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The Focused Pastor Coming alongside you, your family, and the church. We exist to help church leaders build strong families by pointing them towards thriving in Christ.
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09/28/2026

Your students spend two or three hours a week in your church. They spend forty at school. This video is about what happens in that gap, and what it asks of you as a pastor.

If your congregation includes students, this is a look at what they're carrying and where your leadership fits.

Full video linked in comments.

09/24/2026

Barna asked churches who's responsible for a kid's spiritual growth. Then they asked parents.

Churches said: the parents.
Parents said: the church.

Nobody's wrong exactly but while both sides assume the other has it covered, the kid is the one left undiscipled and unanchored.

Where does your church land on this? Are you partnering with parents, or quietly assuming they've got it handled?

95% of children's ministry leaders agree on this: discipleship starts at home.Ask who's supposed to lead it, though, and...
09/23/2026

95% of children's ministry leaders agree on this: discipleship starts at home.

Ask who's supposed to lead it, though, and the numbers split almost evenly. 51% of parents say the church should take point. 49% of churches say it belongs to the parents.

That's not really a disagreement about theology. It's a handoff nobody put in writing.

Kids don't wait in that gap while the two sides sort it out. Somebody ends up filling it, or nobody does.

If your ministry hasn't spelled out exactly what parents own at home and what the church owns on Sunday, that's worth a staff conversation this week.

09/17/2026

Some battles need the right weapon.

In this quick 60 seconds, he settles the pancakes vs. waffles debate (there's no real competition), then gets to the one thing he never leaves home without: his Bible.

A reminder that the small, ordinary decision to carry it with you still matters.

09/16/2026

Focus on the Family has been asking real students what they're actually experiencing at school. Not what we assume they're experiencing. What they told us.

One student said she was confused when a class assignment asked her to identify her gender identity, and she wasn't the only one who didn't know how to answer. Another said it's just not normal at her school to see kids praying, so most keep it to themselves.

These are the kinds of conversations happening in classrooms right now, often before a parent or pastor ever hears about them. It's a reminder that our kids need us asking better questions, not just reacting to what they bring home.

What are you hearing from the students in your church or home? We'd love to hear it in the comments.

09/10/2026

"Who am I going to be." "What am I going to become." For a student today, that question never comes alone.

It shows up next to career pressure, relationship pressure, a feed that trains kids into one-sided attachments to people who don't know they exist, parents with expectations they've never said out loud, and a faith that 35% of teens now describe as private instead of daily.

It's rarely one pressure that breaks a student. It's all of them landing at once, while they're still just trying to pass algebra.

A faith that only shows up on Sunday can't hold that. Students need a faith sturdy enough to shape how they see their future, their relationships, and themselves, one that stands up in a culture pulling the other direction instead of folding under it.

Pastors, which of these pressures are you seeing the most in your student ministry right now? Tell us in the comments.

Every student in your congregation is carrying more than what shows up on a Sunday morning.It's easy to assume these thi...
09/09/2026

Every student in your congregation is carrying more than what shows up on a Sunday morning.

It's easy to assume these things sort themselves out, that it's just a phase, or that it's a parent's job to handle. But the research paints a different picture: these pressures are real, and where they're going unaddressed, students notice.

Take a look at 7 realities shaping the students in your congregation right now.

Which one have you already seen show up in your students? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: Barna & Christ In Youth, Barna's "You Lost Me," Communio & Harvard, Arizona Christian University's Cultural Research Center.

09/08/2026

Did you know that 70-80% of young people lose their faith after leaving their parent’s home? It's a staggering number, which is why we need to do something about it. Join us this week as host Dave Stone sits down with Dr. Danny Huerta to discuss why so many young people walk away from their faith, and what parents, and churches, can do to help children build strong, lasting relationships with Christ.

Watch the full episode here

https://youtu.be/mkgH1jsU3iA

There's a particular kind of regret in this: not failure, but silence. A moment that could have been used to speak up, a...
09/02/2026

There's a particular kind of regret in this: not failure, but silence. A moment that could have been used to speak up, and wasn't.

It's worth sitting with today, not just reading past.

For anyone drawn to Charles Spurgeon's life and preaching, we put together a documentary on his sermon "Compel Them to Come In." Link in comments.

08/28/2026

Charles Spurgeon once arrived late to a village service where his grandfather was already preaching. As he walked in, his grandfather paused and said it plainly: his grandson might be the better preacher, but he did not have a better gospel to bring.

That line still holds. Skill in the pulpit will always vary from one pastor to the next. The gospel does not get better with more talent behind it. It is the same message Spurgeon's grandfather carried, the same one Spurgeon carried after him, and the same one every pastor carries into a pulpit this Sunday.

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