What if your family’s favorite Christmas traditions are powerful tools for discipleship and faith at home?

In this festive episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Justin Herman—online pastor at Mariners Church, father of four, and creator of the “Carpooling with Jesus” podcast. Listen in as they swap jokes, share inspiration for Christian parenting, and dive into practical ideas for raising Christian kids, making family time meaningful, and nurturing spiritual growth through everyday life and holiday fun.

Resources:

• Carpooling with Jesus: @carpoolingwithjesus
• Home Alone a Christian Movie Theory: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mpkVVrecsNE
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod
• Christen’s Amazon Recommendation List

Clip Finder

Breaking the Routine: "Dad coming to school was not part of the routine."

— Justin Herman [00:07:51 → 00:07:53]

Viral Topic - Turning Complaints into Creation: "And she's like, well, why don't you start your own? And I thought about it for, like, three months, and I put a lot of work into it. And we launched last January, Carpooling with Jesus, which is a daily, short devotional podcast for kids."

— Justin Herman [00:08:28 → 00:08:43]

Viral Topic: What Would Jesus Say at Your Breakfast Table?

Quote: "if Jesus were sitting with you at the breakfast table or riding with you on the way to school, like, what would he say? Like, what would be that thing he would give you to help you start your day?"

— Justin Herman [00:08:52 → 00:09:00]

Viral Topic: Faith-Based Parenting Communities: "It embeds some automatic community of like minded parents who want the best for their kids, knowing that the best for their kids is Jesus."

— Justin Herman [00:12:00 → 00:12:07]

Viral Podcast Giveaway: "If they message me on Instagram and say, hey, you know, I started listening because of Collide, I will mail them some limited edition Carpooling with Jesus stickers for their kids."

— Justin Herman [00:12:50 → 00:13:01]

Viral Holiday Tradition: "When you drive around and see Christmas lights, I think that's a really easy, cheap thing to do, right? Like, it costs no money at all, right? Getting the. Get in the car, bring some snacks, drive around neighborhoods, see Christmas lights, the whole thing."

— Justin Herman [00:17:24 → 00:17:34]

The Real Family Tradition: "So it might not be the same thing we do every year, but every year we do it as a family."

— Justin Herman [00:18:20 → 00:18:25]

How Growing Up Among Bills Fans Shaped My Faith: That one thing shaped more of my thinking around people and around, you know, now as an adult, around ministry that planted seeds that grew into big, beautiful trees of faith, trees of ministry, trees of care for others.

— Justin Herman [00:21:09 → 00:21:25]

The Importance of Parental Guidance: You want more on the ledger of things that your kids experience for the first time to be with you than to be with anyone else.

— Justin Herman [00:23:04 → 00:23:12]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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What if practicing just one tiny habit together could spark powerful spiritual growth in your family all year long?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Christie Thomas, veteran children’s ministry leader, author, and fellow mom, to talk about raising Christian kids, faith at home, and making discipleship doable... even during the busiest seasons! Hear practical inspiration for building faith-filled family time, why you don’t need to be a spiritual “expert,” and fresh ideas for simple but meaningful spiritual habits during Christmas and all year.

Resources:

• Christie’s Website: littleshootsdeeproots.com
• Book Amazon List: amazon.com/shop/christenclark/list/1RLTNBPSOOZY5
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Finding Your Calling: "But when it kind of became official as something that I actually got paid for, when was during my term as a children's ministry director, I did that for most of 12 years. Had a few babies in there, but Most of the 12 years I was doing that. And in that time I started writing things for families to take home and I ended up publishing those take home pages as a book."

— Christie Thomas [00:05:32 → 00:05:55]

Changing Career Dreams: "But yeah, it is very cool that God did take what I loved when I was a child and kind of, I stopped writing probably for 15, 20 years, like creatively and. But then he brought it back into my life."

— Christie Thomas [00:07:49 → 00:07:59]

Letting Go of Parenting Pressure: "I started talking to other families and realized, you know what? This looks different in every family. So even though books are, you know, the, the big names of the day, it doesn't have to look like that."

— Christie Thomas [00:08:55 → 00:09:31]

The Power of Little Things in Discipleship: "I can't take my child's heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh, or only God can do that. So I started realizing, well, what can I do? Well, I can do these little things."

— Christie Thomas [00:09:31 → 00:10:07]

Going Beyond Sunday School: "And his teacher, who'd been teaching there for like 20 years, during parent teacher interviews, she says, he knows a lot about the Bible. And I thought, okay, doesn't everybody? Like, we're all Christian school kids here. But he stood out for that."

— Christie Thomas [00:10:29 → 00:10:42]

Viral Parenting Strategies: "I could take that to God and I could say, what's something small? That I could do something that takes like 30 seconds and he would give me ideas."

— Christie Thomas [00:11:41 → 00:11:50]

Parenting Hack for Faithful Families: "the purpose of it is to be an interactive play based devotional...it's also designed for you to sit on one Bible story for a whole week because I originally wrote it to go along with my Sunday school lessons so that families would take this home, they'd have five days of really simple things to do at home that they would actually remember to do because it was simple and short and, and consistent."

— Christie Thomas [00:22:37 → 00:22:56]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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Can worship shape your family’s purpose and inspire lifelong faith for your kids?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark welcomes David Ray—pastor, worship leader, and co-founder of Doorpost Kids Worship—for an encouraging and funny conversation about raising Christian kids, building faith at home, and helping children discover the true meaning of worship. From middle school slang to practical ideas for family discipleship, David and Christen dive into simple ways families can nurture spiritual growth, serve together, and prioritize faith in everyday family life.

Resources:

• David’s Website: doorpostsongs.com
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod
• Email christen@collidekidspodcast.com for the resource page "100 Ways for Kids to Serve"

Clip Finder:

Why Early Childhood Shapes Our Worldview

"The reason that it's so important for kids is because increasingly we are finding just how much of the way we view the world is formed during our childhood. You know, Barna is telling us that, you know, the way we view the world sort of morally is basically formed by about age 9, and we're kind of locked into a worldview by about age 13."

— David Ray [00:08:49 → 00:09:11]

"Why Worship Is Like Riding a Roller Coaster"

Quote: "A roller coaster almost demands that kind of response from us. And that's like a little picture of what it means to worship God because of who he is, because he's so worthy, he's so deserving of praise. He demands a response from us."

— David Ray [00:10:11 → 00:10:28]

Habits That Shape Kids' Faith for Life

"Lifeway Research did a study recently about what are those activities that kids can engage in, those behaviors that they can learn that are going to result in spiritual health in adulthood."

— David Ray [00:14:49 → 00:15:01]

Empowering Kids to Serve in Church

Quote: "I really just have a heart for churches to expand their vision for finding places for kids to serve in the church."

— David Ray [00:17:33 → 00:17:41]

Is Church Attendance Enough for Spiritual Growth?

"Mere attendance is sort of in a spiritually neutral category when it comes to our children's future, according to this Lifeway study."

— David Ray [00:21:20 → 00:21:30]

The Ultimate Hope for Our Children

Quote: "the thing we really want most for our kids is that they would grow up to follow Jesus and have a relationship with Jesus and be invested in what he calls us to as believers. And so if we want to do that, we got to develop that when we're kids."

— David Ray [00:23:35 → 00:23:51]

Parents and the Power of Early Worship

"One of the things I'm so grateful for is the example that my parents set for me and that they, that they put me in positions to start learning what it means to worship."

— David Ray [00:28:28 → 00:28:37]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

Support the show