510. Disciple Them Like Jesus With Barrett Johnson

What if the most vital task in parenting isn't getting your kids into a good college, but helping them develop a faith that lasts? Barrett Johnson, President of INFO (Imperfect and Normal Families Only), shares a game-changing framework for spiritual parenting that will transform how you view your role as a father. Drawing from Jesus' own discipleship model, Barrett reveals a simple yet profound approach structured like a house: a foundation of abiding with God, three pillars of modeling, teaching, and applying faith, and a roof of connecting through authentic relationships. This blueprint offers hope to dads who feel inadequate for the spiritual leadership role.

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Episode Transcript

Chris Grainger (00:19):
Test test.
Psalm 78, just verse four,though, one verse.
We will not hide them fromtheir descendants.
We will tell the nextgeneration the praiseworthy
deeds of the Lord, his power,and the wonders he has done.
Love that verse, guys.
Go back in your podcast feed.
The last episode is ourspiritual kickoff episode, where

(00:40):
we unpack this verse at length,and this is really all about
helping you simplify and applyGod's word into your life.
Okay, now, if you really enjoythose.
Again, we do them every week.
Every Monday, the spiritualkickoffs come out, but Monday
through Friday, within our Lion,within Us community, we do
these every day.
Every day, you should get alittle bit of boost, a little

(01:01):
bit of encouragement, a littlebit of hope, sometimes that
little bit of a kick in thepants.
That way, sometimes we as guysneed.
So again, head over to the lionwithin that US to start your
community experience so that youcan be part of those daily
spiritual kickoffs.
Ok, so this one right here willbe straight up on us for you
guys.
This is for the dads, all right.

(01:21):
So your dad now, or you've beena dad or you're planning on
being a dad this is for you.
So I brought, brought in BarrettJohnson.
He is the president of info.
Okay, it's info for families.
Now, info is imperfect andnormal families only love that
we fit there, okay, uh, so hehe's an author.
He's wrote a wonderful bookhere.
Uh, discipled him, like Jesus.
Uh, he's got five kids seven.
He's wrote a wonderful bookhere, disciple of them, like

(01:43):
Jesus, he's got five kids seven.
He's got another grandkid onthe way, eight grandkids here
soon.
He's really big, he and hiswife, jennifer, about leading
marriage and parenting eventsall across the country, and he
really is just a phenomenal guyso far as giving families hope

(02:06):
hope that God has answers thatthey're looking for, and this is
what this is about.
So, again, everything, barrett,this is just a fun conversation.
He gives us some insights tosome things that he's currently
struggling with as well.
Definitely, there's some prayerrequests there for him and his
family moving forward, guys.
So I thoroughly enjoyed thisone.

(02:26):
Like I said, we didn't get achance to meet until we met
today for recording.
It was just a lot of funworking with him, so I hope
you're going to enjoy thisconversation, particularly for
you dads out there.
So sit back and listen to mybuddy, barrett Johnson.
Well, barrett, welcome to theLion Within Us.
How are you doing today, sir?
I'm good man.

(02:47):
How are you?
I'm doing well.
I'm doing well.
We're recording this on a wetMonday morning on the East Coast
, but we need some rain out thismorning.
We need some rain.

Barrett Johnson (02:55):
It's about dang time we need some rain around
here.
It's a good thing for us.

Chris Grainger (02:58):
You got that right.
You got that right.
Well, barrett, before we getinto your project everything
that you've built, sharesomething fun about you that
maybe not many people know about.

Barrett Johnson (03:08):
Something fun.
I've got five kids.
I've got an eighth grandchildon the way right now, but I'm a
relatively young guy.
I'm only 56 years old.
Obviously that's not young, butI was a grandfather at 44,
which is nuts.
We started young and our oldestdaughter got married young and
gave us a child really quickly.

(03:29):
So I was the youngest, coolestgrandfather you know for a
little while, which was kind ofinteresting.
Another fun fact about me I usethis when we play those two lies
, two truths and a lie things atparties.
I once shot a hole in one ingolf and won a liver.
And that sounds bizarre, but itwas a fundraiser for a woman
who needed a liver transplant.
And someone set up a prizehole-in-one shot that if you

(03:52):
made a hole-in-one it was worth$10,000, $5,000 for the shooter
and $5,000 for the livertransplant fund.
And so I walked up and God justwas with me that day and said
I'm going to use this horriblegolfer, me, to do a miraculous
deed.
And I shot a hole in one andthe woman got her liver
transplant a few months later.
So you know when I go, you knowplay golf and there's prizes at

(04:13):
the tournament or something.
I don't bring my A game unlessthere's a vital organ involved.
I really, if I win a trip or acar, don't waste my time.
I want to win a vital organ andsave a woman's life.
So that was a fun story from mypast.

Chris Grainger (04:27):
You have.
So you set the bar really highthere, right there you go, there
you go.
Now you have a golfer too.

Barrett Johnson (04:33):
I'm a terrible golfer.
I loved, I love to play, but Idon't get to play much.
It's just too much time, toomuch money.
But I love it, but I just amperpetually awful.
So God, god, used a terriblegolfer on that day to to win
some money and a liver for awoman.
So I think, God wanted to makeit perfect clear that it was an
act of God and skill of thegolfer.

(04:55):
So he chose.
He chose to use me.

Chris Grainger (04:58):
That's it.
There you go.
There you go.
Well, I'm excited to talk withyou because obviously I have
four kids here at the house.
We're you go.
Well, I'm excited to talk withyou because obviously I have
four kids here at the house.
You're trying to figure outthis parenting thing going, sure
, high school down to toddlers.
And you got five.
You got eight, well, seven andalmost eight grandkids.

Barrett Johnson (05:13):
So obviously you're you're an expert and no,
don't say, don't ever say thatnone of us are experts at
anything let's go I heard theline years ago.
I used to have five theories onraising kids and now I have
five kids and no theories onraising kids.

Chris Grainger (05:29):
Well, I love that you start off with the word
disciple.
You're discipling them.
Why choose that path?
I love it first and foremost,but you don't hear many parents
talk about that of it first andforemost, but you don't hear
many parents talk about that.

Barrett Johnson (05:45):
No, I think the fundamental job that we have as
Christian parents if you had toboil it all down is to be
disciple makers, that it's ourjob to take these kids, that God
gives us stewardship over for,you know, 18 or 20 years of
influence when they're in ourhome and close by.
He's given us the opportunity tomake disciples, and if we have
one task that proceeds or coversup or influences all the other

(06:10):
tasks of parenting, I think itis to make disciples.
You know, kids developingcharacter and kids, you know,
getting a career path and aneducation and learning to play
nice with others and having allthese different things that are
kind of our objectives asparents.
I think all of those aresubservient or submit themselves
to this job of helping our kidsto love and follow Jesus and to

(06:30):
get caught up in his big planfor their lives.
And if we can do that as momsand dads and make that our
primary goal, I think all thisother stuff that we're burdened
by in the ins and outs ofparenting kind of takes care of
itself or falls into place afterthat.
So that's why I think our jobis parenting I think is
discipleship and we have thisamazing opportunity to pour into

(06:51):
our kids during the season.

Chris Grainger (06:52):
We've got them.
We really do.
I feel like so many times whenI, when I talk with parents or
hear parents in conversations,we're super concerned about you
know where they're going tospend four years of college or
their vocation, what that'sgoing to look like, and we're
nowhere near as concerned aboutwhere they're going to spend
eternity.

Barrett Johnson (07:11):
That's a great point, yep.

Chris Grainger (07:13):
I feel like we need to shift that a little bit.

Barrett Johnson (07:15):
Yeah, no doubt.

Chris Grainger (07:18):
Well, I'm curious, as you kind of started
unpacking this and thinkingthrough, you came up with a very
unique framework, and I'd lovefor you to kind of just walk
through that a little bit,because that's really that
foundation sets it all right.

Barrett Johnson (07:33):
Well, I started writing this book 20 years ago.
I was a parent of probablyabout where you are right now,
chris, with, you know muchelementary kind of young
teenagers, kind of preteen kidsin the house, and I was, you
know, felt this burden isheaviness of trying to disciple
my kids or help them to love andfollow Jesus, and and wasn't
really clear on what it lookedlike, what we.
I know it's a job that I've gotUm, but how do I do it?

(07:55):
And I just started looking,considering, well, what's a good
example I can follow?
Who?
Who's a good discipler that Ican follow their example?
And I thought of Jesus.
We could all agree that Jesuswas a pretty effective discipler
.
He took these 12 regular dudesand over the course of three
years he poured into them andenabled them.
Once Jesus went back to be withthe Father, these 12 guys

(08:17):
literally changed the course ofhistory.
So what did Jesus do?
And so I kind of came up withthis model.
I feel like it was God-breathedhow do I consider what Jesus
did?
And it came down to five keycomponents.
And God gave me this littlemodel of a foundation and three
pillars and a roof.
And if you don't know whatwe're talking about.
You can just go online andGoogle Disciple of them, like

(08:40):
Jesus the title of the book andyou can see that image and I
feel like it's what Jesus did.
He had these five key prioritiesthat kind of drove him and that
he spent his days doing, and itwas very, very fruitful with
the disciples.
So I thought if we can justhave that simple framework as
well, something we couldscribble onto a napkin or have a
quick visual snapshot of it inthose days where you and I go,

(09:04):
what the heck am I supposed todo with this kid I've got it
kind of gives us a place tostart.
Well, here's what Jesus did, somaybe I can strive, with God's
help and his power, strive to dothese things as well.
And it kind of justcrystallizes or clarifies what
our priorities should be andmoves us out of this.
I don't know getting stucksometimes of I just don't know

(09:26):
what to do with this kidspiritually.
Well, here's five elements thatJesus did.
Start here.
Consider where you are in thesethings.

Chris Grainger (09:35):
I think what I like the most about the elements
Barrett is one.
I didn't see a pillar calledoutsourcing.

Barrett Johnson (09:43):
Oh, that's great.

Chris Grainger (09:44):
You know, and I feel like I talked to so many
dads man, I was one of them too.
I just wrote a chapter in thebook for the Lion Within Us and
it was literally talking about Ioutsourced spiritual
discipleship of my children foryears and I outsourced it to the
church.
I thought it was the church'sjob, like these guys get paid to
do this Sure, surely one hour aweek to max, because we're
really good Christians.

(10:05):
Two hours a week is plenty goodfor them to be, to be, you know,
growing in their discipleshipjourney, until I just had this
extreme moment of clarity fromGod.
It's like look, look you.
I haven't picked you to raisethese children, you know not.
Not a children's pastor or ayouth pastor or something like
that.
They should come alongside tohelp and equip, for sure, but

(10:28):
it's not their job to raise them, it's my job, and I love how
yours is.
The onus is on us.

Barrett Johnson (10:34):
Yeah, and I had the epiphany as well.
I was a youth pastor for 15years in a local church and I
just had this realization at thetail end of that ministry of I
mean, these kids are not turninginto me, their youth minister,
they're turning into their momsand dads.
And those kids that I've, youknow, worked with for a couple
of years or, you know, four orfive years in high school,
middle school and then launchedoff to college, those kids that

(10:54):
had a faith that I thought wasgoing to last, it wasn't because
they hung out with me more, Uh,it was because they had parents
who were very intentional inteaching their kids to love and
follow Jesus.
And the kids that I kind of hada pretty good theory and was
generally right that we're goingto kind of walk away from their
faith when they went off andhad some independence at college
, those are the ones typicallywhose families were not really

(11:14):
engaged and parents that werenot really intentional to be
making disciples.
So you're exactly right, wecan't outsource this.
We do a lot of outsourcing ofour kids for education and for
sports.

Chris Grainger (11:31):
There's a place for all that.
But yeah, mom and dad, this ison us.
Well, I love it.
I love the model.
I love how you start with.
I mean, the foundation for anyhouse is the most important one.
You started with abiding.
Why there?
Why?

Barrett Johnson (11:40):
do you?

Chris Grainger (11:40):
think that is the key.

Barrett Johnson (11:41):
Yeah, and again , there's five components to
this and it looks like a littlehouse, a foundation and three
pillars and a roof.
And the foundation, like yousaid, is a starting place for
anything and I think for Christand his example.
You know, he stayed one withthe father, he was one with the
father, he was connected to God,he spent time alone, pulling

(12:06):
himself away from his work andhis friends, and it's just to
connect with God and say God,what are you up to, what are you
doing?
How do I stay in touch with you?
That was his priority and so Ithink for us to model and
disciple like Jesus, we got todo likewise and so we use that
key anchor word abiding.
John 15, 5 says you know Christtalking to disciples and he says
you know, if I abide in you andyou abide in me, you will bear
much fruit.
It's like a vine attachedbranches attached to a bigger

(12:27):
vine.
You know we're connected to theFather, that abiding is
essential to bearing fruit and Ithink many times as parents, we
feel like we're spinning ourwheels and not getting much done
.
Jesus made it very clear for usIf you don't stay connected to
the vine, connected to theFather, in prayer and Bible
study and just being infellowship with your Heavenly

(12:47):
Father, you're not going to bearany fruit.
Nothing good's going to happen,and I think that's the one thing
in the Christian life I meanI'll confess as a man that's
probably the thing that Ineglect the most many times
because it's private and nobodysees it, and so we work on all
these external things.
What God says is most importantis for us to just be alone with

(13:10):
him and be connected to him andbe talking to him, and that
gives us what we need, both inspiritual power and insight with
our kids to be able to startdiscipling our kids.
That's kind of the foundationyou build on, but I think it's
the thing that many men inparticular neglect the most.
We kind of go it alone and feellike I've got this.

(13:31):
Oh bother God, unless somethingreally big that I got to take
to him.
By and large, I'm going tomuscle my way through this job
or this marriage or thisparenting thing because I've got
what it takes, and I think thisis a subtle reminder that
really we don't have what ittakes apart from a connection
with and a relationship withJesus Christ.

Chris Grainger (13:51):
Yeah, when you said I got this God, a reframe
that I use when I'm trying tohelp God, even with me, man,
it's just when I hear myselfsaying I got this God.
A great way to think about itis saying I don't need you God.

Barrett Johnson (14:07):
Yeah, that's great.

Chris Grainger (14:08):
And when you say it that way, that tends to slow
you down a little bit.

Barrett Johnson (14:12):
Sure, we should be confronted, slapped in the
face by that attitude.
I don't need you, god.
That is great, chris.
I love that.

Chris Grainger (14:19):
Yeah, yeah.
And I mean, why do you thinkthis abiding you mentioned it's
it's, it's it's personal, it'sit's intimate.
Why do you think that's sodifficult with so many guys?

Barrett Johnson (14:30):
I don't know.
I think it may be because we'rewe're more concerned about the
external than we are theinternal.
Um, I think we fake it till wemake it and we kind of go
through the poser syndrome of oftrying to convince everyone
around us we've got it allfigured out, when maybe there's
not a spiritual substance there,because we don't have it
figured out and we don't taketime to connect with the Father.

(14:52):
You know, I think it's soeasily neglected and I hate that
because it's the most importantthing to us.
It's the most important thingin our lives, for every, every
part of our lives is to stayconnected to God.
And you know, I believe in mytheology.
I believe that God has a voice.
I think we've seen Godthroughout the scriptures
speaking with a voice to thepeople he loves and wants to

(15:15):
lead, and I think that's stilltrue today.
We can debate we're all over themap theology, but I think God
wants to lead me as a man andgive me insight into the needs
of my own heart.
But with this application, hewants to give me insight into
the needs of my own kids, and sowhen my kid's misbehaving or
dealing with an issue orstruggling with something you

(15:35):
know.
I can look at that situationwith my own eyes and go, okay,
here's what's going on.
This kid's being difficult andI just need to do it.
There's a lot of benefit insaying God.
Let me pause a minute and sayGod, let me pause a minute and
say God, what's really going onin the heart of this kid right
now?
What, what do you see, God,that I'm not seeing?
And I believe that God has avoice and he wants to give me
insights into.
Hey, what you're seeing is thisbehavior and this attitude, but
what the what, the realfoundation of that is?

(15:57):
Is this what your kid right nowis?
Your kid doesn't feel secure.
Your kid feels nervous.
Your kid doesn't feel loved byyou.
And they don't need a lectureright now.
What your kid needs is theyneed your heart and some time,
or maybe a hug or whatever itmight be, with your kid's
particular needs.
I think God wants to lead us inthat.
He wants to lead us with hisvoice in a still quiet way that
we can hear in our sense and ourspirit.

(16:18):
This is what God wants me toknow and do with this situation,
with this kid, and we can'thave that unless we are
connected spiritually to ourHeavenly Father, talking to Him,
listening to Him, you know, inHis Word, trying to get a grasp
of what he's all about.
And so I think, again, we can'tneglect that foundation.
It's like building a house onsand, it's like building a house

(16:39):
on a pile of dirt that, hey, itlooks great on the outside, but
give it a couple of years andit's going to wash away.
You know, there's even a storyin our scripture about that very
thing, Is there not?
you know, so we've got to buildthat foundation first.

Chris Grainger (16:53):
What does abiding look like for you?

Barrett Johnson (16:55):
You know I think it is talking to God.
I think that pray withoutceasing line we get in scripture
.
Obviously, I'm not talking toGod every single moment, but I'm
aware that God is with meeverywhere I go and his spirit
is present in my life.
And so it's.
It's not OK.
I'm going to take my 10 minutestoday to have a prayer time in
the morning or before I go tobed.
Certainly do that, but but morepracticing the presence of God,

(17:16):
as this early church father,brother Andrew, called it.
You know talking to God everysingle day, every single moment.
You know as we go, and let medo that again because and it's,
you know, practicing thepresence of God, as Brother
Lawrence said in some of hiswritings you know it's
recognizing he is with meeverywhere I go.

(17:38):
If I will just take time to seehim and know him and tap into
him, and in those moments whenI'm struggling to go, god give
me some insight here and look tohim for leadership, because he
wants to give that to us.

Chris Grainger (17:51):
Amen to that.
Amen, Guys, we're going to takeour first break.
We'll be right back.
I don't know about you, but Iused to find Mondays really
rough.
I would find myself trying toreset for work, trying to get my
bearing on the family calendar,trying to find time for my own
spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself

(18:14):
overwhelmed or just flatlyignoring aspects of my life that
I know are meaningful to me.
What I learned was that if Ihad immediate access to
important and impactfulspiritual topics and reflections
to start my week well after theallure of a Sunday sermon has
passed, I would set my wholeweek up to be more meaningful

(18:36):
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(19:00):
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(19:21):
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So, Barrett, I mean I loveagain the foundation of abiding
that's so crucial for sure.
And then you go through thesethree pillars and I'm curious

(19:44):
for you, is there an order ofimportance?
Are they all equally important?
I mean, just give us how youcame up with these three.

Barrett Johnson (19:52):
Well, these pillars, I believe, are I don't
know, they're three steps, ifyou will, for teaching, for life
change.
If we want to teach our kidstruth, maybe a biblical
worldview, let's boil it down tothat.
We want to teach our kids thattruth for head knowledge, then
we can just, you know, playBible trivia with them and just

(20:12):
give them a head knowledge, likeour kids learn in school, you
know, take some tests and readsome stuff.
But we don't want to teach abiblical worldview and a
Christ-centered life.
We don't want to teach that forhead knowledge, we want to
teach that for life change.
And I feel like the way you dothat for life change is through
these three steps, these threepillars, and so these three ways
of teaching for life changedare what Jesus did Modeling,

(20:34):
teaching and applying.
And so modeling that's, youknow, when you hear modeling you
think of Zoolander and you knownot that kind of modeling I'm
talking modeling where you aregiving your kids an example of
what this looks like.
Lot of his research he has saidthat he believes in some of his
data says that our kids'generation right now is some of

(20:56):
the most spiritually attuned orcurious generations in forever.
They want to find a meaningfulspiritual example of life.
They want to know what it lookslike to live a Christian life
or any kind of faith system.
Just show me that it works.
And so they're looking forexamples of it works.
And so modeling is giving ourkids a day in, day out,

(21:18):
imperfect but consistent exampleof this is what the Christian
life looks like, and this is whywalking with Jesus works.
We can't teach our kids anythingunless we first model it.
And if we don't model it, thenyou know what we're guilty of is
hypocrisy.
You know we're, we're, we'reno-transcript.

(21:59):
The first place to start is bylooking in the mirror.
Am I being a good example ofthat thing where they can see it
lived out, practiced day in,day out?
That's what it looks like, andso that's where modeling comes
to play.
Back to Jesus' example that'sexactly what he did, jesus said.
And back to Jesus' examplethat's exactly what he did.

(22:30):
Jesus know, taking them tochurch is certainly a part of
that, but I think it's a lotmore in the day to day, day in,
day out life of here's, where wesee God's word at work in our
lives and we practice theseprinciples and this is what they
look like.
So we're modeling and thenwe're teaching.
You know Jesus taught so, very,very much.
Obviously.
You know the book of John endswith this line that says you

(22:51):
know, if we could hear all thatJesus would have taught, it
wouldn't.
It would barely fill up all thebooks in all of the world.
You know, it was so much.
Jesus was constantly teaching.
And so we've got to look forways to teach.
And I think Deuteronomy sixgives us a great guideline for
that.
You know, deuteronomy six givesus this outline of teaching.
You know, as you walk alongdifferent things, these places,
that we can take advantage ofthat and look for many windows

(23:14):
of time to teach.
And then the third element isapplying.
So we're modeling, we'reteaching and then applying.
It's where you put the faithinto practice, it's where we
take these things that we say webelieve and the things that
Jesus told us to do.
And then let's go do them.
And we see that in Jesus'example perfectly.
He says a couple of times in theWord.
He says he sent the disciplesout two by two.

(23:36):
I've told you how to do this,I've showed you how to do this.
Now go out and do it yourself.
And they went out and did it,and then they came back and they
were able to debrief with Jesus.
How'd that go, and what wentgood, what went bad, what'd you
learn?
I think likewise, as parents,we have to give our kids a
chance to apply these thingsthat they're learning, to put it
into practice when they'reunder our houses and under our

(23:57):
roofs.
To learn this is what the faithlooks like.
I think, in the applying pieceof that is really where we can
help our kids to taste and seethat the Lord is good, when they
experience him at work in theirlives, as they follow him and
live out the faith.
As we claim what we say webelieve.
Let's go do the things we say webelieve and those three

(24:19):
elements as they see it, modeledas parents teach those truths,
as you give them chances toapply.
Those three things hopefullywill be the foundation or the
testing ground where, as weteach our kids to have a faith
in Jesus, it becomes their own.
You know, uh, I think too manyof our kids are riding on mom's

(24:39):
and dad's faith.
I heard a quote that's in thebook.
It's by a guy named NeilMcClendon and it says Neil said
the faith of the average 17 yearold is kind of like his sixth
grade science fair project Momand dad did all the work and he
just put his name on it.
Right, we all know what thatfeels like and I think there's
many of our kids faith.
Even as older teenagers they'restill kind of riding on mom and

(25:01):
dad's faith.
We do all the work and they'rejust kind of putting their name
on it.
I think, in the applying andputting into practice a chance
to really have our kids own thefaith of their own, you know,
experience this, experience godthemselves that's really good.

Chris Grainger (25:13):
Good, I mean, when I teach.
I teach a lot of kids as well,and I just I remind them all the
time like look, mom, dad,grandma, grandpa, brother,
sister, they all love you,they're praying for you.
They can't do anything for youwhen it comes to salvation,
that's right.
It's a you thing, it has to beyou and it has to become your
faith as they grow in it.
But I'm also thinking throughthose three pillars.

(25:37):
I know lots of guys out thereare listening.
They're like man.
I am no model.
Yeah, I get that.
There's so much condemnationthat starts coming into mind.
Yeah, and all of this.

Barrett Johnson (25:48):
This is a tall order.
I started writing this book 20years ago.
Here's the history of this book.
20 years ago, god gave me thismodel.
I was a family minister tochurch in Texas and I taught
this stuff to some parents and acouple of guys came up
afterwards and said this wouldbe great stuff.
You ought to write this down.
It'd be a good little book.
Okay, great.
So I started writing the book.
I got about halfway through it.
It really came to the chapteror the section on what it looks

(26:12):
like to teach our kids at homethe truth and god basically said
stop writing.
You can't write this untilyou're doing it better yourself
and it was just it was?
I don't think it wascondemnation.
I know men feel that often theshame of we're not, we're not
measuring up.
For me it was a condemnation,but it was a, a loving spiritual
nudge from god saying you knowwhat, you need to work on this

(26:34):
yourself a little bit before youwrite on this and tell others
what to do.
And I totally deserved thatlittle loving spiritual nudge
from the Father.
And so I set it down and Istrived to do better.
And again I give myself a Cminus or a D on a lot of these
things.
Those developmental years.
I wasn't great at many of thesethings because it's just, it's

(26:57):
challenging and it's hard.
But then again I I was fighting.
I had a cancer fight about twoyears ago that I was involved in
throws of and having a wholespring of 23 was spent doing
radiation and chemotherapy for acancer thing that shot showed
up on me, and so during thatdowntime I feel like God gave me
the peace to kind of finishthis project, whether you know I

(27:19):
ever got good at it or not, buthe gave me the green light to
finish.
But I think the message for forme and the message for for any
dad out there listening is youknow what this is hard.
It's the most important jobyou've got and maybe you're not
going to be great at it,especially at the beginning.
But it's worth giving it a shot.

(27:40):
It's worth evaluating where youare in each of these five
elements of this model theabiding, walking with God, the
modeling, the teaching, theapplying and the last one that
we'll talk about in a second.
But all of those, it's worthkind of looking at each of those
and saying, god, give me agrade on these.
How am I doing in these areas?
If there's one or two areas youthink I'm really not doing
anything in this area, then makeit a simple prayer God, would
you give me some grace and someencouragement and some baby

(28:03):
steps that I can take to startpressing into this little area
that I know is kind of aweakness in my life, in my
parenting, and take a few babysteps and God's with you and
he's for you.
He's.
He's not a God that's going togo.
Man, you stink, what's wrongwith you.
You're not doing good enough.
He's going to nudge youlovingly with the spirit in the
right direction to be better andbetter at these things.

(28:24):
But you got to start somewhere.
You know there's a quote I gotin the book.
It's by a guy named GKChesterton who lived a couple
hundred years ago.
Chesterton said this he said ifanything's worth doing, it's
worth doing badly.
And every time I bring that upin a teaching live I always say
that Chesterton said ifanything's worth doing, it's
worth doing.
And I wait for everyone toanswer.

(28:46):
And they always say it's worthdoing right.
And that's what we think and Iget the answer no, it's not
worth doing right.
If it's worth doing, it's worthdoing badly.
Because if it's worth doingright and we've got to do with
excellence I think most dudesout there, most dads, they'll
never start.
They'll think, if I can't beexcellent at this and I'm going

(29:06):
to fail at it and I'm going tostumble, that I don't want to
expose my weaknesses, so I'm notgoing to do anything at all.
And that's, I think, the.
I think that's the lies of theenemy, convincing us not to be
intentional as we parentspiritually our kids.
And so I think again, dads, ifsomeone was doing and this is
worth doing discipling your kidsis so worth doing.
It's worth doing badly for alittle while because you've got

(29:28):
to be bad before you can be good, and so I encourage any dad
listening to just get out thereand start somewhere, but don't
just sit there idly by thinkingI can't do this.
You can, you've got what ittakes, and the power of God is
with you.

Chris Grainger (29:43):
You have the you know.
Obviously you went to seminary.
I'm assuming you were a pastor.

Barrett Johnson (29:49):
I did four years of college, then four
years of seminary.
I did yeah.

Chris Grainger (29:52):
Okay, so the common pushback I get when I'm
talking to dads about this I'mtalking about the middle pillar
here of teaching.
Yeah, and most dads they, they.
When I get to the teaching part, that's when they really they.
They start putting up thoseboundaries and started the
negative self-talk.
And because they didn't go toseminary, you know they, they're

(30:13):
, they're engineers or whatever.
It may be Right, and so youknow, give us some practical
tips to get started down thispath of being equipped to teach.

Barrett Johnson (30:24):
Here's a book outlines my teaching chapter.
Here's here's a great, uh easyway to approach the scripture as
a family, and maybe it's.
You know we didn't do this whenmy kids were young and I regret
this, but if your kids areyoung, man, get in the habit of
once a week, you know, thursdaynights, pick a night that
everyone's home and no one'srunning around the ball practice

(30:44):
and no one's going out on datesor weekend activities, and so
pick a night Thursday night,monday night, whatever and make
that your family night, whereit's, you know, we do an easy
dinner.
We order pizza or we make a bigpot of spaghetti or whatever,
just easy dinner.
We can eat quick, and then wesit around and we have a little
15 minute conversation aboutsome truth, the word of God.
And as you do that, and there'sthree questions to ask as you

(31:06):
approach the word of God this isfor a group setting, but it's
also, you know, teach your kidsto do this in their own personal
Bible study.
Three questions so what?
And now what?
Okay, that's five words.
Three questions, what, so what,now what?
So let's read a story.

(31:27):
Let's read a parable of Jesus.
Jesus is teaching his disciplesand he teaches this parable.
So let's pick a parable and youread about blah blah, blah,
blah, blah.
You read the story.
It's great what?
Let's discuss for a few minutes.
What is Jesus trying to tell ushere?
What's the principle, what'sthe crux of the story?
And again, if you would teachyour kids to have a little quiet
time of their own, give them alittle journal and, hey, read

(31:48):
this verse, write down what.
Okay, this is a story of theprodigal son and it's you know,
the prodigal son wants hisinheritance and he leaves and
he's a jerk and he goes andrealize how good he had with his
father and he runs home and hisfather accepts him with loving
arms and goes to party for him.
That's the what.
That's the summary of the story.
All right, so what?
Let's answer that question.
So what does that mean to us?

(32:08):
What does that mean to us today?
And so let's consider that.
And so let's talk around acircle.
What do you think it means?
Ask your 10-year-old, ask your8-year-old, ask your 5-year-old,
ask your 16-year-old.
What do you think that means toyou, what's the implication of
that to us, and hear theiranswers.
Talk about it.
All right, now what?
That's the third question.
How do we.
And now what?

(32:29):
In a family setting is greatbecause you can say everybody,
all right, now what?
Each of you a five-year this.
What are you going to dodifferently this week as a
result of knowing this truth?
And let everybody kind of sharean answer and discuss it.
And it's great if you can dothis as a family.
And the now what?

(32:50):
Question?
You know each kid in your family, each person in your family,
mom, dad, the now what to thatstory.
We just read the principle.
We just read and write downeverybody's one sentence now
what?
And put that on therefrigerator and and just kind
of refer back to it all weeklong.
Hey, you remember this, we'retrying to do this, or someone
has a thought or an attitude orwhatever.
Hey, remember, here's aprinciple of striving.
And you just start looking forways to apply the scripture to

(33:13):
your daily lives, all because ofa conversation you had for 15
or 20 minutes over dinner.
And so that's an easy way tostart with three simple
questions to know what word says, what it means and how are we
going to apply it.
I mean, anybody can do that.
You don't have to be a rocketscience or a seminary grad to
approach the scripture that way.

Chris Grainger (33:31):
That's right.
Well, you're not going tobelieve this, barrett, so I'm
going to hold this up.
This is in my Bible.
What?

Barrett Johnson (33:38):
are your questions.

Chris Grainger (33:38):
I can't remember well what it's saying, so the
question is what happened, sowhat now?

Barrett Johnson (33:43):
what?
Okay, all right, so we're, youand I are both geniuses, chris.
Did you go?
Do you go to seminary, chris?

Chris Grainger (33:49):
I did not, and I've been reminded by that a lot
.
Well, chris, how could you?

Barrett Johnson (33:53):
come up with those three complicated
theological questions withoutseminary training.
How could you do that?
How could you?
You're obviously a savant here.

Chris Grainger (34:00):
You've got skills and talents beyond your,
beyond your years in educationwell, I, I did hear that
practice, you know, a coupleyears ago, my, my, my pastor, uh
, pastor joey martin, uh taughtthat one to me and that was and
that was a uh, it served me well.
But it serves me well just in apersonal quiet time too.

(34:21):
You know, just doing that, butadding it to the family dynamic
for sure, yeah, for sure, it'san easy way.

Barrett Johnson (34:26):
I love it.
Like you said, it is easy.
This is not.
We don't have to overcomplicategoing to the word of God and
looking for ways to apply it toour lives and following what the
word says, that's.
It doesn't have to becomplicated.
Anybody can do this.

Chris Grainger (34:41):
Amen to that brother, Amen.
I want to take a quick break,guys, We'll come back.
When I reflect on the kind ofthings that the men who
participated in our discipleshipmasterminds had in the past, I
am overwhelmed by the quality oftheir comments and commitment
to each other.
Several of the guys commentedthat this was the most

(35:04):
meaningful leadership experiencethey've encountered, and we
even had one man log into adiscipleship mastermind while a
hurricane was hitting his house.
He was that committed andreceived that much from his peer
group that he didn't want tomiss it.
Because of this extraordinarycommitment and because it's a
true gift and pleasure, we madethem a core part of our

(35:28):
community and we hope you mightjoin us.
We sit up men with their ownpeer advisory group of seven
individuals that meet everyother week for 12 weeks.
Each member shares areas theywant to focus on, such as
improving their prayer life,being more intentional with
their wives or maybe shedding afew extra pounds Together.

(35:53):
We help them strategize, makecommitments, find accountability
and learn.
It's been our experience thatmost guys want a community of
trustworthy men to share theirideas and create support for
each other with, and it's beenour experience that most men
don't either create this forthemselves or seek them out.

(36:13):
So we do this because we wantyou to have that in your life,
and all that is needed to beginwinning is you.
If this sounds interesting,check out our community to see
the dates and times of whenthese different groups meet.
Visit thelionwithinus to startyour free trial of our community

(36:36):
.
To get started today, that'sthelionwithinus, and I would
love to see you lean in and tapinto the power of our
discipleship masterminds.
So, barrett, I know there's onecomponent that we haven't even
touched about yet, and I lovehow there's the overall arching

(36:57):
roof, if you will, for what youput together.
So unpack that for us.

Barrett Johnson (37:01):
Yeah.
So we've got our foundation ofabiding, walking with God.
We've got these three pillarsof teaching, modeling, teaching,
applying, and then every goodhouse needs a roof.
And so our model's got thisroof, the capstone, the thing
that holds it all together andkeeps it all secure, and that's
just connecting.
That's the love relationshipthat a parent in our audience
case here today that a dad haswith his kids, and that is just

(37:23):
vitally important.
It's a non-negotiable.
You wouldn't build a house witha solid foundation and all
excellent walls and floor planand then not put a roof on it.
You've got to have the roofright, right.
And so this speaks to thecritical component that if
you're going to do anythingmeaningful with your kids, it's
going to have to happen throughthe context of a love
relationship.
If a dad tries to do thatwithout having the hearts of

(37:47):
their kids, then I think you'regoing to spin your wheels,
you're going to not make anymovement.
The best change, the bestmovement, the best activity, the
best process of life changehappens in context of a love
relationship and I think toomany dads I don't know if this
is a dad out here listeningthere's this.

(38:09):
There's a little line that goesaround, this little phrase we
hear.
It says don't be your, don't beyour kid's friend, be their
parent.
And I love that, I get that,totally do.
But I think there's some dadsout there in particular who've
taken that advice Don't be afriend, be their parent.
They've taken it too far andthey've almost come to the
conclusion of thinking you know,if my teenagers like me, then

(38:29):
I'm doing it wrong.
I've got to build this, be thisdrill sergeant, disciplinarium
who pushes and drives themtowards character and excellence
, and I've got to do it as thisdistant, cold, faraway person,
as their parent.
And if I'm their friend, I'vefailed.
You know, I I just don't thinkthat's effective, and I write in
the book about this.

(38:50):
I heard a lady named JillBriscoe she's probably 90 years
old now.
Teacher out of up in Northwest,jill said this at a conference
I was at.
She said hey, when it comes toparenting your kids, you want
your kids to like you, becauseif they don't like you, they
won't listen to you.
And she went on to say do youlisten to people that you don't

(39:11):
like?
And all of us adults in theroom went well, no, if I'm
listening to someone that Idon't like, that I just hate.
I don't like their persona, Idon't like who they are.
I kind of ignore them.
And I like their persona.
I don't like their.
You know who they are.
I kind of ignore them.
And our kids do the exact samething with us.
And so you want your kids tolike you, you've got to build an
affinity and it comes withexperience and time spent and
love and investment in therelationship and asking good

(39:32):
questions and just being presentin their lives.
That's so critically important.
And so I would say, if a dad islistening and thinks I want to
have spiritual influence on mykids, obviously look at each of
these five things, but I thinkthe foundation, the root for two
great places to start startwith, are you walking with God?
And if you're not, start thereand if you don't feel like you

(39:52):
have a passionate desire to bewith God, make it your prayer.
God, would you birth in me apassionate desire for you, and I
believe God wants to answerthat prayer.
But then the second key place tostart is what does it look like
to reconnect with the hearts ofyour kids?
And each kid's going to bedifferent.
Each of them has a differentlove language and a different
need, different ages, whateverelse, and we know this.
This is easy when our kids areyounger.

(40:13):
When they become teenagers itbecomes a little harder.
But either way, we've got towork hard as parents to have the
hearts of our kids, knowingthat any influence we're going
to have is going to start there.
And so you know this relatingthing is critical.
You can't do without it.

Chris Grainger (40:28):
It really is.
I mean, maybe speak to the dadwho's struggling with some
connection with his kids rightnow.
Maybe you know, like youmentioned teenagers, yeah, if
you feel like there's adisconnect right now with your
teenage son or daughter, youknow, if you feel like there's a
disconnect right now with yourteenage son or daughter, any
advice?
I mean, obviously you soundlike you have a lot of
experience in these areas thatyou would offer up to that dad

(40:49):
that's listening right now whojust feels a little discouraged
there.

Barrett Johnson (40:51):
Yeah, I mentioned the love languages a
minute ago.
Gary Chapman's had thebest-selling marriage book on
the list for 40 years now for areason.
That love language thing.
There's something there soperfectly.
Consider what is your kid'slove language, if it's quality
time, or if it's words, or ifit's you know whatever.
Figure out what that is andspeak that love language.
I think for a teenage kid thatyou're disconnected with, you

(41:14):
know there's nothing wrong as adad going humbly to a son or a
daughter and saying, you know,hey, I want nothing more to have
a great relation with you.
My, my, my love for you and my,my relationship with you is the
most important things in my lifeand I feel like we're not
really firing all cylindersright now and I want to improve
that.
What can we do to do better?

(41:34):
What can I do as a dad to tohear you better and to be more
in your life and you being moremy life, for us to be connected
and just humbly go to a kid andlet the kid give you some
feedback.
And when a kid gives youfeedback and says, well, dad,
you're never here, or dad, youfeel like you're not interested,
or whatever feedback that kidgives you there's a temptation
to go defensive and go.
Well, that's not really thecase and I try, you know, don't

(41:55):
do that.
Just shut up and listen and ownyour stuff to the best of your
ability and humbly hear whatthey have to say and do all you
can to you know, correct thoseareas that from their perception
, whether you believe it'slegitimate or not, um, hear what
they have to say, that's theirreality and do your best to you
know, come alongside them and bepresent with them.

(42:17):
Um, so that will come to Jesusmeeting with your kid and
hopefully Jesus is involved inthat because God's leading you
Right.
Uh, hopefully we'll.
We'll kind of jumpstart perhapsa new relationship with a, with
a kid that you're feeling kindof disconnected from.

Chris Grainger (42:30):
I love to hear your definition of success.
So someone walks through thismodel.
Yeah, yep, paint, paint them apicture.
What?
What does the definition ofsuccess look like so far as
discipling your kids?

Barrett Johnson (42:41):
You know I think my desire with my kids
that I've, you know, had somegood good seasons and some bad
seasons, but my desire is for mykids to have a faith that lasts
.
I want my kids, when theylaunch into adulthood and have a
independence in their own lifeand a trajectory where they're
making the choices for theirlives and I'm I have no
influence anymore.
Really I can nudge and I cancounsel and give some wisdom

(43:01):
when they ask me, but when I'mno longer, you know the key
influence in their lives thatthey have a faith that stands.
They have a relation with Godand a love for Him that stands
on its own.
And you know there's some hitsand there's some misses and
there's some good seasons andbad seasons, but that's my
ultimate goal of doing that andI think every dad can ask that.
You know you've got a greatthat's a great question, chris,

(43:23):
for all of us to ask.
You know Stephen Covey and hisbook Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People from 35 yearsago, which was a game changing
book for me when I considered itthrough the lens of my
Christian faith.
He said too many people spendtheir lives climbing the ladder
of success only to realize theladder was leaned up against the
wrong wall, and so it's a greatidea to, early on, with your

(43:46):
kids, or even wherever you're at, to consider what's what wall
is my ladder leaned against?
What am I aiming for?
What's my definition of successand that should, or could,
drive us, and so, I think, forparents any dad out there?
what do you want for most ofyour kids?
What is your desire?
What's your goal?
If it's for your kid to getinto a great college and have a

(44:07):
great career and make a bunch ofmoney, okay, off to the races,
pursue that.
But I think that goal doesn'talign with what God's goals are
for you and for your kids Havinga great career and a persistent
influence to God's glory.
Maybe there's a part of that inthere.
But, um, all the world sayswhat success looks like.

(44:28):
You know the stuff that we haveand the job that we have and
all those different things.
None of that means anythingunless we're using those things
to the glory of God in our lives.
And so, for me, success is thatspiritual growth, that intimacy
with God, that getting caughtup in God's will and being used
for His purposes, to His glory.
That's His will for my life andthat's His will for our kids'

(44:49):
lives.
I want to join God in thatprocess.
Help my kids find that.

Chris Grainger (44:54):
Well, I know beautiful answer, by the way and
I know we also have lots ofdads out there listening who
maybe that season of influenceis past, maybe they're out the
house, maybe they have aprodigal out there.
What would you share to them?

Barrett Johnson (45:11):
It's a struggle .
I lead an adult Bible studyclass where I occasionally teach
a class at our church.
There were 25, 30 of us in theroom Sunday morning, just
yesterday.
We're recording this on aMonday, so it was just literally
24 hours ago and we weretalking about some of the
burdens we have in our lives and, as Christmas rolls around,
we're considering the hope wehave in the incarnation and what

(45:33):
hope stems from all that andknowing that Christ is coming to
the world at Christmas.
And we kind of just got on atangent conversation about
prodigal kids, kids that havekind of walked away from the
faith, kids that are not, youknow, kind of turning out
spiritually as we hoped orintended them to.
I kind of just did a.
You know 15, 16 families,couples in the room.
I said you know who.
Who's got a kid that you're.

(45:54):
That's one of your burdens inlife.
One of the things that keepsyou up at night in your prayer
life is that they're not walkingwith God.
I swear.
Good Christian families, goodChristian church.
Probably two-thirds of thehands went up in the room.
So this is common.
It's not uncommon for parentsto look at their kids that are
growing up and the choicesthey're making or living the
house going.
They're not where they need tobe, and what do I do about?

(46:16):
that man.
I think for us to never stoppraying for our kids, stop
praying that God will continueto pursue them, which he will,
but that eventually, in some way, some circumstance, he will
catch them Striving.
To do that, all we can is tokeep on saying, god, keep on

(46:36):
chasing my kid.
You know, for a parent whowants to continue to influence,
obviously you're going tocontinue to love and point them
to Jesus any way you can, but Ithink there comes a season where
the relationship you have withyour kids is so much more
important than the lectures youhave for them.
So I would encourage any parentout there to pray for wisdom,
to know what things to talkabout and things to share with

(46:59):
their child or teenager or youngadult who was pulled away from
the faith.
That is antagonistic to thefaith.
Even Pray about what things youneed to talk about and in what
context, because some of thosethings can just lead to conflict
and fights and bitterness andgreater disengagement, and then
you lose any influence you mighthave.

(47:21):
I think we've got to lead withlove more than anything else and
maybe pray that God would bringsomeone else in their life, or
some other circumstance or lifethat will expose them to truth
or convict them of their.
You know they're they'rewandering away from God and
helping them realize their needto pursue God again.
That may not be your job in themiddle of all that, because
your greatest job is to be in alove relationship with them.

(47:41):
And I think you don't want tocompromise that by the need to I
don't know preach at them.
You know, I think I think your,your, your lectures and your
sermons you're going to give tohim about the truth which you
know is true, Right, Are goingto fall on deaf ears and only
pull them further away.
And so your goal, I think, as aparent, should be to
prayerfully pray that Godpursues them and be there for

(48:04):
them.
There's a great book out there.
I forget the author, but thetitle, I believe, is about young
adult children.
You know, kids have left home.
The title is Leave the WelcomeMat Out and Shut your Mouth.
I think is what it is.
It's make them feel welcome andloved and welcome in your home,
and then stop lecturing themRight.

(48:26):
Just if they ask you for advice, you're there to give it to
them, but don't make the need tobe right the priority.
Amen, make the relationship thepriority 100%, 100%, barry.

Chris Grainger (48:40):
Well, I love the priority.
100%, 100%, barry.
Well, look, love theconversation.
We always do a lightning roundwith the line of tennis at the
end, so if you're willing toplay, we'll jump right in.
I've got my hand on my buzzer,there you go.
There you go.
Start off pretty easy.
So what's, what's a hobby oranything you enjoy doing for fun
?

Barrett Johnson (48:58):
Again, I mentioned golf.
That for fun.
Again I mentioned golf.
When I have five hours of freetime, that's always fun for me.
So I will say that, Again, Idon't play that much, but that's
a fun little thing.
That's my distraction there yougo and just I love to travel
with my wife.
When we have a chance to traveland explore and see and do
things, traveling is huge for ustoo.

Chris Grainger (49:15):
Okay, what's the most interesting place you've
ever been?

Barrett Johnson (49:19):
Ever been.
You our my go-to place now.
Well, it's kind of our haunt wethere.
There is a little village, uh,south of Cancun called Akumal,
okay, and if you fly into Cancun, all the craziness of hotel
zone we hate that.
We fly into Cancun and driveabout an hour and a half South
and Akumal is a little sleepytown.
That's got amazing snorkelingand we make it a point now about

(49:42):
once a year it's kind of ourrhythm to go there for at least
a week and just park it there inthe wintertime, in February
usually, and just be lazy andsnorkel all day long and be in
the water with fish.
It's our favorite thing to doin the world and so that place
is our favorite place now, Ithink.

Chris Grainger (50:00):
Wow, that sounds amazing.
Good for you.
Good for you Once a year,that's what I'm talking about.
All right, so how aboutfavorite food?
What's?

Barrett Johnson (50:09):
your go-to.
You know I'm from Houstonoriginally.
I live in Atlanta now, butHouston is the home of the
greatest Tex-Mex in the world,and so I think if I was left
with one category of food, Ihave to eat that the rest of my
life.

Chris Grainger (50:20):
Yeah.

Barrett Johnson (50:21):
I'd probably go with good Tex-Mex food.
That's my go-to.
Okay, and no bad Tex-Mexthere's a difference.
I love I hate bad Tex-Mex aboutas much as I love good Tex-Mex.
Right, that's very importantthere.

Chris Grainger (50:35):
Very important, very important.
What about sports teams?
Anybody following?

Barrett Johnson (50:39):
You know I went to school in Houston.
I grew up in Houston and wentto school at Texas A&M.
So I don't care much about profootball, pro sports.
You know my city's team isdoing well, I'll engage but I
don't get passionate about it.
But I'm an ardent Texas A&MAggie fan because that's where I
went to school and there's awhole lot of tradition.
I mean, it's a cult.

(50:59):
If you follow Texas A&M, it's acult that we're involved in.
So it's obnoxious and crazy andall kinds of stupidness, but
it's my obnoxious and crazy andso, yeah, there's my passion
there.

Chris Grainger (51:11):
Do you get to go to many of the football games?

Barrett Johnson (51:13):
We'll get there once every other year or so.
Being in Atlanta, it's a littleharder, but all my family in
Houston have got tickets togames and so we'll get there
with them occasionally.

Chris Grainger (51:21):
There you go there you go.
How about any habits, anythingyou started doing recently that
you got a lot of value out of?

Barrett Johnson (51:28):
It's a great question what's a new habit Home
?
I'm trying to think.
You know this is a discipline.
My wife has got somechallenging health issues so in
the last year or so, two yearsI've kind of become the chef at
home.
My wife got MS and some chronicback pain, and so she didn't

(51:48):
cook much and so I startedcooking more and so kind of the
rhythm of and it's always fromscratch stuff.
A lot of times it's just remadestuff, but occasionally I'll
make something from scratch andI'll really impress myself with
how well I do in puttingtogether a meal that I thought I
made.
That.

Chris Grainger (52:06):
There you go.
Good for me.

Barrett Johnson (52:07):
So that's kind of been a new rhythm of life
that I've found in recent days,love it, love it.

Chris Grainger (52:12):
What about a superpower?
So, if you could have asuperpower, which one would you
have?

Barrett Johnson (52:19):
I.
So if you could have asuperpower, which one would you
have?
I've got a superpower.
I do my superpower and I loveeveryday superpowers that we
think is unique to us.
Here's mine.
I am amazing at predictingestimated times of arrival.
I know this sounds really dumb,okay, but if I'm driving here
to Houston, texas, which is a 12and a half hour drive, I can
pretty much say we're leaving at6am, we're gonna go see our

(52:40):
family in Houston.
I can pretty much tell my momthat we're going to stay at her
house.
Mom will be there at, you know,6.35pm and I'm a pretty amazing
guy.
We're driving home from, fromdowntown Atlanta, our home, in
traffic.
We're going to be home at 4.26.
I'm always within a few minutesof nailing on the spot.
I don't know what that is.
Is that a superpower?

(53:01):
Have I used it for good?
I'm not sure, but I thinkthat's my superpower there.

Chris Grainger (53:07):
Well, it's definitely the most unique one
we've ever heard.

Barrett Johnson (53:10):
So there you go , there you go.

Chris Grainger (53:11):
Love it, Love it .
So I'd love to also know, whenyou think about God Barrett,
what's your favorite thing abouthim?

Barrett Johnson (53:20):
There's a book I just read by a guy named Sky
Gyptani.
The book's called With, andit's a great breakdown of how we
see God.
I love it.
And he says sometimes people seeGod as we're kind of under him
and he's this God and we'reunder him and there's dimensions
of that obviously he's our Godand we're not.

(53:43):
There's people who live lifeover God, where God's kind of my
Santa Claus and does what Iwant him to do.
There's different ways ofapproaching God, but Sky in his
book says that with is the rightway of seeing God and he makes
a great argument that we'recalled to be in a relationship
with the Father where he is ouradvocate, he is our friend,
we're obviously in submission tohim and there's a reverent fear
, but we walk through life withGod and I like that dimension of

(54:07):
God that I have tried topractice in recent months or
years after reading that book,of just saying God, you're with
me and I want my life to alignwith you and I want my life to
align with you and, god, wouldyou keep reminding me where I'm
kind of missing the mark orwhere I'm kind of derailing my
life and undermine things thatyou have in store for me?
Because, god, you're right herewith me, wanting to kind of

(54:27):
nudge me in the right directionand guide me to do the things
you want me to do and be the manyou want me to be.
God, can I be with you today?
And that's kind of where I'vekind of had my headspace in the
last little bit here.
That's beautiful.

Chris Grainger (54:38):
That's beautiful .
Let's flip it 180 now.
So what's your least favoritething about the evil one?

Barrett Johnson (54:45):
Least, just how crafty he is.
I hate that.
Satan is a deceiver and he's aliar and I think most of us who
are being lied to and beingdeceived in those moments we
don't know we're being deceiveduntil God confronts with that
and he's got.
The enemy is crafty that way.
I hate it when I'm fooled by theenemy in a way of thinking or a

(55:08):
way of perceiving a situationand God kind of reminds me of,
okay, no, you're being deceived,that's not the truth, here's
the truth.
And I kind of look back on theseason where I was believing a
lie and how, how gullible I was.
I hate that and I'm so glad Godreminds me and points me to the
truth and I kind of get back towhere I need to be.
But I hate when I look back ona season and go I was believing

(55:31):
a lie about this circumstance orthis person or this behavior,
whatever it might be.
I can't believe I got fooled bythe evil one that I know is my
enemy and that wants to, youknow, screw my life up.
Uh, I hate that about him.

Chris Grainger (55:45):
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Well, last one for thelightning round, barry, is what
do you hope to listenersremember the most about our
conversation today?

Barrett Johnson (55:53):
You know I hope they remember that that there's
a God that's with you and foryou and is not there to make you
feel bad about yourself orremind you where you're terrible
.
There's a God that says, hey,I've got an agenda to make
disciples of all mankind.
That's what Jesus gave us inthe Great Commission.
That's my agenda for everybody.
Dad, I can use you in somesimple but fundamental and

(56:17):
essential ways in the lives ofthe kids that I've given you
stewardship over.
These are my kids, God says.
I think they're not your kids,they're my kids.
I've trusted you with them for18 to 20 years.
That's my agenda to help loveand follow me and get caught up
in my big bill for their lives.
If there's a dad out there thatsays maybe I can try to be a
part of that, there is a loving,gracious, powerful God who will

(56:39):
say I can help you do that.
It is exactly what I want to doand it's exactly how I want to
use you.
Let's go, let's do this.
I'm with you, I'm for you, I'vegot your back, I'm going to
guide you in all things.
Just trust in me and look to me, and you can get some stuff
done.
You can see God do works inyour family with your kids.
Through you, you simple,imperfect, fallen dads out there
.
God says I can use you.

Chris Grainger (57:01):
Amen to that, amen.
Well, barrett, where do youwant to send them to connect
with you?
Do you want to get a copy ofthe book and the things that
you're?

Barrett Johnson (57:07):
doing, love it.
So our ministry that we'vestarted 10 years ago is called
Imperfect Normal Families Only.
So if there's a dad out therethat's perfect and has a perfect
marriage and perfect familylife, we've got nothing for you.
We're all for imperfect normalfamilies only, and that's an
acronym I-N-F-O.
So our website's Info forFamilies and you can find all

(57:28):
about us there.
But this new book resource it'sa great Disciple them Like Jesus
.
It's a great easy book to read.
It's 30,000 words.
Any man that even doesn't liketo read books can read this book
.
There's an audio book versionof it.
You can go toDiscipleThemLikeJesuscom and
there's both ways you can orderthe book.
But there's also a fun thing.
We've got eight teaching videos, one that goes along with each

(57:49):
of the chapters.
They're about 10 minutes longeach.
You could grab the book, youcould read a chapter.
You could watch a video.
Those videos are absolutelyfree when you buy the book, just
go to DiscipleThemLikeJesuscomto find out about it.
Great thing for a husband and awife to go through, to get on
the same page and becomeintentional about discipling
their kids like Jesus.

Chris Grainger (58:07):
Love it.
Love it Well, barrett.
Thank you so much for today.
We'll make sure those links arein the show notes for you
listeners out there.
Anything else you'd like toshare today sir?

Barrett Johnson (58:14):
No, it's great to connect with you, chris,
praying for you, appreciate yourprayers for me.
You know I mentioned I had acancer scare a couple of years
ago.
In the last couple of monthswe've learned that there's some
tumors growing in my lungs.
So I'm starting radiation again, probably over the Christmas
holidays Okay, to kind of get incheck what we see is a very
rare but sometimes aggressivecancer in my life.
So, man, chris, I'd ask foryour prayers, and even those

(58:36):
guys listening, pray for Barrett, your new friend, that I'd get
ahead of this and that God wouldbring some healing to my life
in the coming days.

Chris Grainger (58:43):
A hundred percent, barrett.
We will definitely be prayingfor you.
Our community will be prayingfor you.
Appreciate, it man, thank youso much for sharing today my
pleasure man.
Good meeting y'all All right,guys.
So I told you that was going tobe a good one.
So thankful for Barrett comingout and be sure, guys, to keep
him in your prayers.
I mean, that's a pretty heavyprayer request he dropped on us

(59:03):
there.
We definitely want to beintentional about that.
So be praying there andremember all the different
elements around the frameworkthat he put in place.
So, as far as abiding, modeling, teaching, applying and
connecting that, definitely allthat resonated with me greatly,
and hopefully it did with you aswell.
The question of the week thisweek for Delilah and Dennis is
what's one lesson about God youwish someone had taught you

(59:28):
earlier?
We all learn stuff right, butis there something out there
that you just wish you had knowna little bit earlier?
Now take that one lesson and goteach it today.
Just go encourage somebody withthat today, fellas.
So that's what it's all about.
Yeah, so thankful for Barrett.
Check out the links in the shownotes.
We'll have everything there foryou guys.
Thelionwithinus, that'sTheLionWithInus.

(59:51):
We have our weekly roar, so goget signed up for that.
All these things are free.
We have our Christian LeaderAssessment.
That's a free tool for you.
We have our Bible Studies onthe YouVersion Bible app, all
free resources for you to helpequip you to grow, to be the
leader that God intends you tobe.
And then, when you're ready tojump in and actually engage,
check out our offerings with ourline within us community, our

(01:00:13):
Spiritual Kickoff, our Summit,leadership Development, our live
events, our mission trips.
That's it.
We're going on and on and on tohelp you be equipped to do what
God's calling you to do, and weknow we can't do this alone.
So, again, the lion withinthat's thelionwithincomus is the
website.
So go, check that out.
All right, so give us a ratingand review.

(01:00:34):
That's a great way to supportthe show as well, and, again, we
can serve you in any way.
I definitely want to hear fromyou.
Thank you to Barrett for onceagain coming on and sharing his
powerful story and equipping usto really step in and remember
that we are handpicked by God tolead our family.
So hopefully you're a littlebit more equipped at this point.
So have a great day, get afterit.
Remember, keep unleashing thelion within.