The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
In a world filled with a lot of talk, we want to have meaningful, biblical conversations with those God has entrusted to us. Join Tosha Williams and the Family Disciple Me ministry for Devotion Driven Discipleship conversation starters that will encourage you to "Seek Him Speak Him" in your own life.
Family Disciple Me is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian ministry dedicated to catalyzing Devotion Driven Discipleship in our own lives and homes as well as around the world.
For more information, visit familydiscipleme.org
The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
Celebrating Seven Years of Family Disciple Me: Reflecting on the Past and Embracing the Future
What if a simple vision shared at a barbecue restaurant could spark a movement that impacts families across generations? Join me, Tosha Williams, as we mark the seventh birthday of the Family Disciple Me Ministry. This episode celebrates how the idea of FDM is becoming a mission-driven force, equipping parents and grandparents and other godly Christ followers to disciple the next generation through meaningful, biblical conversations. Reflecting on our FDM journey from its inception in 2017, I share stories of some of the pivotal moments that shaped our ministry into what it is today. With the significance of the number 7 symbolizing completeness and perfection, this milestone invites us to dream even bigger about the future.
As we look forward, the path ahead is paved with exciting developments, including our updated website and an upcoming app designed to further our mission of nurturing the next generation's faith. Through challenges and triumphs, God's presence has been our constant guide, and we're committed to producing resources that empower Christ followers to live out the Great Commission.
This episode is not just an invitation to listen but a call to action: subscribe, engage with us, and consider becoming an integral part of our journey. Together, let's embrace the opportunity to make a difference, fulfilling the Great Commission in Jesus' name. Amen!!!!
______________________
The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.
Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org
Happy 7th birthday to the Family Disciple Me Ministry. In the Bible, the number 7 symbolizes completeness and perfection. The number 7 in Scripture is actually quite significant, and I believe that this number 7 is quite significant for the Family Disciple Me ministry this year as well. Back in October 2017, I officially launched FDM, and so much has transpired since then. So in this birthday podcast episode, I'd like to do a few things. First, I want to share with you a little bit about our past story, and then I want to update you about our present story, and then, finally, I want to dream with you for just a few moments about our future story. Thing is, if you aren't already, we want you to be a part of this family disciple me story as well. So come celebrate with us for a few minutes as we walk down yesterday's memory lane and take some important steps with the Lord into what he has for us tomorrow. This has been an amazing journey, and I can't wait for what God has for us next. Wait for what God has for us next. Hi, my name is Tasha Williams, and this is the Family Disciple Me podcast. In this particular episode, I want to share with you something that God has personally laid on my heart. The Family Disciple Me ministry also has regular podcasts that include conversation content that we encourage you to use to seek Him, speak Him in your own life, but in this particular episode, I'd like to share with you just a little bit of my journey and invite you in. Thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1:I'm the mom of five kids, and back in 2017, our oldest was in college and our youngest was still in elementary school. My husband and I had been on this parenting journey for about two decades at that point, and we had experienced much by that point with our kiddos. In that season, though, with kids straddling between the ages of elementary and college, I began to do a lot of soul searching. I began to reflect a lot about the times and the seasons of raising kids. I began to think a lot about how we speak truth into their lives, or how we should speak truth into their lives, and how we ought to give them a biblical foundation and worldview. As I considered these things in light of how quickly our kids grow up, and as I contemplated how important our voice and our influence is in their lives, the Lord began placing a calling on my heart to not just do this. Ever more so in my own family, but to encourage other parents and grandparents to disciple their kids and grandkids as well. So, in August 2017, I was finally able to put into words the vision that God was placing on my heart. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1:I was at a barbecue restaurant on a Friday night date with my husband and I finally became vulnerable enough to say to him what God was showing me this vision of writing meaningful biblical conversation prompts for parents and grandparents to use to disciple their kids. To me, it just made sense that Jesus' great commission, you know the one that says, quote go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them everything I've commanded. You end, quote, well, that that great commission should start at home. As I prayed about it and began to articulate, not just to my husband but to others, what I was considering, I sensed that this umbrella arching vision was that of the name Family Disciple Me, under which there would be something like what I was calling the Mommy Disciple Me Ministry for moms and their little ones, and, well, the Daddy Disciple Me Ministry for dads and their kids, and so on. Well, back on that Friday night date there in August 2017, my husband listened to my thoughts. And well, he blessed my ideas and he even spoke into the vision, saying you should make that into an app. And if you've heard me tell this story before, you know that was a miracle because even to this day, seven years later, my husband hates apps. So I'm pretty sure that that was the Lord speaking to me through him, into this vision.
Speaker 1:Well, with all of that, I began the work of creating this Family Disciple Me ministry. The Lord brought me alongside a wonderful godly gentleman who helped me set up the first website. I knew nothing about designing a website website. I knew nothing about designing a website. I knew nothing about social media or coding or all the things that I was about to learn. But, piece by piece, part by part, I began walking down the steps of developing this ministry that would help make meaningful biblical discipleship conversations easily accessible, relevant and doable. The days and the weeks progressed and October 20, 2017, I officially publicly launched this ministry. It was such an amazing, powerful moment for me, as I got to articulate the vision and the mission of Family Disciple Me for the very first time. That day, we began to build our subscriber base, and some of you have been with us since that very first date in 2017. And if you're one of those founding subscribers, I just want to say thank you for staying with us on this journey.
Speaker 1:Well, from that point, in October 2017, a few months later, january 2018, I was spending some time with the Lord, fasting and praying specifically about this ministry, and I very clearly heard the voice of the Lord say to me it's time to build a team, and so I began to share the vision. I began to describe this overwhelming desire, this dream to equip, encourage and empower Christian families to have biblical discipleship conversations with the next generation entrusted to them. As I shared this vision and this mission, people began to join me in this endeavor, began to join me on the Family Disciple Me team and as we continued that year, we began to flesh out what it looked like for us to live this calling as a ministry. We began to send regular emails to our subscriber base. We began to write regular conversation content and send that along with these emails to our subscribers. We also began to publish on social media Facebook, instagram, all the things.
Speaker 1:Well, by the time we reached winter 2019, it was a sunny winter afternoon and again, I was praying and seeking the Lord about all things. Family disciple me. When I heard him speak to me again, and this time I heard him say four words that have become so extremely significant to the mission of Family Disciple Me. And those four words that he said to me today are four words that are in everything that we do as a ministry, and this is what those four words were and still are today Seek him, speak him.
Speaker 1:For me, for us, this encapsulates what it means to live out this desire to both spend time with the Lord in devotions and then turn around to disciple the next generation. Another way that we can say this is meet with God and make him known as believers. It's both, and it's not just about us spending time with Jesus, although that is the foundation point, that is the beginning, that is what's most important but from that place, jesus then wants us to go make disciples and teach them what he's taught us, and so we began to use this language seek him, speak him in everything that we did and in everything that we continue to do. I believe that this really is the most important part of the mission of Family Disciple Me, because if you take these four words seek him, speak him and you leave this podcast episode and you incorporate these four words into your life, I believe that will be the game changer for the rest of your life. I believe that's how we'll live out this great commission of catalyzing Christians to disciple the next generation. I can get really excited about this, and I will save more about that till the next time because I need to continue on in the history of the Family Disciple Me ministry. But for right now, let me just say seek him, speak him. For right now, let me just say seek him, speak him. Let these words spill over you right now and inspire you to live every day, every moment in God's presence, meeting with God and then turning around and making him known. Well, with that, 2019 continued and by the fall of 2019, I was so blessed and grateful when we were able to get our nonprofit status.
Speaker 1:We are officially a 501c3 nonprofit entity, which means that all the monies donated to the Family Disciple Main Ministry are tax deductible, and that was a huge win for us as a ministry. It also meant that it was the beginning of the founding of our Family Disciple Me board, and I'm so grateful for the people who have served on our board of directors, offering accountability, leadership and stability to this ministry and stability to this ministry. Well, in 2020, as we began that now infamous year, our team had an in-person meeting in February of that year and we were beginning to see that there was something ominous on the horizon. We talked about it, we prayed about it and we decided to launch a new series of conversations that dealt directly with the fear and the instability and all the questions that the next generation was having. And that was timely because, as we well know, in March 2020, our country, here in the US and in many countries around the world, began to go under lockdown and quarantine.
Speaker 1:Now, wouldn't you know it? But literally, what turned out to be? The day after quarantine started, I had an appointment scheduled at a podcast studio at the local library. I was planning to go in and start the Family Disciple Me podcast in March 2020, but everything closed down, including the library and the podcast studio. About a month later, the board graciously voted to help me purchase podcast equipment, equipment that, well, I still use today for the Family Disciple Me podcast.
Speaker 1:And we are entering our fifth season of this podcast. And, wow, we've had almost 12,000 downloads at this point, which is a number I cannot even believe and if you've been part of listening to this podcast along the way. Thank you for joining me on this journey. It has been quite an endeavor and I've learned and grown so much. Thank you for putting up with my foibles and my mistakes and my misstatements and all that along the way, but in the midst of it, the goal of the Family Disciple Me podcast has always been, and remains, to inspire, encouraging, challenging, relevant biblical discipleship conversations. Today, you may be coming to this podcast episode through well, maybe a link on the website or through a blog article that you found somewhere, or perhaps through a social media link, or because you're signed up at your favorite podcast platform. Whatever brought you here today, thank you for joining me in this. I hope that you'll stick with us here at the Family Disciple Me podcast and that you'll share this with others as we continue to challenge others in this mission of discipling the next generation in Jesus' name. Next Generation in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:As the infamous 2020 drew to a close and then 2021 and 2022 unfolded, the amazing all-volunteer Family Disciple Me team continued to strategize and work hard about how best to equip and encourage and empower others to live out this epic of discipling the next generation. All of us do this because it is so important to us personally. We want to speak Jesus into the lives of those he's entrusted to us and, by extension of that, we want to encourage every Christ follower to do the same, and this amazing team and board have invested hours and hours into this mission of discipling the next generation. Well, at the end of 2022, it was very apparent that we had outgrown our all-volunteer website coding skills, and so the board voted to spend the money to hire a professional company to help us redo our entire website. So, as 2023 began, we were in the throes of that exciting process, and if you haven't checked out our website, I would love to invite you to go on over to familydisciplemeorg and just take a look at our website. This is our home base, where we store up so much information about who we are and what we do and why we do what we do, and I would love to invite you into that space and place with us.
Speaker 1:But along the way, as we were building out that website, an amazing, amazing God moment happened, as we were exceedingly, abundantly blessed to come into contact with a man who God had called to help us build the app. Yes, circling all the way back to the beginning of the Family Disciple Me ministry, when Kelly spoke that over me, perhaps this ministry should actually be an app. Here we were years later looking at that opportunity in the face. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that God would take something so impossible, something that was such a huge dream, and he would set it in our lap and say here you go, now's the time, here's your person. Get started. And so we did. I don't know about you, but I've never built an app before. It's been quite a journey with the app design and the development team. The process has taken much longer than any of us wanted, and yet the journey is purposeful. I see God's hand in the timing in every aspect of it, leading us up to this very day Today, our seventh birthday.
Speaker 1:These days we continue to write and release discipleship conversations. We just finished up a series of conversation guides about character. And well then, right around the corner, as we enter into November, we're going to be doing a series of guides called Stories of Praise and I'm personally so excited about these conversations because they are so near and dear to my heart. And then, as we finish this year, we'll do a Christmas Conversation Guide Series. We are excited to continue deploying those conversations, but along the way, we continue to refine our mission and our purpose. We continue to develop our team and our board and those who champion this ministry. We continue to design and develop the app and do all the background work for that. And well, we continue to release these podcast episodes. All of this and so much more, in so many directions. All told, this birthday number seven is very meaningful, unlike the biblical number seven.
Speaker 1:Family Disciple Me ministry is by no means complete or perfect, and yet we foresee a future where common Christians like us are equipped, encouraged and empowered to live out the Great Commission through devotion-driven discipleship. And what will make us more complete as a ministry is for you to join us in this story, whatever your age, whatever your stage. I am convinced that you, if you are a Christ follower, fit into this story with us somehow. So will you celebrate with us today, will you step into this mission with us? Today, as you hear a little bit of the family disciple me story, will you begin to dream how this is a part of your life? Maybe you simply take away the four words seek him, speak him and you begin to incorporate that into your story, into your world, into your days, into your weeks, and you begin to live out the Great Commission out of the place and the space that you're spending with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Maybe you'll join in this story with us by becoming a regular part of the Family Disciple Me ministry by, well, subscribing you can go into the show notes and click straight through to the place on our website where you can subscribe and be the first to know with the updates and the announcements and the conversation details. Maybe you would become more of a part of the Family Disciple Me story by following us on your favorite podcast platform, maybe even giving us a review so other people can know about this podcast. Maybe you could like follow and share Family Disciple Me on social media. That would be an amazing support. Or maybe you would be willing to enter into this story by supporting us financially with a tax-deductible donation. Our volunteer team is so grateful for your financial partnership in this ministry.
Speaker 1:Finally, maybe you have a special skill or talent and God is laying it on your heart right now that perhaps you could use that to help further the mission of the Family Disciple Me ministry. If that's you, send me a message at Tasha, at FamilyDiscipleMeorg. Whatever it is that God is calling you to do in this, we welcome you into the Family Disciple Me story. We're seven years old now, but we're only just beginning, so will you step in and be a part of this epic with us? We want to change the world. We want to see common Christians like all of us make a difference, fulfill the Great Commission in Jesus' name through devotion-driven discipleship. We do this in Jesus' name for His glory and our good and the good of all those he entrusts to us. Now go with God, friend, be encouraged, seek Him, speak Him.