Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Inseong J Kim: Hello, this is Inseong Kim from Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. We have a special and return guest, Ms. Bonni Pounds, President and Founder of the Christians Engaged. Thank you so much for being with us.

Bonni Pounds: Wonderful to be with you as always, Inseong, and thank you for your amazing work and telling the amazing stories of God to the nation.

Inseong J Kim: I am very excited about since we met each other years back and how much God is growing you and influence to our culture. God is so good and God is at work and thank you so much for what you do.

Bonni Pounds: Amen. We started our ministry in December 2019 and we were reaching about 32,000 Christians the first year in Texas. Now we just hit a million Christians that we're serving in our Pray, Vote, Engage system and discipling them on civics and biblical worldview. It is a huge blessing.

Inseong J Kim: That is incredible. And you also mentioned about how many people are in the Bible reading group?

Bonni Pounds: We're leading what we believe will be the largest Bible reading event in United States history for our 250th birthday of America. April 18th through 25th from Washington D.C. April 18th will start with an opening celebration with elected officials and Hollywood folks like Patricia Heaton, Candace Cameron Bure, Cameron and B.J. Arnett from the Forge movie and many others.

They'll be calling the American people to repentance back to the Bible and sharing their personal testimonies. Then the next seven days from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, 84 hours, almost 500 of our national leaders, over 115 national ministries will be reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It will be livestreamed to the nation through Great American Pure Flix.

It's going to be an epic moment and an audio and video Bible on the back end as we have six governors, six cabinet members, 20 members of Congress. It is going to be an amazing week.

Inseong J Kim: That is exciting. When ancient Israel came back to God, first thing they did was a reading a scroll. What an exciting time we live in.

Bonni Pounds: It really is. People don't know their biblical history. When Joshua read, he read the word at the altar. Josiah, when he was cleaning out the idols in the kingdom. And Ezra, which is where this event got its inspiration. Ezra stood up in front of the Israelites, reminded them who they were and the promises and miracles of God through reading the books of Moses.

I really believe that Nehemiah wouldn't have arisen or the people wouldn't have been able to rebuild the walls of a nation in 52 days if it wasn't for them going back to their biblical heritage. That's what we're bleeding for our country. We are pretty much living on a 20-minute message at our local churches and not reading our Bibles daily.

We're devoid of wisdom and understanding and full of anxiety and fear and depression and our families are falling apart and our businesses and churches are falling apart. We have a leadership crisis in this nation. But that does not have to be the final story.

The final story is you can be the leader, you can know God, you can walk in his word, you can go to him independence every day and gain the things you need and lead in our nation. That is what we're calling the American people to for our 250th birthday.

Inseong J Kim: Absolutely exciting. On the negative side of ancient Israel, what happened was when they worshipped the idol then God made them a slave of the idol. We are coming back to the words of God, that is a tremendous power that we are proclaiming words of God coming out of this idol worship. I am very excited about what God is doing through you.

Bonni Pounds: We're really hopeful that when people see high-profile people like Franklin Graham or Dallas Jenkins or Colton Dixon or different people that we have reading, if they're reading Leviticus or Job or Ezekiel or Jude, places that people think are not sexy places of scripture, like the quote-unquote boring parts, that they see that God can speak through every word that comes from his mouth.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. This is about no one will be speaking, nobody will be commentating. It will be just important leaders of our nation from every spheres of influence just reading the words of God. I believe that it will cause us to remember that God still speaks through his word.

Just simply going to the simple devotions of prayer, worship, and meditation on the word of God is what we need in our church life right now and what we need in our families in this critical moment.

Inseong J Kim: Proclamation is what we need these days. Just speak the God's word and God's words working in mighty way. You said Christians are called to be a salt and light in our culture, yet today the voting patterns of self-identified Christians often look no different than a broader public. Tell me more about your view on this.

Bonni Pounds: The founders of our nation gave us such a gift that we get to elect our representatives. I think we can all be thankful that we don't live in North Korea or Venezuela or Cuba. But some of us forget to be thankful and we forget that God's called us to stewardship.

When only 50% of the American population is registered to vote, that's a problem. But when we see the voting patterns of people that call themselves born-again Christians, whether they're Protestant or Catholics, are not much different than the general public, that is a problem. I just got done voting, we have primaries happening right now in Texas. It took me 20 minutes to print off my ballot, research my ballot, look at all the candidates, decide who I'm voting for based on biblical values and my values, and then make an informed choice where I get to have my voice heard.

If every American Christian around this country would pray regularly for our country and our elected officials, if we would vote in every election, every local election, every primary, every special election, not just the big presidential elections, and if we would start engaging with what God puts in our heart to do for our communities and our state, we literally could turn this whole country upside down with biblical values.

That is what we're calling people to do through Christians Engaged. We're seeing young people run for office, people vote in every election and see their voice be heard and start advocating for religious liberty or the unborn or to rescue people out of human trafficking or protect children. People's voices are very strong if we use them.

Inseong J Kim: Absolutely. For example, Venezuela began transitions to socialist country 1998, election of Hugo Chavez, and it's been 27 years. 2001 and 2007 just accelerated. 27 years people suffered choosing this ideology and if we don't wake up from it, the generation it takes 30 years to experience it and wake up. Unfortunately, my children are going to live in that era and I cannot sign up for that.

That's one of the reason that I started my radio many reason, but definitely this is time to wake up. It takes very short time to turn this country to upside down but it takes long time to come back to the realize to a place that we were in the wrong place. It is very important for all of us to be educated.

Bonni Pounds: We started reminding Christians, we track every election in the country and so if a Christian makes that commitment, they can go to christiansengaged.org and take the pledge to pray, vote, and engage. We actually track every election in the country and we will remind you to vote through text and email. When early voting starts, when early voting ends, three days before the election and on election day, you'll get a text and an email with your five-step guide to your particular election.

Then we connect you with our family policy councils around the country because we're a ministry of Family Policy Alliance that was started out of Focus on the Family to really be able to advocate for your values as Bible-believing Christians. We have the network to help you not only pray every week with a video and a prayer point, but to vote in every election and then to engage on the things that you care about.

Every American Christian can make a difference. I am a living example of that as a homeschooling mom that got politically involved 20 years ago and worked for members of Congress for 16 years. I'm a living testimony that God can use one person for his glory in this space and everybody can do something.

Inseong J Kim: So there is huge movement growing that 1 million Christians served the vote mobilization, so it's kind of waking up and 50 states nationwide. 3,100 course participation, long-term civic training and 150 plus strategic partners, their ministry and churches and then 425 place church relationship. This is a powerful testimony for short period of time.

Bonni Pounds: It is really a work of God but we're going to double this year. We're going to double in one year. I believe we'll go to 2 million Christians before the next election because there is awakening happening. I would just encourage any pastors or ministry leaders out there that might be listening to us, you can talk to your congregation about the power of prayer, voting, and engagement for your congregants without splitting your church or losing tithing members.

You just have to do it from a biblical point of view. This isn't a political message, this is a biblical stewardship message that every pastor should be able to bring to their congregation. We must do it because we have seen now our constitution has outlasted every constitution in world history. We're celebrating that this year on the 250th birthday of America.

We also have to remind American Christians of the responsibility that we carry in this country for the world. The world is watching what we're going to do in the decades to come and I believe God's raising up a new generation that's going to be bold and be on mission and going to go to devotion on the word and be the leaders that he's called us to be in every sphere.

Inseong J Kim: Amen. Tell us about a tool, the book you wrote, so leaders can be trained.

Bonni Pounds: I have a new book coming out. It's called Stepping Up to Lead: Rebuilding a Nation in the Footsteps of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a book of the Bible that a lot of people don't study a lot, but he was a cupbearer in a Persian kingdom that went on to be an amazing mobilization leader. Helped the people of Israel identify who they were and rebuild the walls of defenses in the nation in 52 days.

Just an incredible leader. This book, I've been teaching a Bible study on the book of Nehemiah for 15 years to congressional staffers and people in government. I wrote a book related to the chronological study of the book, but also 16 characteristics of this amazing leader that everybody in ministry, government, business, education, media can emulate and should emulate.

I also highlight modern American heroes today that are living out those characteristics. People like Patricia Heaton and Kelly Shackelford and even people that have gone on to be with Jesus recently, Dr. James Dobson and Beverly LaHaye and others. People that people can look to that are living out those characteristics and inspire you in your Bible studies and your local churches to raise up leaders for this next generation.

Inseong J Kim: Many leaders came out of actually studying the Bible because we can see how God works and we see the pattern of God's expectation of character building in the Bible. It's a powerful tool so people can pick up the book and start reading to be engaged in this cultural matter, right?

Bonni Pounds: It is available for pre-order right now. Stepping Up to Lead, my name is Bonni with an I, Bonni Pounds. Candace Cameron Bure from Great American Media and formerly D.J. Tanner of Full House wrote the foreword to the book and wants to inspire a generation of leaders to get involved in Hollywood and elsewhere.

I'm very thankful for her friendship and she is our national spokesperson for America Reads the Bible, the Bible reading event as well. We really want to see an Ezra moment in our nation through America Reads the Bible April 18th through 25th and then through the book and the other materials we're creating. Really invest in a new generation of leaders and I'm very encouraged of what God's doing in Gen Z right now.

The movements of the Holy Spirit that we're seeing around the country, but we have to be spiritual mothers and fathers to raise them up and I hope this book is one of the resources that God will use in the coming days.

Inseong J Kim: I am encountering many different ministry leaders and groups and what I see is movement of prayer. That's powerful that we're engaging in. Eventually we surrender ourselves and at the end of the day, God has to enter this country.

We're inviting God to do the work and I think we're just seeing that. Tell us more about Christian Engaged Academy so people can know more about this.

Bonni Pounds: We have built about eight online on-demand video courses that are excellently produced to teach Christians about civics and biblical worldview. We also have a full campaign school, over 20 hours of content for anybody who wants to run for office. Christian Engaged Academy is just $10 a month or you can buy an individual class.

Our signature class is On-Ramp to Civic Engagement. If you're listening right now and you're like, I don't know anything about anything, I barely vote, this is the class for you. We will walk you through political parties, advocacy, issues from a biblical perspective, how to walk with God in advocacy and government, how to get to know your elected officials, how to change the world.

We have incredible speakers like Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty Institute, former Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, myself, Ben Quine on our team and others to inspire you in that. We have classes like Biblical Worldview, Biblical Justice, Biblical Economics, the leadership of Nehemiah. All of these are available online and then we have amazing podcasts that are free as well.

Jesus for America is my devotional podcast that is so fun to do every day and just encourage everybody to go deep in God right now. We have the educational resources we've been building over the last six years to help you be the leaders that God's called you to be. Take advantage of that and stop binge-watching Netflix and start changing the country. That is what we want to encourage you to do.

Inseong J Kim: Is the podcast video or audio? How can people listen to your devotion?

Bonni Pounds: Jesus for America is on Apple and Spotify and our YouTube. It is only audio right now but I'm switching it to video May 1st which I'm really excited about. It's been going for almost two years and we're just thrilled. It is a 15-minute a day Monday through Friday podcast where I go through scripture and teach Christians how to pray, how to meditate on the word and how to pray scripture.

Also, we have another show called Conversations with Christians Engaged where we interview national leaders and government leaders and advocates on different issues and that's also a powerful show that's been going for about four or five years through video and audio. You can check out all of that. We've got a lot going on.

Inseong J Kim: Where can people see the video? What is the channel?

Bonni Pounds: On our Christians Engaged YouTube channel or on Rumble. YouTube or Rumble. Then on audio, Apple, Spotify, anywhere you get your audio pods, just put in Christians Engaged.

Inseong J Kim: Social media is shaping this culture and we are probably behind a little bit putting all this healthy content. I am so happy about your podcast because a lot of people are actually fed by social media and it changes the perspective of how we view politics. It discourages people to be engaged.

Like your organization says, Christians want to be engaged but they are shunning. If we don't do it, it makes a vacancy on that field and area so it's dangerous. I am so glad that you have content that people can actually be educated and learn.

Bonni Pounds: We want to give people hope and then we want to train you to make a difference. Let me just say again, God is on the move and he has everything that we need to be successful and to impact people's lives with the gospel number one, but also to be the leaders that we're called to be.

We have to be in these rooms of influence. We have to be in the Chamber of Commerce, in the school boards, in our city governments. We need to be there with the gospel and with the wisdom from the word of God. I want to call everybody to step out. Do not be afraid. Be bold and courageous in this hour and we can help you however we can. We will do whatever we can to help you be who God has called you to be in the political and government space and beyond.

Inseong J Kim: It is a matter of time because a lot of people have same value and ideas but they never thought about to actually step up like your book said, step up. Actually step out of the comfort zone and be engaged. A lot of people that I met ask, "What do we do?" Everybody feels that they're not qualified to do anything to step up or step out and be engaged. Your program will help normal people like all of us can be step up, right?

Bonni Pounds: Amen. Everybody just take the pledge to pray, vote, and engage at christiansengaged.org and join us for America Reads the Bible and let the word of God consume your living room or your church building or your business for a week and then let's step up to lead by being Nehemiahs around the country.

Inseong J Kim: One of the thing that catch my eye is the On-Ramp to Civic Engagement. What is that? Is that a program, conference?

Bonni Pounds: That is our signature class I was referencing earlier that really is the beginning class for every Christian that doesn't know anything about how to engage for the country. We will help you with that class and you can get that for $10 a month or for $29 total and keep that class forever for your family.

Inseong J Kim: People can go to christiansengaged.org and find the tab that says Christian Engaged Academy. That will be a great class for everyone from the children to all grown-ups.

Bonni Pounds: It is. We just re-recorded it for the third time at a massive church in Dallas-Fort Worth and it was such a blessing to do that and it will really, really help you.

Inseong J Kim: Thank you. I am going to buy the book and listen to your podcast. Thank you so much for coming to our program and thank you so much for what you do.

Bonni Pounds: Thank you, Inseong. So appreciate you.

Inseong J Kim: Thank you. God bless you. Thank you for listening Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Please go to christiansengaged.org and learn more about it and just pray and actually engage and step up. That's the new year's our resolution 2026, everybody step up. Thank you, we will be back next week.