You have 936 weeks before your child turns 18, and each one counts! In this episode, Rick Wertz shares simple yet powerful ways to lead with vision, engage emotionally with your kids, and spark a fatherhood movement in your church. 

  Key Takeaway

 

• Fill a jar with 936 marbles and take one out each week to have a visual reminder of how time is passing with you kids from birth to 18 years old. 
• To PASS the baton as a dad, focus on purpose-filled fathering, activities, studies, and staying connected.
• Your church should have an electric buzz around fathering. 
• Fatherhood is not just about financial provision; it's about being a visionary for where your child is headed.
• If a fatherhood resource doesn’t exist, maybe God is calling you to create it.

  Rick Wertz

 

Rick Wertz is the founder and president of Faithful Fathering. He is a popular speaker for church groups and various organizations as he advocates for fathers and families. Rick has been married to Linda for 43 years, and they have two grown children. 

 

Key Quotes

 

• 5:49 - "I was very selfish, but I knew if I was stumbling, there were other Dads out there stumbling, too. So, I did receive a very clear call for the ministry, which is that He, the Lord, said,  the light in my church is dim. We, the church, mirrors society in many cases and arguably in most cases mirrors society more than influences society. So, my call was to get into the church and illumine the fathering movement in the church. Then the church could illumine the community to the significance and the importance of fathers."
• 24:26 - "We have to get to know our kids and we have to expose them to a lot of things. I'm not one that says you can just take one activity and just do that for this year. I want them to do as much as I can take on. It's going to be crazy in the house and we're going to be going in different directions, Mom and Dad sometimes. But as far as I'm concerned, that's part of our job. One of the biggest things we do after, is exemplifying in marriage, we're exemplifying our relationship with Christ every day because that's the closest thing to our relationship with Christ. And so that's what the kids need to see. That's the primary education we give our kids day in, day out. But after that, we have to help them understand how they've been uniquely gifted."

 

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