Ep 165: How Plays On Word Brings Scripture To Every Denomination

"Have you ever heard of believers maintaining unity while having theological differences? Well, believe it or not, we kicked off our 2026 'PETE' season at a Catholic church where we found unity in Christ despite our differences."

We kick off the 2026 season with a milestone performance at a Catholic church and talk plainly about why we’ll bring the Word of God anywhere the Lord opens the door. We also share what’s next for Plays On Word, why we aim for depth instead of distraction, and how you can help move the mission forward.

 • first Catholic church invitation in 12 years and what that says about unity in Christ
• focusing on essentials of the faith while debating non-essentials without division
• giving invitations to receive Christ and to return to the Lord with a clean heart
• why the podcast matters and how weekly consistency builds real community
• relaunching the website to unite theater and radio under one mission
• “not amusement” and why we want Scripture that makes you think and change
• upcoming tour dates including Shad Fest and seasonal play schedule
• ways to support including prayer, sharing, volunteering, merch, and monthly giving 

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 website at playsonword.org

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Lord, you know you now let's replace the best.

Welcome To Plays On Word Radio

SPEAKER_00 1:01

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

Season Kickoff And A New Door

Invitations To Trust Christ Again

Katie Kenny On Unity In Jesus

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Okay, amen. Thank you very much, Josh Taylor and Katie Kenny, for that introduction and welcome to all of you to plays on Word Radio. That's right. We are doing our thing. We are um broadcasting from our Southern Command right now, and we want to welcome you to another excursion into wherever we end up. Um I just wanted to let you all know that we have begun our 2026 season, and we kicked it off. We were supposed to kick it off at America's Keswick, but we were unable to because of the weather. So we ended up kicking it off this past Sunday in North Carolina, and it was a uh a milestone in a sense for us. Uh it was a marker for sure. Um we in twelve years, this is the first time we have been invited to a Catholic church to perform one of our plays. And excuse me, I'm dealing with allergies. Uh it was a very interesting time, fantastic time. Um shout out to all of the folks in the body of Christ over there. And uh at Sacred Heart, Catholic Church in Southport, North Carolina. We um yeah, we've done all sorts of churches along the theological spectrum from Baptist to Methodist to Pentecostal to non-denominational. Um we even did a Seventh-day Adventist church. And um, you know, and before anybody starts sending me any email saying, hey man, you uh you know that this doctrinal thing, this listen, I can bring the word of God anywhere, okay? I bring the word of God to unbelievers, and I can bring the word of God to people that I have theological disagreements with. Um and when it comes to uh the uh our Catholic brothers in Christ, you know, we have a lot in common. Yes, we there are there are some differences, but there's also differences between your run-of-the-mill reformed Calvinist and the run-of-the-mill Methodist. Some hardcore differences theologically. Yet we can still bring the scripture, the word of God, and we can we, you know, we can vigorously debate things. Essentials, I think we have to we need to agree on essentials. Uh, and there's some areas where the essentials actually we have uh uh disagreements on with some groups, and uh, but the non-essentials we can debate vigorously and not necessarily have to divide over. So I'm kind of excited. I'm just I'm just excited. I was like, wow, man, I uh you know the the Lord opened an opportunity. Now, let me continue here. We had you those of you that have been to our plays, you know that each play, I give an invitation to receive Christ, to make it official with him. And we had a bunch of hands go up that prayed to receive Christ at this latest event. And I learned from Greg Lori over 20 years ago to not just give an invitation to new believers, but to give an invitation or an opportunity for believers that are completely compromised, jammed up, and not even walking with the Lord to double down with him and get right with him. That's how the excuse me, that's how the Lord got a hold of me. It wasn't that I needed to be saved again, it need I needed to be called back to him because I was not walking with him properly many, many years ago. And Greg Lurie gave that opportunity, right after he gave an opportunity for a whole bunch of non-believers to come to Christ, and I pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike and rededicated to the Lord. And uh it was Greg Lurie, Raoul Reese, Charles Stanley, and Joe Foch played a role too in uh uh in my commuting that the Lord used to really just get a hold of me. Christian radio, gotta love it. But we went and did this uh Sacred Heart Catholic Church, and it was it was a lot of fun. It was fantastic. We had a lot of people, almost the whole place raised their hand with when I gave the second invitation. If you want to draw closer to the Lord and you want the power of his spirit in your life, and you want to, you know, understand his will for your life, and you want to live for him, and and that man, everybody's hand went up. Yeah. So you can, you know, if anybody that has any problem with me going there, you take it up with the Lord because he opened up the door for us to go there. And I would go back in a minute because I met some dear brothers in Christ and sisters in Christ that love Jesus. And uh, yeah, we can we'll do that. So we're we're looking forward to the rest of our um season. Uh, and we have a special guest today. I I wouldn't call her a guest, a guest is somebody that visits and comes in, but this this is somebody who is behind the scenes on every single episode. And not just behind the scenes, she's in front of the microphone on every single episode. Uh, can we welcome you, Katie Kenny, to Plays on Word Radio?

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Now, some people are saying, Amen, hallelujah. You finally got Katie on here.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

I make an appearance every now and then. They they they love it when you're too busy behind the scenes, you know. This is cutting out of my production time.

unknown 8:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

I'm gonna turn you up a little bit. Hang on a second. Give me a quick check one, two.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Check one, two, one, two, one, two.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

That's better. Now we hear you better. Okay, yeah. And so, uh, Katie Kenny, any thoughts on this past on our kickoff to the 2026?

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yeah, it was very exciting. Um, you know, I it's funny when you talk about how, you know, if anyone had a problem with us going to different denominations, it's it's you know, that's the beauty of this and and why the Lord set it up for you this way is that we can um we can go and and just be a part of something in our common denominator is Jesus Christ, and that's what we focus on.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah. Amen. Just trying to get these levels completely adjusted properly. Doing on the fly engineering. Um, yeah, I mean, it it was really cool to focus on, and that's one of the things that we notice everywhere we go. There's a a common denominator in all the different places we go. And you can, you know, and it's it's a familiarity of the spirit of God there. God's got his people all over the place. Now, would we have we wouldn't have that if we go to a mosque or if we went to a synagogue or you know what I mean, or a Buddhist temple or something. No, we wouldn't have that fellowship, but um, yeah. I'm not saying everybody there was in Christ, and I'm not saying that everybody in any church is in Christ, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

That's the that's the uh um but we have a brotherhood in Christ, and so that's that's the open door, and it was exciting because it just happened to be the first Catholic church we've done in 12 years.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's I mean that that's I just think that's pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool. I thought the um I thought the venue was really cool, you know.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Oh my gosh, it's a beautiful church.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, this the uh the the sanctuary area, it was uh uh it's got an air of being majestic, you know, big high ceilings, and sonically it was it was cool. Although uh some people had some trouble hearing, I guess the the PA system was a little loud in some areas. You know me, I'm a little loud anyway. And I noticed it dropped out a couple times when I was speaking, so I have a tendency to just turn up to compensate.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Yes, you did a good job for any dropouting for that. But such they have such high ceilings, and there's a lot of marble. So I don't know about that audio stuff. I leave that to you. But um, I could still hear you, and the message was put forth. So you're uh and we want to thank uh Father Tan, Padre Tan, yes, for um for inviting us there.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah, he I mean, look, listen. He this guy, he's he's like a pioneer in a sense. I mean uh or not in a sense, but he's he's a pioneer in a lot of ways because he you know he he never saw a play. He never saw one of our plays. Yet he he invited us out to come out. And he he did his homework, he looked into us and I guess followed up with questions and stuff, but um that takes a certain amount of bravery, and there are a lot of I hate to even say it, even Calvary Chapels that have not uh that are like thanks, but no thanks, whatever, to to plays on word. And I'm a Calvary Chapel pastor. It happens, it happens, and it's it's all good. So, hey, it's all good. You know what? I just I like I'm just grateful to those that the Lord gives vision to and opens opens their eyes to see just the potential and gives them courage because it could go squirrely, you know. As a pastor of a church, I'm not trying to just have anybody come in and and and speak to the flock, especially somebody I don't know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Um you have to protect the pulpit.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Believe me, I get it. I understand, I I get it and I understand it.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Well, it's cool though, because we we met him at a local um fellowship of of the different churches. So we did get to um to meet with him, and like you said, he did his homework um before he had us come, and and this was a timely uh event to do Pete right before Resurrection Sunday. Uh I get excited because once people see the play, they get it. And there were so many people that came up to me afterwards and said, Oh, you've got to go here, you've got to go there. And um, that's what excites me because this is literally spreading the word.

Website Relaunch And Podcast Community

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, yeah. That's a that's a good way of putting it. So as far as that was our our first kickoff, that was this a success. A bunch of people that are probably listening to this podcast right now for the first time, um, signed up for our our email. Um, so yeah, there as far as the um we you know, a lot of people signed up for the email and to stay in touch and to get connected with plays on word and what we're doing. Now, can you just shed a little light on uh what's what's coming?

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Sure. Well, I am really excited because we've been talking about relaunching our website for I don't know, it feels like a couple of years now, and um it's really definitely been a labor of love, but we are getting ready to launch that within the next few weeks um before uh the I hoping to have it out by the first week in April. And um it's just we've this time what we've been able to do is kind of put together our plays on word, the theater part of it and the radio part, so it's looked at as one mission with two platforms, and so I'm really excited about that. There's um you're going to be able to access the podcast right from the website. You'll see right up front on the home page where we will be, um, what our calendar looks like. It just uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

So the the as far as the website coming, it's I've seen it. I haven't seen the completed version, but I've seen it's just about complete from what I've seen, and it looks really cool. It I can't wait for you guys to see it. Like the home page alone, the intro. You're gonna it's you know, sometimes you go to websites and it's like, okay, you just like look around. When you see this, your eyes are you're gonna go, you're gonna get locked in for at least a minute. You're gonna be like, what? Wow. And within that minute, it will show you volumes about what we do and what we've done. Would you say that's true, Katie?

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yes, exactly. You you can see right away um what we've done, the impact we've had, different places we've been. Uh it's yeah, it's really it is, it's very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I've been I actually was surprised it uh as at surprised. I was well, let me explain. I was surprised at the amount of volume that we have accumulated in footage and um content that we have not really shared with our audience. And um one of the other things I like about the launch is that the this podcast is also highlighted in it as well. The other one you you can get to it from the other one. No, you can't. Oh, you can't. I could have sworn. Oh, that was the beta version that you put it on. Okay. Well, I like the fact you're gonna be able to get to the, you know, the podcast, the latest episode. Um, and the podcast is is an important part of what we're doing. You know, when we first started the podcast, I knew it was important. The Lord put on my heart that it was important, but there have been people that have been able to engage with us through the podcast every week. We're consistent. We've only missed two weeks in the last four years or whatever it is. Uh or we're we're on we're on season four, so three years. But uh just the consistency where we've had people say that it's part of it is part of their either Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I don't know, whatever part of your routine it is, let us know. Shoot us an email. Send us an email, let us let us know it uh, you know, about what you think about the podcast and if it's part of your regular routine. You know, I think of uh Mike Durante, you know, he's he's it's part of his Friday, it is part of his Friday routine. Like he gets up, gets his feeds his dogs, gets his coffee, and puts on plays on Word Radio, you know, because it's it's part of uh, you know, this sounds like a a NET um uh what is it, telethon thing right now as a sponsors. We should have telephones ringing in the back and not, you know. Become a member to become a member. You want to pledge.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

We turn this into fundraising because we need it.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Let's do let's do that. This was an unplanned thing, but the Holy Spirit speaks sometimes, and I think he's speaking right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Um I also love because we found out yesterday our our dear brother uh Bill Severns. We've now made the top three of his devotional uh podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Oh, oh, oh, right, right. Right. Well, no, that was different. That was that was the Calvary, that was Calvary Southport devotional. That was the daily devotional, that wasn't the podcast. Oh yeah, my bad. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Okay, well, now we're gonna have to send this to Bill and he's gonna have to start listening.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah. Well, maybe it can become part of his Friday routine.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

True.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

But you know what? I I love how um the two ministries work together, you know, and and we're really we're really focusing on highlighting that now moving forward, just how they work together. Because on stage the scripture becomes visible, but through radio and our digital broadcast, the scripture becomes portable, and we're showing how that works together. So that's kind of exciting too.

Why This Ministry Is Not Amusement

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, yeah. I love it. And it's you know, the cool thing is it's not just you know the half hour we have here on Friday morning. You know, you can go back and listen to some of those interviews are incredible. You know, some of the interviews that we've had with people over the years, we've had so so many different interviews. And I recently went through and put together like a database so I can know what's what interviews, who's what, when, where, why, and all that. And uh, it's just it was it was a real joy to go back and to see how many interviews we've done a like a gazillion interviews with believers in Christ, and all of them minister in one way or another. Um, it's so it's it's it's not just entertainment, and it's definitely not amusement, amusement. Um you know the the origin of that term amuse is a meaning not, like in the Greek, like not, and um like if I say the word agnostic, gnosos is is uh to know, and a gonosko is uh I don't know, you don't know, not to know, and so um amusement, a muse means to think. So amuse means to not think, and that's yeah. So I'm talking about uh it's we are not amusement. The idea is we're not amusement because you get a chance to you we go deep, we get in a lot of different things, we talk about in-depth scriptures, we talk about um people's lives, we talk about people's testimonies. Primarily though, we talk about the Lord, and that's that's why we're not amusement.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Right now, this is every aspect of this ministry and uh plays on word theater is designed. So whether it's a live performance or broadcast, the um intention is the same. We we want to strengthen believers, we want to awaken the spiritually curious, um, and we really want to instill a hunger for scripture and also, you know, invite people to revival and just point all to Jesus Christ. So everything that we do, again, whether live or broadcast, points to all of that. And like you said, there are a lot of, you know, I was thinking about a lot of the um other uh episodes that we've done, and I really want to start highlighting them again, you know, because there's some really good stuff in there that um you know we need to revisit.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Okay, so is there anything else you'd like to add on on that, Katie?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

No.

Upcoming Tour Dates And Plays

SPEAKER_01 22:51

No, okay. Uh, how about what's what's in the future, what is happening, what it I know that we've we just did this play, and I think we have some stuff scheduled coming up.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

We do. We have some um some new tour dates scheduled. I am in the process of updating our calendar right now. We're going to be in Lambertville in April. Uh, we're also going to be going back to uh church in Staten Island.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Um and yeah, and the um the Shadfest uh in Lambertville, we're gonna be outside. They built a stage for us last time, a couple years back, two or three years ago. Uh we're going to be there doing our Pete play outside at a festival outside. So if anybody's in the New Jersey area, you want to come out, come out and support. It's the Shad Fest.

unknown 23:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Yeah, that's the weekend of April 25th and 26th.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah. And uh these will be on our website. You'll be, I mean, you'll be able to get to it on our calendar. Um, and then we're gonna go see Papo at his church. And uh yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited. We're you know, we have we have some plays kicking in, some some springtime, summertime plays. That's usually when we do Pete. Um our Pete performance, and we usually do it up to about September, and then we kick over to Genesis Joe. Um, God willing, we'll be able to work Dan in. Uh I don't know exactly when, I'm not gonna give you an exact date. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

It's progressing though.

Prayer Partners Giving And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been a little bit of it's been a challenge, but um, yeah, so okay, that's basically it. I just wanted to, you know, just get an update, ministry update. So if somebody wants to donate or become a monthly, a monthly partner, I mean how there are a bunch of different ways that people can support. First one is prayer. Right?

SPEAKER_02 25:00

First and foremost.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

First and foremost is prayer. Um second one is uh if people if they want to buy some merch or something, they can go. We have an online store. You can buy uh some hats, some shirts. We uh some people bought some stuff this this past weekend, though, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Yeah, they definitely did.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

I saw one lady asking about long sleeve shirts. Uh you have any long sleeves? And Katie was like, Well, not on us. On the website, but on the website, you get anything you want. Uh, our dear brother Nick DeMarco even ordered some socks one time. Remember that? Yeah, he's got his plays on words socks. Yeah, man. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

You know, there's there's um, like you said, there's so many different ways. Uh and a lot of times people will say, Well, you know, I it it's tough right now, you know, to support financially. Yes, that's a big part of it, but also equally as big and again, probably more important, like you said, first and foremost, prayer that um you know, God continues to open the doors and we just continue to show up. And other ways too, you can volunteer. Yeah, um, there's plenty of things, yeah, especially behind the scenes that we could use some help with, social media, maybe while we're at a play, helping uh man the tables, so you can volunteer. Also, listen and share plays on word radio.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's a big one, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

You know, because there's so we cover so many different topics, and some are so deep. And you know, if if one of the episodes resonates with you, definitely share that.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Right. Yeah, that's a good that's a good point. That's a good point because a lot of people will be consumers and think, well, what can I do? I mean, uh, you know, I I don't have any money, I can't do it. Listen, you don't have to have you know, you want to you want to help this ministry first and foremost is prayer. You pray. That is the number one request. Can you please pray for the ministry? And then, you know, you you can forward this on, you know, forward this podcast on to somebody. You know, some people that the Lord will put on your heart. If each one of you sent it out to like five people, boom, there you go. Now you're expanding it out, and that helps us out in all kinds of ways.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

So exactly, and you know, it's but and also too the financial part of it. Um we've had people that have said, you know, we don't have much. I it is equally important to us, the person that has dedicated ten dollars a month to us as anyone who's given us hundreds a month, you know, a month. So that's really we really take that to heart that people are are looking at us and really wanting to feed into us. So no amount is too small.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, right, right. And that it really does help us to go and do what we do. And um that's the only way we do it. We we can't do this alone, right? It's it's not happening without I I want to say it's not happening without the Lord, but the Lord uses people, He puts it on their heart to give to this ministry so that we can go do what we do. And people's lives are being changed for eternity.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, I don't say that lightly.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

You know, I that's legit, that is that's that's the most important commission in all of human history. It's actually the most important commission to go and make disciples. That's the most important commission. It's more important than any astrophysicist, any scientist trying to uncover diseases. The most important thing is to get people's souls in line with the Lord, man, and to get people right with the Lord because his blood was shed so that people would know him, and then he goes and chooses broken vessels like us to and commissions us to bring people to him, to you know what I mean, to to to let people know about him, and that's what we do, and we do it, it's done effectively, we do it effectively. We have uh evidence of people's lives changing for eternity at every single one of the plays that the donors and people that have uh contributed to this ministry have helped to make possible. And I say donor with either funds, with prayer, you donate your time, you know, talent, treasure, whatever. The musicians that donate their time and talent. You know, anybody that's involved. If you take time to pray for a plays on a word, well, guess what? You're part of that list.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah, we know that this mission only moves forward through the generosity of our partners who believe in the power of God's word. But for but most importantly, we have always operated, the ministry has always been sustained by obedience first and provision second. So the good Lord is the one that moves us forward, but he he does, he uses his people.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Right. Amen. Well, amen to that. All right. Well, I think that that's about all the time we have. Excuse me for coughing. That's all the time we have.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

You need a cough drop.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Have one right here. I have fisherman's friend right here. Um, that's all the time we have until next week. And uh, we just wanted to give you an update. We wanted to also say thank you to all of you for praying, and I want to thank you guys ahead of time, those of you that are going to reach out and become um, you know, monthly partners and um, you know, prayer partners and just be part of this ministry. Wow, it's really not good to sit here chewing on a cough drop when you try to talk to everybody.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

I don't think that's a good luck. So are good here.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Well, until until next time. Until next week, alright? The Lord. Oh, we're gonna I believe we're gonna have something really good for you next week, too. That's always good for you. But we're gonna have something good for you. Uh until until we meet next week. 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_00 31:48

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