What does it look like to make Jesus the star of your daily life?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark welcomes Brock Eastman and Shaun Stevenson—co-authors of the Parable Port book series—who share how their friendship started with with a critical book review and how wanting to learn and get better turned into a writing partnership. This episode has tons of laughs, stories, and practical ideas for raising Christian kids, building faith at home, and inspiring spiritual growth through creativity and discipleship.

• [00:05:32] How Brock and Shaun became friends
• [00:13:02] Turning parables into a book series for kids
• [00:22:11] Parable Port’s bonus resources and podcast
• [00:27:41] Childhood memories and creative inspiration

Resources:

• Book Website: parableport.com
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

The Power of Collaboration in Creative Projects: "that collaboration has been building over, I don't know, 5, 10 years, Sean. It's been a long time."

— Brock Eastman [00:09:18 → 00:09:22]

Modern Storytelling and Ancient Parables

"We're not creating something new. We're using stories that Jesus has already told and helping kids understand them in different ways or look at them from different angles or help them find characters in the book that they can relate to and see how it applies to their life."

— Brock Eastman [00:17:36 → 00:17:49]

Why We Chose Not to Write a Picture Book: "I know just based on the word count and the, the, we could have never explored the story in the way that we are right now."

— Brock Eastman [00:18:22 → 00:18:27]

Viral Topic: The Power of Collaboration in Children's Storytelling: "It's about collaboration, it's about building and growing and creating a really great immersive story that kids can read and get into. And that's the ultimate goal."

— Brock Eastman [00:21:54 → 00:22:02]

How Unexpected Friendships Start: "We met because I actually left Brock a— I wouldn't say it was a bad review. It was a like middle of the road review on one of his books online. And he actually messaged me... So we started emailing back and forth, and after that we started working on different projects together and just became friends and had a great time."

— Shaun Stevenson [00:07:02 → 00:07:14]

Viral Topic: Creating a Parable Book Series for Kids: "And she said, nope, I can't find anything. So we talked about it like, oh, what if we made like a book series about parables?"

— Shaun Stevenson [00:12:43 → 00:12:50]

Viral Topic: The Power of Parables

Quote: "parable, it's this word that we use kind of a Bible-y word, but it's a word that helps us understand something using everyday objects all around us."

— Shaun Stevenson [00:14:45 → 00:14:53]

How Everyday Objects Teach Us About Faith: "That to me is the power of like everyday items helping us learn about Jesus."

— Shaun Stevenson [00:17:14 → 00:17:18]

Empowering Young Storytellers: "And I think even as a kid, like you can tell stories too. Like if you love telling stories, do it. It's so fun."

— Shaun Stevenson [00:27:35 → 00:27:42]

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 a giant tub of cheese balls and a heart full of faith truly change lives and spark unexpected spiritual growth?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Molly Sanborn, also known as the "Cheeseball Chick," a speaker, influencer, and author whose hilarious, heartfelt adventures connect faith, purpose, and family life in surprising ways. Molly shares how raising Christian kids, embracing spiritual growth through hardship, and bringing joy to everyday moments collide with God's purpose—even when life gets messy, cheesy, or a little unexpected.

• [00:07:04] How Molly's cheeseballs journey started
• [00:15:14] Molly’s open-heart surgery and how God gave her purpose in pain
• [00:13:48] Using everyday life for discipleship and connecting with others
• [00:30:24] Molly’s childhood journals and the importance of honest faith

Resources:

• Molly’s Book on Amazon: Cheese Balls for Jesus
• Instagram: @cheeseballchick
• Website: craigandmolly.com
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Viral Topic: When Cheese Balls and Faith Collide "It is kind of funny, like cheese balls and Jesus collided, and it is like this beautiful thing."

— Molly Sanborn [00:07:08 → 00:07:13]

Viral Acts of Kindness: Oh my word, cheese balls are bringing the world together.

— Molly Sanborn [00:10:49 → 00:10:51]

Spreading Joy in Everyday Life: "I just wanna make, I wanna make you smile and spread joy and encourage people. Life is hard, you know, we need to laugh more."

— Molly Sanborn [00:13:26 → 00:13:32]

Finding Purpose in Pain: "God will not waste your pain, and that there is purpose in the pain."

— Molly Sanborn [00:17:39 → 00:17:43]

Unexpected Connections in Difficult Times: "One of those exchanges happened right before my third surgery with a nurse named Jen at Mayo Clinic who was not even my nurse. She came in 'cause she heard there was a patient who had cheese balls and she was from Wisconsin and thought I was a cheesehead too."

— Molly Sanborn [00:18:13 → 00:18:27]

Hearing God in Everyday Moments: "I'm guessing maybe most people haven't heard the Holy Spirit say, bring the cheese balls, but I did. It was like, yeah, this still small voice, just like not an audible voice, but I knew I was supposed to bring the cheese balls."

— Molly Sanborn [00:24:33 → 00:24:43]

Building a Strong Spiritual Foundation: "I would love to encourage all of you kids and anyone of any age to invest first and foremost in getting to know Jesus and being open and honest with him."

— Molly Sanborn [00:30:11 → 00:30:18]

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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Should you pay your kids an allowance for doing their chores?

This week on the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Dr. Stephen Day—economics professor, author, and Christian dad—for an energetic and practical discussion on raising Christian kids who are confident with money, generous in spirit, and purposeful in their spending and saving. Discover how to create “mini economies” at home, teach your children to save in meaningful ways, and use ordinary chores to spark spiritual growth and discipleship in your family.

Resources:

• drstephenday.com
• Book: Teach a Kid to Save
• @_paperrobots
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Teaching Kids About Value

"So it's not just about bugging the parents for screen time. It's about, you know, do I want to save up to get something better later, like a toy, or do I want to spend my money on screen time now?"

— Stephen Day [00:09:18 → 00:09:30]

Building Lifelong Habits

Quote: "changing your habits can be a little bit intimidating, but kids need to start setting different habits, and it starts with the family practice together so that it's not just deciding at the last second, do we buy this, do we buy that? No, like, you have plans ahead of time. And you're a little more intentional about what you do. And I think the kids carry those habits on into adulthood. I know I did."

— Stephen Day [00:09:50 → 00:10:11]

The Importance of Skill in Chores

"What I find is that chores work better when there is some skill involved. That's something parents often miss."

— Stephen Day [00:10:43 → 00:10:49]

Teaching Kids Responsibility

"You can, right, have categories where you say this work is family work, you do it because it's your responsibility, and this work is your job and you do it because, because kids need to learn the connection between work and money and their choices. It's a, it's a teaching thing."

— Stephen Day [00:12:12 → 00:12:27]

Parenting Hack

"When you're trying to teach your children, involve them, and it'll take longer at first because they're learning their skill, but over time they're able to do it, and that can be part of their household job that they get paid for."

— Stephen Day [00:14:14 → 00:14:26]

Teaching Kids About Money Management

"The first fruit of everything that we make goes to God. Next, we had to save, you know, and you can either have the kids save for a goal or you can have them save a certain percentage."

— Stephen Day [00:17:32 → 00:17:41]

Training Kids to Avoid Impulse Buying

"I want to take away their ability to do impulse buys when they're a small child because they're still developing control of their impulses. And so they need to get those habits that all good spending is planned spending."

— Stephen Day [00:22:02 → 00:22:17]

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 your family could discover new purpose and spiritual growth this Lent by wondering together about the Easter story?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Vanessa Myers, children's minister, author, and founder of Family Faith Builders, for an inspiring conversation about raising Christian kids, faith at home, and meaningful family time during Lent. Vanessa shares practical ways families can build discipleship, nurture spiritual growth, and live out their faith—plus, insight into her latest devotional that invites kids and parents to dive deeper and wonder through the Easter story.

Resources:

• familyfaithbuilders.org
• Wondering to Jerusalem on Amazon
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

*Special thanks to our editor Jay Lee from provisionpods.com!

Clip Finder:

Empowering Families to Live Out Their Faith: "That's what my heart is for, is for families, moms and dads, grandparents, whoever, you know, at home to spend time together in the word, praying together and talking and living out their faith, you know."

— Vanessa Myers [00:03:32 → 00:03:42]

Using Imagination to Explore Historical Stories: "God doesn't give us, He doesn't always give us all the details of things. So I help kids use their wonder and imagination and thinking more about the story...

— Vanessa Myers [00:10:36 → 00:10:55]

Why Did People Recline at the Table?: "When I was doing my research, you know, they [reclined at the table to eat]. They really embraced the Roman style of dining because they were under the Roman rule at that time in history. And so Romans, you know, set up long tables, low, long tables, and they reclined like this, you know, so like with their feet facing away. And just that really was interesting to me."

— Vanessa Myers [00:12:22 → 00:13:03]

Viral Topic Title: Lent Sacrifices and Their True Purpose

Quote: "It's not just giving up and, oh, I'm gonna give up this food because I wanna lose weight, you know, or whatever. Like, it's really taking that sacrifice and focusing it on the Word and reading the Word, you know? So that's what I tell kids. It's not just giving up something for fun."

— Vanessa Myers [00:18:05 → 00:18:20]

Title: The Most Important Decision

One of my favorite parts about the book at the end is really helping them to understand what it means to make the greatest decision of their life, and that's to follow Jesus, and what that looks like, and why it's important, and how to live that out.

— Vanessa Myers [00:19:40 → 00:20:00]

Viral Topic – Nostalgic Easter Traditions: "We would walk to church every Sunday, Easter Sunday morning. And we would come home and we'd have our big Easter meal, which consisted of pot roast and potatoes and carrots. And everybody had their own seat. Cousins, aunts, uncles, we all were there. I just remember those, the egg hunts that we had at the church."

— Vanessa Myers [00:21:59 → 00:22:16]

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 God could use creativity in your family to spark faith, purpose, and discipleship in your everyday life?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with legendary animator, writer, and pastor Butch Hartman—creator of The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and most recently, The Garden Cartoon. Hear how Butch’s journey from a chaotic childhood to Hollywood success and Christian parenting led him to inspire families through cartoons.

Resources:

• Show: gardencartoon.com
• Website: butchhartmanstudies.com
• Instagram: @butchhartman
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Kids’ Cartoons and Faith: "And the Garden Cartoon teaches kids all about the Bible and Jesus Christ. And it's like, I looked at the Christian marketplace and I realized that there's some cool cartoons out there, but there's not enough."

— Butch Hartman [00:04:15 → 00:04:24]

Nostalgic TV Moments: "So if I used to love the Charlie Brown Christmas special and things like that, but if they only showed it once a year, you had to be right in front of that TV when it came on and you couldn't see it anyway."

— Butch Hartman [00:06:32 → 00:06:41]

Imposter Syndrome in the Animation Industry

"I got to the animation world and everybody is incredible. Like, my gosh, I could never, how do these people do this? So I, I either had two choices. I could run away or I could stay."

— Butch Hartman [00:08:40 → 00:08:50]

Viral Topic: The True Meaning Behind "Apple of My Eye": "What it means is you're so close to someone, you could see your own reflection in their eye."

— Butch Hartman [00:10:05 → 00:10:11]

Viral Origins of Fairly OddParents: "If I could just create my own show, I would have a job, right? So I came up with a show about a little boy, uh, who had two fairy godparents, and I sold it to Nickelodeon as one cartoon, one episode."

— Butch Hartman [00:15:13 → 00:15:24]

Hidden Christian Themes in Danny Phantom: "I love this show because there's a huge Christian theme running through it. You'll never see it when you watch the show unless you know what to look for. Danny's the light coming into the darkness and he's fighting all these, you know, A lot of Christians will miss out on fun stories sometimes. Oh, you can't watch that, they'll turn it off. Sometimes there might be a message in there you might want to see."

— Butch Hartman [00:15:39 → 00:15:57]

The Power of Christian Cartoons for Kids: "Had I had a Christian cartoon to watch at that time, I might have thought differently. I might have learned differently. I might have understood things differently and not let so many things scare me or upset me."

— Butch Hartman [00:19:03 → 00:19:13]

Viral Topic: The Power of Practice in Artistic Growth

"And by the way, All your drawings aren't going to be great, but as you get, as you practice, they're going to get better and they're going to, and they're, you're going to see improvement, but you got to practice."

— Butch Hartman [00:20:27 → 00:20:37]

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 !

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Could simple faith rhythms at home radically transform the way your family grows spiritually this year?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Adam Griffin—pastor, author, and host of the Family Discipleship Podcast—to explore the power of Christian parenting and raising Christian kids through intentional family time and everyday discipleship. Together, they unpack practical tips for making faith a natural part of family life, why starting simple matters, and how spiritual growth shapes your family's purpose and inspiration—even in busy seasons.

Resources:

• www.familydiscipleship.com
• @familydiscipleshippodcast
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Unexpected Callings in Life: "about eight years, nine years ago, the Lord laid it on our hearts to plant a church, but none of that was planned."

— Adam Griffin [00:07:07 → 00:07:12]

Podcast Beginnings and Leadership Transitions: "Matt Chandler had started that podcast and then he stepped away and I took over with a co host, also named Adam, who's still doing it today."

— Adam Griffin [00:08:41 → 00:08:49]

Filling the Gap in Family Spiritual Leadership Podcasts: "But what we saw, there's a ton of family podcasts, there's a ton of parenting podcasts, but there wasn't one that we really admired that was like, hey, this one focuses on how to lead your family spiritually."

— Adam Griffin [00:09:20 → 00:09:31]

Rethinking Discipleship

"If you combine both of those, that's closer to the definition we would use is saying, for our kids who do not follow Jesus, and for our kids who do, how are we pursuing a life of following Christ? That's much more than just familiarity with the Bible characters and Bible stories. It's more like, how does my faith apply? How do I see the world through a biblical worldview lens, and how do we form that?"

— Adam Griffin [00:10:55 → 00:11:19]

Family Discipleship Without Shame: "I want this to feel like I'm inviting you to a party that you've wanted to go to."

— Adam Griffin [00:16:28 → 00:16:31]

Viral Topic: Embracing the Invitation to Lead

"I pray that as families hear an invitation to lead their homes, they go, oh, I've always wanted to do that."

— Adam Griffin [00:17:07 → 00:17:13]

Viral Topic: Unbreakable Family Traditions

Quote: "One of the great things about my dad is he told us always that we don't wake up on Sunday morning and decide if we're going to church. That decision was made a long time ago."

— Adam Griffin [00:18:21 → 00:18:29]

Viral Topic: The Discipleship Drop-Off in Middle School

"If there's any season of life where it is critical that we are helping our family not just be familiar with Bible stories and Bible characters, but know how their faith applies to decision making, isn't it middle school and high school?"

— Adam Griffin [00:20:12 → 00:20:24]

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 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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