hall with big, you know, glass windows from the from the hallway, and then the office area where this is this big office area. So he takes me in there, and I figured, okay, he's gonna hope hopefully he'll connect me to a connection right here. And but he doesn't stop walking. He said, come on, and he brings me, he brings me from the through the office area into like the back office, the main office area. And I'm like, oh, uh, oh, okay. And I'm just following, I'm following. Then he brings me, he brings me to his office. And now I'm I'm like, oh wow, I I I never ex I didn't expect wow, okay, all right. And then he sits down, gets on the phone, calls the IT guy, and hooks me up with a fast, like a um a heavy duty connection, and I'm like, oh wow, I was just trying to get uh get a general Wi-Fi connection, but this is great. Wow, okay, no problem. And so he's sitting, and then we start talking. Now, let me back up just so you know. I met this guy Jerry Paradise. I met him 25 years ago. Ish. It was after 9-11. Yeah, it was 25 years ago, because I was going to Calvary Philly. I was living in Philly there, and I was commuting in New York. And so I was like, I was going in between Philly and New York, and so Calvary Philly was my home church. Calvary Old Bridge was my home church kind of at the same time. Because I would stop at Calvary Old Bridge in New Jersey. That was like right in the middle there, or Harvest Christian Fellowship in Manhattan with Mike Fenicio. So I was, you know, different Sundays depending on where I was located, because I was touring and playing shows and stuff like that with this band, and we were doing showcases and stuff, and and I it was just, you know, I was I was not completely settled or locked down in a location. So the I was just blessed to have those those guys, Pastor Lloyd and Mike Fadizio and Joe Foch and those guys were very formative for me. And so I met Jerry. Mike, the guy from New York, asked me to deliver something to Jerry Paradise, and I was so excited. I was like, wow, this is a this is awesome. So I said, no problem. It was a box, I think I, I don't know, a box of cassettes or something. I don't even know what it was. But he asked me to deliver it, and I was so I I'm telling you, I guarded that thing with my life. I was like, I was just, man, if UPS and FedEx and the mail delivered stuff the way I delivered that package and cared for the package, man, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, you'd never need insurance, man, because I no, nothing was gonna happen to that. I because that was that well, I was doing a delivery for for God. Not that Jerry or Mike were were God, but they were God's men, so I was like making sure I took care of it. And so anyway, make a long story short, I met him like 20-something years ago, and I delivered a package, and I just reminded him, I said, You're not gonna remember this, but yeah, and and of course he he didn't remember it, but you know, he remembered it the period of time very clearly. And so I'm sitting here talking, and then this this guy sits down next to me, and it's Don McClure, who was part of the I don't even know how to I I don't know how to describe like the importance to the Calvary Chapel movement. Don was right there with Chuck at Costa Mesa back in the late 60s or early 70s, early 70s when the Jesus movement was kicking off and all the hippies were getting saved, and and he was right there, man, with Greg Lori, and then and then later after that, Rao Reese and them guys. But yeah, Don was right there, and Don has been instrumental. He's just been he's been a leader in the Calvary Chapel movement, and he's he's just poured into so many guys like Joe Foch. Him and Joe Foch are extremely tight. Anyway, he's a very old guy now, real old guy. His son's a pastor, and he's he's just been in ministry a long time, and he always speaks at the East Coast Pastor Conference. He's always the last speaker, the final speaker. And it's always a blessing. And like three years ago, it seemed like he was he, I and a few other guys were like, Man, he's not gonna, this is our last time seeing him. And but God has been gracious to us by keeping him around. Anyway, he sits down right next to me. I was like, Okay. Well uh, and I was at a loss for words. You need to imagine, yes, some of you are like, stop lying. No, I'm telling you, man. I I was like, Lord, please don't let me geek out right now. Please please don't let me say Lord, please. I I said this quick prayer to the I don't want it, Lord, I don't want to say anything stupid, but I I turned into a fanboy, a total geek, total total total geek fanboy in my heart. And I just I looked over, I said, Hi Don. Uh, how are you doing? You know, and we're sitting there talking, and he was it was slightly unnerving because he just looked at me as I was and you know, we're we're talking. I told him, I said, Well, what we're what was happening down in North Carolina, and and Jerry, I'm I'm talking with Jerry Paradise and Don McClure, and I'm sitting here, and I'm I'm trying to hold it together, and I'm like, all right, I'm telling myself, just channel your inner Fonzy, man, your inner Fonz. Be cool, be cool, be cool. Channel your inner Fonz. And I I felt, you know, I don't know. I described it to my buddy Pastor Cliff. I told him afterwards, I said, I felt like an Elvis fan, and Elvis just sat down next to me. And I I was so I didn't know what to say. And so, anyway, it was a really cool that was just it was it what a blessing for me. I could not believe that I was in a in a conference with 2,000 some dudes. God has me just be able to sit and just chill with these two guys, and and they're helping me. Like, well, well, well, Jerry was one really helped me. Don was observing me, and it became a little unnerving at one point. I was like, man, this guy doesn't blink. He was just he was looking at me anyway. So I was so excited afterwards. I I thought to myself, I said, no one's gonna believe this when I tell if I tell them. Nobody's gonna believe that I was brought back into the the bowels back here, the back, the the the main offices. And so I needed to take a picture with with with Don. Jerry had to go print something or whatever. As I said, Don, can can I no one's gonna believe that I was actually back here. Can I can I take a selfie with you? And he looked at me and said, sure, yeah, yeah, okay. And so I took a selfie with him. And then I I got grabbed my laptop and I'm walking out of that office area, and I walk into the main, I open the door and I walk into the main office area. And you're gonna love this. And and there's there's some, you know, some pastors from the conference milling around, mingling and whatnot, and there's this one guy who's got his back to the the counter, which I have to go up to. It's like a door in the counter, and then to walk out into the main hallway. And the guy, as I'm walking out of the main office area, like the not the main, the, you know, the the higher up offices. As I walk out, I walk up to the counter, this guy up at the counter, he turns around, and it's it's it's my former pastor, Ed Sepanowski, who I served with like 20, 20 years ago, whatever. And he looked, he looked at me coming out from those offices, and he looked at me, he had this look on his face. Like, first he was right trying to register. Is that is that Teddy? No, it's wait, huh? He had all this happened within a split second. He had this look like, wait, what? And God bless him. And he couldn't even help himself. He said, He said, What are you what are you doing back there? And it was like it I almost like I had come out of the principals. That's what it was like. I was in the the office with the principals or the principal at school. And I I was coming out the principal's office, and Ed, Ed, God bless him, man. He had this look on his face that said like five sentences all within one second. Like one of the one of the sentences was like, please, please tell me you didn't tell them that you know me, you know, if I was in trouble. He was like, Are you in trouble? Uh what are you doing? And I just so I just looked at him and I was like, I was just taking care of something. And then I walked out of the office, man. And I've I've been laughing ever since, man. That was one of the funniest, funny, the expression on his face, everything else, man, was there's MasterCard for. But and I absolutely love him, and I need to say happy birthday to him because it's his birthday. You guys are listening to this Friday or whenever, but it was his birthday the day after the conference. So saying happy birthday to Pastor Ed.

Why These Relationships Matter

SPEAKER_02 21:31

So the other thing is we were able to, it was just a absolute blessing among the fun that we were having, just just the uh praising God, praising the Lord with all them guys. You know, I always every year I seem to lose my voice. It's a miracle I have some voice left. There have been years where my voice was completely gone by day two gone. And I I remember having to lead worship on church at Sunday. My voice was not recovered yet. I was still, I remember one year I had to have somebody else lead for me because I blew it out at the at the pastor's conference. And but we have got a chance to uh meet up with a lot of guys and link up with them. Oh, what does this have to do with place on a word, Pastor? Let me tell you, we have, because of the relationships that we have been able to forge through this pastor's conference, guys I never would have come across any other way. I have, besides lifetime brotherhood with guys, many of the guys have actually said, Hey, you know, can you come do one of your plays here? Now that's not the purpose of why I go there, but we have had uh Dan Schunk and Chambersburg. They were, they were, they, you know, uh invited us to come out, and we came out, or when they were early in their fellowship, they had just planted the church, and we were able to go out there and do a few different events with them and for them. And they've uh actually recently asked us to come back, so we're 100% grateful for that. But it's really cool to just and many of the guys there have we've interviewed, have been on this very podcast. I I think of Brian McDaniels from Haiti and Bastia from Haiti. And Dave Gocke. Yeah, Goikey, I say. I call him Gokey, but Goike. That's my buddy. He's he's actually on the board for the church that I pastor, and I met him at this conference. So yeah, this conference is really important to me. And if anybody uh you you actually can if you go in Calvary Chapel, Philadelphia, you can actually listen to the messages. And I believe they said this year they're gonna put the worship up online. It really is worth it checking it out. And if anybody can't find it, shoot me an email on this podcast and I'll make it make it available for you once they post it.

Building A John The Baptist Play

SPEAKER_02 24:13

So anyway, I just wanted to let you know we are coming up on our Pete play Pete play at Pete Presentation at Calvary Chapel Clayton, and that's coming up next week. So we're gonna be bringing Pete. And I had while I was at this conference, one of the guys, he was talking about uh John the Baptist, and I felt like God gave me a partial download of John the I was like John the Baptist. How much can I what can I do about John the Baptist? But it turns out a whole lot I lot can be done about John the Baptist. Maybe not, he doesn't have the dialogue that Peter has, but the play is gonna start out with John with his head on the chopping block. And he turns and looks at the audience, and that's how the play starts. He says, you know, I've been filled with the Holy Spirit from my mother's womb. From birth, I've been filled with the Holy Spirit. I've known God. Yeah. And it's gonna go into that, and then he's gonna maybe maybe just share, you know, the well, he's gonna actually I I don't know exactly yet, because the Lord didn't give me the whole play, but I just he gave me bits and pieces in a download. It's actually still downloading, it's one of those large files. But uh one of the things is he's gonna go through the when he goes to baptize, when Jesus comes to him, and he feels so unworthy for to baptize Jesus. He he knows he's he wants to be baptized by Jesus, and Jesus is saying, baptize, you know, baptize me. And you know, then when he's thrown in jail for calling out Herod, and he really did call out Herod too. It isn't right for you to have your brother's wife, he called him out. He didn't back down. He called right, right, and wrong, wrong and was not afraid of the consequences. Man, if we had men like that today, that's a whole nother message, you know. But he's sitting there in jail. He's sitting in jail, didn't do anything wrong. He's in jail. And he's he's already anointed Jesus. Yet he's in jail and he's having a difficult time. And either he's having a difficult time, well, he's definitely having a difficult time, he's in jail. But maybe his disciples are like, What's up, man? You and you you you testified of that guy. Said he's the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. You said he's the Messiah, man. You said he's the he's the one. You know, why are you still in jail? What's going on? What's going on? You know, is it possible that he just for their sake said, you know, go ask Jesus? You know, was he so in tune with God's plan that he he knew? He, I mean, he did say Jesus must increase and he must himself must decrease. You know, or was he maybe like us in in humanity, and just being like, Lord, Lord, Jesus, are you are are you the one? I mean, are you or are we is there another? I mean, what's because this doesn't seem the way I expected it. Now, scripture doesn't say he thought that or said that. So the Lord's gonna have to work that part of the play out for me, which which path he takes on that. But I just wanted to share that with you guys.

Other Play Updates And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_02 28:04

Yes, and I'm also I'm finishing finishing the Dan play. I'm working on that. I'm sorry that's taking so long for me. Listen, I can't force it. You know, I have executive producer I have to deal with, or not deal with, I have to submit to an executive producer, so we can't go until he says go. But yes, I was working on the Dan play as well last week. And uh I also was working a little bit on the Paul play, the Pauli play, which we've done in Albania. We did the short version, we did also did it in New Jersey, the short version. So, anyway, we have some stuff happening, some stuff going on at Playson Word, and I wanted to share that with you and just update you guys on that funny story where I was at a loss for words. So, I tell you what, we'll meet again, God willing, if the creek doesn't rise and the Lord uh tarries, but until we do, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plazonword.org.