Raising knights
Chad Richard, the creator of this study, had the great benefit of being mentored by Pastor Robert Lewis, author of Raising a Modern-Day Knight. Lewis brings intentionality to this father-son mentoring process, sharing how every son wants to connect with his dad’s heart, hear praise from him and build life-long memories.
I remember as I sat through our schools’ football team helmet ceremony last year, and I took notes on my phone as Coach Kirk Hoza belted out concepts from Lewis’s book: “A man…rejects passivity. He does not stand by idle. He accepts responsibility. He leads courageously. He expects a greater reward.” Wow! Not what you typically hear from football coaches.
While Lewis’ book focuses on the milestones (13th birthday; graduation; etc…), Richard takes this a step further and masterfully builds an out of the box experience with practical ways to live out your faith. It is very complimentary to Lewis’ work. Yes, it’s a Bible study, but it’s not about a talking head. It’s biblically informative, experiential and broken up into interactive pieces that keeps kids’ attention to drill points home.
When Richard read Lewis’ book, his kids were still young, and he wanted to start this process sooner. Chad is one of those crazy CrossFit guys! He’s not one to sit around waiting. So after he made his list of what he thought was important, he did what any man of action would do. Over a three-month period he went and interviewed about 40 Christian men who were about 20 years older, who really had their lives together — men who had fruit on the tree.
When this process was over, and with an overwhelming consensus, he had peace that these were not only the right topics, but they were prioritized in the right order. And the confirmation came from the 40 men. Their sentiment was, “I wish I had these when I was younger.”
As Lewis saw what Chad did, he grew excited for the Christian community. Not only does he love the content, but he values the technology platform that Chad built, including a mobile app that dials you in when you’re not able to attend because of a schedule conflict. And he especially loves one of the reoccurring interactive elements called “Top 10 Awards.” This is where each father and son tells each other, thematically, what the other one did since the last study that makes them proud of each other. This is pure gold!
Richard is also working on a father-daughter version and a family version.
While I am called by God to train up my children in the way that they should go, the recognition is clear — training is required. I have to make choices that will guide and equip them. Many choices; every day. I just feel blessed that I ran across a solid, practical, biblical template to help me.
Eric Purtic has a loving family of six and is a friend of Jesus. He can be reached at [email protected]
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