154 | Rope Swings, Giving Thanks & Big Prayers for 2021 (Jeff Zaugg)
dadAWESOME
We’re on a mission to add LIFE to the dad life. We’re passionate about helping dads live fully alive as they lead their kids to God’s awesomeness. | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Jeff Zaugg
Jeff and Michelle Zaugg will celebrate 15 years of marriage this year. They live in New Brighton, MN with their 3 young daughters and they are expecting their 4th baby in Spring 2021. Here's a link to the 2020 Zaugg Family Christmas Card. After 10-years of entrepreneurial non-profit ministry leadership, Jeff served as a pastor at Substance Church in the Twin Cities for the past 7 years. In Fall 2020 Jeff took the leap and went full-time fatherhood ministry. He is the founder and lead cheerleader at dadAWESOME & FATHERS FOR THE FATHERLESS. When he's not wrestling or playing hide and seek with his daughters, you might find Jeff out for a bike ride, making a pour over coffee, sitting by a fire with his wife or challenging some friends to a game of Spikeball.
Conversation Notes:
1:20 - dadAWESOME is on YouTube - you can watch Episode 154 here
1:50 - 4 parts of todays podcast (WHY, WHAT, WHERE and HOW)
Why dadAWESOME
What were some highlights of 2020?
Where is this ministry headed in 2021?
How can I join the movement?
2:20 - Proverbs 24:3-5 Wise people are builders. they build families, businesses, communities. And through intelligence and insight their enterprises are established and endure. Because of their skilled leadership the hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth. Wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior, and revelation-knowledge increases strength.
I want this for my daughters:
Their hearts filled with the treasures of WISDOM
Their hearts filled with the pleasures of SPIRITUAL WEALTH
They are a mighty WARRIOR
They have revelation-KNOWLEDGE
They have increasing STRENGTH
3:40 - WHY dadAWESOME - Rope Swing Ripple Effect
3:40 - "The reason we exist is we want to see a generation of dads who are builders, who are saying with intentionality and focus with their time, with their money, with their passions. I'm going to build a family. I'm going to build towards having a heart connection with my kids. I'm going to build, in a direction that glorifies the Lord in a direction that my, my girls, or in your case maybe boys, my kids, my sons, my daughters are proud of a dad. who is building something of significance."
4:15 - Wise dads are builders - they build rope swings
4:20 - All of the POSITIVES of having a rope swing - the contagious ripple effect
6:12 - All of the NEGATIVES of missing out on experiencing a rope swing
7:06 - The Ripple Effect of Intentional Fatherhood
7:40 - dadAWESOME exists to cheerlead and resource intentional fatherhood... Dads with hearts that are connecting with their kids
7:55 - Deuteronomy 30:19 “…I have set before you LIFE and DEATH, blessings and curses. Now choose LIFE, so that you and your children may LIVE.
8:20 - The NEGATIVE - the lack of fatherhood
8:30 - FATHERLESSNESS Ripple Effect
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.3 million children, 1 in 4, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). Living arrangements of children under 18 years old: 1960 to present. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.)
POVERTY >> 4X GREATER RISK OF POVERTY
MOM-CHILD HEALTH > 2X GREATER RISK OF INFANT MORTALITY
INCARCERATION > MORE LIKELY TO GO TO PRISON
TEEN PREGNANCY > 7X MORE LIKELY TO BECOME PREGNANT AS A TEEN
CHILD OBESITY > 2X MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER OBESITY
EDUCATION > 2X MORE LIKELY TO DROP OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL
9:35 - We believe that dads connected to our Heavenly Father's heart are more intentional dads
10:05 - FATHERS FOR THE FATHERLESS - awaken passion and awareness to the cause of the fatherless
11:05 - We Resource & Celebrate Intentional Dads & We Ignite Passion & Action for the Fatherless... Pain Fuels Passion
11:24 - What were some dadAWESOME highlights of 2020?
11:35 - January 2020 - dadAWESOME Podcast Celebrates 2-years (25k downloads)
11:45 - March 2020 - YouTube Intentionality (3k views in 2020)
11:56 - April 2020 - Creation of dadAWESOME Foundations (93 dads joined us)
I am LOVED
I am INTENTIONAL
I am FREE
I am ENGAGED & I EJOY my kids
12:24 - August 2020 - FATHERS FOR THE FATHERLESS (64 dads raising $104k for the fatherless)
12:39 - October 2020 - Jeff Takes The Leap to Full-Time Fatherhood Ministry
13:00 - Where is dadAWESOME headed in 2021?
13:05 - Proverbs 24:3-5 Wise people are builders. they build families, businesses, communities. And through intelligence and insight their enterprises are established and endure. Because of their skilled leadership the hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth. Wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior, and revelation-knowledge increases strength.
13:43 - "Our prayer as a ministry is that we would be helping dads be builders, but that we would build a ministry based with skilled leadership and that we would have the treasures of wisdom and we'd have the pleasures of spiritual wealth and that there would be intelligence and insight that would lead to us equipping mighty warriors for the kingdom. Dads who are mighty warriors, raising up kids who are mighty warriors and there'd be increased strength and all these families."
14:12 - Five Goals For The Upcoming Year
14:19 - Prayer Team Grows to 150 members - monthly / daily / weekly / 2x/month (10 people praying every single day) https://bit.ly/dadawesomePRAY
14:52 - teamAWESOME Grows to 75 members (people giving financially to fuel the mission) https://dadawesome.org/give/
15:22 - dadAWESOME Podcast Multiplies 10x to 250,000 downloads https://dadawesome.org/listen/
15:41 - dadAWESOME Youtube Multiplies 100x to 300,000 views https://www.youtube.com/dadawesome
16:11 - F4F Multiplies 10x to 640 dads raising $1,000,000 for the fatherless https://dadawesome.org/f4f/
16:42 - How to Help Build dadAWESOME Together
16:47 - JOIN us - ride, run and listen and watch
17:06 - SHARE - Subscribe / Share / Review - by simply subscribing and following and sharing, the mission is advanced
17:30 - PRAY - the prayer team is the engine of this movement
17:45 - GIVE - https://dadawesome.org/give/
18:20 - INVITE - text 5 other dads and encourage them to check out dadAWESOME
18:50 - Jeff's Prayer - Proverbs 24:3-5 Wise people are builders. they build families, businesses, communities. And through intelligence and insight their enterprises are established and endure. Because of their skilled leadership the hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth. Wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior, and revelation-knowledge increases strength.
Conversation Links:
Make a Donation to dadAWESOME
Join the Prayer Team
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel
Learn more about FATHERS FOR THE FATHERLESS
[Full Podcast Transcript]
DadAWESOME. Exists to bring a positive ripple effect, just like a good rope swing. DadAWESOME exists to bring shiny eyes to that Dad. Kids that realize I have a dad who loves being my dad. Welcome to dadAWESOME. You've joined a movement of intentional dads who are adding life to the dad life. Our prayer is that we would experience love from our heavenly father and that with joy and with shiny eyes, we show that love to our kids. By listening today, you've already taken a courageous step towards learning and being mentored as you become dadAWESOME for your kids. My name is Jeff Zaugg and with my wife, Michelle, we have three little girls of seven, four and two, and we have a baby on the way on this podcast, we explore the path of becoming dadAWESOME. This is episode 154 of dadAWESOME. And today is the last day of the year 2020. So it's new year's Eve happy new years. Some of you are listening after this, this new year's Eve. So you're into 2021, but that's okay. We thought we'd just take a moment as a ministry to say, thank you. We just wanted to start by saying thank you. I am so grateful for each of you taking time to listen or watch we're both on YouTube and we're on all the podcast platforms from Spotify to Apple podcasts, to all the other ones. We are so thankful that you've taken intentional time in the past and today to say, I want to grow as a dad. I want to add life to the dad life. I want my kids to experience a dad. Who's saying I'm intentional. I'm not, I'm trying to survive the dad life I'm pressing in and turning the dials of intentionality up around my fatherhood. So, so thank you for being that dad. Thank you for being dadAWESOME as a ministry, we wanted to take time to just share with you guys. Why does dadAWESOME exists? So kind of the why, why dadAWESOME. What, what are some highlights in the year 2020? Where is this ministry going in 2021. And then finally how can you be a part of accelerating this mission, furthering this mission, reaching more dads. So just ways that you can get involved and be more part of the team at dadAWESOME So this is a little different episode, but praying that this is helpful. And I wanted to just set things up with the Bible verse. This, there are a couple of verses out of Proverbs, chapter 24. It says this, this verse three wise, people are builders. They build families, businesses, and communities through intelligence and insight. Their enterprises are established and endure because of their skilled leadership. The hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth. And this is the first five wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior and revelation, knowledge increases strength. So these were some things I want for my little girls. And I've got three little girls and a fourth little girl on the way in my prayers for them. I pray that their, their hearts are filled with the treasures of wisdom. I want them to be young women. Women who grow up in are just their hearts are filled with the treasures of wisdom. I want them to experience the pleasures of spiritual wealth. I want them to be mighty warriors. Difference makers, change makers for the kingdom of heaven here on earth. I want them to affect their, their neighborhoods, their communities, their businesses, their families, as it, as it says in verse three, I want them to have increased strength. So these are all the promises attached to. It starts at this point, it starts with verse three wise. People are builders. They build families, businesses, communities. So it talks about intentionality and it talks about building and the vision and mission. Why dadAWESOME. The reason we exist is we want to see a generation of dads who are builders, who are saying with intentionality and focus with their time, with their money, with their passions. I'm going to build a family. I'm going to build towards having a heart connection with my kids. I'm going to build in a direction that glorifies the Lord in a direction that my, my girls, or in your case maybe boys, my kids, my sons, my daughters are proud of a dad. Who is building something of significance. So again, wise dads are builders. So instead of wise, people wise dads are builders. They build families, communities, and other things that wise dads build a little bit of the way I'm going to paint a picture of the vision for why dadAWESOME is wise dads build rope swings. Now let me expand on this. I believe there's a ripple effect to building a great rope swing, and there's a ripple effect to not experiencing a great rope swing. So I'm gonna hit both sides with our vision and mission at dadAWESOME Now a great rope swing takes a tree and takes a rope and it takes a little bit of intentionality. So we have a tree in our front yard here at our house and, and by throwing a rope up and over a branch and securing it to some kind of anchor point to the trunk of the tree or another tree we can create very quickly, very easily a rope swing experience in our front yard that causes cars to slow down. When they pass, it causes kids it's magnetic. It causes kids to come flocking from other homes. It causes parents to stop their walks into join us. That rope swing causes my daughter's eyes to shine, giggles and shouts of joy. It causes actually moments where we teach our kids about lining up and waiting their turn and cheering for each other. The rope swing has a contagious ripple effects of joy, of laughter of shiny eyes of community. The rope swing moments of just a little bit of intentionality from a dad. Again, it also can cause harm. So you gotta be careful as a dad, it takes a intentionality to create a safe rope swing. Often we just tie a loop on the bottom of it to put your foot in and that's fine. Or for little kids, you can clip on a baby swing. You can clip onto it. You can clip on a normal swing from a swing set, so you can sit in it, you clip on all kinds of attachments, but basically you just need a rope in a tree and an intentional dad or parents or older sibling. But in my case, it's a dad. The rope swing ripple effect brings lots of good, lots of joy, lots of community, lots of stories to be told the rope swing ripple effect causes. Great. Good. If you create a rope swing now on the other side, without a rope swing kids that grew up without a rope swing don't get to experience the joy filled flight of swinging on a rope. Those kids don't get to experience the, the training that comes with starting slow and low and moving to higher Heights and bigger Sheree's and thicker ropes. And they don't get to experience that. They don't get to experience the joy and the courage and the fun and the, the, the cheering of other kids. They don't get to experience the waiting in line that comes with a rope swing. They don't get to experience a dad or other parents or neighbors cheering for them. The lack of a rope swing actually has a ripple effect to losing out on a lot of delight and joy. And a lot of being celebrated, like not having a rope swing can actually bring a lack and harm and loss. And the reason I set this up and, and maybe I'm going a little too far into the rope swing analogy, but I believe in the same way, dad, awesome exists to bring a positive ripple effect, just like a good rope swing dad, awesome exists to bring shiny eyes to that. Dad, kids that realize I have a dad who loves being my dad, dad, awesome. Exists to give, to give cure leading. We're going to cheer for you to give resourcing, to give ideas and encouragement and tools to help you be dadAWESOME for your, for your family. Dad, awesome exists to have a ripple effect of a dad who loves being a dad. A dad who's trying to connect with who's pressing and saying, man, my heart is turned towards my kids. I'm choosing life. I'm choosing to add life to my kids. I'm choosing to spend one-on-one time. I'm choosing to come home a little bit early. DadAWESOME has a ripple effect that goes to our families, to our neighborhoods, to our kids, to our kids' kids. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 30, that you can choose life or death, blessings or curses. But if you choose life, you and your kids, your descendants may live. It's a ripple effect for there is a ripple effect of positivity to an intentional dad. So we exist as a ministry to create resources, to create cheerleading around you being dad awesome. You adding life to the dad life. So it's a resource and encouragements around intentional fatherhood. Now let's talk about the negative. We talked about the lack of a rope swing can cause all these things to not exist for a kid. Well, the lack of intentional fatherhood brings massive harm. We have so many just heart wrenching statistics that we know about. We know that one of the greatest ills, the greatest epidemics in society globally is the lack of debts just in the United States. There's 18.3 million children, about one in four kids that grow up without a biological dad, a stepdad or an adoptive father in the home about one in four. And those kids have a four times greater chance of ending up in great poverty. They have a twice the chance of, of infant risks. So these kids, without dads of infant mortality, they have a much higher likelihood of incarceration. They have seven times more likely to become pregnant. They're a girl. As a teenager, seven times, they grew up without a dad. These kids are twice as likely to have childhood obesity. And these kids, again, that grew up without a dad present in the home are twice as likely to drop out, drop out of high school. And there's dozens more heart-wrenching statistics that go along with fatherlessness. So the second side of dad, awesome, and reason we exist is we believe that dad's connected with the heart of our heavenly father dads, whose hearts break for the fatherless are more intentional debts. So there are already kids that have grown up without a dad. One in four, who are, who are in a place of, they have not experienced fathering and dadAWESOME exists again to have a ripple effect to those dads well, or those kids as well, the kids without dads and that's the rope swing analogy of the growing up without a rope swing, we have created a ministry called fathers for the fatherless. We mobilize dads to do something hard to bike, a hundred miles for kids without dads. Now, now is it always direct mentorship? No, some of these dads end up doing foster care or adoption. Some of these dads serve the fatherless directly, but, but our ministry exists to awaken passion, awakened awareness around dads to the cause of the fatherless fathers for the fatherless. It brings dads to a place of their heartbreaking for kids without dads. And then that comes full circle to them going home. And they're way more intentional dads. So we're, we're focusing on being intentional dads, but we're also focusing on connecting with the heart of our heavenly father around the, the heartbreaking situation of so many kids that don't have a dad on the home front, a dad who's intentional with them. So, so dadAWESOME exists to, to lessen and, and care for and resource with finances and with prayer, the cause of the fatherless. And it exists to turn up all these dials of intentionality for, for dads and their kids so that we, our dadAWESOME for our kids. So these are the two sides of our vision and mission is we want to be intentional dads, but we also want to step in and, and be dads who are caring for again, kids without dads. So that is the two sides of the vision. That is why dad awesome. Exists. Let's talk a little bit about some highlights from the year 2020. So some highlights from the year 2020. We did have a chance to, to, to build this ministry further this year. So January, 2020 dad, awesome podcast celebrated two years. We're almost at the three-year Mark now, but through our two year celebration, we had about 25,000 downloads of the podcast this year March, 2020 we launched a YouTube. So all the podcasts now are on YouTube as well as in your podcast apps and you're in your earbuds. So we, we launched that and we had about 3000 views on our YouTube channel this year, April, 2020. We created dadAWESOME foundations. So we created a four-part framework called life. So I am loved. I am free or I'm sorry, I'm loved. I am intentional. I am free. I am engaged a four part process. It was on Thursday nights on zoom. We had 93 dads join us for one of our cohorts of dad, awesome foundations, and again, adding life to the dad life framework. So we did that curriculum and we saw this many dads, 93 dads be a part of that in August, 2020 fathers for the father list, the bike ride expanded to 64 dads biking, a hundred miles, and we raised $104,000 for the fatherless. So grateful all that money went to two of our partner ministries that serve the fatherless directly. And then in October of 2020, I stepped into full-time fatherhood ministry with dadAWESOME So I stepped after seven years of being on staff as the, as the pastor at substance church, I stepped into full-time ministry for the fatherless very much supported by my local church, but I took the leap. I took the leap into full-time ministry. So those are the five highlights from the year 2020. Now let's talk about where's this ministry going? So where is dadAWESOME headed this next year? And I'm going to take us back again to Proverbs 24 because we are building a ministry and we believe the same principles that apply to dads being builders apply to this ministry being built. So it says this Proverbs 24, three through five wise, people are builders. They build families, businesses and communities, and through intelligence and insights, their enterprises are established and endure because of skilled leadership. The hearts of people are filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth wisdom can make anyone into a mighty warrior revelation, knowledge increases strength. Our prayer as a ministry is that we would be helping dads be builders, but that we would build a ministry based with skilled leadership and that we would have the treasures of wisdom and we'd have the pleasures of spiritual wealth and that there would be intelligence and insight that would lead to us equipping mighty warriors for the kingdom. Dads who are mighty warriors, raising up kids who are mighty warriors and there'd be increased strength and all these families. So, so many. And in the show notes, this this passage, these three verses, and this is the passion translation of Proverbs 24, three through five. So we have five goals for this upcoming year as a ministry. We want to share them with you guys now. So five goals we'll hit them kind of faster, but we, we have a goal of first one is to grow our prayer team. We have a prayer team to 150 people praying for this ministry that can be monthly daily, weekly, twice a month. My prayer is to have 10 people every single day, praying for this ministry for you listeners praying for the guests that we interviewed, that there just be a prayer covering. There'll be so thick. This ministry be just guided. We pray for cloud pillar of fire by night cloud by day pillar of cloud by day, that man, we had that kind of clarity on where to take ministry forward. The second goal for this next year for 2021 is a team. Awesome. So this is a, I call it team awesome, but our, our team of, of people that give financially to this ministry. So we're set up as a 501(c)3 through our partner ministry venture. We were praying for 75 people to give either monthly or one-time gift to 75 people to say, I'm with you financially to help seed capital, build this plant, this ministry, to see this ministry grow forward. And so we're praying for 75 total people this year to give financially to this mission. The third goal for this year is that the podcast would multiply by a factor of 10 times so that we would go from 25,000 downloads this last year to, to 250,000 downloads. So, so a 10 X growth for the podcast. The, the fourth goal is that our YouTube channel would multiply by a factor of 100 times 100 X. So, so our prayer is that we would go from 3000 video views to 300,000 video views that these are, these are both full podcasts, but also that we really get intentional with short, practical ways that we can grow our intentionality as dads. And we know that YouTube is the second greatest search engine. So it's video content for dads to help them be more intentional and be dead. Awesome. So a 100 times growth there. And then the fifth goal for this year is that our fathers for the fatherless ride would multiply by a factor of 10, that we would 10 X, our fathers, the fatherless, we would equip 640 dads to ride 100 miles. This will be both in the twin cities and about 10 other cities across the country, in our prayers that we'd raise a million dollars for the fatherless this year. Those are our five goals for this year. So some of you might be asking, man, how can I help? I want to I want to help build this ministry. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful that you're, you're asking and here are some ways that you can help us build this ministry forward, reach more dads so you can join us, man. We'd love to have you join us. And by joining us, you can you can listen to the podcast. You can watch on YouTube, those clips you can ride your bike a hundred miles and one of these rides, or you can run. We're going to do a father's day run here in the twin cities going to run a a hundred mile relay run. So most dads are going to run 12 and a half miles. So join us. That's the first one share. And this is all in the show notes. Share dad, awesome. Share. Every share can lead to more dads being impacted by this ministry. So you create a resource and the prayers that it's helpful enough that people share it. So by sharing, you can subscribe on YouTube, subscribe on your podcast app. You can share, and you can review write a review that really helps, especially with Apple podcasts and Spotify. So the third way that you can help build and further this ministry is you can pray our prayer team. Again, the prayers to get 150 people on the prayer team love for you to join that. There's a link right in the show notes to join our prayer team, but you can pray for us. That'd be massively helpful. The fourth way you can help kind of build this ministry is you can give our prayer to be an enterprising ministry, a ministry that has economic engines built in that will sustain growth for the future. But the first few years are going to take a team of people that say, I want to give seed capital. I want to give startup funds to get this ministry going to that place of being financially sustainable. So, so we are praying for again 75 people to join that team awesome, and make a financial gift. And we are thankful substance church in venture expeditions. These two ministries have given already a huge base for us to move this ministry forward, but we are praying again for 75 people to join us. And then the last way that you can help is you can be an inviter. You can just invite personally invite through a text message, invite five other dads through a phone call through an email, just through face-to-face just say, Hey, have you heard of this ministry by inviting personally? And just giving them dad awesome.org, the website, or the link to your podcast app or the YouTube channel that would be hugely helpful. And we're so grateful. So again, you can join us. You can share, you can pray. You can give, you can invite. Those are ways you can help our prayer. My prayer for you here we are new year's Eve. The last day of 2020. My prayer for you is that you would be a dad who is a builder. So I'm going to pray this over you guys, Proverbs 24, three through five. God, I pray that each of us listening, that we would be wise, that we would be dads who are builders, that we would build our families, build our businesses, build our communities. God, I pray for intelligence and insight that through intelligence and insight, God that each of these dads listening, that they would experience their enterprises being established and endure God. The work of their hands would be established and endure. I pray in Jesus name for skilled leadership on the home front, God give us the skills we need to connect with the hearts of our kids. God, we pray that that skill leadership would lead to hearts of people, hearts of our kids, hearts of our wives, to be filled with the treasures of wisdom and the pleasures of spiritual wealth. And God, I pray that wisdom would turn our kids into mighty warriors and that revelation knowledge would increase the strength of our kids and us as dads and our families. God, I pray the blessings of this Proverbs Proverbs 24, three through five over everyone listening. God, I'm thankful that you are not done doing a work in our hearts as dads that you want to set us free. You want to equip us. You want to fill us with your passion to, to see this dad role as the most important role. So I pray in Jesus name for a new wave of joy around fatherhood, a new wave of intentionality and a new wave of fun. God, I pray that we'd be dads that would just have so much fun as we lead our families. God, I pray for the, that just life like life in abundance scored would fill our families and they would experience a dad who truly loves being their dad. God, thank you for these moments of listening. Thank you for everyone listening and I pray. You'd fill them with joy in Jesus name.