Fight, Flight, Or Camouflage with Sarah Cowan Johnson

The Family Discipleship Podcast

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Christianity, Parenting, Kids & Family

5.0 • 597 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Adam Griffin, Cassie Bryant, and Chelsea Griffin are joined by Sarah Cowan Johnson to talk about her new book “Teach Your Children Well: A Step-by-Step Guide for Family Discipleship,” and how we can live as the creative minority in today’s culture.Questions Covered in This Episode:

For those who don’t know you, would you introduce yourself and tell us about you, your family, and your ministry?
Your new book is called, “Teach Your Children Well: A Step-by-Step Guide for Family Discipleship.” Tell us the story about writing this book where did the idea come from and why did you want to write it?
You kick off the book talking about the research that shows how many kids are walking away from the church after high school. What do we take away from that?
Can you describe what you mean by a “high grace and high challenge” and why that is important?
Why is it so hard for parents to believe they have this grace and freedom and this weighty calling simultaneously?
Why is living in a post-Christian culture changing or clarifying the role of families to disciple their kids in today’s culture?
Will you help us understand what the common responses of fight, flight, or camouflage look like for a church or a family?
Why do you think that camouflage temptation is so strong for us as parents and how do we get past it? What do you think we should be doing instead?
You talk about our churches and families forming a “creative minority” similar to Daniel and his friends in Babylon. What would that actually look like for families?
Can you talk about what capturing a God moment is and how you encourage parents to go about doing this?
You talk about our temptation for fear, control, and disbelief. How do you want parents to address and face those temptations when they do come?
Your book has a lot of questions for readers to answer as well as ideas to try out. Would you share with our listeners some of your favorites that you’ve used at home?
If our listeners want to pray for you and your family, what can they ask God for on your behalf?

Guest Bio:Sarah Cowan Johnson is a ministry trainer, consultant, and coach based in Providence, RI. With nearly 20 years of ministry experience in the church and parachurch, Sarah is passionate about equipping ministry leaders to flourish in their unique callings and contexts. Before starting her own business, Sarah served as a Campus Staff Member and Area Director with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. After more than a decade on staff with InterVarsity, Sarah was assessed and approved by the Covenant Church as a church planter and served as the Executive Pastor for Sanctuary Church, a family of neighborhood congregations in Providence. Helpful Definitions:

Post-Christian: The culture is familiar with Christianity but chooses to reject it.
Fight: Our response is a culture war, we want to take back the ground we are losing.
Flight: Our response is to disengage from the world into an only Christian community.
Camouflage: Our response is to blend in and compromise, adopting some of the values of the post-Christian worldview.
Creative Minority: Our response is that this is not our culture, we are not going to be disruptive or give in. We will follow Jesus faithfully in a culture that doesn’t. It is not just about what we believe, it is about how we live.
Proactive Discipleship: Planning and thinking about spiritual practices for discipleship.
God Moments: Responding to discipleship moments we can’t plan for.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

“Teach Your Children Well” by Sarah Cowan Johnson
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Amazon affiliate links are used where appropriate. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, thank you for supporting Training the Church.Follow Us:
Instagram | Facebook | TwitterOur Sister Shows:
Knowing Faith | Confronting ChristianityThe Family Discipleship Podcast is a podcast of Training the Church. For ad-free episodes and more content check out our Patreon. Let this Mother’s Day be a reminder that she deserves care, too. Head to cozyearth.com and use our code FDP for an exclusive 20% off, and if you see a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth from us here at The Family Discipleship Podcast. Follow Us:
Instagram | Facebook | WebsiteEditing and support by The Good Podcast Co.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Use code FDP and get 30% off of "Storing Up Treasure" by Kyle Bjerga at thegoodbook.com today!

Use code FDP to get 30% off all the Do Great Things for God books at thegoodbook.com or get 40% off when you buy the whole series.

Follow Us:
Instagram | Facebook | Website

Editing and support by The Good Podcast Co.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to the Family Discipleship podcast, a podcast of Training the Church.
0:14.1	We are saying yes to an invitation from God to be part of this, but it's absolutely not all on our shoulders or up to us.
0:22.9	And yet in a very real way, our yes and our participation matters.
0:30.4	This idea that God can speak directly to our children, even our little ones,
0:35.1	I think the more that we practice inviting him to do that,
0:39.3	the more it actually increases our faith that he will.
0:47.3	You know, many Christians have settled for kind of a comfortable faith,
0:51.3	and so it's, we don't know what to do when it becomes uncomfortable
0:55.7	to follow Jesus.
1:03.2	All right, this is Adam Griffin, and I'm here with my lovely marital co-host, the truly
1:09.6	brilliant and beautiful Mrs. Chelsea Griffin. How you doing today,
1:12.5	Chelsea? I'm good. I'm ready to podcast. It's great to be here. Awesome. Me too. All right,
1:18.0	today's episode, we also have a guest with us. She's got a new book out called Teach Your Children
1:22.1	Well, Mrs. Sarah Cowan Johnson, everybody. Sarah, how you doing today? Good. Thanks so much for having me.
1:29.2	Oh, we're so glad to have you with us. Chelsea, at the very beginning of Sarah's book,
1:33.2	she talks about what I think is a really comical entry, which I love about her driving by,
1:38.6	her family drives by this place called, I think, the Foxy Lady. Is that right, Sarah?
1:41.8	The Foxy Lady. It's a Providence Institution.
2:06.8	And knowing that one day her kids would ask her about it and have to explain it, it kind of uses it as a great illustration. I was just wondering, Chelsea, can you think of a question that you were surprised or impressed with that came out of one of our children that you thought like, hey, one day I'm going to have to explain this to them. I think I was surprised at how young Gus was when he, I think he was probably like four or five when he was like, well, like about the Garden of Eden thing, he was just kind of like, well, why did
2:12.6	God put the tree there?
2:15.0	Oh, yeah.
2:15.7	And I was like, yeah, remember that Theodore asked us like, why God,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Family Discipleship Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Family Discipleship Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.