Raising Up Gen Z to Follow Christ (Part 2 of 2)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Focus on the Family with Jim Daly

Episode: Raising Up Gen Z to Follow Christ (Part 2 of 2)
Date: October 3, 2025
Hosts: Jim Daly & John Fuller
Guest: Dr. Jason Jimenez, Author of Parenting Gen Z: Guiding your child through a hostile culture

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Overview

In this episode, Jim Daly and John Fuller continue a practical, hope-filled conversation with Dr. Jason Jimenez on the unique challenges—and opportunities—of raising Gen Z to follow Christ. Drawing from his experience as a parent, apologist, and author, Dr. Jimenez shares actionable advice on cultivating faith in the next generation, the importance of parental modeling, intentional encouragement, and navigating failures. The episode centers on critical strategies for engaging Gen Z with truth, grace, and authentic Christian living.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Understanding and Engaging Gen Z (01:18–03:56)

• Generational Characteristics:
  Jim Daly reflects on Gen Z’s identity, describing them as “authentic, committed, but willing to think of other ideas.” (01:47)
• Why Understand Generations:
  "It's not unwise for us as the Christian community to understand generationally where people are at and what the themes are." – Jim Daly (02:28)

The L.O.V.E. Acronym for Parenting (03:30–08:08)

Dr. Jimenez introduces a practical, memorable acronym—L.O.V.E.—to guide parenting practices:

• L - Laugh:
  “Laughing is medicine.” – Dr. Jason Jimenez (04:46)
  Techniques for non-humorous parents:

  • Recall what made you laugh as a child.
  • Use dad jokes or funny YouTube videos.
  • Let your kids poke fun at you in lighthearted ways (06:19).

• O - Open:
  “Look for opportunities to be vulnerable with your children… Letting them know there’s times that you’ve struggled in your faith, that you've had doubts, and how you learn to overcome those things.” (07:00)

• V - Value:
  Each family member is unique and worthy.
  “Everybody in this family has something to contribute… our job as parents… is to always value who that person is.” (07:38)

• E - Encourage:
  Rooted in 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
  “Encouragement not only brings comfort, but it also gives stability and it gives guidance.” (08:12)

Authority and Discipline in Parenting (09:32–12:02)

• Authority vs. Bribing/Negotiating:
  Modern parents often negotiate instead of exercising biblical authority. “They do more bribing than exercising a proper authority.” – Dr. Jason Jimenez (10:05)
• Healthy Consequences:
  Parents should set clear boundaries—not based on negotiation but on expectations and positive reinforcement.

Parenting Each Child Uniquely (12:02–14:52)

• Dr. Jimenez shares personal stories about teaching his four children to ride bikes, highlighting the need to adapt parenting to each child’s unique temperament:
  • “Each child is going to be uniquely crafted and different in their approach and their personality, which is beautiful. But we as parents have to adapt to those things.” (14:23)
  • “Don’t try to conform them to what we expect out of them. That’s where the training up of the child is.” (14:52)

Single Parenting and Blended Families (15:11–18:57)

• Dr. Jimenez recounts losing his mother as a teen and being raised by a single dad:
  • “I learned in that loss that God was faithful, that God was there for me. And God used that suffrage to open the hearts of my brothers and myself, even my dad, to go deeper in our faith as we were searching for hope and healing.” (16:44)
• Advice for Single Parents:
  • “He made sure that he was available for us no matter what. And that’s a core principle.” (19:07)
  • Reserve undistracted time for your children.
  • Make your home a place of safety, refuge, and stability—even if time is limited.
  • Seek support from the local church and spiritual leaders (20:06).

Passing on a Living, Transferable Faith (22:01–27:08)

• Not Just Caught, But Taught:
  Dr. Jimenez argues against the phrase “faith is caught, not taught.”
  • “That’s actually nonsense… Christianity is consistently with the conduct of living in what I have taught or instructed you over and over again.” (22:25)
• Modeling Faith:
  • The most powerful influence is parents living out an authentic, grace-filled Christian life.
  • Warns against depending solely on church programs, movements, or “celebrity pastors”—children should see real faith in their parents first (23:05).
• Helping Kids Make Faith Their Own:
  • Address Gen Z skepticism toward “organized religion”; invite honest questions and discussions about Jesus.
  • “Validate their concerns, own up to some of those things, but make sure that you teach them who Jesus Christ truly is in the Gospels and separate it from the noise out there…” (26:12)
  • If you’ve failed as a parent, humbly ask for forgiveness; kids are often ready to extend grace (26:35).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Humor in Parenting:
  “If you’re a little hard-nosed or strict and rigid, sometimes your kids, if they can poke fun at you—right? Let them do that.” – Dr. Jason Jimenez (06:31)
• On Encouragement:
  “It's easy to tear things down, as we know. But it's a lot more difficult to build things up, especially when it comes to, like, Legos. I like to build Legos, right?” (08:47)
• On Parental Regrets:
  “I talk to a lot of older parents who say, I was not really that spiritual leader that I should have been when they were younger. Now that they're older, I don't know how to speak into that. You know what you can do? Find ways to encourage your son or daughter.” (09:13)
• On Modeling Humility and Grace:
  “If you've messed up, there's always grace and your kids actually want to see that. That is a great model of faith because we know that we're born sinners and we're saved by grace. This is not of ourselves. This is a gift of God.” – Dr. Jason Jimenez (26:40)
• On Transferring Faith:
  “Our job is to model the faith and to transfer that to the next generation.” (22:45)
• On Single Parenting:
  “You can't do it alone. So you have to make sure that your family is supported by a local church…” (20:36)
• On the Importance of Vulnerability:
  “Letting them know there’s times that you’ve struggled in your faith, that you've had doubts, and how you learn to overcome those things.” (07:00)
• On Kids Questioning Organized Religion:
  "They generally don't like the orchestration of church. They're into spiritual things, but they think that's too much of a concoction." – Jim Daly (21:35)
• Powerful Moment – Losing His Mother:
  Dr. Jimenez’s testimony of faith after tragedy (15:27–17:59)
  “I miss her. But I'm thankful that through the loss, I've gained, as Paul says in Philippians 3, I've gained Christ more in my life.” (17:50)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:18 – Dr. Jimenez begins sharing on engaging Gen Z
• 03:30 – Introduction and explanation of the L.O.V.E. acronym
• 09:32 – Discussing healthy biblical authority and discipline
• 12:02 – Parenting stories: “learning to ride a bike” and individual child differences
• 15:27 – Dr. Jimenez’s personal testimony about losing his mother
• 18:57 – Advice for single parents and blended families
• 22:01 – How to help kids embrace and own their faith
• 26:35 – The importance of modeling honesty, forgiveness, and grace

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Conclusion

This episode offers vulnerable, scripturally anchored strategies for Christian parents raising Gen Z, highlighting the power of laughter, authenticity, and encouragement; the need for consistent, loving authority; and the importance of modeling and actively transferring faith—especially in a culture where young people are skeptical of organized religion. Through personal testimony and practical wisdom, Dr. Jason Jimenez urges parents to embrace grace, humility, and connection, ensuring their children see Christ both taught and lived at home.

Transcript

[Announcer]

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[John Fuller]

The story of the Prodigal son is one of the most powerful depictions of God's grace and unconditional love. Now you can bring that moment home with the Prodigal a breathtaking print by award winning artist Morgan Weisling. With your gift of $150 or more, you can receive this special edition print or make a gift of $300 or more and Morgan will personally sign your print. Visit focusonthefamily.com print today.

[Jim Daly]

The following program is sponsored by Focus on the Family and is supported by the prayers and financial gifts of wonderful friends like you.

[John Fuller]

This is John Fuller and please remember to let us know how you're listening to these programs on a podcast, app or website.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So one thing that I try to help parents understand is in that confusion, validate their concerns, own up to some of those things, but make sure that you teach them who Jesus Christ truly is in the Gospels.

[John Fuller]

That's Dr. Jason Jimenez with some of the wisdom he's learned about parenting Gen Z. And he's got a lot of great ideas and biblical insights to share today on FOCUS on the family. Thanks for joining us. Your host is Focus president and author Jim Daly. And I'm John Fuller.

[Jim Daly]

You know, our last conversation was really interesting and I'm the father of two Gen Zers, so it's been really illuminating for me, our conversation last time, just to kind of connect some of the dots. What are the sensitivities of the Gen Zers? I think every generation has, you know, descriptors, adjectives that describe them. You've got the silent generation, you know, the World War II people and then the boomers were kind of the out of the box thinker group. And then you have a generation like Gen Zers who if you were to pick three adjectives for them, maybe authentic, committed, but willing to think of other ideas. I mean, I don't know that those would be the three. But you know, these business futurists, like I think her name was Faith Popcorn or something like that, where they try to describe for businesses what these generations are like so that people can market to them. It's not unwise for us as the Christian community To understand generationally where people are at and what the themes are as well. So I'm looking forward. If you missed it last time, go.

[Announcer]

To the website, get the download, or.

[Jim Daly]

If you have a smartphone, you can certainly access it on our app.

[John Fuller]

Right. And there's so much more there. So all the links for accessing that material, that content is on the website or in the show notes. Well, Jason Jimenez is a Christian apologist, the founder of Stand Strong Ministries. He's a national speaker, and he's written a book we're going to be drawing from today. It's called Parenting Gen Z. Guiding your child through a hostile culture. All the details [e-mail] broadcast or give us a call. Our number is 800, the letter A in the word family.

[Jim Daly]

Jason, welcome back.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Thank you, guys.

[Jim Daly]

Man, it was such a good conversation last time, and it got me thinking about a lot of things. But pouring more into your book, you have some very particular ways that parents might want to consider parenting. And you created an acronym, love. Who doesn't love Love? I mean, we should, as Christians, be enamored with love, because Jesus said it's love. So how does the acronym love, what does it mean? And how do you apply it in your parenting?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, one of the attempts I tried to do in that particular chapter was to help families. Again, very discombobulated. You know, you got blended families, which is becoming the norm among gen zers. And so a lot of times when it comes to guiding and directing your family, it's kind of all over the map.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

And you're hoping that maybe if you got church in the equation, it's going to help kind of offset some of those pressures. So one of the things is I want to help parents on the go, especially if there's blended families, step parents involved, is to think of a motto. So what I've done in my family is I put together this acronym, love, and it stands for laugh, open, value, and encourage. And what we do there now is every single day when you're on the go, you just evaluate how to love your family.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Think about it. They're in good hands with you as a mom or a dad. One is, are you laughing with your kids? Have you done that this week? How are you looking to engage them and entertain? Laughing is medicine.

[Jim Daly]

Let me ask you about that. I mean, I enjoy that. And that's part of, you know, I like to look at life and laugh because it's good. It's medicine. But I can understand too, more serious people frown on that. Their personalities may not be given toward frivolity. And I get that a person who's more scientific, engineering minded, their senses of humor can be not as big. So it's not about guilt, though. How do you coach somebody who isn't naturally a laugher and a humorous person?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah, and that's a good question. And that is the case. A lot of times we engage parents. A lot of times they have difficulty with that. Their personality is dry and the kids know that, right? So they don't think that their mom or their dad is fun. They're just very strict and boring. Okay, I totally get that. But there are ways around that. The first thing I talk about in the book when it comes to laughing is remember yourself as a child, right? I mean, if there were things, moments in your life of people you thought were funny, why I'm not saying mimic them, but there are people in our life that we love, Jim, that were laughable, that really drew us in and told good stories. The other thing is, guess what? There's a lot of cheesy dad jokes out there that you could use.

[Jim Daly]

I hear you like those.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

I like that daddy jokes. Okay. There's funny YouTube videos.

[John Fuller]

Sometimes they even have bad dad joke books, if you can believe it.

[Announcer]

If you can believe that.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

I think Jim wrote one of those. John.

[Jim Daly]

You know, I love the fact that we could sit at the dinner table, Troy and I, and we would laugh so hard milk would come out of our nose. And I'm like, I was like 40.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, see, that's. Okay, so that's the point. Some people have an easier time at that, but the point is find things that you can laugh about. And one thing's. Guess what? If you're a little hard nosed or strict and rigid, sometimes your kids, if they can poke fun at you, right, Let them do that. If you're a little self deprecating sometimes, use that as funny moments. But look to try to do that as a way to engage your kids and have fun. Okay? That's key. And then I would actually. A more difficult challenge for a lot of parents is to be open. What I mean by that is looking for opportunities to be vulnerable with your children. Letting them know that you struggle. Letting them know there's times that you've struggled in your faith, that you've had doubts, and how you learn to overcome those kind of things. Be open about challenges in relationships. When your son or daughter is going through a situation right now and they're trying to figure things out, and you have to give them room to figure it out. Give them open opportunity to think things through and show signs of maturity and take responsibility. You can let them know that there are times in your own life where you made mistakes and how you learned from your failures. That's being open, making sure that you are engaging that way. And then V is value. Every family member has value, and everybody in this family has something to contribute to build into the family. Our jobs as parents, as we instruct them in the ways of the Lord, is to always value who that person is and meaning where that child is in the order of how they came, even if there's a blended family. And the last one is encourage. Who doesn't need more encouragement and speak.

[Jim Daly]

To that, particularly with Gen Z. Why encouragement is so critical?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

It's so encouraging because in First Thessalonians 5:11, we are told to build up one another. So 1. It's at the core of our faith as Christians, but as human beings, we are designed to need encouragement. Encouragement not only brings comfort, but it also gives stability and it gives guidance. When you intentionally encourage somebody in the process as they're learning and growing, that feeds them. Go back to the Garrett Chapman stuff. Right. The love tank. It feeds their love tank like never before. So it's easy to tear things down, as we know.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

But it's a lot more difficult to build things up, especially when it comes to, like, Legos. I like to build Legos. Right.

[Jim Daly]

I've got thousands still on the floor.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So we like to do that. But then, of course, when you have that young kid, they like to tear it down.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So it's hard to encourage. But the more that we do it, especially coming from mom and dad, who are the most important person in a child's life, never forget that. I get it. Jim and John, there are a lot of parents who feel very discouraged. They feel very depleted. I have not achieved a lot of this stuff. I talk to a lot of older parents who say, I was not really that spiritual leader that I should have been when they were younger. Now that they're older, I don't know how to speak into that. You know what you can do? Find ways to encourage your son or daughter.

[Jim Daly]

Yeah, that actually is spiritual right there.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Absolutely.

[Jim Daly]

Exercising biblical authority as a parent is so key to helping kids develop in a healthy way. But it also is probably understudied. You know, I don't know that we know how to apply healthy biblical authority. So describe the importance of biblical Authority and how parents need to apply it. Then how to, how do parents equip themselves to do it correctly so they don't damage the relationship? Because I mean, you can really hurt that relationship by simply being the authority. I told you not to do that. Why? Because I told you to. That kind of thing.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So you guys know this already, but when we were investigating, looking at Gen Z, I thought it was very important. This is a lesson I learned talking to parents raising millennials. And it was the waves of regret that they had and how they lacked exercising their authority. Okay, as a guardian, as a leader, someone that they respected. So when it looks at, when you look at the parents raising Gen Z today, they do more bribing than exercising a proper authority.

[Jim Daly]

What does that sound like?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So what that looks like is what you're doing is you negotiate with kids rather than saying, listen, I am your authority in this life. A lot of parents who are raising Gen Z feel that that's too authoritarian, too legalistic. They don't know how to exercise proper authority that is God given, meaning what the husband's role and responsibility is and what the wife's role and responsibility is. So what we're finding with a lot of people raising Gen Z today, they're not on the same page, if you will, when it comes to what those roles and responsibilities looks like. Typically, what we're finding is if the man is present, he's not leading the family spiritually and he's not making sure that there's actual repercussions to certain types of behavior that is demonstrated in the home.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So what I talk about in the book is that what parents do oftentimes is they do these scattered consequences, meaning they're reactionary. So if the bribing doesn't work, if the negotiating isn't necessarily working, like for example, if you take out the trash, I'll let you play more time on your. On the device, right? No, that should be a responsibility that your son or daughter has because you've given it to them in the context of your family because you value them constructively Right? Now, if they do things on good behavior, then again, good consequences follow. Hey, because you've been doing such a good job, I want to reward you, but you have to make sure that you're keeping kids within these set boundaries.

[Jim Daly]

Another aspect that you mentioned in the book, and this is a funny one with bike riding, teaching the kids how to ride a bike. So we had a funny story with that. The boys I had set cones out in the driveway. So they're both going. And Trent was doing quite well. And he was saying, look. Look at me. Look how good I'm going. And I said, be careful. Pride goes before the fall. And then boom, bam. And Troy started laughing like, dad, that was incredible.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

He loved it.

[Jim Daly]

And that was our bike riding experience. I mean, put a little scripture in there and then, wow, Lord, you brought that one right to full blossom.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah. I mean, that's a good point too, Jim, because what I do in the book is I. I want to use as an illustration because I have four. So boy, girl, boy, girl. Of course, we didn't plan that.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

That's totally the Lord. But when I first took out Tyler, my oldest years back, when he wanted to learn how to ride, he's very methodical, very proper, you know, downloads all the information.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Very safe. Always looking at dad for approval. And it took me maybe two nights in total to teach him how to ride, and he was sufficient. He always made sure the pads were on. Right. He wanted knee pads and everything.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

That's Tyler helmet and everything.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

It was properly tied on. You know, if it slightly fell back a little bit, he makes sure that it was over his forehead kind of thing. So that was my experience. Very easy. Everybody was celebrating him, and I'm like, dang, this is pretty easy.

[Jim Daly]

Such a good dad.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah, I should do a YouTube channel now teaching, you know, people how to ride bikes. Then it came my daughter Amy. And my daughter Amy is a lot like me, and she's a philosopher, and she challenges everything. And she would not listen about balance and core and holding handles like this. She's always questioning me why I want to do it my way. It got to a point where I couldn't teach her anymore. I was fed up. So I went and got mom. And then within a few hours, mom helped arrive, even though it was dad. But I didn't get the credit. It was very difficult. I couldn't help her through the process. Mom had to step in there because I lost patience.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

I didn't want to argue and discourage her. Jackson, on the other hand, Jackson kept falling, tripping up. You know, he's always anticipating the next move. And so it took a long, arduous time for Jackson. He was the same guy where he was very, very fearful of the water and how to swim. He was always locked on with me. So he has a lot of more insecurity issues, right. Because he doesn't want to fail. Haley, when it came to her time, our youngest, she was already out there trying to Ride the bike before I showed up.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

So the point is that each child is going to be uniquely crafted and different in their approach and their personality, which is beautiful. But we as parents have to adapt to those things. And the key thing about it is be patient. Don't try to conform them to what we expect out of them. That's where the training up of the child is, that we are to understand how God has worked, wired them. And as the guider, as the instructor, the disciplinary, we have to then navigate that based on how they are wired and how they perceive life and its challenges.

[John Fuller]

Yeah, that's so good. This is Focused on the Family with Jim Daly and our guest today is Jason Jimenez and he's got a great book, Parenting Gen Z. You can learn more about Jason, his ministry and that book when you call 800 the letter A in the word family or stop by focusonthefamily.com.

[Jim Daly]

Jason, you didn't have both parents with you all the way through growing up? Neither did I. I had a single parent mom for a few years, and so we both experienced that. What was that like for you? What do you remember about that? What were the challenges that that posed for you?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah, I mean, it was July 5th of 1994. I was 15 going into my sophomore year of high school, and my mom was leaving her office. She was a secretary at a Christian radio station, and she was on her way to go pick up my youngest brother. And she had gotten tickets through the radio station to take us to a baseball game. And this was just the day after fourth of July. So I just saw her that night and me and another brother decided to stay over at grandma's house. Right. Who doesn't like staying at grandma's house? Because she was gonna make a big breakfast the next morning, spoil us. So we enjoyed that time. And then we got a call hours later when we didn't know where my mom was. She was already supposed to be there, but she never showed up, which is unlike. My mom was totally uncharacteristic. And that's when we got the call that the hospital reached out to my dad and she was hit by an ambulance that was going on a call and she was taking a left turn. She had the right of way and they T boned her. Helicopter had to come take her, fly her to the hospital. They tried to stop the bleeding, the internal bleeding, but she suffered such brain damage that if she survived from the internal bleeding as they're doing surgery on her, she would have been a vegetable. So I remember My dad took his four boys, ranging from 18 to 11 years old, married for 17 years. My mom. They're on the brink of divorce, though they struggled in their marriage. But I just remember a man who didn't really lead us in strong faith, but loved the Lord and certainly loved his kids and his family, is now in this situation of crisis where he's praying God, if you want to take my wife, my kid's mom your will be done within that hour. She didn't make it. And at that point, I will tell you guys that I was not angry towards God, but the closest person in my life was my mom. No question. She was a beautiful woman who loved Jesus. She was only 35 at the time. But I learned in that loss that God was faithful, that God was there for me. And God used that suffrage to open the hearts of my brothers and myself, even my dad, to go deeper in our faith as we were searching for hope and healing. And so even now, all these years later, that tragedy God has used as part of my testimony to talk to families who have also had traumatic experience or have also been raised by a single parent or they have a blended family and try to help them understand those are challenges, those are difficulties. But God is faithful and he'll see you through it. So I think about her every day. I miss her. But I'm thankful that through the loss, I've gained, as Paul says in Philippians 3, I've gained Christ more in my life.

[Jim Daly]

Yeah, I feel the exact same way. I really do. And it's hard to express that to people that are still carrying the burden of what their loss was. And it's the hardest question to answer. How did you let go of all that bitterness or resentment? I just never really even had it. That's hard to say.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah. I never said, why God? I said, what, God? What do you want me to learn from this? That was the key.

[Jim Daly]

Yeah. In that regard, we have a lot of single parents, and you become a single parent in a variety of ways through divorce or through the loss of your spouse, et cetera. So you end up a single parent. What help can you give them in this regard? Like your dad, the situation he was in. And now he's got a father and mother, four boys, right. @ critical time, you're all kind of in teenage hood and coming into teenager. So that had to be hard. Is there anything unique for a single parent to understand about the love concept and all the content of the book?

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah. I mean, that is so true. Jim. One thing that I know for me personally was my dad was not equipped. I mean, within the year he got remarried, I don't know that any single parent was ever equipped. He was. He wasn't equipped. But one thing that my dad did that was so important for us in those critical stages of our life was that he made sure that he was available for us no matter what. And that's a core principle and that is a huge thing. And sometimes what happens with single parents is again, you have to make ends meet. So some people are having to work two jobs or having to work overtime to provide for the family because they're just a one income family. And so I know that more. Anybody listening right now, all of us would love to have more time with our kids, especially if we know as time goes on, you savor those moments because you see how fast it is. One day they're in elementary and the next they're getting married. And so one thing I encourage, single moms or single dads is listen, as little opportunities you may have because of your schedule, when you do have limited time, use that time. That's undistracted, right? Guard it and tell your kids and reaffirm that all the time, that even though these tragedies have happened in our life, even though there's been losses, or even though you have difficulty with your dad or your mom and your bounce around in different houses, that kind of stuff, always make sure that your home is a home of safety, refuge and stability. And when parents do that, as a single parent, but I'd also say this, you can't do it alone. So you have to make sure that your family is supported by a local church. I would agree that is so critical. Now, that goes for any family, whether it's a mom and dad. But you have to make sure, especially with the sanity that a lot of single parents are dealing with, you have to make sure that you have people, spiritual leaders in a church based on Titus Chapter two, that are modeling the faith to help you to kind of offset that.

[Jim Daly]

Jason, we're right at the end here, but a big problem that we have in the Christian community particularly is our kids not embracing the faith. And this is all kind of tied with what we've talked about. You know, we're 40, 50 year old parents expecting our 16 year olds to behave like we do. And we don't remember what we were like at 16 and embracing that gentle journey toward the Lord. But speak to this issue where there's a distance, you know, where the kids don't want organized religion, they're turned off by this is a Gen Z factor. They generally don't like the orchestration of church. They're into spiritual things, but they think that's too much of a concoction. However they would describe it. You've heard them describe it, but just mention. And how does a parent keep the salt in front of their child? So that the big issue is how do you get them to embrace the faith for themselves? So they're not living off of your faith, but they become based in the faith.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Yeah. One of the biggest things is for every parent to remember is that it's transferable faith. That's a Hebraic method. We see that in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Psalm 78. And one thing that I try to tell parents, this whole notion of the Christian faith is caught, not taught. That's actually nonsense. That is not a phrase that we should be using. When you look at the Braic method and you look at Christianity, it's consistently with the conduct of living in what I have taught or instructed you over and over again. Paul talked to Titus like that elders are supposed to be that you see the guardianship of instruction with fathers in Ephesians chapter six. So for parents to understand, we're making sure that we're not constructing an institutionalized evangelicalism that is embedded with a bunch of different movements and contradictions. That it's abhorrent to the very truth teaching of Scripture. So make sure that you're not living hypocritical life. But as moms and dads, our job is to model the faith and to transfer that to the next generation. So you use the word Jim and I like it. Embracing that every child at its core innately wants that they want to be able to imitate the faith that is set before them from their mom and their dad. So that's number one. I don't think that we've done a good job and this isn't belittling anybody. But one thing we have to recognize, I don't think we've done a good job when we've looked to the brand of a movement right. In evangelicalism where it's just drawing young people and say oh man. See, they're plugged in into this great church. There's all these multi campus satellites and this celebrity pastor and this and that kind of stuff. Great. Hopefully they're teaching the word of God, but not at the expense of them not looking to you first and foremost when it comes to their life. So that's number one is so critical about modeling the faith. Number two, yes, there's a lot of this rigidity that's a main term that young people use or this fragmented faith, right? Because for them church has been something orchestrated through the lens of like the pharmacy or a gas station. Just these pick me ups or when I'm sick I go and I get a prescription and boom, you know that Z pack, spiritual Z pack if you will, help resolve some type of anxiety or distress because of porn addiction. That is not Christianity. Christianity is not just this therapeutic faith that we inject when it's convenient. So what we're trying to help parents understand is because most of them are biblically illiterate, is to teach them the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Do not live a hypocritical life. Own up to the mistakes that you've made and demonstrate to your kids. What does your prayer life look like? You know, have you ever read through the Bible with your kids? And the last thing is this, most of the false portrayal of Jesus in America that is held by millennials in Gen Z. And these are self identifying Christians, which most of them are not. They view Jesus either as a mystic or as a woke teacher who embraces all ideas and all sexuality and all ways of life. Or he was this revolutionist who he was reforming Judaism and he's changing the ways. And so a lot of times when young people are deconverting from the faith that they're raised in and maybe that was a fragmented faith, they look at that as rigid doctrine that doesn't help advance social justice. So one thing that I try to help parents understand is in that confusion, validate their concerns, Own up to some of those things, but make sure that you teach them who Jesus Christ truly is in the gospels and separate it from the noise out there and these different institutionalized systems of celebrity pastor this and these scandals here or you know, if you blew it in the past, ask for forgiveness. Because remember, God's grace is far greater than any sin that we've committed. And when you come with that type of humility, I think your kids are going to be a lot more forgiving. That's one thing. I will end on this note that's so, so important. If I can convey to people listening, if you've messed up, there's always grace and your kids actually want to see that. That is a great model of faith because we know that we're born sinners and we're saved by grace. This is not of ourselves. This is a gift of God. And when you convince Convey that, live that and transfer that. That speaks volumes to young people in this midst of confusion about do I trust the Bible? Who is Jesus really? What about these scandals and using all these excuses to draw away from God or deconstruct their faith when in fact let's own it for what it is in the grace of Jesus Christ and start engaging our kids on who Jesus Christ really is. And one way is say, hey, who is Jesus to you? And if they start bringing these false portrayals, these false versions, use that then to counter it with the truth of God's word with your kid. Ask them, invite them in if they want to be a part of that. That is a critical point. I just did that with a father in his 60s. He's now having breakfast with one of his adult children and they're going through the gospels together and they're exploring who Jesus is and they're praying together. His son is not fully there yet. He's got of a lot, lot of bitterness. But he loves the fact that he's spending time with his dad, they're eating at a restaurant that they enjoy, and they're actually learning some things that he never knew about with Jesus.

[Jim Daly]

Yeah, it's good. So good. Jason, this has been really informative and I hope the listeners and the viewers have caught the content of this book. I mean, it's rich and you've done an excellent job.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Thank you.

[Jim Daly]

To pull the right things together to talk about parenting the Gen Z generation. So thank you for being with us, with us.

[Dr. Jason Jimenez]

Thank you, Jim. Thank you, John.

[Jim Daly]

And get your copy. I mean, you might have some friends. Maybe your kids are now in their late 20s, but you have friends that are still in the midst of it. And this would be a great gift, a gentle gift, but get in touch with us and if you can, make a donation of any amount, one time gift or get on the monthly bandwagon as John and I do for focus. That's how we support the ministry. And if you can do either one, we'll send. Send you a copy of the book is our way of saying thank you parenting Gen Z. Guiding your child through a hostile culture. I think the title says it all. Who doesn't want that resource?

[John Fuller]

Yeah. Contact us today. Donate monthly if you can or a one time gift is deeply appreciated. Our number is 800 the letter A in the word family. Or you can donate by going [e-mail] broadcast and while you're there, be sure to see our new documentary called Truth Rising and the free four part study that goes along with it. Gen Z and other young people have an amazing opportunity to impact the culture for Christ. This film and study are going to equip you to take action and to engage others with God's truth and grace. Visit our website and watch Truth Rising and then be sure to unlock your free access to the study again. That'[e-mail] broadcast. Thanks so much for joining us today for FOCUS on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.

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