Chris Grainger: 1:17

Test test. Psalm 78, just verse four, though, one verse. We will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. Love that verse, guys. Go back in your podcast feed.

Chris Grainger: 1:36

The last episode is our spiritual kickoff episode, where we unpack this verse at length, and this is really all about helping you simplify and apply God's word into your life. Okay, now, if you really enjoy those. Again, we do them every week. Every Monday, the spiritual kickoffs come out, but Monday through Friday, within our Lion, within Us community, we do these every day. Every day, you should get a little bit of boost, a little bit of encouragement, a little bit of hope, sometimes that little bit of a kick in the pants. That way, sometimes we as guys need. So again, head over to the lion within that US to start your community experience so that you can be part of those daily spiritual kickoffs. Ok, so this one right here will be straight up on us for you guys. This is for the dads, all right. So your dad now, or you've been a dad or you're planning on being a dad this is for you.

Chris Grainger: 2:25

So I brought, brought in Barrett Johnson. He is the president of info. Okay, it's info for families. Now, info is imperfect and normal families only love that we fit there, okay, uh, so he he's an author. He's wrote a wonderful book here. Uh, discipled him, like Jesus. Uh, he's got five kids seven. He's wrote a wonderful book here, disciple of them, like Jesus, he's got five kids seven. He's got another grandkid on the way, eight grandkids here soon. He's really big, he and his wife, jennifer, about leading marriage and parenting events all across the country, and he really is just a phenomenal guy so far as giving families hope hope that God has answers that they're looking for, and this is what this is about.

Chris Grainger: 3:09

So, again, everything, barrett, this is just a fun conversation. He gives us some insights to some things that he's currently struggling with as well. Definitely, there's some prayer requests there for him and his family moving forward, guys. So I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Like I said, we didn't get a chance to meet until we met today for recording. It was just a lot of fun working with him, so I hope you're going to enjoy this conversation, particularly for you dads out there. So sit back and listen to my buddy, barrett Johnson. Well, barrett, welcome to the Lion Within Us. How are you doing today, sir? I'm good man. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. We're recording this on a wet Monday morning on the East Coast, but we need some rain out this morning. We need some rain.

Barrett Johnson: 3:53

It's about dang time we need some rain around here. It's a good thing for us.

Chris Grainger: 3:56

You got that right. You got that right. Well, barrett, before we get into your project everything that you've built, share something fun about you that maybe not many people know about.

Barrett Johnson: 4:06

Something fun. I've got five kids. I've got an eighth grandchild on the way right now, but I'm a relatively young guy. I'm only 56 years old. Obviously that's not young, but I was a grandfather at 44, which is nuts. We started young and our oldest daughter got married young and gave us a child really quickly. So I was the youngest, coolest grandfather you know for a little while, which was kind of interesting.

Barrett Johnson: 4:32

Another fun fact about me I use this when we play those two lies, two truths and a lie things at parties. I once shot a hole in one in golf and won a liver. And that sounds bizarre, but it was a fundraiser for a woman who needed a liver transplant. And someone set up a prize hole-in-one shot that if you made a hole-in-one it was worth $10,000, $5,000 for the shooter and $5,000 for the liver transplant fund. And so I walked up and God just was with me that day and said I'm going to use this horrible golfer, me, to do a miraculous deed. And I shot a hole in one and the woman got her liver transplant a few months later. So you know when I go, you know play golf and there's prizes at the tournament or something. I don't bring my A game unless there's a vital organ involved. I really, if I win a trip or a car, don't waste my time. I want to win a vital organ and save a woman's life. So that was a fun story from my past.

Chris Grainger: 5:26

You have. So you set the bar really high there, right there you go, there you go. Now you have a golfer too.

Barrett Johnson: 5:31

I'm a terrible golfer. I loved, I love to play, but I don't get to play much. It's just too much time, too much money. But I love it, but I just am perpetually awful. So God, god, used a terrible golfer on that day to to win some money and a liver for a woman. So I think, God wanted to make it perfect clear that it was an act of God and skill of the golfer. So he chose. He chose to use me.

Chris Grainger: 5:56

That's it. There you go. There you go. Well, I'm excited to talk with you because obviously I have four kids here at the house. We're you go. Well, I'm excited to talk with you because obviously I have four kids here at the house. You're trying to figure out this parenting thing going, sure, high school down to toddlers. And you got five. You got eight, well, seven and almost eight grandkids.

Barrett Johnson: 6:11

So obviously you're you're an expert and no, don't say, don't ever say that none of us are experts at anything let's go I heard the line years ago. I used to have five theories on raising kids and now I have five kids and no theories on raising kids.

Chris Grainger: 6:27

Well, I love that you start off with the word disciple. You're discipling them. Why choose that path? I love it first and foremost, but you don't hear many parents talk about that of it first and foremost, but you don't hear many parents talk about that.

Barrett Johnson: 6:44

No, I think the fundamental job that we have as Christian parents if you had to boil it all down is to be disciple makers, that it's our job to take these kids, that God gives us stewardship over for, you know, 18 or 20 years of influence when they're in our home and close by.

Barrett Johnson: 6:58

He's given us the opportunity to make disciples, and if we have one task that proceeds or covers up or influences all the other tasks of parenting, I think it is to make disciples. You know, kids developing character and kids, you know, getting a career path and an education and learning to play nice with others and having all these different things that are kind of our objectives as parents. I think all of those are subservient or submit themselves to this job of helping our kids to love and follow Jesus and to get caught up in his big plan for their lives. And if we can do that as moms and dads and make that our primary goal, I think all this other stuff that we're burdened by in the ins and outs of parenting kind of takes care of itself or falls into place after that. So that's why I think our job is parenting I think is discipleship and we have this amazing opportunity to pour into our kids during the season.

Chris Grainger: 7:51

We've got them. We really do. I feel like so many times when I, when I talk with parents or hear parents in conversations, we're super concerned about you know where they're going to spend four years of college or their vocation, what that's going to look like, and we're nowhere near as concerned about where they're going to spend eternity.

Barrett Johnson: 8:09

That's a great point, yep.

Chris Grainger: 8:11

I feel like we need to shift that a little bit.

Barrett Johnson: 8:14

Yeah, no doubt.

Chris Grainger: 8:17

Well, I'm curious, as you kind of started unpacking this and thinking through, you came up with a very unique framework, and I'd love for you to kind of just walk through that a little bit, because that's really that foundation sets it all right.

Barrett Johnson: 8:31

Well, I started writing this book 20 years ago. I was a parent of probably about where you are right now, chris, with, you know much elementary kind of young teenagers, kind of preteen kids in the house, and I was, you know, felt this burden is heaviness of trying to disciple my kids or help them to love and follow Jesus, and and wasn't really clear on what it looked like, what we. I know it's a job that I've got Um, but how do I do it? And I just started looking, considering, well, what's a good example I can follow? Who? Who's a good discipler that I can follow their example? And I thought of Jesus.

Barrett Johnson: 9:02

We could all agree that Jesus was a pretty effective discipler. He took these 12 regular dudes and over the course of three years he poured into them and enabled them. Once Jesus went back to be with the Father, these 12 guys literally changed the course of history. So what did Jesus do? And so I kind of came up with this model. I feel like it was God-breathed how do I consider what Jesus did? And it came down to five key components. And God gave me this little model of a foundation and three pillars and a roof. And if you don't know what we're talking about. You can just go online and Google Disciple of them, like Jesus the title of the book and you can see that image and I feel like it's what Jesus did.

Barrett Johnson: 9:43

He had these five key priorities that kind of drove him and that he spent his days doing, and it was very, very fruitful with the disciples. So I thought if we can just have that simple framework as well, something we could scribble onto a napkin or have a quick visual snapshot of it in those days where you and I go, what the heck am I supposed to do with this kid I've got it kind of gives us a place to start. Well, here's what Jesus did, so maybe I can strive, with God's help and his power, strive to do these things as well. And it kind of just crystallizes or clarifies what our priorities should be and moves us out of this. I don't know getting stuck sometimes of I just don't know what to do with this kid spiritually.

Barrett Johnson: 10:27

Well, here's five elements that Jesus did. Start here. Consider where you are in these things.

Chris Grainger: 10:33

I think what I like the most about the elements Barrett is one. I didn't see a pillar called outsourcing.

Barrett Johnson: 10:41

Oh, that's great.

Chris Grainger: 10:43

You know, and I feel like I talked to so many dads man, I was one of them too. I just wrote a chapter in the book for the Lion Within Us and it was literally talking about I outsourced spiritual discipleship of my children for years and I outsourced it to the church. I thought it was the church's job, like these guys get paid to do this Sure, surely one hour a week to max, because we're really good Christians.

Chris Grainger: 11:04

Two hours a week is plenty good for them to be, to be, you know, growing in their discipleship journey, until I just had this extreme moment of clarity from God. It's like look, look you. I haven't picked you to raise these children, you know not. Not a children's pastor or a youth pastor or something like that. They should come alongside to help and equip, for sure, but it's not their job to raise them, it's my job, and I love how yours is. The onus is on us.

Barrett Johnson: 11:32

Yeah, and I had the epiphany as well.

Barrett Johnson: 11:37

I was a youth pastor for 15 years in a local church and I just had this realization at the tail end of that ministry of I mean, these kids are not turning into me, their youth minister, they're turning into their moms and dads.

Barrett Johnson: 11:45

And those kids that I've, you know, worked with for a couple of years or, you know, four or five years in high school, middle school and then launched off to college, those kids that had a faith that I thought was going to last, it wasn't because they hung out with me more, Uh, it was because they had parents who were very intentional in teaching their kids to love and follow Jesus. And the kids that I kind of had a pretty good theory and was generally right that we're going to kind of walk away from their faith when they went off and had some independence at college, those are the ones typically whose families were not really engaged and parents that were not really intentional to be making disciples. So you're exactly right, we can't outsource this. We do a lot of outsourcing of our kids for education and for sports.

Chris Grainger: 12:29

There's a place for all that. But yeah, mom and dad, this is on us. Well, I love it. I love the model. I love how you start with. I mean, the foundation for any house is the most important one. You started with abiding. Why there? Why?

Barrett Johnson: 12:38

do you?

Chris Grainger: 12:38

think that is the key.

Barrett Johnson: 12:39

Yeah, and again, there's five components to this and it looks like a little house, a foundation and three pillars and a roof. And the foundation, like you said, is a starting place for anything and I think for Christ and his example. You know, he stayed one with the father, he was one with the father, he was connected to God, he spent time alone, pulling himself away from his work and his friends, and it's just to connect with God and say God, what are you up to, what are you doing? How do I stay in touch with you? That was his priority and so I think for us to model and disciple like Jesus, we got to do likewise and so we use that key anchor word abiding.

Barrett Johnson: 13:15

John 15, 5 says you know Christ talking to disciples and he says you know, if I abide in you and you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. It's like a vine attached branches attached to a bigger vine. You know we're connected to the Father, that abiding is essential to bearing fruit and I think many times as parents, we feel like we're spinning our wheels and not getting much done. Jesus made it very clear for us If you don't stay connected to the vine, connected to the Father, in prayer and Bible study and just being in fellowship with your Heavenly Father, you're not going to bear any fruit.

Barrett Johnson: 13:49

Nothing good's going to happen, and I think that's the one thing in the Christian life I mean I'll confess as a man that's probably the thing that I neglect the most many times because it's private and nobody sees it, and so we work on all these external things. What God says is most important is for us to just be alone with him and be connected to him and be talking to him, and that gives us what we need, both in spiritual power and insight with our kids to be able to start discipling our kids. That's kind of the foundation you build on, but I think it's the thing that many men in particular neglect the most. We kind of go it alone and feel like I've got this. Oh bother God, unless something really big that I got to take to him. By and large, I'm going to muscle my way through this job or this marriage or this parenting thing because I've got what it takes, and I think this is a subtle reminder that really we don't have what it takes apart from a connection with and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Chris Grainger: 14:49

Yeah, when you said I got this God, a reframe that I use when I'm trying to help God, even with me, man, it's just when I hear myself saying I got this God. A great way to think about it is saying I don't need you God.

Barrett Johnson: 15:05

Yeah, that's great.

Chris Grainger: 15:06

And when you say it that way, that tends to slow you down a little bit.

Barrett Johnson: 15:11

Sure, we should be confronted, slapped in the face by that attitude. I don't need you, god. That is great, chris. I love that.

Chris Grainger: 15:18

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, why do you think this abiding you mentioned it's it's, it's it's personal, it's it's intimate. Why do you think that's so difficult with so many guys?

Barrett Johnson: 15:29

I don't know. I think it may be because we're we're more concerned about the external than we are the internal. Um, I think we fake it till we make it and we kind of go through the poser syndrome of of trying to convince everyone around us we've got it all figured out, when maybe there's not a spiritual substance there, because we don't have it figured out and we don't take time to connect with the Father. You know, I think it's so easily neglected and I hate that because it's the most important thing to us. It's the most important thing in our lives, for every, every part of our lives is to stay connected to God. And you know, I believe in my theology. I believe that God has a voice. I think we've seen God throughout the scriptures speaking with a voice to the people he loves and wants to lead, and I think that's still true today.

Barrett Johnson: 16:15

We can debate we're all over the map theology, but I think God wants to lead me as a man and give me insight into the needs of my own heart. But with this application, he wants to give me insight into the needs of my own kids, and so when my kid's misbehaving or dealing with an issue or struggling with something you know. I can look at that situation with my own eyes and go, okay, here's what's going on. This kid's being difficult and I just need to do it. There's a lot of benefit in saying God. Let me pause a minute and say God, let me pause a minute and say God, what's really going on in the heart of this kid right now? What, what do you see, God, that I'm not seeing? And I believe that God has a voice and he wants to give me insights into. Hey, what you're seeing is this behavior and this attitude, but what the what, the real foundation of that is? Is this what your kid right now is? Your kid doesn't feel secure. Your kid feels nervous. Your kid doesn't feel loved by you. And they don't need a lecture right now. What your kid needs is they need your heart and some time, or maybe a hug or whatever it might be, with your kid's particular needs.

Barrett Johnson: 17:10

I think God wants to lead us in that. He wants to lead us with his voice in a still quiet way that we can hear in our sense and our spirit. This is what God wants me to know and do with this situation, with this kid, and we can't have that unless we are connected spiritually to our Heavenly Father, talking to Him, listening to Him, you know, in His Word, trying to get a grasp of what he's all about. And so I think, again, we can't neglect that foundation. It's like building a house on sand, it's like building a house on a pile of dirt that, hey, it looks great on the outside, but give it a couple of years and it's going to wash away. You know, there's even a story in our scripture about that very thing, Is there not?

Barrett Johnson: 17:47

you know, so we've got to build that foundation first.

Chris Grainger: 17:51

What does abiding look like for you?

Barrett Johnson: 17:54

You know I think it is talking to God. I think that pray without ceasing line we get in scripture. Obviously, I'm not talking to God every single moment, but I'm aware that God is with me everywhere I go and his spirit is present in my life. And so it's. It's not OK. I'm going to take my 10 minutes today to have a prayer time in the morning or before I go to bed. Certainly do that, but but more practicing the presence of God, as this early church father, brother Andrew, called it. You know talking to God every single day, every single moment. You know as we go, and let me do that again because and it's, you know, practicing the presence of God, as Brother Lawrence said in some of his writings you know it's recognizing he is with me everywhere I go. If I will just take time to see him and know him and tap into him, and in those moments when I'm struggling to go, god give me some insight here and look to him for leadership, because he wants to give that to us.

Chris Grainger: 18:49

Amen to that. Amen, Guys, we're going to take our first break. We'll be right back. I don't know about you, but I used to find Mondays really rough. I would find myself trying to reset for work, trying to get my bearing on the family calendar, trying to find time for my own spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself overwhelmed or just flatly ignoring aspects of my life that I know are meaningful to me. What I learned was that if I had immediate access to important and impactful spiritual topics and reflections to start my week well after the allure of a Sunday sermon has passed, I would set my whole week up to be more meaningful and for the opportunity to make a true impact.

Chris Grainger: 19:39

If you think that getting such a boost would help your week to get started on the right foot, we would love for you to sign up for the Weekly Roar, which is our newsletter that is produced by the Lion Within Us. Each week will deliver a powerful reflection and practical steps to help you apply Scripture with clarity and purpose, all being rooted in light and truth. So in just a few minutes, we hope to arm you with insights for living out biblical leadership with confidence and strength, and maybe even have a little extra bounce in your step. If that sounds useful, head over to the lion withinus slash roar to sign up today. That's the lion withinus slash r? O? A? R to get your weekly roar today. To get your weekly roar today. So, Barrett, I mean I love again the foundation of abiding that's so crucial for sure. And then you go through these three pillars and I'm curious for you, is there an order of importance? Are they all equally important? I mean, just give us how you came up with these three.

Barrett Johnson: 20:50

Well, these pillars, I believe, are I don't know, they're three steps, if you will, for teaching, for life change. If we want to teach our kids truth, maybe a biblical worldview, let's boil it down to that. We want to teach our kids that truth for head knowledge, then we can just, you know, play Bible trivia with them and just give them a head knowledge, like our kids learn in school, you know, take some tests and read some stuff. But we don't want to teach a biblical worldview and a Christ-centered life. We don't want to teach that for head knowledge, we want to teach that for life change. And I feel like the way you do that for life change is through these three steps, these three pillars, and so these three ways of teaching for life changed are what Jesus did Modeling, teaching and applying. And so modeling that's, you know, when you hear modeling you think of Zoolander and you know not that kind of modeling I'm talking modeling where you are giving your kids an example of what this looks like. Lot of his research he has said that he believes in some of his data says that our kids' generation right now is some of the most spiritually attuned or curious generations in forever. They want to find a meaningful spiritual example of life. They want to know what it looks like to live a Christian life or any kind of faith system. Just show me that it works. And so they're looking for examples of it works. And so modeling is giving our kids a day in, day out, imperfect but consistent example of this is what the Christian life looks like, and this is why walking with Jesus works.

Barrett Johnson: 22:24

We can't teach our kids anything unless we first model it. And if we don't model it, then you know what we're guilty of is hypocrisy. You know we're, we're, we're no-transcript. The first place to start is by looking in the mirror. Am I being a good example of that thing where they can see it lived out, practiced day in, day out? That's what it looks like, and so that's where modeling comes to play. Back to Jesus' example that's exactly what he did, jesus said. And back to Jesus' example that's exactly what he did.

Barrett Johnson: 23:29

Jesus know, taking them to church is certainly a part of that, but I think it's a lot more in the day to day, day in, day out life of here's, where we see God's word at work in our lives and we practice these principles and this is what they look like. So we're modeling and then we're teaching. You know Jesus taught so, very, very much. Obviously. You know the book of John ends with this line that says you know, if we could hear all that Jesus would have taught, it wouldn't. It would barely fill up all the books in all of the world. You know, it was so much. Jesus was constantly teaching. And so we've got to look for ways to teach. And I think Deuteronomy six gives us a great guideline for that. You know, deuteronomy six gives us this outline of teaching. You know, as you walk along different things, these places, that we can take advantage of that and look for many windows of time to teach.

Barrett Johnson: 24:14

And then the third element is applying. So we're modeling, we're teaching and then applying. It's where you put the faith into practice, it's where we take these things that we say we believe and the things that Jesus told us to do. And then let's go do them. And we see that in Jesus' example perfectly.

Barrett Johnson: 24:30

He says a couple of times in the Word. He says he sent the disciples out two by two. I've told you how to do this, I've showed you how to do this. Now go out and do it yourself. And they went out and did it, and then they came back and they were able to debrief with Jesus. How'd that go, and what went good, what went bad, what'd you learn? I think likewise, as parents, we have to give our kids a chance to apply these things that they're learning, to put it into practice when they're under our houses and under our roofs. To learn this is what the faith looks like. I think, in the applying piece of that is really where we can help our kids to taste and see that the Lord is good, when they experience him at work in their lives, as they follow him and live out the faith. As we claim what we say we believe.

Barrett Johnson: 25:15

Let's go do the things we say we believe and those three elements as they see it, modeled as parents teach those truths, as you give them chances to apply.

Barrett Johnson: 25:24

Those three things hopefully will be the foundation or the testing ground where, as we teach our kids to have a faith in Jesus, it becomes their own. You know, uh, I think too many of our kids are riding on mom's and dad's faith. I heard a quote that's in the book. It's by a guy named Neil McClendon and it says Neil said the faith of the average 17 year old is kind of like his sixth grade science fair project Mom and dad did all the work and he just put his name on it. Right, we all know what that feels like and I think there's many of our kids faith. Even as older teenagers they're still kind of riding on mom and dad's faith. We do all the work and they're just kind of putting their name on it. I think, in the applying and putting into practice a chance to really have our kids own the faith of their own, you know, experience this, experience god themselves that's really good.

Chris Grainger: 26:12

Good, I mean, when I teach. I teach a lot of kids as well, and I just I remind them all the time like look, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, they all love you, they're praying for you. They can't do anything for you when it comes to salvation, that's right.

Chris Grainger: 26:27

It's a you thing, it has to be you and it has to become your faith as they grow in it. But I'm also thinking through those three pillars. I know lots of guys out there are listening. They're like man. I am no model. Yeah, I get that. There's so much condemnation that starts coming into mind. Yeah, and all of this.

Barrett Johnson: 26:47

This is a tall order. I started writing this book 20 years ago. Here's the history of this book. 20 years ago, god gave me this model. I was a family minister to church in Texas and I taught this stuff to some parents and a couple of guys came up afterwards and said this would be great stuff. You ought to write this down. It'd be a good little book. Okay, great. So I started writing the book. I got about halfway through it. It really came to the chapter or the section on what it looks like to teach our kids at home the truth and god basically said stop writing. You can't write this until you're doing it better yourself and it was just it was?

Barrett Johnson: 27:21

I don't think it was condemnation. I know men feel that often the shame of we're not, we're not measuring up. For me it was a condemnation, but it was a, a loving spiritual nudge from god saying you know what, you need to work on this yourself a little bit before you write on this and tell others what to do. And I totally deserved that little loving spiritual nudge from the Father. And so I set it down and I strived to do better. And again I give myself a C minus or a D on a lot of these things. Those developmental years. I wasn't great at many of these things because it's just, it's challenging and it's hard. But then again I I was fighting. I had a cancer fight about two years ago that I was involved in throws of and having a whole spring of 23 was spent doing radiation and chemotherapy for a cancer thing that shot showed up on me, and so during that downtime I feel like God gave me the peace to kind of finish this project, whether you know I ever got good at it or not, but he gave me the green light to finish. But I think the message for for me and the message for for any dad out there listening is you know what this is hard. It's the most important job you've got and maybe you're not going to be great at it, especially at the beginning. But it's worth giving it a shot. It's worth evaluating where you are in each of these five elements of this model the abiding, walking with God, the modeling, the teaching, the applying and the last one that we'll talk about in a second. But all of those, it's worth kind of looking at each of those and saying, god, give me a grade on these. How am I doing in these areas? If there's one or two areas you think I'm really not doing anything in this area, then make it a simple prayer God, would you give me some grace and some encouragement and some baby steps that I can take to start pressing into this little area that I know is kind of a weakness in my life, in my parenting, and take a few baby steps and God's with you and he's for you. He's. He's not a God that's going to go. Man, you stink, what's wrong with you. You're not doing good enough. He's going to nudge you lovingly with the spirit in the right direction to be better and better at these things. But you got to start somewhere.

Barrett Johnson: 29:24

You know there's a quote I got in the book. It's by a guy named GK Chesterton who lived a couple hundred years ago. Chesterton said this he said if anything's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. And every time I bring that up in a teaching live I always say that Chesterton said if anything's worth doing, it's worth doing. And I wait for everyone to answer. And they always say it's worth doing right. And that's what we think and I get the answer no, it's not worth doing right. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. Because if it's worth doing right and we've got to do with excellence I think most dudes out there, most dads, they'll never start.

Barrett Johnson: 30:03

They'll think, if I can't be excellent at this and I'm going to fail at it and I'm going to stumble, that I don't want to expose my weaknesses, so I'm not going to do anything at all. And that's, I think, the. I think that's the lies of the enemy, convincing us not to be intentional as we parent spiritually our kids. And so I think again, dads, if someone was doing and this is worth doing discipling your kids is so worth doing. It's worth doing badly for a little while because you've got to be bad before you can be good, and so I encourage any dad listening to just get out there and start somewhere, but don't just sit there idly by thinking I can't do this. You can, you've got what it takes, and the power of God is with you.

Chris Grainger: 30:41

You have the you know. Obviously you went to seminary. I'm assuming you were a pastor.

Barrett Johnson: 30:47

I did four years of college, then four years of seminary. I did yeah.

Chris Grainger: 30:50

Okay, so the common pushback I get when I'm talking to dads about this I'm talking about the middle pillar here of teaching. Yeah, and most dads they, they. When I get to the teaching part, that's when they really they. They start putting up those boundaries and started the negative self-talk. And because they didn't go to seminary, you know they, they're, they're engineers or whatever. It may be Right, and so you know, give us some practical tips to get started down this path of being equipped to teach.

Barrett Johnson: 31:23

Here's a book outlines my teaching chapter. Here's here's a great, uh easy way to approach the scripture as a family, and maybe it's. You know we didn't do this when my kids were young and I regret this, but if your kids are young, man, get in the habit of once a week, you know, thursday nights, pick a night that everyone's home and no one's running around the ball practice and no one's going out on dates or weekend activities, and so pick a night Thursday night, monday night, whatever and make that your family night, where it's, you know, we do an easy dinner. We order pizza or we make a big pot of spaghetti or whatever, just easy dinner. We can eat quick, and then we sit around and we have a little 15 minute conversation about some truth, the word of God. And as you do that, and there's three questions to ask as you approach the word of God this is for a group setting, but it's also, you know, teach your kids to do this in their own personal Bible study. Three questions so what? And now what? Okay, that's five words. Three questions, what, so what, now what?

Barrett Johnson: 32:24

So let's read a story. Let's read a parable of Jesus. Jesus is teaching his disciples and he teaches this parable. So let's pick a parable and you read about blah blah, blah, blah, blah. You read the story. It's great what? Let's discuss for a few minutes. What is Jesus trying to tell us here? What's the principle, what's the crux of the story? And again, if you would teach your kids to have a little quiet time of their own, give them a little journal and, hey, read this verse, write down what.

Barrett Johnson: 32:48

Okay, this is a story of the prodigal son and it's you know, the prodigal son wants his inheritance and he leaves and he's a jerk and he goes and realize how good he had with his father and he runs home and his father accepts him with loving arms and goes to party for him. That's the what. That's the summary of the story. All right, so what? Let's answer that question. So what does that mean to us? What does that mean to us today? And so let's consider that. And so let's talk around a circle. What do you think it means? Ask your 10-year-old, ask your 8-year-old, ask your 5-year-old, ask your 16-year-old. What do you think that means to you, what's the implication of that to us, and hear their answers. Talk about it. All right, now what? That's the third question. How do we. And now what?

Barrett Johnson: 33:27

In a family setting is great because you can say everybody, all right, now what? Each of you a five-year this. What are you going to do differently this week as a result of knowing this truth? And let everybody kind of share an answer and discuss it. And it's great if you can do this as a family. And the now what? Question?

Barrett Johnson: 33:50

You know each kid in your family, each person in your family, mom, dad, the now what to that story. We just read the principle. We just read and write down everybody's one sentence now what? And put that on the refrigerator and and just kind of refer back to it all week long. Hey, you remember this, we're trying to do this, or someone has a thought or an attitude or whatever. Hey, remember, here's a principle of striving. And you just start looking for ways to apply the scripture to your daily lives, all because of a conversation you had for 15 or 20 minutes over dinner. And so that's an easy way to start with three simple questions to know what word says, what it means and how are we going to apply it. I mean, anybody can do that. You don't have to be a rocket science or a seminary grad to approach the scripture that way.

Chris Grainger: 34:30

That's right. Well, you're not going to believe this, barrett, so I'm going to hold this up. This is in my Bible. What?

Barrett Johnson: 34:36

are your questions.

Chris Grainger: 34:37

I can't remember well what it's saying, so the question is what happened, so what now?

Barrett Johnson: 34:41

what? Okay, all right, so we're, you and I are both geniuses, chris. Did you go? Do you go to seminary, chris?

Chris Grainger: 34:48

I did not, and I've been reminded by that a lot. Well, chris, how could you?

Barrett Johnson: 34:51

come up with those three complicated theological questions without seminary training. How could you do that? How could you? You're obviously a savant here.

Chris Grainger: 34:59

You've got skills and talents beyond your, beyond your years in education well, I, I did hear that practice, you know, a couple years ago, my, my, my pastor, uh, pastor joey martin, uh taught that one to me and that was and that was a uh, it served me well. But it serves me well just in a personal quiet time too. You know, just doing that, but adding it to the family dynamic for sure, yeah, for sure, it's an easy way.

Barrett Johnson: 35:24

I love it. Like you said, it is easy. This is not. We don't have to overcomplicate going to the word of God and looking for ways to apply it to our lives and following what the word says, that's. It doesn't have to be complicated. Anybody can do this.

Chris Grainger: 35:40

Amen to that brother, Amen. I want to take a quick break, guys, We'll come back. When I reflect on the kind of things that the men who participated in our discipleship masterminds had in the past, I am overwhelmed by the quality of their comments and commitment to each other. Several of the guys commented that this was the most meaningful leadership experience they've encountered, and we even had one man log into a discipleship mastermind while a hurricane was hitting his house. He was that committed and received that much from his peer group that he didn't want to miss it. Because of this extraordinary commitment and because it's a true gift and pleasure, we made them a core part of our community and we hope you might join us. We sit up men with their own peer advisory group of seven individuals that meet every other week for 12 weeks. Each member shares areas they want to focus on, such as improving their prayer life, being more intentional with their wives or maybe shedding a few extra pounds Together.

Chris Grainger: 36:51

We help them strategize, make commitments, find accountability and learn. It's been our experience that most guys want a community of trustworthy men to share their ideas and create support for each other with, and it's been our experience that most men don't either create this for themselves or seek them out. So we do this because we want you to have that in your life, and all that is needed to begin winning is you. If this sounds interesting, check out our community to see the dates and times of when these different groups meet. Visit thelionwithinus to start your free trial of our community. To get started today, that's thelionwithinus, and I would love to see you lean in and tap into the power of our discipleship masterminds. So, barrett, I know there's one component that we haven't even touched about yet, and I love how there's the overall arching roof, if you will, for what you put together. So unpack that for us.

Barrett Johnson: 37:59

Yeah. So we've got our foundation of abiding, walking with God. We've got these three pillars of teaching, modeling, teaching, applying, and then every good house needs a roof. And so our model's got this roof, the capstone, the thing that holds it all together and keeps it all secure, and that's just connecting. That's the love relationship that a parent in our audience case here today that a dad has with his kids, and that is just vitally important. It's a non-negotiable. You wouldn't build a house with a solid foundation and all excellent walls and floor plan and then not put a roof on it. You've got to have the roof right, right. And so this speaks to the critical component that if you're going to do anything meaningful with your kids, it's going to have to happen through the context of a love relationship. If a dad tries to do that without having the hearts of their kids, then I think you're going to spin your wheels, you're going to not make any movement.

Barrett Johnson: 38:53

The best change, the best movement, the best activity, the best process of life change happens in context of a love relationship and I think too many dads I don't know if this is a dad out here listening there's this. There's a little line that goes around, this little phrase we hear. It says don't be your, don't be your kid's friend, be their parent. And I love that, I get that, totally do. But I think there's some dads out there in particular who've taken that advice Don't be a friend, be their parent. They've taken it too far and they've almost come to the conclusion of thinking you know, if my teenagers like me, then I'm doing it wrong. I've got to build this, be this drill sergeant, disciplinarium who pushes and drives them towards character and excellence, and I've got to do it as this distant, cold, faraway person, as their parent. And if I'm their friend, I've failed.

Barrett Johnson: 39:44

You know, I I just don't think that's effective, and I write in the book about this. I heard a lady named Jill Briscoe she's probably 90 years old now. Teacher out of up in Northwest, jill said this at a conference I was at. She said hey, when it comes to parenting your kids, you want your kids to like you, because if they don't like you, they won't listen to you. And she went on to say do you listen to people that you don't like? And all of us adults in the room went well, no, if I'm listening to someone that I don't like, that I just hate. I don't like their persona, I don't like who they are. I kind of ignore them. And I like their persona. I don't like their. You know who they are. I kind of ignore them. And our kids do the exact same thing with us.

Barrett Johnson: 40:22

And so you want your kids to like you, you've got to build an affinity and it comes with experience and time spent and love and investment in the relationship and asking good questions and just being present in their lives. That's so critically important. And so I would say, if a dad is listening and thinks I want to have spiritual influence on my kids, obviously look at each of these five things, but I think the foundation, the root for two great places to start start with, are you walking with God? And if you're not, start there and if you don't feel like you have a passionate desire to be with God, make it your prayer. God, would you birth in me a passionate desire for you, and I believe God wants to answer that prayer.

Barrett Johnson: 40:59

But then the second key place to start is what does it look like to reconnect with the hearts of your kids? And each kid's going to be different. Each of them has a different love language and a different need, different ages, whatever else, and we know this. This is easy when our kids are younger. When they become teenagers it becomes a little harder. But either way, we've got to work hard as parents to have the hearts of our kids, knowing that any influence we're going to have is going to start there.

Barrett Johnson: 41:23

And so you know this relating thing is critical. You can't do without it.

Chris Grainger: 41:27

It really is. I mean, maybe speak to the dad who's struggling with some connection with his kids right now. Maybe you know, like you mentioned teenagers, yeah, if you feel like there's a disconnect right now with your teenage son or daughter, you know, if you feel like there's a disconnect right now with your teenage son or daughter, any advice? I mean, obviously you sound like you have a lot of experience in these areas that you would offer up to that dad that's listening right now who just feels a little discouraged there.

Barrett Johnson: 41:50

Yeah, I mentioned the love languages a minute ago. Gary Chapman's had the best-selling marriage book on the list for 40 years now for a reason. That love language thing. There's something there so perfectly. Consider what is your kid's love language, if it's quality time, or if it's words, or if it's you know whatever. Figure out what that is and speak that love language.

Barrett Johnson: 42:09

I think for a teenage kid that you're disconnected with, you know there's nothing wrong as a dad going humbly to a son or a daughter and saying, you know, hey, I want nothing more to have a great relation with you.

Barrett Johnson: 42:23

My, my, my love for you and my, my relationship with you is the most important things in my life and I feel like we're not really firing all cylinders right now and I want to improve that.

Barrett Johnson: 42:31

What can we do to do better? What can I do as a dad to to hear you better and to be more in your life and you being more my life, for us to be connected and just humbly go to a kid and let the kid give you some feedback. And when a kid gives you feedback and says, well, dad, you're never here, or dad, you feel like you're not interested, or whatever feedback that kid gives you there's a temptation to go defensive and go. Well, that's not really the case and I try, you know, don't do that. Just shut up and listen and own your stuff to the best of your ability and humbly hear what they have to say and do all you can to you know, correct those areas that from their perception, whether you believe it's legitimate or not, um, hear what they have to say, that's their reality and do your best to you know, come alongside them and be present with them.

Barrett Johnson: 43:16

Um, so that will come to Jesus meeting with your kid and hopefully Jesus is involved in that because God's leading you Right. Uh, hopefully we'll. We'll kind of jumpstart perhaps a new relationship with a, with a kid that you're feeling kind of disconnected from.

Chris Grainger: 43:29

I love to hear your definition of success. So someone walks through this model. Yeah, yep, paint, paint them a picture. What? What does the definition of success look like so far as discipling your kids?

Barrett Johnson: 43:39

You know I think my desire with my kids that I've, you know, had some good good seasons and some bad seasons, but my desire is for my kids to have a faith that lasts. I want my kids, when they launch into adulthood and have a independence in their own life and a trajectory where they're making the choices for their lives and I'm I have no influence anymore. Really I can nudge and I can counsel and give some wisdom when they ask me, but when I'm no longer, you know the key influence in their lives that they have a faith that stands. They have a relation with God and a love for Him that stands on its own. And you know there's some hits and there's some misses and there's some good seasons and bad seasons, but that's my ultimate goal of doing that and I think every dad can ask that. You know you've got a great that's a great question, chris, for all of us to ask.

Barrett Johnson: 44:22

You know Stephen Covey and his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People from 35 years ago, which was a game changing book for me when I considered it through the lens of my Christian faith. He said too many people spend their lives climbing the ladder of success only to realize the ladder was leaned up against the wrong wall, and so it's a great idea to, early on, with your kids, or even wherever you're at, to consider what's what wall is my ladder leaned against? What am I aiming for? What's my definition of success and that should, or could, drive us, and so, I think, for parents any dad out there?

Barrett Johnson: 44:59

what do you want for most of your kids? What is your desire? What's your goal? If it's for your kid to get into a great college and have a great career and make a bunch of money, okay, off to the races, pursue that. But I think that goal doesn't align with what God's goals are for you and for your kids Having a great career and a persistent influence to God's glory. Maybe there's a part of that in there. But, um, all the world says what success looks like. You know the stuff that we have and the job that we have and all those different things. None of that means anything unless we're using those things to the glory of God in our lives. And so, for me, success is that spiritual growth, that intimacy with God, that getting caught up in God's will and being used for His purposes, to His glory. That's His will for my life and that's His will for our kids' lives. I want to join God in that process. Help my kids find that.

Chris Grainger: 45:52

Well, I know beautiful answer, by the way and I know we also have lots of dads out there listening who maybe that season of influence is past, maybe they're out the house, maybe they have a prodigal out there. What would you share to them?

Barrett Johnson: 46:09

It's a struggle. I lead an adult Bible study class where I occasionally teach a class at our church. There were 25, 30 of us in the room Sunday morning, just yesterday. We're recording this on a Monday, so it was just literally 24 hours ago and we were talking about some of the burdens we have in our lives and, as Christmas rolls around, we're considering the hope we have in the incarnation and what hope stems from all that and knowing that Christ is coming to the world at Christmas. And we kind of just got on a tangent conversation about prodigal kids, kids that have kind of walked away from the faith, kids that are not, you know, kind of turning out spiritually as we hoped or intended them to.

Barrett Johnson: 46:47

I kind of just did a. You know 15, 16 families, couples in the room. I said you know who. Who's got a kid that you're. That's one of your burdens in life. One of the things that keeps you up at night in your prayer life is that they're not walking with God. I swear. Good Christian families, good Christian church. Probably two-thirds of the hands went up in the room. So this is common. It's not uncommon for parents to look at their kids that are growing up and the choices they're making or living the house going. They're not where they need to be, and what do I do about?

Barrett Johnson: 47:14

that man. I think for us to never stop praying for our kids, stop praying that God will continue to pursue them, which he will, but that eventually, in some way, some circumstance, he will catch them Striving. To do that, all we can is to keep on saying, god, keep on chasing my kid. You know, for a parent who wants to continue to influence, obviously you're going to continue to love and point them to Jesus any way you can, but I think there comes a season where the relationship you have with your kids is so much more important than the lectures you have for them. So I would encourage any parent out there to pray for wisdom, to know what things to talk about and things to share with their child or teenager or young adult who was pulled away from the faith. That is antagonistic to the faith. Even Pray about what things you need to talk about and in what context, because some of those things can just lead to conflict and fights and bitterness and greater disengagement, and then you lose any influence you might have.

Barrett Johnson: 48:19

I think we've got to lead with love more than anything else and maybe pray that God would bring someone else in their life, or some other circumstance or life that will expose them to truth or convict them of their. You know they're they're wandering away from God and helping them realize their need to pursue God again. That may not be your job in the middle of all that, because your greatest job is to be in a love relationship with them.

Barrett Johnson: 48:39

And I think you don't want to compromise that by the need to I don't know preach at them. You know, I think I think your, your, your lectures and your sermons you're going to give to him about the truth which you know is true, Right, Are going to fall on deaf ears and only pull them further away. And so your goal, I think, as a parent, should be to prayerfully pray that God pursues them and be there for them. There's a great book out there. I forget the author, but the title, I believe, is about young adult children. You know, kids have left home. The title is Leave the Welcome Mat Out and Shut your Mouth.

Barrett Johnson: 49:16

I think is what it is. It's make them feel welcome and loved and welcome in your home, and then stop lecturing them Right. Just if they ask you for advice, you're there to give it to them, but don't make the need to be right the priority. Amen, make the relationship the priority 100%, 100%, barry.

Chris Grainger: 49:38

Well, I love the priority. 100%, 100%, barry. Well, look, love the conversation. We always do a lightning round with the line of tennis at the end, so if you're willing to play, we'll jump right in. I've got my hand on my buzzer, there you go. There you go. Start off pretty easy. So what's, what's a hobby or anything you enjoy doing for fun?

Barrett Johnson: 49:57

Again, I mentioned golf. That for fun. Again I mentioned golf. When I have five hours of free time, that's always fun for me. So I will say that, Again, I don't play that much, but that's a fun little thing. That's my distraction there you go and just I love to travel with my wife. When we have a chance to travel and explore and see and do things, traveling is huge for us too.

Chris Grainger: 50:13

Okay, what's the most interesting place you've ever been?

Barrett Johnson: 50:17

Ever been. You our my go-to place now. Well, it's kind of our haunt we there. There is a little village, uh, south of Cancun called Akumal, okay, and if you fly into Cancun, all the craziness of hotel zone we hate that. We fly into Cancun and drive about an hour and a half South and Akumal is a little sleepy town. That's got amazing snorkeling and we make it a point now about once a year it's kind of our rhythm to go there for at least a week and just park it there in the wintertime, in February usually, and just be lazy and snorkel all day long and be in the water with fish. It's our favorite thing to do in the world and so that place is our favorite place now, I think.

Chris Grainger: 50:58

Wow, that sounds amazing. Good for you. Good for you Once a year, that's what I'm talking about. All right, so how about favorite food? What's?

Barrett Johnson: 51:07

your go-to. You know I'm from Houston originally. I live in Atlanta now, but Houston is the home of the greatest Tex-Mex in the world, and so I think if I was left with one category of food, I have to eat that the rest of my life.

Chris Grainger: 51:19

Yeah.

Barrett Johnson: 51:19

I'd probably go with good Tex-Mex food. That's my go-to. Okay, and no bad Tex-Mex there's a difference. I love I hate bad Tex-Mex about as much as I love good Tex-Mex. Right, that's very important there.

Chris Grainger: 51:33

Very important, very important. What about sports teams? Anybody following?

Barrett Johnson: 51:37

You know I went to school in Houston. I grew up in Houston and went to school at Texas A&M. So I don't care much about pro football, pro sports. You know my city's team is doing well, I'll engage but I don't get passionate about it. But I'm an ardent Texas A&M Aggie fan because that's where I went to school and there's a whole lot of tradition. I mean, it's a cult. If you follow Texas A&M, it's a cult that we're involved in. So it's obnoxious and crazy and all kinds of stupidness, but it's my obnoxious and crazy and so, yeah, there's my passion there.

Chris Grainger: 52:09

Do you get to go to many of the football games?

Barrett Johnson: 52:11

We'll get there once every other year or so. Being in Atlanta, it's a little harder, but all my family in Houston have got tickets to games and so we'll get there with them occasionally.

Chris Grainger: 52:19

There you go there you go. How about any habits, anything you started doing recently that you got a lot of value out of?

Barrett Johnson: 52:26

It's a great question what's a new habit Home? I'm trying to think. You know this is a discipline. My wife has got some challenging health issues so in the last year or so, two years I've kind of become the chef at home.

Barrett Johnson: 52:42

My wife got MS and some chronic back pain, and so she didn't cook much and so I started cooking more and so kind of the rhythm of and it's always from scratch stuff. A lot of times it's just remade stuff, but occasionally I'll make something from scratch and I'll really impress myself with how well I do in putting together a meal that I thought I made. That.

Chris Grainger: 53:05

There you go. Good for me.

Barrett Johnson: 53:06

So that's kind of been a new rhythm of life that I've found in recent days, love it, love it.

Chris Grainger: 53:11

What about a superpower? So, if you could have a superpower, which one would you have?

Barrett Johnson: 53:18

I. So if you could have a superpower, which one would you have? I've got a superpower. I do my superpower and I love everyday superpowers that we think is unique to us. Here's mine. I am amazing at predicting estimated times of arrival. I know this sounds really dumb, okay, but if I'm driving here to Houston, texas, which is a 12 and a half hour drive, I can pretty much say we're leaving at 6am, we're gonna go see our family in Houston. I can pretty much tell my mom that we're going to stay at her house. Mom will be there at, you know, 6.35pm and I'm a pretty amazing guy. We're driving home from, from downtown Atlanta, our home, in traffic. We're going to be home at 4.26. I'm always within a few minutes of nailing on the spot. I don't know what that is. Is that a superpower? Have I used it for good? I'm not sure, but I think that's my superpower there.

Chris Grainger: 54:05

Well, it's definitely the most unique one we've ever heard.

Barrett Johnson: 54:08

So there you go, there you go.

Chris Grainger: 54:10

Love it, Love it. So I'd love to also know, when you think about God Barrett, what's your favorite thing about him?

Barrett Johnson: 54:19

There's a book I just read by a guy named Sky Gyptani. The book's called With, and it's a great breakdown of how we see God.

Barrett Johnson: 54:27

I love it.

Barrett Johnson: 54:27

And he says sometimes people see God as we're kind of under him and he's this God and we're under him and there's dimensions of that obviously he's our God and we're not.

Barrett Johnson: 54:41

There's people who live life over God, where God's kind of my Santa Claus and does what I want him to do.

Barrett Johnson: 54:43

There's different ways of approaching God, but Sky in his book says that with is the right way of seeing God and he makes a great argument that we're called to be in a relationship with the Father where he is our advocate, he is our friend, we're obviously in submission to him and there's a reverent fear, but we walk through life with God and I like that dimension of God that I have tried to practice in recent months or years after reading that book, of just saying God, you're with me and I want my life to align with you and I want my life to align with you and, god, would you keep reminding me where I'm kind of missing the mark or where I'm kind of derailing my life and undermine things that you have in store for me?

Barrett Johnson: 55:24

Because, god, you're right here with me, wanting to kind of nudge me in the right direction and guide me to do the things you want me to do and be the man you want me to be. God, can I be with you today? And that's kind of where I've kind of had my headspace in the last little bit here. That's beautiful.

Chris Grainger: 55:37

That's beautiful. Let's flip it 180 now. So what's your least favorite thing about the evil one?

Barrett Johnson: 55:44

Least, just how crafty he is. I hate that. Satan is a deceiver and he's a liar and I think most of us who are being lied to and being deceived in those moments we don't know we're being deceived until God confronts with that and he's got. The enemy is crafty that way.

Barrett Johnson: 56:02

I hate it when I'm fooled by the enemy in a way of thinking or a way of perceiving a situation and God kind of reminds me of, okay, no, you're being deceived, that's not the truth, here's the truth. And I kind of look back on the season where I was believing a lie and how, how gullible I was. I hate that and I'm so glad God reminds me and points me to the truth and I kind of get back to where I need to be. But I hate when I look back on a season and go I was believing a lie about this circumstance or this person or this behavior, whatever it might be. I can't believe I got fooled by the evil one that I know is my enemy and that wants to, you know, screw my life up. Uh, I hate that about him.

Chris Grainger: 56:44

Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Well, last one for the lightning round, barry, is what do you hope to listeners remember the most about our conversation today?

Barrett Johnson: 56:52

You know I hope they remember that that there's a God that's with you and for you and is not there to make you feel bad about yourself or remind you where you're terrible. There's a God that says, hey, I've got an agenda to make disciples of all mankind. That's what Jesus gave us in the Great Commission. That's my agenda for everybody. Dad, I can use you in some simple but fundamental and essential ways in the lives of the kids that I've given you stewardship over. These are my kids, God says. I think they're not your kids, they're my kids. I've trusted you with them for 18 to 20 years. That's my agenda to help love and follow me and get caught up in my big bill for their lives.

Barrett Johnson: 57:32

If there's a dad out there that says maybe I can try to be a part of that, there is a loving, gracious, powerful God who will say I can help you do that. It is exactly what I want to do and it's exactly how I want to use you. Let's go, let's do this. I'm with you, I'm for you, I've got your back, I'm going to guide you in all things. Just trust in me and look to me, and you can get some stuff done. You can see God do works in your family with your kids. Through you, you simple, imperfect, fallen dads out there. God says I can use you.

Chris Grainger: 58:00

Amen to that, amen. Well, barrett, where do you want to send them to connect with you? Do you want to get a copy of the book and the things that you're?

Barrett Johnson: 58:06

doing, love it. So our ministry that we've started 10 years ago is called Imperfect Normal Families Only. So if there's a dad out there that's perfect and has a perfect marriage and perfect family life, we've got nothing for you. We're all for imperfect normal families only, and that's an acronym I-N-F-O. So our website's Info for Families and you can find all about us there.

Barrett Johnson: 58:27

But this new book resource it's a great Disciple them Like Jesus. It's a great easy book to read. It's 30,000 words. Any man that even doesn't like to read books can read this book. There's an audio book version of it. You can go to DiscipleThemLikeJesuscom and there's both ways you can order the book. But there's also a fun thing. We've got eight teaching videos, one that goes along with each of the chapters. They're about 10 minutes long each. You could grab the book, you could read a chapter. You could watch a video. Those videos are absolutely free when you buy the book, just go to DiscipleThemLikeJesuscom to find out about it. Great thing for a husband and a wife to go through, to get on the same page and become intentional about discipling their kids like Jesus.

Chris Grainger: 59:06

Love it. Love it Well, barrett. Thank you so much for today. We'll make sure those links are in the show notes for you listeners out there. Anything else you'd like to share today sir?

Barrett Johnson: 59:13

No, it's great to connect with you, chris, praying for you, appreciate your prayers for me. You know I mentioned I had a cancer scare a couple of years ago. In the last couple of months we've learned that there's some tumors growing in my lungs. So I'm starting radiation again, probably over the Christmas holidays Okay, to kind of get in check what we see is a very rare but sometimes aggressive cancer in my life. So, man, chris, I'd ask for your prayers, and even those guys listening, pray for Barrett, your new friend, that I'd get ahead of this and that God would bring some healing to my life in the coming days.

Chris Grainger: 59:41

A hundred percent, barrett. We will definitely be praying for you. Our community will be praying for you. Appreciate, it man, thank you so much for sharing today my pleasure man.

Chris Grainger: 59:54

Good meeting y'all All right, guys. So I told you that was going to be a good one. So thankful for Barrett coming out and be sure, guys, to keep him in your prayers. I mean, that's a pretty heavy prayer request he dropped on us there. We definitely want to be intentional about that. So be praying there and remember all the different elements around the framework that he put in place. So, as far as abiding, modeling, teaching, applying and connecting that, definitely all that resonated with me greatly, and hopefully it did with you as well.

Chris Grainger: 1:00:19

The question of the week this week for Delilah and Dennis is what's one lesson about God you wish someone had taught you earlier? We all learn stuff right, but is there something out there that you just wish you had known a little bit earlier? Now take that one lesson and go teach it today. Just go encourage somebody with that today, fellas. So that's what it's all about. Yeah, so thankful for Barrett.

Chris Grainger: 1:00:43

Check out the links in the show notes. We'll have everything there for you guys. Thelionwithinus, that's TheLionWithInus. We have our weekly roar, so go get signed up for that. All these things are free.

Chris Grainger: 1:00:55

We have our Christian Leader Assessment. That's a free tool for you. We have our Bible Studies on the YouVersion Bible app, all free resources for you to help equip you to grow, to be the leader that God intends you to be. And then, when you're ready to jump in and actually engage, check out our offerings with our line within us community, our Spiritual Kickoff, our Summit, leadership Development, our live events, our mission trips. That's it. We're going on and on and on to help you be equipped to do what God's calling you to do, and we know we can't do this alone.

Chris Grainger: 1:01:24

So, again, the lion within that's thelionwithincomus is the website. So go, check that out. All right, so give us a rating and review. That's a great way to support the show as well, and, again, we can serve you in any way. I definitely want to hear from you. Thank you to Barrett for once again coming on and sharing his powerful story and equipping us to really step in and remember that we are handpicked by God to lead our family. So hopefully you're a little bit more equipped at this point. So have a great day, get after it. Remember, keep unleashing the lion within.