EPISODE · Jul 2, 2026 · 1H 3M
Ryan Denton - Dead Orthodoxy
from What I Wish They'd Told Me · host New Geneva Academy
In our ninth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Ryan Denton, an evangelist in Vanguard Presbytery who wrote Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure, which is what this conversation is about. You can have the confession and catechism down cold and nothing in the soul. You can trade the musty building for smoke machines and a slick twenty-five minutes and be just as dead. Ryan talks about why so much Reformed preaching has become lecturing, what the redemptive historical method loses when it drops the imperative, and why the Puritans were called painful preachers, men who aimed the word at the backslider, the formalist, the worn-out mother. Halfway through, Stephen reads the post Ryan took heat for. It ends with a prayer: Lord, help us to preach a felt Christ.00:00 — Welcome; Ryan Denton joins from Lubbock01:00 — Family, and church plants in Lubbock, Clovis, and Roswell02:18 — A year of filling pulpits; twenty sermons in twenty-four days06:55 — Vanguard Presbytery and the office of evangelist09:31 — Out of the PCA: Vanguard's origins and distinctives16:37 — Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure: why Ryan wrote it19:42 — Where apathy and formalism come from22:24 — One ditch into another: Ian Murray and Luther24:57 — Head and heart fused: experimental Christianity26:44 — Books: Alexander, Guthrie, Scougal, Edwards32:00 — Stephen reads the Facebook post33:53 — Redemptive historical preaching and the missing imperative38:31 — Painful preachers40:55 — Apply early and often43:30 — Law and gospel, antinomianism, and the New Testament's imperatives47:42 — Preaching to different hearers: real truth to real people53:31 — Preaching to the conscience: Thomas Boston, Nathan and David59:16 — Emotions, stepped-on toes, and the preacher's own conscienceLearn more about the Frontier Shepherds conference at newgenevaacademy.com
What this episode covers
In our ninth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Ryan Denton, an evangelist in Vanguard Presbytery who wrote Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure, which is what this conversation is about. You can have the confession and catechism down cold and nothing in the soul. You can trade the musty building for smoke machines and a slick twenty-five minutes and be just as dead. Ryan talks about why so much Reformed preaching has become lecturing, what the redemptive historical method loses when it drops the imperative, and why the Puritans were called painful preachers, men who aimed the word at the backslider, the formalist, the worn-out mother. Halfway through, Stephen reads the post Ryan took heat for. It ends with a prayer: Lord, help us to preach a felt Christ.00:00 — Welcome; Ryan Denton joins from Lubbock01:00 — Family, and church plants in Lubbock, Clovis, and Roswell02:18 — A year of filling pulpits; twenty sermons in twenty-four days06:55 — Vanguard Presbytery and the office of evangelist09:31 — Out of the PCA: Vanguard's origins and distinctives16:37 — Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure: why Ryan wrote it19:42 — Where apathy and formalism come from22:24 — One ditch into another: Ian Murray and Luther24:57 — Head and heart fused: experimental Christianity26:44 — Books: Alexander, Guthrie, Scougal, Edwards32:00 — Stephen reads the Facebook post33:53 — Redemptive historical preaching and the missing imperative38:31 — Painful preachers40:55 — Apply early and often43:30 — Law and gospel, antinomianism, and the New Testament's imperatives47:42 — Preaching to different hearers: real truth to real people53:31 — Preaching to the conscience: Thomas Boston, Nathan and David59:16 — Emotions, stepped-on toes, and the preacher's own conscienceLearn more about the Frontier Shepherds conference at newgenevaacademy.com
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Ryan Denton - Dead Orthodoxy
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