After describing himself as lacking ambition, Adam Griffin seems to prove himself wrong. Whether he is investing in the personal lives of teens, transforming children’s lives as a public school teacher, writing books with Pastor Matt Chandler, or leading a church plant to become its own autonomous church, Adam is relentlessly devoted to making disciples who follow Jesus.
Pastors, all of us have different gifts and strengths when it comes to leading the church God has entrusted to us. For me, I’ve always leaned on experts to help when I’ve got a kingdom vision that requires raising funds. Some of the best experts in the field are our Season 1 Partner, The Giving Church. They’ve helped more than 1000 churches raise more than a billion dollars. Crazy! Go on over to www.thegivingchurch.com/red and download a FREE PDF for how to grow your church’s giving!
Resources mentioned in the episode:
Family Discipleship by Adam Griffin and Matt Chandler
Key insights from the episode:
A lot of the problems in youth ministry is that you are dealing with people who have adult-sized problems but child-sized maturity. – Adam Griffin
Throughout my ministry, I have struggled with a sinful lack of ambition. I have such crippling insecurity about things. I’ve always depended on the Lord to take me to the next thing. – Adam Griffin
Today, in American culture, there is an assumption that you cannot be both a Christian and be unbiased in a conversation. I don’t have to set aside the fact that I am a Christian to engage with culture. – Adam Griffin
We need to be training the next generation to be resilient. – Adam Griffin
Family discipleship is an ordinary everyday lifestyle. Let them see your flaws and share your own repentance. – Adam Griffin
You don’t have to be a theologian or scholar to fulfill the role God called you to follow Him and lead your kids to follow Him. – Adam Griffin
Most parents believe they are the primary spiritual leader of their kids, but hardly anyone has a plan to do that. – Zach Zehnder
There are tons of resources on doing family discipleship, but none on how to make a plan. – Adam Griffin
The three aspects of Family Discipleship are 1) Time, 2) Moments, and 3) Milestones. – Adam Griffin
I’m always trying to reinvent ways to read the Bible in new ways. – Zach Zehnder
A church cannot be built around anyone but the man of Jesus Christ. – Adam Griffin
It’s harder to revitalize churches than plant new ones. – Adam Griffin
We need every single type of church to be the fullest and greatest expression collectively of Jesus we can be in the world. – Zach Zehnder
The younger generation doesn’t love brilliance or humor; they love novelty. But just as easily as they love a new thing, that new thing gets old. The gospel is ageless and timeless. – Adam Griffin
Adam’s Challenge of the Week: Check your emotional health, especially on how you compare to other people. Do you look at others and see their weaknesses and feel better about yourself or do you look at others and see their strengths and feel worse about yourself? Where has coveting sought into your heart? – Adam Griffin
Lead yourself (and your church) to be more like Jesus. Red Letter Challenge
For so many Christians, the discipleship process isn’t very clear.
They know they need to go to church, pray, not sin, and maybe attend a small group. While these are great things, they don’t outline a clear path leading people to live more like Jesus.
We’d love to introduce you to the 40-Day Red Letter Challenge.
When you and your church take the challenge, you’ll have a clear 40-day discipleship path that will help you master five key areas of discipleship.
You can learn more about the challenge here!
Some not-so-key insights:
People think that being a youth minister knows the rules of kickball, softball, and how much pizza to order. – Adam Griffin
I’ve had friends in Boston say they have never walked into a coffee shop in Texas and not seen someone reading their Bible. – Adam Griffin
Next time you are called to jury duty, don’t show up in your sequins jacket. – Zach Zehnder
The Dish Network renamed the town of Clark to Dish and gave them ten years of free cable. – Chris Johnson
Watch the entire season for free:
We’ll be uploading every episode of season one of The Red Letter Disciple on our YouTube Channel. If you aren’t subscribed already, you can do so here!