The 7 Pillars of Fatherhood Discipleship to Lead a Kingdom Family with Chris Knopping
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[00:01:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the 1000 houses podcast. So we are going to be doing some more interviews in the coming months for, for this podcast. And so I've been really gathering different, different episodes that I really think are important. And I want to start with this one. Cause this is like absolutely key.
And so Chris Knopping is joining me here. We're gonna have a conversation. Chris is in Denver, Colorado. Thanks for joining me today, Chris. Yeah. Great to be here. Yeah. I'm super excited to introduce you guys to what Chris is doing. So Chris has started a sort of a guys, a guys group process called rad dads and it's super aligned with family teams and 1000 houses and everything we, we, we do.
And so I wanted Chris to sort of walk through how, like maybe a little bit about the story. He and I are going to talk a little bit about the strategy of. why it's so important to gather [00:02:00] fathers and then get into some of the details of the actual curriculum and the process that Chris has been working on and developing.
So, yeah, Chris, why don't you share a little bit about your backstory? So people know, like, like, how did you get into, why would you care about starting dads groups? And then we'll, we'll kind of get into the actual rad dads process. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I've been a father for about 12 years now and this goes back, I would say to the beginning of that.
I just remember when I became a father, I was wrestling with what I felt my heart was aligned with and what the culture had really been saying about fatherhood. And I just felt really unequipped to live out. What I felt the Bible was calling me to based off everything I had learned. And so I remember having a discussion with one of my friends about this, and it was a mutual friend of ours.
And he said, you know, I [00:03:00] should introduce you to Jeremy. And that was probably eight, nine years ago, we hopped on a call. And a little bit before that, I got A half written version of family revision, which was on a Google doc at the time. And I remember reading it and just being like, wow, this is incredible.
There's a, this book that someone's creating and it talks about the role of a family, talks about the role of a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, and I printed it out and I set it aside and I said, I'm going to come back to this when I came back to it, you had finished the document and I printed the rest of it out.
And seasonally, I was ready at that point to start diving in. And I was connecting with another friend of yours that you had put me in touch with Steven. And he was walking me through some of these things and answering questions on family and fatherhood. And he said, Hey, there is a family teams workshop in Kentucky and you should consider going to it.
[00:04:00] And so I talked with my wife and we decided to go out there. When we showed up we were the only people who flew from out of town. And it was very grassroots. You had all your community there, which was wonderful because we got to see all these families who are living out this design based off a biblical model for family.
And we were able to talk with them and, and share things that we were wrestling with and just get a download on what this looks like. And so I remember taking so many notes when I sat there. At that workshop, I probably had 20 pages of notes. And during that week we're connecting with a lot of people and it was just very impactful to us.
When I went home, I remember sitting down and my wife and I, we were working through our mission statement. We were working through our rhythms. I mean, we just like kind of disassembled everything we knew and started re grouping and rewriting. What does it look like to live a week? that our family can actually build these patterns and tools and things that we had learned and put them into [00:05:00] our week and live out a more biblical design.
So we had really started to restructure the way our culture worked in our home, the way our patterns and our rhythms worked. We had been doing Sabbaths prior to that, but Something connected, something connected when you brought in the whole idea of how a family can use that to build a multi generational team.
And so a lot of things switched from there I was, I was pumped. It was like, I had, you had just given all the gasoline on a fire that was already stirring. And You know, from that, I looked around me and I said, Hey, let's do this. And I want to do this with other people. And so I just kind of looked around and there was nobody.
And I thought, man, I just came from this really thriving community that was really impactful. And I thought, who am I going to do this with? And so from there, you know, I kinda, I kinda realized that maybe I'm the one that needs to put something together. And so I sat down [00:06:00] and I started processing and writing all the things that I had learned.
And I started bringing in other resources and reading different books and looking at through the Bible and just trying to gather more information on why is family so at odds with the culture and why is it not working? And why am I wrestling with all these things? And Through that process, I came up with seven things that were really impactful to our family.
And these seven things were the, like, things that I kind of isolated as transformational. To helping our family live into this design. And so, because of that rad dad started because I just wanted to share it with the people in my life. It was the, the friends I had in my life, the people that we were kind of, you know, connecting with here and there, or maybe doing some sort of community stuff.
It was a very slow build. I was, I was trying to figure it out, but I just wanted to share the message. And so over the past five years, there's been, I don't know, seven, eight, nine different [00:07:00] iterations, you know, as I've learned and tried things and gone back and reiterated rad dads has been quite a journey and quite a process.
I don't know that you're ever done, but you know, it's been, it's, it's gotten to the point where we've been able to share it with other people. We've been able to share it with other leaders and get a lot of feedback and incorporate that and get something a little bit more formalized that can be used on a larger basis for people that want to use it as a discipleship tool.
I'm super excited about it, Chris, because. I I've tried different dads groups. And I think that, I think you have with those seven elements isolated the way that the most transformative, like seven weeks you possibly can, like you distilled it, you know, and I love that. I think one of the things that people listening to this might be wondering is, and this is a question that comes up often is why, why start with dads?
And I think that one of the things that we have learned. Like we [00:08:00] really came across this almost by through. really trial and error. Like we didn't intend initially to start with dads or to do dads groups. What happened is we have lots of laboratories all over the country, people who are trying to do this.
And I just, it was just about a year ago that we were, we were on various calls, 1, 000 houses has like city partner calls. We have people that are, you know, trying to various things in various cities. And in the midst of a call, we just, we all made the observation that, that In the cities where, where there was an intentional effort to gather and train fathers, this would take off.
And so this is, there's a very practical reason why we started to go this direction. And then we started looking for, well, what's the best way to do that? And then it was in parallel, Chris, with, with, with what you were doing and what you were creating with Rad Dads, and we're like, oh, this is a match made in heaven.
And so we just all got excited about, You know, jumping into the curriculum with you. But yeah, I'm curious what your thoughts are about that, because I, I think this is, this is a strategic move to say, gather the fathers first. This is, this is [00:09:00] a great initial step, but yeah, tell me a little bit about how you started doing that and what you've discovered about that.
Yeah. I, I, I've seen it happen different ways in different families, but you know. I think whether the wife kind of captures the vision for this or the husband if the wife kind of captures the vision, they're waiting for their husband to come along and take a leadership position and really cast the vision.
And, and, and for me, you know, my wife and I, we went through this journey together. I really felt like. My heart was initially captured when I became a father. There's Malachi 4, 6. It's a key verse for rad dad, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, the hearts of children, to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
And that verse specifically is talking about fathers, you know, and I resonated very deeply with this and, you know, what we see throughout scripture is, Israel constantly being drawn away to other cultures, to other [00:10:00] ideas, to other identities. And when they did that, they stopped following God's ways.
They stopped following his instructions. And as a result of that, they didn't train and instruct and teach their children. And the next generation suffered the consequences of that. And so they were removed from the land and God wants to bless us. He wants us to live in the land. And so to start with the heart of a father, I think shows the picture of the role and the design that God has for family and a father's really equipped in this role to lead his family well, and all the elements of, of Bringing your, your team together and being the coach and casting a vision, bringing a mission to point your family towards, so you can have a unified goal where you're, you're all working together as one body, just like the church does.
You know, the family's a representation of that. And so, the father is the one to really help orient and assess the needs of the family. And then really meet those needs through different resources he can provide. And [00:11:00] that helps the family flourish. I agree a hundred percent. I think, I think that part of what, what happens is if you really want to bless women and children then train fathers, because God designed it this way and, and no one suffers more from, from fathers who are confused and lost and untrained and under resourced than women and children.
And so I, we, it is important to call out that we live in a culture that assumes that, that there's a gender war and that we have to like, what, when you focus on blessing fathers and training and equipping them, you're like, women are losing something. And that's a political. Lens that is purely secular and does not exist in the kingdom of God.
Like that can happen. I mean, it's possible that you could neglect women and children and prop up fathers, but that's, that's as well a very anti kingdom. I mean, we, we, we really see the opposite. I, the most thriving [00:12:00] wives and mothers and sons and daughters that I've ever seen are ones that are in families where a father, you know, their heart has turned towards the family and towards his wife and towards his children.
And that's the process that we're advocating for. And what begins to happen is your, it starts to transform your family into a household, right? We have this phrase, multi generational team on mission. This is the, this is the goal of, of really, that's a way of describing the way households really were designed to function in scripture.
And so one of the things that happens when you go through You know, the, the seven step process or, or really get infused with these, these seven themes and you begin to develop skills around them. You start to your house, your, your family, you will discover, your family will start to transform into a household.
And really like, like what I've been trying to figure out for, you know, almost 20 years now is how to do that. Like, how do you, how do you help. a family that is really excited to follow the Lord and be discipled. How do you equip them to become a [00:13:00] household? So, there's a couple of things I want to kind of dive into just to get into some of the details of what you guys do with Rad Dad.
So, first, Chris, I'd love for you to like walk me through an evening. Like, so we've all been at Bible studies and we've all been in small groups. Okay. So, but this is a seven week, I think process or seven sessions. So what is and you can tell us what those themes are, but I would love for you just to kind of take me through what a typical night would look like.
In a rad rad dads group. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of work that goes into getting to that point as far as this assembling a group. But once you're there you know, I like to think of this as a discipleship program we, what we say is if you want to be a part of hosting a group, you're a facilitator, a facilitator.
Is someone who's kind of taking people on a journey and they're there stops along the way and they're facilitating that the whole time. And that kind of takes pressure off if they say, Hey, you know, this is something I'm interested in. I want to share it with my community or just other believers that I know.
I, [00:14:00] I, I, I. You know, it's an easy way in it lowers the bar into entry, but there's a leadership aspect in the sense of you are leading people through that journey. So, when the guys get together you know, we have kind of a time where we connect with everyone. Sometimes like for the first group, not everyone knows each other.
But I've seen a particular rhythm, you know, guys connect, they start talking about things in their lives. Usually they're in some similar season or there's some, some, some way that they're connecting from there. You know, we kinda, we pray together and then we jump right into the content. There's a lot to go through.
Each week. So, we'll spend about an hour and a half to two hours. There's two ways to go through the content, and this is important. I'll have to address this if I'm going to take you through what a night is like. The first way is to teach and facilitate, and this is really where someone who's pretty familiar with the seven items that we've distilled it down to, maybe they've lived it out, they've been experiencing it with their family and incorporating a lot of the [00:15:00] rhythms you know, if they prepare and kind of bring some of their resourcing in, they can teach it.
To the guys and then facilitate the discussion and the questions and go through the verses that we, we have the second way to do it is to share and facilitate. And this is a little bit easier. And this, I think captures a wider net for people that are interested in taking this to their community. And what this is, is, Hey, you can have the content for the.
Before the seven weeks. And what you'll do is you'll send one week's content out to the group in advance, encourage everybody to read it and prepare to digest it, and then to show up ready to discuss it. And so then the facilitator is just guiding them through the questions, trying to be sensitive to what guys are wrestling with and kind of work through those issues together in a community.
There's a lot of people. Gifts at work. So it's really great to see how people process stuff and how they think through versus and questions they ask. And just being in a community and [00:16:00] experiencing that is impactful because someone's wrestling with something, maybe another guy shares what that is and everyone gets the benefit of it.
So the facilitator will walk them through, and then they'll try to prepare by having just some key things. They want to ask questions about and hit on. You know, each week there's probably three, four or five verses that you know, address a specific point within the topic. And so, you know, sometimes they have to wrestle with them, like, what is it, what does it mean to have a family and be on mission?
Like, this is a new concept a lot of times, so you might sit on that. And you'll go through the verses and just start that process of, wow, I've, I've never seen Genesis one and Matthew 24 be applied to a family and to wrestle with that in a group with other dads is really great. And then the dynamics are really, really interesting because sometimes you have guys that are in some [00:17:00] phase of this, and then sometimes you have guys who have never heard of any of this stuff.
And It's really helpful to have people in different phases because everyone has something to offer. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So you're connecting, you're going through content, you're kind of working through the concepts, you're sharing stories and really trying to. Trying to help the guys and then is there a sort of a expectation upon leaving the group that, that, that there was going to be like assignments or like, how do you think through how to send people and activate the, the, the lesson that, that you just experienced?
Yeah, yeah there's been a lot of thought, actually, that's gone into this part when, when we, when we initially start the group, you know, we, we encourage people to be there for seven weeks because this really does build, it is cumulative and there is a compounding effect. So that's kind of the first thing is we, we try to present the value proposition early on and just say, Hey, if, if you're here [00:18:00] and your heart's led to be a part of this.
Let's walk this out together and commit at least to seven weeks. And this is the starting point. At the end of each session, we have what's called an action item, and this is introducing one tool for the father to take home to his family. That's going to equip him to start this process with a practical step.
So for example. Week one is on team and the critical action item is have a team meeting with your family. And at the end of going through our time together, the facilitator will introduce that action item and explain what it is, how to use it, and even run through what a meeting might look like for their family.
We do provide a lot of ideas on how to do that, but if someone's You know, experience their draw off your experience, draw off your stories, share all that, and really impress on the guys, the importance of it and taking it home and implementing it. And then [00:19:00] along with that, we give a take home worksheet that has anywhere between four and seven questions.
And we encourage the guys, Hey, share what you learned today with your spouse and walk through these particular questions. And. Those questions are are designed to do two things. One, it helps you get unified with your wife and wrestle through the things that you've just learned together and get to a conclusion of how you're going to respond, as well as introducing that action item in the family.
And so the first week's really critical because you have the team meeting and that kind of sets the base for a time each week to bring something new to the family. And so, It's, it's pretty strategic in how it's, it's structured and set up to with the fathers. I love that. I, I've learned for a long, you know, that, that actually presenting a tool is so much more powerful than just trying to get people to adopt, adopt an idea.
And, and so to have a [00:20:00] tool associated with each week or each session, depending on how long in between sessions. That that's going to transform families so much faster. It also gives, when you're talking to your wife through those seven questions, what I love that, that too, I think it's so important to bridge that gap so that you are leading her and not sort of, you know, you're not, you're not just sort of dictating where this is going.
Like it's critical that you do this together, but we need to equip the father to lead his wife in a way where she can, she can fully participate in. And, and then what you're really talking about primarily is. Do we want to basically implement this tool into our family? Well, let's try it. Let's see what we think.
Like, what'd you think of that? You know, let's do a team meeting. And so I think, I love that, that way of approaching really transforming a family culture is primarily through, through tools and rhythms and habits, as opposed to just abstract ideas, which can just, you know, when faced with a culture that is [00:21:00] telling you the opposite in so many ways, you know, It's almost impossible to watch families transform through sort of head knowledge alone.
So that's awesome. So, Chris, I'd love you. So to talk about the setup of the group, you mentioned that, so you're trying to get a commitment from people and, and, and. Denver, you guys have also multiplied. So kind of talk me through, like if I'm wanting to lead a group, let's say I'm in a church and I know that there's men that would love this, there's their hearts are really towards there.
They want, they want to lead their family as well, but they've just. Had this burden of be a spiritual leader, you know, put over them and they're like, okay, I have no idea what that is. My dad didn't do that. You know, like this is, I feel terrible for guys who just get like a religious burdens put on their shoulders of a role that they've never played.
And then nobody helps them figure it out. So let's say that they're like, Oh my gosh, yes. I, I, I would love to have a group of guys. So yeah, what's the best way to like set this up for [00:22:00] success? And then I'd love for you to talk about you know, is there a way to set this up so that it, it does spread the way it's spreading in Denver.
So, but yeah, first of all, yeah. How, how, how do you set up a group? Yeah. As far as casting the vision I think this is a big part of it because the, the thing is, is like a father has to be compelled with a bigger vision to actually turn his heart towards his family. And so if that message. Is strong enough and it connects.
Which I believe it is just most people have not spent the time or know, or I've heard where, you know, there's not a lot of people sharing this message. And so, you know, one of the things Rad Dad does is it sets a vision for fathers to embrace their role of fatherhood. And so, you know, we do that by breaking down kind of what went wrong, what the problems are, [00:23:00] the things we're all facing day to day.
And then we provide a solution on what would be better. And the Bible has all these solutions. So that's where we go. That's the source. And then from there we equip fathers with the tools to carry this out. So it's twofold. It's the vision and then it's the tools to actually carry it out. And there's a lot of encouragement in the community to actually help you throughout this process.
So the seven weeks allows fathers. It's a way for people to really connect with each other over this time. And it's almost like an accelerator, a launch. And out of that typically you'll, you'll see, you know, where the fruitful areas are. And you know, I mentioned there's seasons where things connect.
That's that's been my experience and that's been my experience with guys and where there's fruit, we really want to build into that and take the next steps. Awesome. Yeah, I think that's critical. Cast the vision. I love that connection. Vision. I mean, that's, that's how transformation, you, you, you, your, your mind is transformed.
You [00:24:00] believe and you repent, it's like you, you do something differently, you start acting different. And, and that's when transformation really occurs. It's that two step process. Okay. So, so you have a guy, he's casting the vision. People are beginning to, to, to want to do this. They're getting the group.
weeks. So it's pretty obvious. Like you said, like there's, it's a cumulative process, so make sure that you can commit to the seven weeks. Like we want to be a community together going through this process. And then once people have gone through the process once and that they start to implement these things into a family, then then there becomes one thing I love about this process is you've made it simple enough.
You've got enough resourcing around rad dads that it seems like quite possible for somebody to, to immediately or very quickly after having gone through a group, facilitate a group themselves. Yeah. So how does that, how has that worked out for you guys in terms of just multiplying the tool itself? Well, you know, I think there's, there's, there's a couple of nuances to [00:25:00] this, because one is there's kind of all the people that are involved through the family teams network that are already familiar and, you know, have touch points with, with elements of all this.
And certainly it's great for those guys because it's, it's, it's further reinforcement and in some ways it's further training and it's also helpful because, you know, when, when one person takes an information and they recast it, Through a different lens. Sometimes it connects differently with someone. And there's some elements that we get into that add that, that, that are new, but also relevant to the whole family concept here.
So, if it's a dad, that's already. You know, connected to this. Yeah. He can, he can really go through this and accelerate additional, we'll, we'll say like you can level up your family pretty readily and pretty quickly and it just helps you connect with it in a short, short way. If it's a new dad.
And he has not really thought through much of this before. I will say that is a bit more of a [00:26:00] journey. And I've seen, you know, depending on the father and the things that they do need to, you know, repent from, you know, like I have not, I haven't led my family. You know, I, my family won't let me lead because I haven't, how am I going to step into this role?
Like these sometimes are things that have to be healed and we address. And you know, the great thing is, is you can have both types of guys in a group. So the father who has not connected on this seven weeks is really the start of a journey. They will implement part of it and they will receive some healing if they take it seriously.
And feedback has been incredible, but it's not, it's not the end. So after that, we do try to, if guys are really committed, build into them. With further group meetings or one on one connections that are outside the group, and that's where I'd encourage everyone to just pay attention because you're going to get a quite a varied group of, of people with different points.
And if you're the one [00:27:00] trying to build the community around you, you have to be sensitive to that. And there is a bit of a. A shepherding that goes along with it to walk people through it. And you don't have to force them through it if they're hungry. And if they're interested, you could share it with them.
And it's, it's really there to be a blessing and help them. So, yeah, some, some people will get a lot out of the seven weeks and some people it's, it's, it's the first part of their journey. Nice. Well, any other logistics that you would recommend? Do you think that it's best to do them seven weeks consecutively back to back?
Do you? What's the best way to, to, to, to recommend a certain kind of setup in terms of even like chairs and like how you think about where to do this. Like when, and when, and when works the best, what have you guys found in terms of just some of the logistics? Yeah, yeah. Let me, let me try to answer all those.
And if I forget one, just remind me. Evenings are great just because we tried to do it after work. We, we've kind of experimented with doing it kind of before that dinner time, like right after work, and maybe we could do a group. But what seems to [00:28:00] work is to let guys go home, have dinner with their family, and then come over afterwards.
That's kind of where we've landed. Of course, there's still much more testing and trial to do on this, so it's not a hard, fast rule. Location in the home's great. We orient each, we orient the chairs and facing each other. What I like to do is just, you know, we'll, we have a couch, we have chairs.
It's already pointed all towards a big circle and we bring in extra chairs. We get some drinks. Sometimes we'll have snacks, pretty relaxed atmosphere. You know, we're just hanging out. We're just hanging out and learning together on this journey. I do want to answer your other question. Sorry. You have to remind me what the first one was.
Oh, um, yeah, I forgot now. I think, I think you hit most of them. It was a good one. It was a good one. I was thinking something, but maybe it'll come back up. Yeah. Man, no, I think, I think that as long as people get enough detail that they feel like they could start something that's really what I want.
I want to make sure that [00:29:00] guys understand like how to, how to get, how to get this thing going. I think that you're catalyzing something in your, in your area that is going to, you know, have a ripple effect. And so, it sounds like, so you've got the beginning of a journey for some guys, some guys, this will be kind of like just, you You know, pouring fuel on that fire, the way, the way you experienced it.
I think, I think one thing I would love for you to maybe help people see is what are these seven issues? Just to kind of maybe tell us what they are and then say one thing about them, either the tool or the concept. That is focused on Cause I do think you've got a really good distillation here.
And I think that for me, when I read that, that's, that's when I was totally sold. I was like, Oh my gosh, yes. If I could just, if I could, Oh, I think the first question I asked you was, is it seven weeks consecutively? Or do you take like, is it, you know, you take breaks, you can answer that question first and then we'll, we'll hit the seven sessions, what they are.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did want to address that. So yes, it is designed for seven weeks, but it is important [00:30:00] to mention. The content is fairly comprehensive and there is a lot there. So it can easily be broken out into two or three sessions each, which would mean 14 or 21 weeks. Now you have to kind of assess your.
Margin and capacity to do that as well as the group's margin and capacity to commit to that. So this is where I've tried to get the concepts out quickly, look for the fruit and then pour in further into guys beyond that. And, and this is the discipleship. Method that I like to employ. And, you know, when you find someone you're building into them and you're encouraging them to then take it and share.
So, you know, I I'd be curious to hear how people use this. I always am. I always want to get feedback. We're going to be doing coaching calls, learning from, from guys. I mean, I have been doing that, but we're going to do it on a bigger scale and more regularly to, to just learn from each other. And then I'll jump into the seven weeks here.
I mentioned a week one is, is on team. [00:31:00] That's really learning how the family operates best as a unified team versus a collection of individuals. I mean, you hit this point hard on family teams but really releasing the father in his leadership role. You know, the coach is the connection, but all the giftings and wiring and the role of a father is to do these things.
The tool for that week is the team meeting. Week two is the, is mission. And this is just one discovering like, Hey, God's given us a mission and you have a family and you're going to carry it out as a family, but then from there, like your family has unique gifts and tools and talents to then go take that mission on.
And not only do you have to not only do you get this mission, but you have the privilege and enjoyment of sharing it with the next generation and so on. And so this is like, this is like mind blowing when, when a father realizes that. He can, he can actually have something that outlasts him. Now the mission, or I'm sorry, the, the, the vision becomes more compelling than everything else that they've heard their whole [00:32:00] life.
Week three is identity. And this has been such a game changer. This really starts with the heart of a father and like what, where, where guys are wrestling, like who God says they are and understanding sonship because every father is assigned. And when they connect with that, then they can better communicate to their children, their identity, and start building and shaping their children in who God says they are.
The action item there is starting a spiritual rhythm in the home, but also there is a list of probably 70 verses about identity building versus about who God says you are. And what we do is we give every, every, every guy a copy of this. And we say, Hey, start teaching your children who God says they are.
And Really powerful tool. I didn't mention a week two's tool, but that's create a mission straight statement, and that was for mission back to week four is on culture and that's identifying your family's values and comparing your current value system [00:33:00] that you actually believe in hold and comparing it to the value system that you actually are living out in your household right now and where there's a contrast.
Let's confront those, assess them and readdress them and make sure those values align with the ones you hold and then start building a culture and designing one that represents a biblical culture. And, you know, we get into like what culture creation is, a culture creates trust, belonging and purpose for each person in the household.
So a father gets to do this. This is exciting. Like this is, this is a role we get to do. The tool for that week is to through your family's values. I think you guys use the word pillars. There's very similar idea there week five is, is training and this is. There's a couple of things here.
One, it's being released as a father to really go make disciples of your children. Like this was critical for me because I had so much training and language around discipleship [00:34:00] being missionary based my whole life. And at some point. I just felt like disconnected and I felt released to really pour into my children in a way that I, I didn't, I didn't know existed.
And so we hit that and we just say, Hey, make disciples because you're, you're going to actually train your kids in discipleship and they're going to go out and make other disciples. And then we also just get into training period, like the most on. Underutilized tool in a father's tool belt, but yet the most effective tool and, and just how we can actually use that and, and take it home.
And man, this one thing alone can transform a family. So, so amazing. The way God designed all this week six is rhythms. And that is singing up with God's already designed rhythms that he put into creation and how we can actually. Mirror and align with that to help our families flourish, to incorporate all the tools and things that we have learned over this time together.
We say, all right, here's a week. Here's how we can actually break the [00:35:00] week into manageable segments. And here's a good way to incorporate these tools throughout the week. So it's very you know, there's a system involved that's helpful. And then the final one is rest. And that's where we like to end because, you know, Week seven, we talk about rest, we introduce Sabbath doing an epic meal with your family and how that creates a culture that can lead to a multi generational family.
And so we dive into that very delicately, but, but in a, in a great way, that's very compelling and it really. How I like to describe that is it's a rediscovery of what God's always intended for us. And it points a picture of the gospel every week to our children. It gives us an opportunity to bless our family, to bless our wife, to bless God, to bless our children.
I mean, it, it's really hard to say no to it when you understand it in the intention of the way God's designed it. Awesome. Well, I'm sure you guys are hearing that list. I like imagine what would happen if all the families in your church [00:36:00] or in your got a hold of this and the fathers were leading in these seven areas.
Wow. What a journey. So you're taking, I love the idea of like repeating and having this as a regular, like, all right, I've gone through this once now I've gone through it twice. Now I'm leading it. So I'm going through it again. Now I'm leading, I'm going through it again. And now I'm building up my skill in all seven areas.
And this is, this is real, this is like fatherhood mastery, really. Like if you, if you're really good at these seven, like we, we just assume that fathers have to be incompetent, unskilled, because we don't know families are built to be dysfunctional. And we don't understand that there's just a set of tools, you know, if you understand what they are and how to use them.
Then you can lead your family in a really highly skilled way. And, and it just, it just transforms everything. It makes your life amazing, but it really brings the kingdom, not only into your home, but now it's like a beacon of light for everyone else that God did a good job when he designed the family, you know, we're, we're really just confused about.[00:37:00]
So, so yeah, I, this is the, kind of the overview I really wanted people to get. And I really encourage you guys to check out rad dads and really think through you know, bringing this tool to dads around you. So, before Chris, you kind of lay out how somebody could get involved. Is there any other, anything else that you would want to share about, about the program that you think would be helpful?
Yeah, I think, I think what I want to stress is to look for the fruitfulness and then really pour into those areas. And we've talked a lot about the group settings, but I've also seen a ton of fruit just meeting one on one and taking someone through this one on one. And in my experience, when you do that, you can kind of throw the seven weeks away and you can just.
Start at the beginning and walk through it week by week with someone. And when they get to the end of that, you know, you can reassess what to do from there. And pouring into that, you know, it's a slow build, but that's okay. There's no pressure to have some massive [00:38:00] group that you're connecting with. I think just finding and identifying at least one person to pour into is an excellent start.
And the biggest impact is typically the person. That is sharing it because they're challenged, they're going, they're researching, they're reading, they're learning, they're challenging themselves to be prepared to share something. And so I don't want to discount the impact it can have on you to share that.
And rad dad is a tool. It is not the only tool. There are so many resources here, but the way, you know, I feel like. This has shaped up and you know, my, my heart, my prayer is God, how do you want to use this? And I just keep it with an open hand. So it's very much that I want anyone who wants to use it to take it.
And then, you know, my, what, what I want to do is support you in any way you can to answer questions, to help you with your groups, with ideas, what we've done. And then I also want to learn from you. So this is, this is a [00:39:00] tool to share. It's a discipleship tool. Yeah, I love what you're saying about, you know, what do you really want to do is, you know, sometimes when you're handed a curriculum You can sort of disconnect from the Holy Spirit and you're saying like, you know, dial in, here's content, you know But God's doing something in the heart of this And so listen to what that is.
And it may be one of these sessions is just absolutely critical for this next season of that family's life. And it's okay, just to camp out there to pour fuel on that. And that, that is the discipleship process of really apprenticing somebody through a process that is. That is more accustomed to what God is already doing in their life, their heart, their family.
And so sometimes you're like, Hey, look, some of this stuff might feel a little bit advanced. It may be for further down the road. Here are some things that you really, that it sounds like I was really doing inside your family. Like these are huge wins. Let's like, make sure that you fully get this lesson, you fully get this implemented, you fully go through this transformation and then keep moving.
But yeah, that's, what's helpful to have like kind of a, almost a menu of, of things to work [00:40:00] through and to understand that every time I take families to like a family team's weekend, I'm always like, I have no idea what. Part of it's really gonna be the thing that they they're gonna need now as a family and it could be very different So you want to have enough variety so that you hit those things that are critical for that family what God's doing in their life But you don't want to overwhelm people.
So this is a good I think a really good balance and seven weeks I think is a great amount of time to like then pull back and say, okay Like, like let's keep working, you know, and then invest with the guys that God's calling you to really pour more and more into, and now you've got just such amazing content to, to work from, which is Chris, I love what you've done.
So if people want to dive in more deeply what, what can they do to, to, to get ahold of the the curriculum and to start to collaborate with, with you. Yeah. So, you can go to rad dad dot family and on there, there's two calls to action if you click on groups, that's this past the homepage you can join a group or [00:41:00] host a group.
And if you want to join a group, go ahead and sign up there. We'll, we'll get you plugged in host a group. If you're interested in hosting group, then we want to, we want to help you. So we'll capture your information. We'll reach out. We're in the process currently. I mean, we're recording this in May of 2024, but we're in the process of, you know, getting the website launched and figuring out a lot of things within it and how to connect guys in different states and cities and stuff.
So this is a process. We're also going to have online groups on there as well. So if there's not a group in your area and you want to be a part of it. You know, we'll try to hook you up with an online facilitator. And then if you just want to send an email contact at rad dad sorry, rad contact at rad dad dot family.
I got to get used to that because that was the domain we got. Awesome. So rad dad singular, right? Rad dad dot family. Yes. That's it is the, is the URL. Okay. Yeah. So go check that out, guys. I love, I think sometimes, yeah, it's great to be able to do an online. Experience in order to like [00:42:00] prepare to be a facilitator and to make sure that yeah, you you're getting poured into and Yeah, i've loved chris how you've interacted with the guys i've been sending you and you know We're gonna see groups pop up all over the place.
I can't wait to see what god does here So man, yeah, so god, please bless all the things that are happening through rad dads and yes yeah, we want to see this multiply so chris, thank you so much for what you're doing and for putting this together and yeah, i'm going to be starting a group if you're in cincinnati and you're hearing this You Reach out to me if you want to join my group i'm going to be taking a group through in the next few months and then probably repeat After that on an annual basis or something so i'd love to lead lead these groups and and collaborate with people in my area and then Yeah, let's let's get these get these fires started all over the place.
Yeah. Awesome. Thanks chris. Yeah. Thank you Well friends, thanks for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to learn more about a thousand houses or discover what a season of coaching might look like for you and your household, visit [00:43:00] one k h. org. We'll see you for the next episode.
