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Faith, Family, and Joy with Jared Kennedy
398 Plays1 year ago
Rush talks to Jared Kennedy who is the co-founder of “Gospel-Centered Family,” and an editor with The Gospel Coalition.
Jared and Rush talk about his ministry Gospel-Centered Family, his important work with The Gospel Coalition, and some of the key challenges every family faces to become disciple-makers at home. Jared shares helpful tools for your family, and what raising chickens in suburban Louisville taught him about parenting.
JARED KENNEDY ONLINE
Jared's Website
Instagram
Twitter
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Faith Builder Catechism
Show Them Jesus
The Beginner's Gospel Story Bible
God Made Me for Worship
Learn more about the podcast here.
Timestamps:
0:20 - Intro
1:43 - Tell us about Gospel-Centered Family and TGC
5:00 - How did you get into family ministry?
12:09 - What are two or three central issues with which every family needs help?
20:16 - What tools have been most helpful to your family?
28:10 - What’s going on with all these chickens you raise?
31:25 - How is God working in your life now?
34:01 - Farewell
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
I think in the people who deal with childishness with gentleness and firmness better love the word and teach the word like like those people have such a lasting influence on the next generation and I think it's it's having a culture of welcome where you can come in and be at home
00:00:20
Speaker
I'm Resh Witt and you're listening to Straight to the Heart, a podcast from New Growth Press. Each episode includes interesting talks with leading authors and thinkers. We hear who they are, what they think, and how they approach their important work in ministry, and the moments and influences that change their lives.
Upcoming Talk with Jared Kennedy
00:00:37
Speaker
Today, I enjoyed an encouraging conversation with Jared Kennedy, who is the co-founder of Gospel Centered Family and an editor with the Gospel Coalition. Jared has authored books for children and church leaders like Keeping Your Children's Ministry on Mission, The Beginner's Gospel Story Bible, and the forthcoming resource, Faith Builder Catechism. Jared is joyful, encouraging,
00:01:02
Speaker
and an all-around easy person to talk to.
Jared's Family and Work
00:01:06
Speaker
Jared talked to me about his family in Louisville, his important work with the Gospel Coalition, and what raising chickens in suburban Louisville taught him about parenting. I know, right? You're really going to enjoy hearing this episode of Straight to the Heart.
00:01:24
Speaker
Well, I am home in my bedroom today. Normally, I have an office over in a building with some nonprofits that I normally work out of.
00:01:36
Speaker
But we have a daughter sick from school today, so I'm hanging here in the house. I don't know everyone super well. We don't know each other super well. In fact,
Origins of Gospel Centered Families
00:01:50
Speaker
I'm curious to know more about the ministry you started, Gospel Centered Families, because I don't know very much about that, and it would be cool to hear about it. Well, Gospel Centered Families is a ministry that I started
00:02:06
Speaker
a couple of reasons. One, I think I started a blog first and I wanted to have a place to write on a regular basis. And so that blog was gospel-centered family before there was ever a ministry called gospel-centered family. And then I had opportunities to speak and
00:02:29
Speaker
consult and do coaching with churches primarily in what was so your network at the time what is now harbor network which is the the network of churches that I'm a part of and so you know we needed a
00:02:44
Speaker
a good legal ministry way to keep track of that work that I was doing. And I had this blog and so a couple of our pastors at that time said, hey, why don't you take this name and make this a ministry and we'll coach you on how to make that happen.
00:03:07
Speaker
in order to kind of take care of these. Yes, side hustle in some sense, I don't know if you want to call it that in ministry, but like those opportunities I had to coach and do that work. And then yeah, in 2019, you know, I made a shift in ministry life from being a full-time pastor in our local church, full-time family pastor to doing
00:03:34
Speaker
really full-time editorial work, freelance, working for various organizations. And so it was good to have the ministry incorporated and to be able to do some of that work through the ministry at that time.
00:03:49
Speaker
But it grew a bit, and then over the course of a year or two, maybe not as much as we hoped because COVID happened, which we weren't expecting. The ministry didn't grow maybe as much as we had hoped in 2020, and then the opportunity came along. I was writing a book at that time with the Gospel Coalition on Children's Ministry, and Ivan Mesa,
00:04:16
Speaker
who is now my boss, he was the editorial director for TGC, gave me a call and asked if I would come on the
Transition to Editorial Work and COVID-19 Impact
00:04:27
Speaker
team. And so currently, gospel centered families in this process of some things are just dormant because I have a full time job and I don't do those things. But my prayer is that
00:04:40
Speaker
some of the other guys I'm writing with, Trey Coleman, Kevin Hippolyte, who serves at our church, like that, over time I would be able to hand some of those things over to them and allow them to serve those churches in our network area. That's all a great work, so important and helpful.
00:04:59
Speaker
It's always a funny way to put this question. You know, sometimes people, when we put questions about how someone began doing something, we say, how did you get into, how did you get into family ministry? Again, that's like a weird way to say that. No one says, you know what I think I'll do? I'll try to get into family ministry.
00:05:20
Speaker
I'm curious, how did you come into or start family ministry? And it became such obviously a big part of what you have contributed and continue contributing to the health of local churches all over through various networks like the Gospel Coalition and your own ministry.
Journey into Family Ministry
00:05:37
Speaker
So how did all of that come about for you? Maybe coming out of seminary, your interests, your background, how did that all come about?
00:05:47
Speaker
Um, I was tricked into it. So, um, who tricked you? No, I happily tricked into it. Rob Plummer, Dr. Rob Plummer tricked me into it. But, um, no, I, I love kids and I've always really, I had a lot of like nephews and nieces and, and, um, uh, around when I was growing up and I really loved spending time with kids. And I think even when I was in,
00:06:15
Speaker
High school and college, I volunteered with the children's choir at church and volunteered with vacation boggle school. And so there were, there are, there's a children's minister I mentored a few years ago, who the first time I taught him, I taught him in VBS, you know, in my home church. And so, so like, I have that, I think I have that bent toward, I enjoy kids and I enjoy teaching a younger generation.
00:06:45
Speaker
And in my first pastoral ministry role, I was an associate pastor at a small church here in Louisville. And as an associate pastor in a small church, you do lots of things. And so I got to teach on Wednesday nights and help lead some Sunday school things, but also help with VBS each summer. And so when Megan and I came to Sojourn Church, where we are now, where I served on staff for 15 years, we
00:07:15
Speaker
I was asked to be on the children's committee because I had planned the VBS before and I'd worked on a church staff with some children's programming before. And so I was just asked to speak in to that in a committee structure. And Rob Plummer was who asked me.
00:07:34
Speaker
And so we were given, we were a church plant. We purchased our first building and we're moving into the new building. So the committee had the responsibility to pick out all the furniture and those kinds of things. So I had come to two or three meetings in a row and then I think it was the fourth or fifth meeting. I was driving on the way to the meeting and my phone rang and it was Rob and he said, Hey, by the way, I'm not going to be there tonight. You're in charge.
00:08:03
Speaker
And he never came back to another meeting. He just put me in charge and I was tricked. And then maybe a year later, I was on staff at the church leading children's ministry things.
Importance of Children's Ministry
00:08:20
Speaker
And it was at that point that we were kind of rethinking our
00:08:25
Speaker
our next step toward training for Bible translation versus staying in the church and serving. And so the Lord redirected right in that season in that way. So yeah, I was not looking for that role. I was just kind of voluntold. This is what I'm doing, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely, definitely seems to be right in the way that you are bent for ministry. And, and I think I'm, I'm even, um,
00:08:55
Speaker
just struck by the longevity that you continue to have in contributing to, in particular, that area of ministry, of course, many other areas now.
00:09:04
Speaker
But I think a lot of people, when they think of children's ministry, they often think, similar to the way that we might think about youth ministry, is that we think it really, what's most important is having a younger person who's leading, who brings energy, and that's very important. But sometimes it can be lost that there is a wisdom of longevity or a wisdom that's gained through over time.
00:09:30
Speaker
that is so important, especially when we start talking more about family ministry, because there's so many challenging questions and experiences and trying to lead and grow healthy families. So I think it's really an impressive thing to have that you referred to yourself earlier as older. So having this time
00:09:54
Speaker
to gain experience and wisdom and then continue to be able to bring it in fresh ways as you're doing is just very impressive and just a great gift to churches. I think that's a beautiful thing. That's an awesome thing. There were a couple of men who really, I mean, I'm not that much older. I'm in my 40s now. Me too. There were a couple of
00:10:24
Speaker
men who are older than me, except ahead of me that modeled that for me. And I think the model of those guys, of this is something they're passionate about and something they care about investing in. And yeah, I found that to be inspiring and not as, you know, I don't have the, maybe I have some insecurity that I don't think, I think because I've seen them model such confidence in doing that through their life, I don't have the insecurity of I've got to get to something
00:10:54
Speaker
different and bigger and better. Like this is a really dignity-filled, valuable ministry for the local church.
00:11:04
Speaker
In this episode with Jared Kennedy, you'll hear him talk about the impact of a book called Show Them Jesus by Jack Klumpenauer, teaching the gospel to kids. With a simple framework and real-life examples, Jack helps teachers identify and communicate the heart of the gospel to each child in each lesson.
Welcoming Church Environment for Families
00:11:25
Speaker
Show Them Jesus challenges the culture of low stakes, low expectations teaching, and invites teachers to do nothing less than teach and treasure the good news of Jesus in every lesson. Instead of leaving kids with lessons about merely changing their behavior, Show Them Jesus offers a new way by sweetly, masterfully, and powerfully showing kids how the gospel really applies to their lives.
00:11:54
Speaker
and changes them for eternity. To learn more or get your copy of Show Them Jesus, visit NewGrowthPress.com.
00:12:09
Speaker
So what do you find are maybe a couple, two or three of the really central issues that every family needs help with, uh, whether it's something small or whether it's something big, something obvious or something not so obvious. What are the big things that you find yourself talking about a lot or confronting and, and ministering into? Um, man, that's a really big question. I think, um,
00:12:39
Speaker
I think in terms of family ministry in local churches, I think having the kind of culture as a church that really gives a gospel welcome to people is a really important thing. And I think there's a ton of layers to that.
00:13:02
Speaker
Are we going to be safe and secure like layer of that? Is the church going to be trusted to keep my child safe? You know, that there's that layer of the child protection policies piece of that. There's the, the worm and friendly layer. Um, I mean, Sam Albury likes to talk about, um, like when,
00:13:25
Speaker
people come to church, they show up with lots of social anxiety a lot of times. And it's the same way when they come over to your house and a good host will just put them at ease and knows how to make them feel like this is their home too and really put them at ease so they're not on their toes. And I think that
00:13:51
Speaker
Um to have a children's ministry environment. That's like that where there's warm people um who who welcome um Yeah warm people who welcome maybe new families But maybe that that mom who's just struggling to get to church that morning or or that dad who's really anxious about this day, you know, I I think that um that welcome is one of the
00:14:19
Speaker
I think it's one of the really important things. And I think it's in that welcome oftentimes that those kind of third chair relationships, you know, mom and dad maybe are in chair number one and two in a child's life.
00:14:37
Speaker
Maybe a minister is in chair three, but some of the most influential people in my life growing up are Ms. Edwina who led our Bible drill class and Mr. Mixon who taught.
00:14:53
Speaker
uh my seventh grade sunday school class and we all passed the shoes underneath the table and hit our shoes from each other you know like i i just think i think and the people who deal with childishness with gentleness and firmness better love the word and teach the word like like those people have such a lasting influence on the next generation and i think it's it's having a culture of welcome where you can come in and be at home i administered
00:15:22
Speaker
my ministry career in the city. And so I think in rural environments, oftentimes there's more stability. But in America these days, everyone moves so much and is in new cities all the time. And I think it increases to some degree that anxiety that we feel in new places. And so a welcome where folks are put at ease and welcomed in gives the place for that relationships.
00:15:50
Speaker
that have a lot of those relationships that have a lot of kind of sticking power for kids to stay with the church even beyond high school, knowing they have those other relationships in their life.
Family as a Mission Field
00:16:04
Speaker
So that's one, I think, yeah, I think Christ-centered teaching is one of really the most important things. And Jack Klumpenauer's book and Marty's
00:16:20
Speaker
like mentorship and friendship are two of the things that have really brought that home for me over the years. You know, asking those questions, Marty's question for me was when you're teaching the Bible to kids, ask who in this story needs the good news and help kids identify with that person and his story. And I think that's something that's been
00:16:51
Speaker
really important for family devotions for our family and I think it's really important for families and also just really important for kids in a local church ministry too. And so, you know, when Numbers 21 says that the Israelites said there is no food and no water and we hate this miserable food, you realize, wait, you just said there's no food, but you hate this miserable food and that it is exactly like the teenager
00:17:19
Speaker
Standing at the refrigerator saying there's nothing to eat. I just had that conversation 30 minutes ago. I just had that conversation 30 minutes ago. But there's meatloaf leftover from last night. I hate this miserable thing. You know, it's exactly that kind of thing provided manna and quail and water for you, but you don't want it. And I think when we help kids
00:17:48
Speaker
see themselves in the grumbling Israelites in the story. It helps them identify more, both in God's judgment, the judgment of his law comes for them, and that the good news of the gospel, the good news of that bronze serpent that Moses lifted up that points us forward to Jesus, the good news is more real for them as well. I think I'm just of the conviction, the Great Commission
00:18:15
Speaker
goes in two directions. It goes across geography and it goes from generation to generation. And so seeing our own children in our homes and the children in our churches is a mission field. And I think in Baptist life, we love missions and we want to go.
00:18:34
Speaker
We go on mission trips in the summer, we go overseas, but to really see the Lord has called you to your family and that the Great Commission really does go from generation to generation.
Spiritual Practices and Family Traditions
00:18:45
Speaker
And so there's a great opportunity to go to your kids as a witness and to share your own testimony, to share your faith. And so those are the things for me that that gospel welcome, like solid gospel centered teaching and
00:19:03
Speaker
and really believing that it's a mission are
00:19:08
Speaker
are the things that have been really important for me in thinking about family ministry. Yeah. We've thought about that a lot in our family recently with five kids and just, you know, it's always been kind of on our minds and hearts, the challenge and responsibility of shepherding our own kids. Well, you know, we've not always done that well. We all have our shortcomings, but
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's a much needed truth. What are some of the main tools that you have found most useful, maybe even in your own family?
00:19:47
Speaker
You know, the tools of family ministry at your house, what are the tools? And, you know, a lot of parents don't know where to start. We certainly were there. Sometimes we still feel like we're there, but what are some of the tools that you think that have really made up like the central arsenal for you in your home and caring for your kids and caring for them spiritually in a Christ centered way?
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think I can think of specific tools, but I can also think of rhythms and I think the rhythms in some ways are the things that are almost more lasting and then the tools just come in to reinforce the rhythms, you know, and so
00:20:39
Speaker
So, you know, one of the rhythms has been just kind of thinking about that annual calendar. And so, you know, Megan and I are pretty Taipei planners and those linear thinkers I was talking about earlier. And so, you know, we play on our vacations years in advance. We're thinking ahead of those kinds of things. But I think, you know, thinking about the season of
00:21:06
Speaker
of Christmas and Easter and the days leading up to Easter as times that have been sort of like renewal seasons for devotional rhythms for us. And so if I start out the school year strong and family devotions is starting to lack, when we get to Advent, when we get to Thanksgiving, we have a Jesse tree. I don't know if you know what that is.
00:21:35
Speaker
$5 Walgreens Christmas tree and little ornaments that go with stories throughout the Bible and we just tell those 25 stories up to Christmas with our kids. And now that they're teenagers, we just hand them the ornament and tell them to tell us the story because this is just the tradition of putting this on the tree. But that rhythm has been
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, just a really formative thing. I think I discovered how formative it was for my kids. It was something we did, you know? And then my oldest daughter had to do a report on a family tradition and everyone in her class talked about Santa Claus. And one little girl who is Jewish talked about Hanukkah and she talked about her adventry.
00:22:31
Speaker
And I realized, I was like, oh, this is pretty distinctive for our family. This is something that she's going to remember that's really different later on. And so going to our Christmas Eve service at our church is at midnight on Christmas Eve night. And we sing in Christmas Day by singing Silent Night. And so little traditions like that
00:23:00
Speaker
have been both corporate ones with our church family, but also with our family have been a big part of that rhythm. And then I would say the daily rhythms with our daughter who's autistic, I mean, I don't always know what discipleship looks like with her. I feel like at a loss a lot of times,
00:23:26
Speaker
But we, when I wake her up in the morning, I say, wake, sleep, or rise from the dead. And she answers back, and Christ will shine on you, and then rolls her eyes at me and pulls the covers back over. But she like knows that. That's so sweet. She knows that's like how we start the day, you know, and she crosses off her schedule and crosses off her calendar. And then we'll say the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer together at night before she goes to bed. Like she knows
00:23:55
Speaker
those lines. She says Pontius Pilate really slow because she wants to pronounce it right. I'm not sure she knows what it's about, but she, you know, I think those kinds of little rhythms are just part of like the regular teaching of the, and I think the, and so Sabbath has been one for us and I'm not a,
00:24:19
Speaker
I'm not a Sabbatarian that says you must keep the Lord's Day. That's not been part of my faith tradition. And yet there was a short season where my daughter first started working at a local coffee shop and she was being scheduled some on Sunday afternoon after church. And I was working in ministry and so it was always kind of in and out on Sundays. And one of the best things about the last couple of years is I've
00:24:49
Speaker
been in more of a regular day job working for TGC is that We reclaimed those Sunday afternoons and and we just sit around the table together And and and that's the time we read through a devotional
Introduction to 'Faith Builder Catechism'
00:25:06
Speaker
book. We just read through Kevin Young's The good news we almost forgot his devotional on the huddleberg catechism and and and then we
00:25:19
Speaker
you know, read through books, the Bible together, those kinds of things. And that, you know, I think we had a bedtime routine when kids were young, but as they've gotten older, having that weekly Sabbath routine where we're sitting down after church and studying together has been, you know, between marching band and cross country and, you know, therapy sessions for our daughter with a disability, like to have that,
00:25:49
Speaker
That place at the end of the week or beginning of the week that we're we have put this state down This is our family time together and we're gonna keep that rhythm has been a really helpful thing yeah, and then we just kind of interchanged all the Here's my free advertising all the new growth press devotionals like for Christmas and Easter. So yeah, got James little devotional and Marty's devotionals like I mean we just over the years used those things and
00:26:18
Speaker
to supplement our holidays and they become part of our annual rhythm. And it was so helpful for us to just incorporate that in what we did as a family.
00:26:34
Speaker
Watch out for a new resource coming in September of 2023 from Kevin Hippolyte, Trey Coleman, and Jared Kennedy called Faith Builder Catechism, Devotions to Level Up Your Family Discipleship. The most enthralling video games take place in elaborate kingdoms, don't they, with characters we root for and stories we connect with.
00:26:57
Speaker
When playing a video game, we learn to inhabit the game's world. The same is true with our faith. Whether you're taking your first steps in Family Discipleship or are a pro who has weekly devotional routines in place, the
00:27:12
Speaker
interactive questions, answers, and devotionals in Faith Builder Catechism will help your family establish building blocks of faith one level at a time. Authors Kevin Hippolyte, Jared Kennedy, and Trey Coleman lead the way for families to establish regular discipleship conversations and cultivate a deeper knowledge of the theology expressed in the Apostles Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Doctrines of Grace,
00:27:38
Speaker
the Great Commission, and the Lord's Prayer. This resource includes fun stickers so kids can level up and track their progress at any stage. It's written by three dads, raising kids in a digital world, experienced in children's and family ministry. And this book will help your family build a biblical worldview step by step by focusing on God's glory, God's kingdom, the gospel, God's church, and God's mission.
Life Lessons from Raising Chickens
00:28:05
Speaker
You can learn more at NewGrowthPress.com.
00:28:10
Speaker
So tell me about these chickens. Yes, Megan really wanted chickens and I fought against her and said we live in the suburbs of a city in a subdivision.
00:28:25
Speaker
And there's no way we can have chickens. We will wake our neighbors. This is not appropriate. Yeah, and it's pretty restrictive where we live. The rules or laws are pretty restrictive about pets. We don't have any pets now. We have a little bit in the past. You can only have so many pets, cumulative number of pets. And then I think you can have chickens here. You can't have any crowing.
00:28:53
Speaker
animals. Yeah. Yeah. Any rooster. Yeah. I can't have a rooster. So, um, she did the research and she's like, this is totally legal. You're not breaking the law. We should get chickens.
00:29:05
Speaker
And then, um, we went on a walk on Memorial Day and I seriously, honestly, the clouds opened up and the sun shone through and this chicken walked out of one of our neighbor's yards and kind of like began to walk and Megan like looked at me and it was like, it was, it was an absolute chicken sign. She looked at me and she said, look, we should have chickens. And so, um, why have chickens been good for parenting?
00:29:33
Speaker
We have basically done chicken funerals like we have had chickens die From all kinds of predators and so we have had to go around the dinner table and and give our eulogies for chicken So they taught my kids about death Chickens will submit to you like they think that you're the rooster if you feed them and so there's like certain ways you can teach them to like kind of squat down and submit to you when you're down so they you know you
00:30:01
Speaker
our daughters have learned lots about family dynamics with that's really fascinating we did have one rooster that we was probably right waking our neighbors that we had to give away to a local farm and so and we have always they are totally pets they do give back they lay eggs but they're
00:30:23
Speaker
They're totally pets. We've named them all. And so the first group was named after different flowers. And the second group was named after Harry Potter characters. And the current group is all, well, we have Iris and Persephone and Athena. And so they're all Greek goddesses right now. So every time we get a new batch of chickens, and they'll last like four or five years. And then,
00:30:52
Speaker
we start over with chicks.
Parenting Teenagers
00:30:54
Speaker
Really? It's been great. I didn't want to do it, but it's been a good thing. That's really fascinating. Truly, truly fascinating. You should do it, Rush. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it, but I want to watch you do it. And then you can tell me all the lessons that you're learning from chickens
00:31:14
Speaker
Maybe there's a children's book or something in there somewhere, I don't know. Maybe, yeah, maybe, maybe. I do like that, I do like that idea. Okay, last question maybe. You've talked a lot about ministry in your family, ministry in your church, ministry through the gospel coalition. And I'm curious, is there something that you have on the top of your mind
00:31:40
Speaker
that God's teaching you. Is there something that you're, you really feel like God's, you know, cheerfully working on in you as a, as a person, aside from family, aside from TGC writing, editing, what's going on for you? Yeah. I mean, I'm parenting teenagers and, um, and I think our oldest is going to college this year and, um,
00:32:07
Speaker
She's going to go to University of Kentucky. So she's doing health sciences, health sciences kind of things. And so she's, she'll be working. I grew up a big Kentucky fan. I was a big Kentucky fan. Yeah. Our youngest is a big Cardinals fan and she's very disappointed in her older sister. So there there's tension in the house a little bit. But, um, no, I think, um, I think this is just true when you have teenage kids and, um,
00:32:37
Speaker
you think that in the toddler years all the like kind of frustration and things are gone and I think I see um um I also think you know it's a stressful thing to send off your first one to college you know and and so and I I think I feel some of the anxiety over that and um what the Lord is teaching me is to repent quickly and um and to
00:33:07
Speaker
you know, really examine my words every day.
Conclusion and Next Episode
00:33:12
Speaker
And one of our pastors preached probably a year ago on preparing for communion by examining your heart each day of the week. And I think that
00:33:30
Speaker
that stopping at the end of the day and thinking over the words I've spoken during the day and then immediately obeying the Lord and repenting. Whether that's to my kids or to other people has been something that, you know, I believe all of life is repentance, but I think really practicing and living as if all of life is repentance is something the Lord in His sweet mercies teaching, teaching me to do.
00:34:01
Speaker
I'm grateful to have had this encouraging and joyful time with my friend Jared Kennedy. This has been Straight to the Heart. Our next episode releases in one week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.