Below is a short summary followed by a very lightly edited transcript from Part 1 of our four-part video series from the first-ever Wisconsin Salt and Light Event. Also included are links to videos of the first three parts of the presentation, with the keynote by Lorenzo Sewell to be added tomorrow. The event was held one mile from MKE Airport at Souls Harbor Baptist Church, similar to other Faith and Freedom Salt and Light events in states like Georgia and North Carolina that have grown to thousands of attendees.

Video A:  Wisconsin Faith & Freedom announces its new Board Chair – Opening vision and framing of the moment facing our country and the Church (transcript in the blog version and shorter summary in email newsletter). Pastor Larson announces the election of Pastor Hoover as new WI Faith and Freedom Chair.

Video B:  Our America builds coalitions in Wisconsin –  A segment from our co-sponsor, Our America (click for their coverage with WIFFC State Director Spencer LaVerde) – Joshua Naponiello, Wisconsin State Director for Our America lays out their vision.

Video C:  Wisconsin Faith & Freedom mobilizes people of faith to vote – WIFFC leaders Chris O’Brien and Holly Klucarich on next steps for voter engagement (link to be posted)

Video D – THE KEYNOTE Coming Tomorrow! – Featuring Dr. Virginia Pratt and keynote speaker Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who delivered the Benediction at President Trump’s inauguration. Four-time Governor Tommy Thompson called just after landing to speak with Lorenzo and Molly Sewell and John Pudner after last week’s travel disruptions kept him from arriving in time to speak in person.

At this first Salt and Light event hosted by the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition, speakers emphasized that the challenges facing the United States are ultimately moral, not just political. The message throughout was that renewal begins with faith, courage, and engagement in our communities.

The event also highlighted the impact of sustained volunteer-driven work. WIFFC staff and volunteers often serve for months before funding allows paid field work, enabling efforts like distributing 402,000 voter comparison pieces in a state where recent statewide races have been decided by tens of thousands of votes. The bookend highlights were Pastor Mike Larson announcing the election of Pastor Paul Hoover as the new Chair of WIFFC (Part 1) and then Dr. Virginia Pratt introducing Pastor Lorenzo Sewell for the rousing keynote speech – which will be posted with the other three parts later.

The following are the lightly edited transcripts of the three speeches in Video A.

WI Salt and Light — Video A – Transcript (lightly edited)

Speaker — Pastor Paul Hoover, Newly Elected WIFFC Board Chair

Delegates from the 13 states had gathered in Philadelphia to form a government that would unite our nation. Isn’t it exciting? We’re going to be celebrating 250 years in just a few days.

The 13 colonies had won a war, and yet they weren’t really a country yet. After weeks of debate, confusion, and frustration, they were basically groping in the dark, as it were, to find political truth and common ground.

It was at that moment that an 81-year-old elder statesman stood to speak, and his name was Benjamin Franklin. He was a thinker. He was a diplomat. He was an inventor. He was a very interesting man — a man who lived a long and extraordinary life — but who recognized something that others were overlooking.

And he said, and I quote, “How has it happened that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding?”

He reminded his fellow delegates that when they had met during the Revolutionary War — a seven-year battle — they had met regularly for prayer. Yet here they were trying to establish a nation and forgetting the very God who delivered them safely through a war.

Franklin quoted Scripture, Psalm 127:1. He read, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” He said that without God’s help, their efforts would be like the builders of Babel — confused and building in vain. And he moved that they begin each day with prayer, asking for heaven’s wisdom in their deliberations.

It doesn’t matter how many brilliant people you put in a delegation. It doesn’t matter how many great minds you bring together. Human wisdom alone is not enough.

The Bible reminds us in James 1:5: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

And again, just like in 1787, we live in a time of division, a time of confusion. Decisions today carry great weight into the next generation. When we reach only for human wisdom, we fall short.

Our country is in a mess, if you haven’t noticed. But we serve a great God.

The answer to this political problem is really a moral problem — our national moral problem. The answer is not better politicians. The answer is not better ideas. The answer is found right here in Scripture. And it is time for us as Christians to get on our faces before God, to repent of our sin, and to do something about the problem that has been handed to us.

It is by God’s grace, after 250 years, that we still have the freedom to meet here in peace tonight. We have the freedom to meet and worship a great God who can do great things. And we have the answer.

The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:3:
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…”

This is the answer. We need to trust the Lord and ask Him for wisdom. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. That is the answer.

Who do we vote for? We’ve got the answer right here in the Bible. Ask God. Come to God.

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Sometimes we wonder which candidate to vote for. The Bible says trust in the Lord. We need to put our faith in God.

Some of the issues we’re dealing with right now are not that hard to discern. They’re pretty simple. Life. Death. Abortion. Don’t kill your babies. Don’t kill your elderly. The Bible is pretty clear about these things.

Let’s not be confused. Let’s not lose heart. God is still on the throne and He has the answer for us. We just have to do the right thing.

We who have integrity as Christians, as God’s people, need to stand up and do the right thing. The Bible says, “Lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

Tonight is about faith. Tonight is about leadership. We as the Church need to stop letting everyone else be the conscience for our communities. We are God’s people. We know the truth. We have the truth. We just have to shine as lights.

That’s why we call this event the Salt and Light Event.

We need to engage in our communities more than we are right now. We can engage in thoughtful and meaningful ways. Stop being intimidated. It can be nerve-wracking and scary to deal with some of the rhetoric that is out there today. But we have the truth.

Stop defaulting to our own made-up philosophy and human talking points. Let’s go back to the Word of God. Scripture has the answer. God is still on the throne.

So let’s begin with a word of prayer…

…So to help set the vision for tonight and for what comes next across our state, it’s my privilege to introduce John Pudner. John has spent decades bringing faith and civic engagement leadership together, and he is President of the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition. He’s been instrumental in making this evening possible.

Please welcome John Pudner.

Speaker — John Pudner (starts at 7:21 mark), WIFFC President

Thank you so much. There’s nothing scarier than knowing three great pastors are speaking and giving comments in between.

I want to tell you I’m going to introduce the pastor that probably most of you haven’t heard yet, who’s our next speaker — Pastor Mike Larson — whose faith is incredible.

It’s nice to be sitting in a group like this where we’re talking about how to get things done, but we all agree on the guiding principles. We know the goals we’re looking for. We know we’re trying to save lives. We know what we’re doing. It’s much harder out in other places in the world when you’re doing apostolate work in tough places.

Pastor Larson and his wonderful bride are with us. They are in one of the two towns in Wisconsin (Shorewood, Madison is the other) that gave Hillary Clinton 84% of the vote. They have a church there that has constant pro-life signs up for everyone who walks by, because it’s the hungry that need to be fed. He’s just such a great apostle.

They live it. They not only have wonderful children, but they take in additional foster children. I don’t mean to steal his thunder, but they live it. He’s pro-life through and through. He’s worried about the babies. They have taken care of them from the womb on.

He’s been such a great inspiration every time I go past that church and see it. I’ve heard him preach before, and I think he’s going to be great here.

He’s also on our board of directors. We wanted to start with him because our governing board, like all boards, gets no thanks and no pay — just time spent helping direct us and set a vision.

It was so important to have him when we had this crazy idea of starting a Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition a few years ago, a year before the Trump versus Kamala election it turned out to be.

First thing we had to do was set up a board. We got a great pastor to get us going as chairman, Arie Jacobson. (Note: click for his incredible speech while he was still in Wisconsin and serving as our Chair, holding up our voter comparison piece).

He started the board. Unfortunately, he had to move to Houston a little while ago, a little bump in the road..

Arni had recruited Bob Atwell — one of the most influential business leaders in the state — and then they recruited Pastor Larson as well (and former Ron Johnson Coalition Director Camille Solberg)..

When Arni had to leave, everyone wanted Pastor Larson to become the new chairman. He said no. He said we needed someone in that same mold as Arni Jacobson to carry on his vision, and he was discerning about that. He’s going to have an announcement tonight because we finally have a chairman again after a couple months, and I’m going to save that one for him.

I also want to say, for those who don’t know, most of our staff including me works for no pay for months on end. Then we get a project — like knocking on 400,000 doors — and we can pay people for a couple months.

People like Kelly Herrell, our events director, Spencer LaVerde, our state director, and our executive director Chris O’Brien (we saved the introduction of Dr. Virginia Pratt for when she introduced Pastor Lorenzo Sewell in Part 4) — these are people who volunteer for months so that when we realize something like 502,000 Wisconsin churchgoers didn’t vote in 2020, we can actually act with a team in place and finally pay them for some of their hard work.

We got out 402,000 pieces of literature comparing the two candidates.

For those who aren’t political wonks, it generally costs groups about $5 per piece of literature to get it to a door. If it cost us that, we would have gotten about 65,000 pieces out instead of 402,000 — but the volunteers, church networks and many believers with true mission zeal multiplied the dozens of full-timers we were finally able to pay for a few months to put the comparisons in the hands of 402,000 conservative church goers rather than 65,000 – think about that – they made it possible to reach an extra 337,000 conservative voters during an election decided by 29,000 votes.

I want to thank the board and staff. It starts from the top down.

I also want to acknowledge John Harbison from National Faith and Freedom, who has helped get similar efforts started in other states that have transformed over time.

As we started to organize this event,our team talked with Jon Harbison’s North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition who told us they started about like we are starting tonight, with more than 100 people in a small church, and after a few years they just had 4,000 to 5,000 at their latest Salt and Light Event. Loaves and Fishes.

That’s why we wanted to start one here in Wisconsin. And we did a few years ago. Thank you for being the first ones who are here for this first meeting that will only grow.

With that, I’d like to ask Pastor Larson to come up and set the stage. Thank you for your service. And again, I saved the announcement on our new chair for you.

Speaker — Pastor Mike Larson (starts at 13:11 mark), WIFFC Board

Thank you, John. You are an inspiration to us all with your energy and zeal and love for our country and love for God’s Word.

Good evening. My name is Michael Larson, and I serve on the board of directors at Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition.

First off, I’d like to thank my friend Pastor Paul Hoover for hosting us. Let’s give a round of applause for Paul and his wonderful congregation.

As a board, we’ve been praying for a leader, and we asked Pastor Hoover to serve on our board. He agreed. Then we got to know him better and said, “We think you’re the man to lead our organization.” We’re so thankful Pastor Hoover has agreed to serve in that way as our Chairman. Please, another hand for the new Chair of the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition Board Paul Hoover! (as pictured, shakes his hand as crowd applauds his election as Chair).

I serve as pastor at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center in Shorewood. It’s not exactly a conservative stronghold if you know the area, but that’s where God has put me, and I’m very happy to be there and bear witness to our Lord in that area.

I provide spiritual care for university students in the Milwaukee area. It’s also an honor to stand before you tonight um on the south side of Milwaukee, a place where hard work and strong families are valued.

And I’m here tonight with my pretty little wife, Christina. Christina, why don’t you raise your hand, honey? That’s my pretty little wife. God has entrusted to us six biological children and four uh foster children. So, we’re having a little date night tonight.

As a father, as a Christian father and as an American, I have come to learn that my children will either inherit the America that I fight for or they will inherit the America that I’m silent about. and I much prefer the former.

We all gather at a time when our nation feels like it’s slipping away from the

principles that made it the greatest beacon of liberty the world has ever known. But tonight, I want you to hear this clearly. We are not helpless. We are not defeated and we are not without purpose. Jesus himself spoke words that cut through every age of darkness and decay. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5,

Jesus looked at his tired disciples and followers and he declared, “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” And I want all of us to be clear that these are not mere suggestions that our Lord and Master is giving us to be salt and light. They are not optional.

They are declarations of our identity. Salt and light.

And so today, in this hour of moral confusion, of cultural decline and political cowardice, those words, salt and light, are a battlecry for every Christian, for every conservative who still believes in God and country and the eternal unchangeable truths that hold civilization all together.

Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt preserves. In the ancient world, salt kept meat 

from rotting. And without it, decay set in fast. Look around us. Even though we might find some political reprieve here and there, our culture is rotting. families under attack. Children are being confused and indoctrinated in schools that once taught reading and writing and uh arithmetic and classic and beautiful literature. But now they push ideologies that deny biology, history, 

God’s truth, and just plain common sense.

Liberal judges refuse to get tough on crime.Our laws are selectively enforced. And I know the president and so many others are working hard. But still, in so many ways, our economy punishes the productive while rewarding the corrupt. Can’t have it.

Moral decay is everywhere. Loneliness is off the charts. There’s a breakdown in

civic life, violence in the streets, and lies from our leaders.

And so tonight, as we gather together, it’s easy to point finger fingers, but who’s going to stop the rot? It’s not bureaucrats in Washington, even though we’ll pray for them. It’s not the media elites who mock faith and virtue.

It’s not the politicians who so often bend with every cultural wind. Who’s going to stop it? We are. You are. The people who still fear God more than

we fear man. You are the salt of the earth. But salt only works when it stays salty. Jesus warned, “If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

We can get in the fray in our workplaces, speaking always with integrity and refusing to bow to woke corporate leaders. And then we go to our voting booths, choosing leaders who honor life, liberty, religious freedom, and the constitution. And that means never voting for those who trade principles for power. And besides being salt, we also must be light. Light exposes what darkness hides. Light guides the lost. Light warms what is cold.

Jesus said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” He said, “Let your light shine before others so that others may see your good works, your good life, and glorify your father who is in heaven.” America was once that city on a hill. Our founders, our wise founders, built a nation under God where freedom of conscience, free speech, and the right to worship were sacred.

But today, that light in many ways is dimmed, covered by baskets of censorship, moral relativism, and government overreach that tells us what we can and cannot say, who we can hire, how we must raise our children.

But guess what? We don’t have to cower. We don’t have to give an inch or give in in any way. We are a free people and we don’t have to hide our light to be polite. We don’t dim it to avoid giving offense. We shine our light boldly through actsof courage and compassion, self-giving love and conviction.

We defend the unborn because Christ himself became a child. Every human life is sacred. every baby an icon of the Savior. We defend marriage because God designed it. We defend religious liberty because no government has the right ever to dictate conscience. We also defend our businesses and free enterprise because honest work honors God.

And we defend our constitution because it reflects timeless truths about human dignity, the value and worth of every human person and limited government.

Dear patriots, being salt and light isn’t about winning popularity contests, and that’s okay. It’s about being faithful when the crowd screams otherwise. It’s about standing tall when others

sit. It’s about speaking the truth when silence would be easier and more comfortable.But we’re not about comfort. We’re about doing the right thing.

America can be renewed. Our nation can be spared. Freedom can be reclaimed. Truth can shine again.

It starts with you. It starts in your home. It starts with your neighbor. It starts with us right here, right now — living as the salt of the earth and light of the world.

May God give you courage to shine. God bless you. God bless your families. And God bless the United States.

Thank you.