How To Practice Everyday Family Discipleship with Adam Griffin

Could simple faith rhythms at home radically transform the way your family grows spiritually this year?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Adam Griffin—pastor, author, and host of the Family Discipleship Podcast—to explore the power of Christian parenting and raising Christian kids through intentional family time and everyday discipleship. Together, they unpack practical tips for making faith a natural part of family life, why starting simple matters, and how spiritual growth shapes your family's purpose and inspiration—even in busy seasons.

Resources:

• www.familydiscipleship.com
• @familydiscipleshippodcast
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Unexpected Callings in Life: "about eight years, nine years ago, the Lord laid it on our hearts to plant a church, but none of that was planned."

— Adam Griffin [00:07:07 → 00:07:12]

Podcast Beginnings and Leadership Transitions: "Matt Chandler had started that podcast and then he stepped away and I took over with a co host, also named Adam, who's still doing it today."

— Adam Griffin [00:08:41 → 00:08:49]

Filling the Gap in Family Spiritual Leadership Podcasts: "But what we saw, there's a ton of family podcasts, there's a ton of parenting podcasts, but there wasn't one that we really admired that was like, hey, this one focuses on how to lead your family spiritually."

— Adam Griffin [00:09:20 → 00:09:31]

Rethinking Discipleship  

"If you combine both of those, that's closer to the definition we would use is saying, for our kids who do not follow Jesus, and for our kids who do, how are we pursuing a life of following Christ? That's much more than just familiarity with the Bible characters and Bible stories. It's more like, how does my faith apply? How do I see the world through a biblical worldview lens, and how do we form that?"

— Adam Griffin [00:10:55 → 00:11:19]

Family Discipleship Without Shame: "I want this to feel like I'm inviting you to a party that you've wanted to go to."

— Adam Griffin [00:16:28 → 00:16:31]

Viral Topic: Embracing the Invitation to Lead  

"I pray that as families hear an invitation to lead their homes, they go, oh, I've always wanted to do that."

— Adam Griffin [00:17:07 → 00:17:13]

Viral Topic: Unbreakable Family Traditions  

Quote: "One of the great things about my dad is he told us always that we don't wake up on Sunday morning and decide if we're going to church. That decision was made a long time ago."

— Adam Griffin [00:18:21 → 00:18:29]

Viral Topic: The Discipleship Drop-Off in Middle School  

"If there's any season of life where it is critical that we are helping our family not just be familiar with Bible stories and Bible characters, but know how their faith applies to decision making, isn't it middle school and high school?"

— Adam Griffin [00:20:12 → 00:20:24]

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Transcript

Christen Clark [00:00:09]:

Welcome to the Collide Kids Podcast, hosted by Christen Clark. This is a show for kids and families. You are going to meet new people and have fun while you listen. Let's do it. Hey, y'. All. Welcome back to the Collide Kids Podcast. I'm your host, Christen Clark, and I am so glad you're here.

Christen Clark [00:00:38]:

The Collide Kids Podcast is a show for kids and families where we learn together how life and faith collide. I'm so glad to be finally back and kicking off this new season. If you were expecting this podcast to launch in January, you're not wrong, because January turned into one of these months where my whole life just needed some extra margin. So instead of jumping right in, I decided I was going to take a little bit of a break and slow down and create some space. And I really wanted to spend some time praying about the direction of this show and the direction of seven Minute Devotions for Busy Parents, which I just started last fall. And. And I wanted to know what God wants to do through them. And listen, it's not because I'm tired of podcasting or burnt out.

Christen Clark [00:01:23]:

I'm really not. I still love this so much, but because I realize how easy it is to rush ahead, especially for me, and moving forward in my own strength, instead of just taking the time to pause long enough just to listen. I feel like when we do that, it really gives us space to realign our goals and what we want to do with our life. And for. For me, I know that my mission with this podcast, with the things I'm doing in other ministry spheres, it's to encourage parents and encourage families. And speaking of encouraging parents, if you're a parent and you haven't checked out my other podcast yet, it's called seven Minute Devotions for Busy Parents, and I would love for you to check it out. Give it a listen, let me know what you think. It's a newer show I just started last fall.

Christen Clark [00:02:09]:

And listen, I truly have loved putting it together. Our first season, we focused on learning more about the character of God, and it was such a gift to walk through that with you. And right now, we're stepping into this new season where we're gonna talk about our identity in Christ, and we're diving into the book of Ephesians. I'm so excited to share with you what God is teaching me through this. Listen, the podcast episodes are really short. They're practical, they come out twice a week, and you can go back and start from the beginning and learn about the character of God or you can jump right into this new season with us. Either way, my hope is that it is a simple encouragement for you and a helpful resource for parents in this season. So take a mom to follow and subscribe to 7 Minute Devotions for busy Parents.

Christen Clark [00:02:54]:

Okay, that was my commercial for seven Minute Devotions. But now I'm really excited to share with you where this season is headed here at the Collide Kids Podcast. And this conversation today felt like the perfect way to start. I am joined by Adam Griffin. He is a pastor, author, and the host of the Family Discipleship podcast. Adam and his wife Chelsea are raising three boys and he has some great practical, grace filled approach to helping parents disciple their kids in everyday life. And in this episode, we're talking about simple rhythms of discipleship, things that you can actually do as a family, and why starting this year with intentional faith practices really matters. So if you ever wondered, am I doing enough? Or how do I make faith part of our normal family life, I'm telling you, this conversation is for you.

Christen Clark [00:03:42]:

So here is my Happy New Year conversation with Adam Griffin. Foreign. Griffin, I am so excited to have you on the Collide Kids podcast.

Adam Griffin [00:04:01]:

Well, thanks for having me here, Christen. I'm excited to be here too.

Christen Clark [00:04:03]:

Yeah, this is great. I've been a big fan of your podcast for a long time and I'm also excited that you're here in the new year. Happy New Year.

Adam Griffin [00:04:11]:

Yeah, Happy New Year to you. Love a new year.

Christen Clark [00:04:14]:

Yes. 2026. It couldn't come fast enough. I don't, you know, like, I think this is going to be a great year. I really do. Would you just introduce yourself to our listeners? Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Adam Griffin [00:04:25]:

Yeah. My name is Adam Griffin. I'm married to Chelsea. We have three sons, Oscar, Gus, and Theodore, who are 14, 12, and 10. We live in Dallas, Texas, where I'm the lead pastor of the church we planted about eight years ago. It's called Eastside Community Church. We have a church and a school. Schofield Christian School is the school that we oversee as well.

Christen Clark [00:04:43]:

And.

Adam Griffin [00:04:43]:

And when we're not pastoring or leading our school in my off time, I'd love to get to write resources for families. And then my wife and I record a podcast with our friend Cassie. So the family Discipleship podcast. And then we love to put out resources for different aspects of parents sharing their faith with their kids.

Christen Clark [00:05:01]:

That's great. And I think a lot of our listeners are really going to be excited about jumping in on Your podcast, because it's such great information, very timely. So I encourage our listeners to check that out. I'm excited to talk to you about all of this today and just how we can kick off our new year. But before we do that, because this is a show for kids, I always make my guests tell me a joke. So do you have a joke for us?

Adam Griffin [00:05:24]:

Yes, I have a joke from a kid. So in our household, every Christmas season, one of our children gets to pick out a joke that they put on a little board by our fireplace that kind of sits there for the Christmas season. It's always like a. It's typically a pun. And so this year, the joke was, what do you call a snowman with a six pack?

Christen Clark [00:05:48]:

Ooh, I don't know.

Adam Griffin [00:05:50]:

An abdominal snowman.

Christen Clark [00:05:54]:

I love it.

Adam Griffin [00:05:55]:

Last year's was, do you want to build a snowman? And then it said, Snow.

Christen Clark [00:05:59]:

Thank you, Snow. Thank you. Oh, I'm going to start using that if anyone asks me something.

Adam Griffin [00:06:03]:

Snow.

Christen Clark [00:06:04]:

Thank you.

Adam Griffin [00:06:04]:

Snow.

Christen Clark [00:06:05]:

Thank you. It sounds very nice. So let's talk a little bit first about, like, one of the things that we talk about on the Collide Kids podcast often is I get to interview people about their job and what they love about it and how they got started in that. So how did you become a pastor? And was it something you knew you were going to be, or did you kind of trip and fall into it?

Adam Griffin [00:06:24]:

No, I went to school thinking I would be a teacher. I really wanted to invest in younger people. That was my plan. And then somebody asked me once about student ministry as a career, and I didn't know that was a career. I didn't know you could do that. But they said, hey, you can invest in kids and you never have to grade anything. And I was like, man, that sounds awesome.

Christen Clark [00:06:40]:

Sign me up.

Adam Griffin [00:06:41]:

Yeah. So I picked up a minor in theology and a minor in student ministry. And when I graduated college, I took a role as a youth minister at a church down here in Dallas. And that was in, you know, it was a long time ago. And I did that for about six years. Thought I'd do it the rest of my life, and then actually ended up in teaching public school for three years here in Dallas. Then from that went back into ministry at a different church that invited me to consider a position. And then about eight years, nine years ago, the Lord laid it on our hearts to plant a church, but none of that was planned.

Adam Griffin [00:07:12]:

I would always say, you know, people say when God closes a door, he opens a window. I really felt like all the doors and windows were closed to pastoral ministry for me. And then there was like a trap door and then it like fell out underneath me. And the Lord, like, had me slide down and at the end of this really fun slide was like, oh, I'm a lead pastor. I'm a planter. I'm founding pastor of a church that I would now, of course, Christen, no resistance. I love it. I think it's fantastic.

Adam Griffin [00:07:39]:

But I would have never picked it, never planned it. But the Lord knew better than I did.

Christen Clark [00:07:45]:

Yes, he always does. And I think, I think sometimes too, it's when you go into your, like, if you have this whole plan of what your life is going to be like, very rarely does it turn out that way. And so just having your hands open to say, lord, I'll just go wherever you say to go next is, is, I think the best way to navigate life. Right? Amen.

Adam Griffin [00:08:03]:

Open handed. Yeah. We thought at one point we were moving to China. Then it was like, now we're staying here. You know, you just never know where the Lord's going to take you. So, yeah.

Christen Clark [00:08:11]:

One of my favorite quotes, I think it's from Priscilla Shire did a Bible study of hers and she said to tell God yes and then find out what the question is. And that's what true surrender is. So when we really surrender, we're like, whatever you're going to ask me, I'm going to say yes.

Adam Griffin [00:08:25]:

That's so good.

Christen Clark [00:08:26]:

So you guys started a family discipleship podcast. Tell us a little bit about that, why you wanted to do something or have conversations about family discipleship.

Adam Griffin [00:08:34]:

That's a good question. You know, I, I used to host a show called Culture Matters at a church. I used to work at the Village in Flower Mound. And so we did that. Matt Chandler had started that podcast and then he stepped away and I took over with a co host, also named Adam, who's still doing it today. It's a great podcast about culture. Chandler and I had put out a book on family discipleship and that led to various considerations. One of them was an invitation from Training the church, which is knowing faith, who are some of my dearest friends.

Adam Griffin [00:09:03]:

And they said, hey, what if you did a podcast? At the time they were going to start, they were thinking about starting a family of podcasts. And they said, what if you took the work you're doing for this book and did a podcast that led to research around, hey, who's doing this kind of work already? I don't want to start a podcast if there's a Thousand out there. You know, Christen, there's a billion podcasts. But what we saw, there's a ton of family podcasts, there's a ton of parenting podcasts, but there wasn't one that we really admired that was like, hey, this one focuses on how to lead your family spiritually. And so knowing there was that kind of open opportunity, knowing that there was an invitation to go do fun work with friends, we were like, yes, let's do it. So we stepped away from culture matters, took on family discipleship, and have really enjoyed getting to do it. You know, the knowing faith people let me pick my co hosts. And so, of course, I picked my wife and Cassie.

Adam Griffin [00:09:54]:

And. And we have gotten to keep up with Cassie in a way that's super fun. And then, of course, I love getting to hear from my wife. That's. To me, the highlight of the podcast is getting conversations with my wife than get letting the world into that. Chelsea's a. She's a star. She's awesome.

Adam Griffin [00:10:11]:

And it's fun to do it together.

Christen Clark [00:10:13]:

Yeah, I love that you guys do that together. And it really makes for interesting conversations, for sure, because you're both leading the same family. I mean, except for Cass, but. But, yeah. So that's very interesting. Let's talk a little bit about family discipleship, because I know it's something that's very important, and it's something that I want this show to be about. The Collide Kids podcast. We're putting resources for family discipleship in front of our listeners because I know how valuable it is.

Christen Clark [00:10:40]:

So tell us a little bit about what that is, what that structure looks like.

Adam Griffin [00:10:43]:

Yeah. Some people, when they hear the word discipleship, they think of making disciples, meaning somebody who doesn't follow Jesus at all. And some of them think of, like, an education program where we're growing in our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. And I would say both of those. If you combine both of those, that's closer to the definition we would use is saying, for our kids who do not follow Jesus, and for our kids who do, how are we pursuing a life of following Christ? That's much more than just familiarity with the Bible characters and Bible stories. It's more like, how does my faith apply? How do I see the world through a biblical worldview lens, and how do we form that? And so most of the questions we get from parents are things about parenting. You know, they'll ask us about behavior, and we'll ask us about consequences. They'll ask us about spanking, or they'll ask us about technology and all that's great.

Adam Griffin [00:11:33]:

But what we really always come back to is the reason we make these decisions about consequences or behavior or technology or anything else is because this is what the word of God has said. And so we start with the Word of God. That's where we always come back to. But family discipleship in its definition is really saying the mom and dad are going to initiate whatever it takes for this family to follow Jesus. So we're going to lead them. Sometimes that means we're going to demonstrate for them. Sometimes it means we're going to demand something from them. So biblically, the picture, Christen, you know this.

Adam Griffin [00:12:00]:

Paul talks about it as planting seeds, watering them, knowing that God gives the growth. So we are planting seeds of the gospel, we are watering those seeds, we are doing ongoing work, regular work, in hopes that God grows it into something that brings him glory.

Christen Clark [00:12:15]:

Yeah. And I think that takes the pressure off too to know that we can do our very best with this. But it's really up to how God wants this to grow. And so it's that open handedness. Right. We're like allowing God to do the work and so we're going to be faithful with what he's given us and then pass that on. I think one of the things for me as a parent is making sure that I'm conveying what I am learning and so that my spiritual growth is continuing to grow. So when I'm learning something new in the scriptures or when I'm dealing with something, I want to share those things with my kids at age appropriate conversation levels.

Christen Clark [00:12:52]:

But making sure that I'm bringing them into my walk and is a great way to demonstrate spiritual growth versus just telling them all the information they need and hoping some of it sticks. We can do that, but that's not as effective.

Adam Griffin [00:13:05]:

I agree. I mean there's a, we, we kind of have a. What would you call, a framework that we would use. And some of it is modeling these things for them. Some of it is intentionally sitting down and teaching them. Some of it is how we do it as we go. And some of it is big milestones, like some major examples of it. But either way, what are we doing? We're asking the Lord to do something.

Adam Griffin [00:13:22]:

Because Christen, if it was up to you and I as parenting quality on whether or not our kids got saved, our kids would be hopeless. It'd be trouble for us. So praise God that He wants his name glorified in every generation. And I'm praying that that's true in my Son's lives.

Christen Clark [00:13:39]:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Kicking off this new Year, I know a lot of families are thinking about different New Year's resolutions, like we're going to eat healthy and we're going to be more active and we're going to put our phones down a little more this year. What would you say are some great tips or strategies they can begin for? If they've never done family discipleship before, if they've never thought about this before, how can they get started?

Adam Griffin [00:14:02]:

Yeah, that's a good question. A lot of families are coming out of Advent, and Advent is such a great place to start, but then people typically kind of fizzle out in the new year, which is ironic because for a lot of other habits, they start in January and then fizzle out in February. So usually family discipleship, we're ahead of the schedule.

Christen Clark [00:14:18]:

You know, that's true.

Adam Griffin [00:14:20]:

So I do think one of the most important aspects of family discipleship is going to be a consistent rhythm, is what does it look like? So it doesn't have to be something new necessarily, but it may be a new way to handle what you've always done. So you think about, when is my family already together? How can we do our family meals differently or our bedtime routine differently, or our carpooling or commuting differently? You know, for parents, Christen, honestly, the bigger new year is typically in August. September, the new school year is the time to establish new rhythms. January feels like the middle of the year to a lot of families because you've been going and blowing and now you're like, oh, but we're still six months from summer, you know, whatever it is in January. But any month is a good opportunity to start. Any month is a good opportunity to roll out something new, even if that has to start with repentance, saying, hey, I'm sorry we weren't doing this already and my mom and dad should have been leading us differently than we were. Then start with repentance. That's a great place to start.

Adam Griffin [00:15:16]:

And I would say with any family, if you want to know my best practical tips, Christen, for and starting something new, I would say start simple and then as you progress, stay simple. And then the longer you go, keep it simple. Like you don't. This doesn't have to be.

Christen Clark [00:15:34]:

That's so simple, mind.

Adam Griffin [00:15:35]:

Yes, I happen to be simple. So this makes it really easy. Like it doesn't have to be this mind blowing lecture series that you're imagining giving your kids. We just say read the Bible together, pray together, sing together. And that's how you disciple kids into how they hear from God, how they speak to God, and how they worship God. And. And you can do that in the morning at breakfast, you can do that at night when you're putting in a bed. You can do that at dinner.

Adam Griffin [00:15:58]:

With Deuteronomy 6 would say, hey, whether you're at home or you're on your way, it paints a picture of you should be doing it in both places. It doesn't say or. We treat it like it's an or statement, like either when you get up or when you go to bed. What Deuteronomy 6 says is, teach these things diligently to your children when you're getting up in the morning and when you're going to bed at night, if you're on your way somewhere, and when you're at home. Sometimes when we talk about family discipleship, about leading our families, the response that parents have is like a guilt shame. I should have been doing this. I don't want that. I want this to feel like I'm inviting you to a party that you've wanted to go to.

Adam Griffin [00:16:32]:

And how would you respond to that? If somebody invited you to a party you wanted to go to, you go, oh, I'm excited.

Christen Clark [00:16:36]:

Yeah.

Adam Griffin [00:16:37]:

Now if there's guilt because somebody else isn't going, hey, that's on you. Hey, man, that's on them. I don't want you to feel guilty when actually the invitation from the Lord is to do something that is a delight. It's wonderful. It's good for your kids, it's good for you. And so this is not an invitation that is like, to something. The only reason we should feel guilty, or normally you would feel guilty, is if I'm inviting you to do something you don't want to do. And if that is the case, then let's address that in your heart and say, why do you not want to do what the Lord has called you to and would actually be a delight to you and your family? So I pray that as families hear an invitation to lead their homes, they go, oh, I've always wanted to do that.

Adam Griffin [00:17:13]:

We just got to figure out how. Or God wants me to do that. I haven't even thought about that. But let's figure out how to. And let January be a time of. Of new beginnings, and let's go for it.

Christen Clark [00:17:23]:

So good. And I. I think the simpler the better, for sure. So you said reading your Bible and prayer together, singing together. I would also add one that we need to be more faithful in attending church, because I think when we are in a community of believers, that's where we get that encouragement. And it takes the pressure off of having to understand everything about the Bible or having to have all the answers. You can go to your. Your pastor.

Christen Clark [00:17:49]:

You can find a great church to get involved in. So if you're in an area where you're not finding the church family that you like, go, go outside of your area. You can travel. You travel for baseball and soccer. You can travel a little bit for church.

Adam Griffin [00:18:02]:

But, yeah, the way we would say it is that, like, a family should. Like we're describing. What I'm describing is like a daily rhythm for the Griffins, but a weekly rhythm for the Griffins is we're a part of a local church, right? It's like, that's every week. And I heard this family say this to me. This year, I was planning a funeral. There was an older gentleman who'd passed away, and we're talking to his daughter about his spiritual life. And she said, one of the great things about my dad is he told us always that we don't wake up on Sunday morning and decide if we're going to church. That decision was made a long time ago.

Adam Griffin [00:18:30]:

And I love that picture of, like, if you want to know if my family's going to church, all you have to do is ask, is it Sunday? And if it's Sunday, then, yes, our family's going to church. And if you start to create a rhythm where your family's going, should we or shouldn't we? Then I'd say, hey, get back on a track where you say, if it's Sunday, we're going. Because I'll tell you, any local church isn't going, hey, should we gather this week or not? You know, the church is saying, if it's Sunday, you'll find us here. We'll be here.

Christen Clark [00:18:55]:

And it's. It's different than just listening to a sermon on a podcast or watching something on YouTube when you're. When you're linking arms with other believers. I mean, not actually, but maybe you do that at your church. Yeah, maybe. But when you're really, like, elbow to elbow with other believers, that is so encouraging to your faith. And I think it's just. I think it's really good for your kids to be a part of that as well.

Christen Clark [00:19:18]:

So don't just go for the kids. Don't just drop off your kids. You go, too, and be involved. So I think that's a good thing for the families to get started on. What other advice would you give to parents, maybe they've been doing family discipleship when their kids were little. But like, my kids now are in middle school. So how do we continue this through this next phase where they're like, I don't want to do the, the preschool Bible study anymore. Where, where do we go from here?

Adam Griffin [00:19:42]:

Well, yeah, I'm really passionate about this because I think if you look out there at the market for middle grade resources, there's not many great ones. And I'll tell you why there's not. It's because parents are not demanding great ones. In other words, a ton of parents buy a ton of kids books, kids Bibles, all the storybook Bible and the Advent series for little children. And then as the kid gets older, we're not looking for any resources. Why? Because most families let their discipleship kind of trickle out and stop going. And if there's any season of life where it is critical that we are helping our family not just be familiar with Bible stories and Bible characters, but know how their faith applies to decision making, isn't it middle school and high school? Isn't it these moments where these kids are put into moral dilemmas to go, what is right and wrong? Isn't these moments where they're facing big faith questions? Right. So one of the pieces of advice I would give you is create the demand, get some resources.

Adam Griffin [00:20:39]:

And there's great stuff for my wife and I. You know, our family cares a lot about this. We've put out a middle grade resource a couple years ago. We'll have another one coming out in 2027. And I'm passionate about what is what I would call the missing middle of discipleship. I think parents quit too, because they think, oh, my kid's familiar with the Bible. They know who Noah is, they know who Moses is, they know who Jesus is. That's not the end of discipleship.

Adam Griffin [00:21:04]:

If we treated math like that and we said, hey, our kid knows all the numbers, he knows zero through. I don't know why he needs to take algebra. Now, you might hear that in some.

Christen Clark [00:21:13]:

Homes, I feel that way, but I don't like math, so. Okay.

Adam Griffin [00:21:16]:

Exactly. But remember that in our field of discipleship, we're not trying to raise kids that are familiar with the numerals. We're trying to raise the equivalent of mathematicians. And if we said we wanted to raise mathematicians, we wouldn't stop at familiarity with the numerals.

Christen Clark [00:21:29]:

Right.

Adam Griffin [00:21:30]:

In other words, equivalent. I'm going, I'm not trying to raise a kid who's just familiar with the Bible. Stories. I want to raise a kid who's a theologian who loves God, who follows God, and I, I want to be one. And I'm not talking about a scholar. I'm not talking about being an academic genius. I'm talking about somebody who follows Jesus. And I want that to be the most important subject in their life.

Adam Griffin [00:21:51]:

And if I want that to be the case, why would I ever hit a stage where I go, you know what? I think we graduated. The kid's 10 years old. I think he made it. No, like, oh, 10 years old. We're just getting started.

Christen Clark [00:22:00]:

You know, I had a theologian on my show who said, anyone that's asking questions about their faith and who God is is a theologian.

Adam Griffin [00:22:08]:

Amen.

Christen Clark [00:22:08]:

So we all can be theologians, so don't let that word scare you. Like, you can also be one and your kids and you can learn together. So there's so many great resources out there and you just have to do some digging and make sure, like you said, don't quit. I think that's great advice. Well, Adam, this has been so great having you on the show today. Thank you so much for being here and sharing, and I hope lots of our listeners will check out your other show, Family Discipleship Podcast. So where can we find more information about all these resources you've talked about, your books and, and other things like that?

Adam Griffin [00:22:39]:

Yeah, thanks for asking, Christen. If you go to familydiscipleship.com that's got information on our podcast, our books, anything else you might have or questions you want to have, you can start@familydiscipleship.com of course, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook, Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Christen Clark [00:22:55]:

All right, well, before I let you go, I always ask my guests to tell me a memory from when they were a kid. So what memory do you want to share with us today?

Adam Griffin [00:23:02]:

I've got so many. The one I remember from when I was a kid that sticks out that I often talk about with parents when we talk about picky eaters and strong willed children, is that when I was a kid, I was not a very picky eater. But the Christian, you know the part of the hot dog on the very end that I would call the belly button of the hot dog? I would refuse to eat the belly button of the hot dog.

Christen Clark [00:23:24]:

Wow.

Adam Griffin [00:23:24]:

And one day my parents decided my mom was extremely frugal and she said, you are going to eat that whole hot dog. And I said, no, I don't want to eat the navel of the hot dog. I don't want to eat that. And she said, you will not eat another morsel of food until you eat that. And she made me. She put it in a Ziploc bag and she said, you will carry this nub of a hot dog with you everywhere.

Christen Clark [00:23:44]:

I love your mom.

Adam Griffin [00:23:45]:

Eat again until you eat. Until you eat this. I love my mom too, by the way. And so we were just arguing. It was like this thing, you know, I'm hungry, but I can't eat because I won't eat this. And it was like, it's starting to shrivel. It's getting worse. You know, every moment is getting worse.

Adam Griffin [00:23:59]:

And I'd like to say I still have the bag to this day, but I don't. At some point, my older brother Ben was so sick of the argument that while we were driving somewhere, he grabbed the bag out of my hands and threw it out the window of the car and said, hey, good news, mom and dad. Adam ate the hot dog. And they said, thank you, Adam. And I said, you're welcome. And I looked at Ben and gave him a thumbs up. And honestly, I'm sure everybody knew Ben was lying. But we all got what we wanted.

Adam Griffin [00:24:21]:

We all moved on. And now I'm strong willed about the gospel the way I was about the end of the hot dog. Amen. That's what I want.

Christen Clark [00:24:29]:

Will you eat the end of the hot dog? Hot dog.

Adam Griffin [00:24:31]:

Now, of course, I've come to appreciate the belly button of the hot dog. You got to eat the whole thing, you know, I'm not slicing them off like the crust on a bread, but I get, I support people that do, you know.

Christen Clark [00:24:41]:

Okay, go for it. Okay. Well, that's awesome. Great story. Well, thank you again so much for being on the show today. This was great.

Adam Griffin [00:24:48]:

Yeah, thanks for having me, Christen. It's been a joy.

Christen Clark [00:25:00]:

Okay. The belly button of the hot dog. I've never thought of it as a belly button, but now I can't unsee it. And I love his mom for making him eat it. That's hysterical. Well, if you don't know what family discipleship is, after listening to that conversation, you are not listening. Because I think Adam was able to help us lay this out so simply. Family discipleship is all about how does my faith apply, how do I see things through a biblical worldview.

Christen Clark [00:25:25]:

And. And he talked about how parents need to initiate and teach and train their children to follow Jesus. That's it. We just have to teach our kids and train them on how to be a disciple. And I love when Adam reminded us Every family is discipling their children in some capacity, but Christian discipleship really has to do with introducing our children to Jesus and helping our children be more like Jesus and follow Him. He also gave us some really practical advice. He said start simple and as you progress, stay simple. And then he said keep it simple.

Christen Clark [00:26:00]:

I can do that. Pray together, read your Bible, worship together, go to church. These are easy rhythms that you can include with your family as you're growing together and if you didn't catch it I am very passionate about going to church for me and my family. It's a non negotiable and listen, it is the way that God wants to provide support and love and community for you and for your family's spiritual growth. So don't neglect being a part of a local body of believers. I highly recommend you check out the Family Discipleship podcast. They have great resources and encouragement and Adam has a bunch of books I think you'll really enjoy, so be sure to check that out. All the information for the podcast and for those resources are gonna be available in our show Notes.

Christen Clark [00:26:47]:

Well, today has been so fun. It's been so good to get back into the saddle, so to speak, and be back here with you. I'm so glad that you listened today. Come back again next week for another great episode. I'm interviewing Butch Hartman. He's the creator of Fairly OddParents and some other amazing Cartoon Network resources and he's got some really cool things. I think you're going to love his story, so tune back in next week. You're going to love that episode.

Christen Clark [00:27:12]:

Thank you guys so much for listening today and I hope you have a great week. If you love today's episode, share it with a friend and follow us on social Media @collidekidspod so you don't miss what's next. You can find more episodes and resources at collidekidspodcast.com and leave a quick rating and review that really helps other families find out about the show. Thanks so much for being a part of the Collide Kids podcast and in case no one has to told you today, God loves you so much. See you next time.