The Foundry

For over two decades, I worked as a paramedic on the street and in the air, dedicated to saving physical lives in crisis. I also have worked as a pastor, professor, mentor, spiritual coach - and I want you to know that both have been challenging, hard, at times - paralyzing, and exhausting.

I love people - I love my family, my wife and love Jesus! Walking alongside people in both of these spheres - the natural and supernatural has taught me a great deal about myself, the insecurities I live with, the nature of frailty, the mental battles and struggles we ALL face.

The reason I am getting this page realigned is that the title says it all - The Foundry - "A place where raw, or broken pieces are melted down in intense heat, purified, and poured into a mold to forge something entirely new, strong, and purposeful."

I invite you into the process being forged into something entirely new!

Come to The Foundry and be "forged by the Word and refined by the Spirit" ... you will be glad you did!!!

fred428053.substack.com

https://substack.com//note/p-207724330?r=ffxp1&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

5 Stones… Part 2 of 2

https://youtu.be/hbk-_VQGK3U?is=jeqfxxBuhkewpktB

Mental Health Workshop - Dr. Paul Looney Psychiatrist and pastor, Paul Looney, provides a 90 minute workshop...

https://podpoint.com/the-intersection-community-church/series/james-a-faith-that-works

PodPoint

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BdsaUUhAh/?mibextid=wwXIfr

My friend and colleague Byron said something in a meeting the other day that stuck with me: “Transparency is a window; vulnerability is a door.”

I wrote it down immediately.

Transparency is letting people look in and see where you’ve been. It’s honesty about your past. It’s telling the truth about your failures, your wounds, your mistakes, your story. Transparency says, “Here’s what happened to me.”

Vulnerability goes a step further. Vulnerability opens the door and invites people into where you are right now. It’s honesty about your present. It’s admitting you’re scared today, struggling today, angry today, lonely today, unsure today. Vulnerability says, “Here’s what’s happening now.”

Both are good. Both matter.

But many of us find transparency easier because the past feels safer. We can talk about old battles we’ve survived, old addictions we’ve overcome, old hurts we’ve processed.

Vulnerability is harder. It’s confessing fears that haven’t gone away, questions that don’t yet have answers, insecurities that persist. It’s allowing people to see the wound before it becomes a scar.

Transparency is telling the truth about where you’ve been. Vulnerability is telling the truth about where you are.

And if we’re honest, the deepest connections in life usually aren’t formed through polished stories of yesterday’s victories. They’re formed when someone has the courage to open the door and say, “This is where I am right now.”

The truth is, we need both. Windows help people see us. Doors help people know us. Windows matter. Doors matter too.

But it’s the door that makes a room feel shared.

“Churchaholism is an addiction to the activity of church rather than the substance of Christ.”

Yep…new article on Substack coming soon!!! Americanity that leads to being a Churchaholic….

Follow me on Substack for free…
https://open.substack.com/pub/fred428053

Fred | Substack Click to read Fred on Substack. Launched 6 months ago.

Back to the Pulpit: Recovering Vertical Teaching

When preachers capitulate to the culture’s definitions of love, justice, and identity, the congregation will inevitably follow.

When they tremble at the text and exalt Christ above all earthly powers, believers gain a compass strong enough to withstand the cultural storm.

We should seek to recover at least four practices:

Expository courage: Preach through books of the Bible, refusing to skip the hard texts. Let God set the agenda.

Doctrinal clarity: Name the historic Christian consensus on contested issues with charity and confidence, showing how it flows from the whole counsel of God.

Pastoral tenderness: Apply vertical truth with horizontal compassion. The point is not to win arguments but to shepherd souls who are confused, wounded, and discipled more by screens than by Scripture.

Public faithfulness: Teach believers how to engage politics and culture without making them their savior. Help them recognize both Talarico‑style revisions and Christless conservatism as counterfeit gospels.

A progressive/liberal theology is not merely a set of controversial positions; it is a catechism in a different god—one who always agrees with us, never disciplines us, and cannot finally save us.

Vertical teaching calls us back to the real Christ: the One who speaks with authority, judges with righteousness, forgives with blood‑bought mercy, and reigns with unshakeable glory.

In an age eager to rewrite the Bible, the most countercultural thing the church can do is simple: open the text, preach what it says, and bow.

Entire Article:

Vertical The Smoke and Mirrors Theology of James Talarico

https://youtu.be/lJTU9VAnGKs?si=Y0qAEEKRRtyA5BW0

Welcome to the Channel… Welcome to the Shepherd's Voice.This channel exists to assist life coaches and spiritual mentors in providing help, hope, and healing to people through bibli...