Launch Well With Purpose

Parenting Pathway Stonebriar Community Church Frisco, TexasParenting Pathway Podcast with Family Ministry Pastor Dave Carl and Student Ministry Associate Pastor Nathan Kocurek.

“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s a Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.”
Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

It is graduation season, so there are thousands of kids leaving high school and college this month. As parents, we watch with excitement and anticipation. But contrary to Dr. Seuss’ opinion, success is not 98 and ¾ percent guaranteed. In fact, without preparation and planning, the path to success has a very high probability of failure. Common to our community, we have spent all our time and energy since grade school training our kids be specialists in baseball, gymnastics, dance, academics, computer science, etc. But what we see over and over again in our ministry is that, as parents, we have missed the mark. We have trained our children to be a specialist at “X” but we have most likely not fully trained them well to be a functioning human adult. These specialists have missed the training in life-skills necessary to launch.

Launching well is the hard work of parenting. It is the final step in cutting the apron strings and pushing our kids to fly. More than ever, our kids need to develop resilience, have experience with success and failure, and practice resourcefulness and problem solving.

Hold tight and join Dave and Nathan in this encouraging discussion of what they see in our student ministry, and how a few small intentional moments can change the direction of your graduating student this spring.

Authors

  • Dave Carl is the Family Ministries Pastor at Stonebriar Community Church and is responsible for the ministry focusing on children birth through high school graduation and the parents who love them. With a ministry philosophy based on Luke 10:27, his primary focus is to give parents the skills to raise kids who truly love Jesus and want to serve others. Dave has a passion for ministering to families in crisis in our community. He has spent several years pouring into fathers and husbands and helping them learn that they need community, were designed to guard and protect, and that they really can be the spiritual leaders of their family.

    Dave and his wife of 30 plus years, Cathy, have two adult children and one in college and grandparents to three amazing children. They are completely in love with these new member of their family. Dave is an avid woodworker and loves to write. He sees all stories in the form of pictures, and he would love to connect with you!

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  • Nathan Kocurek

    Emerging from the depths of the late 1970s, Nathan Kocurek spent his formative years under the influence of Hall & Oates, Duran Duran, and other notables while listening to KRBE in Houston on the clock radio beside his bed. Nathan was influenced to love Jesus by the example of his young single mom, and he grew up with a love for God but an incomplete understanding of discipleship. As a result, as a teenager, he indulged in a relentless and, at times, reckless pursuit of social and athletic achievements, seeking to assuage an innermost feeling of emptiness that he could not escape. Finally, by God’s grace, the Spirit of the Lord made it clear to him that none but Jesus could satisfy what he was lacking. The answer had been there all along. Later, Nathan married the girl of his dreams and they ran off to California, had two sons, and returned to Texas where they adopted their sweet daughter. Having served as a Student Minister at two previous churches over the past 18 years, Nathan and his wife, Marie, are now thrilled to follow the calling of Christ at Stonebriar Community Church.

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