412 | A 3-Year Journey to Launch Your Kids, 30 Skills Every Teen Should Learn, and Moments That Impact All of Time (Matt Hanson)
Episode Description
What if you could give your son or daughter something most kids never receive—a clear moment when they know they've become a man or woman? In this episode, Matt Hanson shares the vision behind the Aion Path, a 3-year Christian rite of passage designed to help dads and their kids become co-learners on the journey to adulthood. You'll hear why only 8-10% of church kids keep their faith for a lifetime, what makes dad "LeBron James" in the faith transfer game, and how 30 simple conversations can transform your relationship with your child.
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Matt Hanson is the founder of the Aion Path, a 3-year Christian rite of passage designed to help dads and their children become co-learners on the journey to adulthood. After a successful business career, Matt turned his attention to the crisis of faith retention among young people and assembled a coalition of faith leaders to create a standard for rites of passage across denominational lines. He and his wife Mary have three adult children—Savannah, Noah, and Tatum—and live in Southern California.
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Most kids raised in the church never experience a defining moment that marks their transition into adulthood—and it's time to change that.
Dad is the single biggest factor in whether a child keeps their faith for a lifetime. If faith transfer is a 100-point game, dad is 50-60 of those points.
The most powerful thing you can do for your kids is love their mother well and stay in the conversation—it's more important to be in the conversation than to be right.
A 3-year intentional journey with your 12-16 year old—built around conversations, skills, challenges, and adventures—can launch them into adulthood with confidence and faith.
You don't have to have all the answers. The Aion Path equips dads to go on this journey alongside their child as co-learners, not experts.
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Apply to join the next DadAwesome Accelerator Cohort: Email awesome@dadawesome.org
Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text the word "Dad" to (651) 370-8618
Aion Path: https://aionpath.com/
Ion Path 5-Video Text Series - Text “Aion Path Dad to 1-888-488-9429
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Jeff Zaugg: Hey guys, welcome back to Dad Awesome. This is episode 412 and I have Matt Hanson joining me from the Ion Path. I am so grateful when I learn about new resources that have for years been under development, launched, and all of a sudden I'm like, how have I not heard about this?
So over the last maybe two months I've been hearing about Ion Path. Well, for two years they've been developing a collaborative approach. Lots of different ministry leaders have come together. They've created the National Rite of Passage Council. This is about a strategic investment of a three-year journey called the Ion Path. And it's being brought to you by amazing thought leaders in the space of serving the local church and helping dads raise daughters, raise sons through a very strategic three-year journey.
I am so grateful. You guys have heard about the Primal Path from John Tyson. You guys have heard about Brave Co and some of the work they do with rite of passage events, one-time events. And you've got Robert Lewis, who we had on years ago around Raising a Modern Day Knight. There have been pockets of bright spots of like, this is amazing—helping dads bring their children through a journey of discipleship.
Well, this discovery, Dad Awesome Discoveries, the Ion Path—I am thrilled to introduce to you now, December 2025. And I'm praying that many of you who have a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, 14, 15, that have not started an intentional journey, that you would prayerfully consider joining the Ion Path. So with that said, I'm going to jump right in. You're going to hear more about it, but Matt Hanson, what a gift—this project, this initiative. I'm thrilled you guys are listening today. This is episode 412 with Matt Hanson.
Thank you for taking time to join a Dad Awesome conversation. So we were connected just a few weeks ago. I've been hearing about this mission, the Ion Path that you've been leading. I've been hearing from multiple angles and it's a joy for me at Dad Awesome to discover new resources and share them with our dads. But before we jump in and kind of share what you've learned and what you're launching, tell us a little bit about the phase of fatherhood. So what's your current chapter of dad life?
Matt Hanson: I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks, Jeff. I think I might be in the best phase. If you make the right deposits over time, you get to the empty nest where your kids launch. So I have Savannah, Noah, and Tatum—31, 29, and 26—and they are launched, doing well. They are my favorite people to spend time with. So it's a good season.
Jeff Zaugg: You're two decades ahead of my dad life season. So it's so fun for me to learn from—again, you're celebrating the launched phase. Just rewind for a moment. Any bit of dad wisdom, dad principles, any like, "turn this dial." Again, we could spend multiple seasons of the podcast, but are there any top of mind where you're like, "Hey Jeff, with your 12-year-old, 9, 7, 4-year-old, try this or consider this"? Any top learnings?
Matt Hanson: Marry right. I think I got lucky and I got really good advice. The best thing you can do for your kids is love their mother well. And I just got fortunate in that regard. Dad advice along the way—stay in the conversation and be open to the conversation. It's more important to be in the conversation than be right. I heard one person say that they've only had one conversation with their daughter, but it started when she was four and it never stopped. And I love that expression.
Jeff Zaugg: Yeah, that's precious. And I know that's even part of the Ion Path—there's a chapter of 30 days of conversations. And not to dive in, dive out, but let's go there for a second. The idea of just committing to a prompted conversation. Tell us about that piece.
Matt Hanson: Yeah, so the most important thing in a journey with our children is to build that heart connection. And so you're right. When somebody starts the Ion Path, the very first envelope they open is an invitation to come to their son or daughter and say, "Hey, would you be willing to have 30 conversations over the next 30 days? There is nobody more important in my life to get to know than you. And I want to spend, come hell or high water, that time together. Would you be willing to do that?"
Of course the kid's going to say yes. And then they're like, "Well, what do we do with that?" Well, we give them an app that literally on their phone says, "Parents say this," and it might be, "Hey son, you're starting junior high. That's a time of transition, lots going on with yourself physically and emotionally and friendships. What's your biggest challenge?" And then you just listen. Then you hand the phone to them and they read it and it says, "Hey Dad, you graduated from junior high once. What was your challenge?" And that's it—10 minutes.
But if I'm overseas on business and I need to get up at 3 a.m. to have that call, or I've got to walk out of the Dodger game in the seventh inning to make sure that we have that connection—the message is you matter most. And it just starts building that connection. The questions get deeper as the time goes by. Thousands of parents have done this and it's really impactful.
Jeff Zaugg: I love it. And in today's conversation, there's going to be little bolt-ons like, "Hey, you could take this immediately." And there's also the broader whole—designing and stepping into a commitment to a three-year journey. So let's pan out first before we dive in, a little bit of the backdrop.
Throughout the history of the world, there have been these moments in time, a key moment for young women and young men where you're invited into more—invited into becoming a man from boy to man, young girl into woman. A rite of passage. And this is what we're going to spend our whole conversation on—talking about the reason why this should exist today in a Christian, biblical context. So Matt, when were you first introduced? Talk a little bit about your own journey and then we'll go into what you've created.
Matt Hanson: Sure. Fifteen years ago, I took my kids to their cousins' Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Whitefish, Montana. And I sat there and I watched my squirrely 13-year-old niece and nephew stand there, coat and tie, well-dressed, presenting to a largely non-Jewish community, non-Jewish family, be affirmed by their rabbi, blessed by their parents. And I thought, why on earth do I not have anything like this for my kids?
And that's where the seed was planted. So I did what most dads of that era did—grabbed Robert Lewis's Raising a Modern Day Knight, some John Eldredge stuff, got some other dads and we started a journey. But that was the question then. Fifteen years ago in this journey, the bigger question that sat behind that was: why couldn't there be a standard for rites of passage that went across denominational lines in the Christian church? Think like an Eagle Scout marries a Bat Mitzvah. And that's where this coalition of faith leaders has come together saying, "Yeah, that time is right. This matters. We've missed not having this."
Jeff Zaugg: Yeah, so good. To go back to your chapter of leading it first though—you pulled together some resources, these books which we've chatted with Robert Lewis and John Eldredge about, and we're grateful for what they've created. But you pulled it together yourself. Did your journey—was it with other dads or was it just for you and your own kids back then?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, it was a mash. It was other dads being intentional of bringing other dads into my kids' lives, which was a great piece of advice that I got so that they could see others' faith journeys. I didn't execute it well, to be honest. I got busy with building a business and life, and it just kind of went its own direction. But we kept that theme of keeping my kids and I engaged with other Christian leaders.
Jeff Zaugg: Yeah, so that's where I—like, that feels like me in some ways. I'm rallying other dads, I'm pulling together resources. But any of these kind of hard initiatives of "I want to take leadership in this area"—dads, we celebrate that. A dad who wants to take leadership, find some content, find some other dads, does something. But I have found that my initiative to continue and continue developing for the next chapter—and then okay, another child is coming along and then another child—there's probably lots of dads who have taken a swing, have succeeded in a chapter, and then are maybe doing less of an intentional approach today. Have you seen some of that beyond yourself?
Matt Hanson: 100%. And it's hard, right? There are so many demands on our time and every incentive is away from those things that matter most. And so it takes a lot of intentionality to swim against that tide.
Jeff Zaugg: So then fast forward. You have a chapter of—because of either an early exit or just a business success—you're able to have some time to invest in the next chapter. And how did you re-engage and say, "I'm actually going to pull some thought leaders together and build something"? Where did that leapfrog?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, so I had that question. And you're right, I had a place where I had some capacity and had met goals that I had put on my wall for 20 years. I was really influenced in my early Christian walk by people like Tony Campolo in the inner city of Philadelphia and Millard Fuller, who was the founder of Habitat for Humanity. I worked for both of them in my 20s.
And so I knew this was an opportunity to look into something different. I started researching Christian rites of passage—not a lot written there. And then rites of passage generally from a sociological and anthropological perspective—of course tons written in that space. And then I was exposed to the statistics that only 8 to 10% of our kids that we raise in our churches will actually have a faith for a lifetime. And I was startled by that. I couldn't believe it. It comes from Barna, it comes from Pew, John Mark Comer's talking about it. I was just literally startled.
And so I went down the path of understanding why—and not just why, but what are the things that matter most in the transfer of our faith to the next generation? I ended up sharing that with a buddy of mine who leads a Christian Camp and Conference Center in Southern California, Forest Home. And he's like, "Well, you've got to give a talk." So I had built my thesis. I gave that talk, which was: if you want to have a great relationship with your adult children and you want them to have a great relationship with Jesus, these are the three things you do today. That was my first step kind of into the ministry world.
But I had talked to literally hundreds of people around the country in building that thesis. And so I invited eight to ten of them into Dallas and said, "What do you think of this idea? Should there be a standard for rites of passage that goes across denominational lines in the Christian church?" And these were not people that I knew before. They just were people of influence and they were open to it.
It turns out the church is really concerned about it. They don't think that results are great either. We've probably under-discipled or not-discipled the last two generations. And so their response was, "Hey, can we bring together a group of some more of our friends and do this again?" And so I brought them all back together in Arlington a couple of months later.
And the only way to describe that day—it was an incredible day—but somewhere around 2:15, as Randy Phillips was sharing kind of his journey, I would say there was just this incredible shift in the room. And there's no way to describe it, regardless of your tradition, but the Holy Spirit entered that room. There was a shift, and these very busy, accomplished, engaged ministry guys then were willing to all get together three weeks later in Nashville, go deeper. And eventually, that's what became the launch of the Ion Path, which we turned that website up in March of this year.
Jeff Zaugg: This is all just in the recent last year here or a year and a half?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, I would say this is a two-year journey to that March turning up. Lots of time, energy, and thinking. But I think people have felt like, "Yes, this makes sense."
Jeff Zaugg: So, and just to capture—2:15 in the afternoon, this gathering, Holy Spirit, a move of God in the room. The word "ion" is Greek, is that correct? Tell us the meaning of the word.
Matt Hanson: Greek, yes. You've got to come up with a name—it's hard to name things these days. We looked at all kinds of things. Ion is a Greek word that means a moment in time that impacts all of time.
Jeff Zaugg: That's why it jumped on my heart in that moment, 2:15.
Matt Hanson: It jumped on ours too, 100%, right? Because if you think of it as dads, we are in a series of moments in time and we are forming the next generation, which will last a long time.
Jeff Zaugg: And truly the collaborative nature of these two, three gatherings, the launch, the now pilot churches that are all moving and you're gathering feedback from—I think you're in like, what, eight, ten states already in the pilot? It's remarkable.
Matt Hanson: Correct. Which is amazing. We have certainly had God's favor in this. I'm grateful for that.
Jeff Zaugg: And you've created something very affordable. I mean, it's what, 16, 18 bucks a month?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, 16 bucks a month. Honestly, the pricing came from a group of urban pastors in the greater Seattle area. Because I just didn't want any resistance for anybody. I said, "What can your community pay?" They said it can't be more than $20. We set it at 18, then we moved it to 16. Because it's important that people have skin in the game, but I did not want it not to be affordable to everybody.
It is not a purely online journey. There are physical components. I mentioned the envelopes, the boxes, the challenge coins, all of the things. Those are hard dollar costs that are mopped up by that. So it's clearly in the not-for-profit category, but trying to make a best-in-class experience to surprise dads on this journey and their apprentices.
Jeff Zaugg: Well, I know—I want to know more, the dads listening want to know more. But before we go into more of what is it, just another pass on the why. Again, American—Native Americans here have had a tradition of boys becoming men. There's so many countries from around the world and throughout time—the apprentice process, the go-kill-a-tiger-in-the-jungle. There are shadow sides of maybe some, there are some even darker sides spiritually of some of those processes. But by and large, men have known, "I am now a man." Can you just share a little bit more on the findings and then this vacancy in the Christian church, in the American Christian church, of like—man, we don't have it. I just want one more pass before we go into what you've created.
Matt Hanson: I would say America generally, the Christian church specifically—you get a hundred men in an audience and you ask them, "When did you become a man?" You get all kinds of—sometimes they're smirks and they're thinking of certain parts of their growing up. There's no real key spot. And if you ask them if they've ever been through a rite of passage that clearly identified it, it's about one in 50. And half of those one in 50 will be raised in really intentional Christian homes, and the other half will be from Africa, where there are some just really amazing, incredible, intense rites of passage.
From an anthropological perspective and throughout human history, there's been this separation from the pack, if you will. You leave a boy, you come back a man. And that's also separation from mom, community. And then you come back into the community with a different stature—you're addressed differently. And there's a pain element, there's a suffering, and there's a struggle that teaches you that you can overcome. You can survive in this world because the world is not an easy place. It will bring you pain, it will bring you suffering. And you need to know as you step into it that you're capable of handling it. So those are two elements.
The elements for the Ion Path—it doesn't emphasize those, but they're built into it. The emphasis of the Ion Path is the spiritual journey of understanding like, who am I in this world that God created? Where do I sit? Is it all about me, or do I have a place that God has put me to play a role throughout human history? And what is my identity in that, and understanding that as well?
Jeff Zaugg: And I love that you have this parallel, this heart of—we're going to see a dad take steps of growth and identity and breakthrough and resilience and new skill development and seeking the Lord and stepping up in leadership. So the dad is being developed alongside a son or a daughter. It's accessible. This is not a rite of passage just for dads and sons. It's for both. I don't have to be the dad who takes something off a shelf and imparts it. Instead, I can enter a journey with my kids. And then it's 12 years old through about 16. That's the window of time for the three years. Is that right?
Matt Hanson: That's correct. The only age restriction we have is that the child needs to be 12 when they start. And that's because that's that time in life when they're starting to lock down their worldview, they're starting to separate. And so you're exactly correct, Jeff. We've equipped the dad to go on this journey alongside their child, alongside their apprentice as co-learners and co-laborers. Now we'll always supply the dad with what's next, what's happening, so he can be the hero and the champion in this. But it's not like the dad has to know all the answers.
Because I think, at least for me—and I'm a fairly intentional dad—I always was a little bit uncomfortable being the spiritual leader in my house. Like, what if my kid asked me a question and I give them an answer that's just not that great? It's going to undermine my authority and maybe 2,000 years of church history and they'll go spinning off into some terrible place. Which is unlikely to happen. But it's by design designed to take that pressure off and let us go on this journey of discovery together.
Jeff Zaugg: And then there's a closeness—your heart to bring closeness between a father-son or a father-daughter. I think I've read a quote from you around—and this is based on research as well—that the biggest predictor of a child's lifelong faith is the relationship with their earthly father. Yeah, unpack that a little deeper.
Matt Hanson: It's sometimes—it can be uncomfortable to say, but it's a reality. If it's a 100-point game, Dad is the LeBron James. He's 50 to 60 points in that game. And it's not that moms aren't important. Moms are actually foundationally important. It's usually the faith of moms that kids will take. Dads will impact it exponentially. They'll either elevate it or crush it with their power. And so we want to give them the opportunity to elevate it along the way. It's super important.
Jeff Zaugg: And instead of the dad, as you just said, feeling like, "I'm stumbling, I'm stumbling, and who am I?"—you're actually equipping the dad, even with some of these challenges, like around spending 30 minutes of time in silence, and then how that grows over the three years. I love that.
And we're going to have included in the show notes a few resources that right away are going to help you learn and take principles away. There's a two-page flyover of the three years that I thought was just so helpful. And let's go into it for a moment. A dad today is hearing about the Ion Path. They're like, "I'm intrigued." They sign up for these short little five one-minute videos that are going to be texted to them. It's just so easy to kind of get in. But if they sign up, what are some of what they can experience and some of the pillars that build this experience?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, so I think the way to think about the experience is that it has three phases over the course of that first year. That first phase, when the dad signs up, they're going to get a box. It's got five envelopes. You don't go to envelope number two until you finish envelope number one. And we've talked about it—that's the 30 conversations. Each of those envelopes in that first phase is really building that relationship between the dad and their apprentice.
They're going to identify 30 skills in another envelope that the apprentice wants to learn over the next three years. They're going to identify three guides and a shepherd. A guide is a spiritually mature adult that they want to have two conversations with over the course of the year.
And the idea there is we know the second biggest factor in the transfer of our faith to the next generation—we talked a little bit about it before the show—is that ability to connect with people across an intergenerational relationship. So if my son gets to sit down with my buddy Dan, for instance, and Dan's going to be his financial guide. Dan's an accountant and a business guy, and he might teach him about debt and compound interest. But eventually, Dan's going to share his personal faith story. And my son's world is going to go from the Hanson family faith to just getting bigger and bigger. Dan's faith story is way different than mine, is different than our buddy Jeff's. So it expands that.
Jeff Zaugg: I love that. The skills, which is—even that kind of two, three-page PDF of example skills. We're talking about this all the time. My six-year-old just asked, "Will you teach me how to carve with a pocket knife?" There are skills that—I can make a list of 30 skills that I never learned as a 12, 13, 14, 15, 16-year-old. In that window, I never learned them in high school and in college, and I still am learning. There are skills—it's wild how much is missed because a plan was not in place that brought my dad and me together to make a list of what could be possible over the course of three years. What skills—not mastery, but like, "I'm going to learn to..." And I'm looking over your shoulder because I know the story about this wood burned list. Would you tell that story?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, well, so that is a list of 30 skills. And to your point, it could be, "I want to learn how to cook a steak. I want to learn how to play chess. I want to learn how to do a handshake." Whatever it is. And we have the apprentices post these in the community section.
I love one of them. The kid posted, "I want to have a six pack and I want to learn how to talk to girls." It's like number 16 and 17. I'm like, I'm not sure exactly which six pack he's talking about. I think he's talking about his abs, but either one's going to help. And I just thought, now his dad sees his kid's heart, right?
And so what you're talking about is that list of 30 skills. We put it on a piece of wood because my belief is if I finish and check off all 30 of those skills with my son, my son's not going to enter adulthood and enter life wondering if he's a capable person—because he's going to know there's at least 30 things I know. And I learned them from my dad. And if I didn't learn them from my dad, I learned them with my dad, with another guy. And that was good.
Jeff Zaugg: Yeah, and I learned how to learn things. The competence gives confidence that I can get more confidence from other mentors and my dad in the future. It's not like we shut them off when they graduate from the three years. But it also helps us identify who to gather of other adults, like you mentioned—a financial planner, a pastor. You bring the framework around that team. Take it to the next step—church engagement specifically.
Matt Hanson: Yeah, so in church engagement, we want our kids—and we want ourselves—to shift from being consumers and approaching church as consumers and become contributors. So if you think of the three-year journey, it's kind of like "watch me, walk with me, watch you" kind of a thing.
And so in church, you're going to identify—what are your goals in church? What should your goals be? Should you just be more friendly and greeting when new kids come into the youth group? That might be a step in the right direction. But my hope is by that third year, you might be a high schooler leading junior highers. And so we kind of create that circle.
So all of those are in that first phase of probably 90 days there. Then that second phase of the year is what we call the Foundations for Life video series. It's just the basic foundations of the Christian faith presented in a video-based curriculum that's Socratic in style. So it might ask a question at the outset like, "Why is the Bible any different than any other book written by a bunch of men a long time ago?"
And as a dad, if you got asked that, you might—your heart might get tight and you're like, "Well, it seems like a really good book that's lasted. We should go with it." And that might be the best answer you have, but then you get to learn from an expert teacher and then answer the question again. So together, you and your son or daughter get to have that experience going through really just the basic foundations of the Christian faith.
And then that last phase—and that's 12 weeks. Sometimes if you're doing this in community, because many times this is a church community—the church has invited the parents of their 12, 13, 14-year-olds to do this together. Some things are done individually, some with the community. But then there's that last phase, and you alluded to some of it—what we call challenges and adventures.
The adventures are executing on—in one of those first five envelopes, you planned an overnight adventure together. So you're going to go on that. You identified those 30 skills—let's make sure we finish the first 10. Things along those lines.
And then the challenges are spiritual practices—challenges. And I always say it's kind of like walking your kid into the weight room for the first time. They look over at that bench and they're like, "What is that?" And you're like, "That's a bench press. Lay down, just move that bar a little bit."
So spiritually, what that might look like is we're going to do 30 minutes of solitude. You and I both separate, no phones, no radios, maybe a pencil and a piece of paper. Our thoughts, solitude for 30 minutes just to try that practice. We're going to read a gospel out loud. For most of Christian history, it was an oral tradition. People only experienced the Bible and you experience it differently written or spoken. So we're going to do that.
We're going to define the Sabbath. What is the Sabbath? Do you have a definition? If you don't have a definition, how would you find an answer? Well, maybe you'd go to scripture, maybe you'd go to your youth pastor. And you're going to come up with whatever your definition of the Sabbath is based on that. And then you're going to keep the Sabbath twice—just introducing these concepts that don't exist in 90% of our Christian homes.
Jeff Zaugg: This is so helpful. And it doesn't feel burdensome as far as, "Man, half of my week, all of a sudden you've put these huge anchor slots of time." Thirty minutes of silence—now that's a challenge I have not with my 9-year-old or my 12-year-old done. "Hey, let's go to a park, let's each sit separate for 30 minutes and see what God shows us, what thoughts come to our mind, what promises come back to the front." Like, that is—I mean, why have I never done that?
And then it builds, I know it builds over time. It's a principle that my wife and I love—a prayer day of taking extended time to say, "Show me remembrance and then forward vision." So there's so many of these pieces.
I don't want to skip over though—you mentioned if you're doing this with other dads and their sons or other dads and daughters, the 12 videos. If I sign up for a course with 12 videos and it's fully on my own schedule, just myself and my 12-year-old daughter, the odds of actually sticking with it versus if I have a group that I'm showing up to—especially if I'm the leader of the group, now I have to show because I'm the leader. There's something powerful about "let's watch these" and then still turn to your son or your daughter and process it. Do you recommend that format of you come together to watch, or just come together to do check-ins?
Matt Hanson: 100%. You're exactly right. It's traveling in packs. You're going to travel further, have more fun, you're going to learn better, and you're going to get farther. Anything is really hard to do on our own with the best of intentions.
So most of that first phase, those five envelopes can be done one-on-one. They don't need other people except where the connections are. But it's a good practice for dads to be getting together on a monthly basis.
On the 12-week video series, I think there's a lot of value to your point of the dads and the apprentices being together. Now there are pauses—the way they're designed is they're like four eight-minute videos with questions in between. And we want the dad and the apprentice to answer the questions together, not as a group. But to go through and experience it as a group is really important because it also broadcasts to me as the apprentice that, "Hey, other dads and my other peers are going through this as well. This isn't just a crazy idea my dad had." I love doing this together.
And then the adventures—we planned an overnight adventure. That doesn't have to—it would be great if it's just you and your dad and that's appropriate. But for some dads, that 24 hours alone with their kid is daunting. But if they're going to go with three or four other dads, then they feel like, "Well, I know a guy with camping gear. I can make it one night and we can make it work," or whatever it is.
Jeff Zaugg: Along with—just to jump in—skill development. If there's some overlap, if we all have five skills that all of our 13-year-old daughters want to learn, let's do it together. Let's all learn it together.
Matt Hanson: 100%. And there are lots of churches that are doing things like that now with fathers and their kids. Just seizing and taking advantage of that. How much more fun is it to learn something with a group of people, whatever the skill?
Jeff Zaugg: For sure. So a dad who's now like, "Okay, I'm going to jump in, I'm going to check out these PDFs, I'm going to watch this first intro series, I'm going to sign up, 16 bucks a month, let's go." The dad at this point—if there are hesitations that you find, the lack of—there's intent but not follow-through action to take off. What have you seen? Some of the things that are holding dads up right now from jumping in?
Matt Hanson: Holding up before they start, or holding up once they've started?
Jeff Zaugg: Let's hit both. Before they start, just kind of bring down some of those fears first.
Matt Hanson: So I mean, I think every dad wants their kid to turn out. They want their kid to be launched well into adulthood. And so all we've done here is we've created a structure to equip the dad to do it well. They are going on this journey no matter what, right? You're traveling the next three years with your son or daughter. Why not have a tool that's designed to help you do it really, really well that has a lot of thought and intentionality—that it's going to make you be better at what you're doing. So it's about an hour a week of commitment. And yes, you should expect to be willing to put an hour a week focused on one of your individual children to do this.
Jeff Zaugg: And then the dad who has a 17-year-old—it's like, "Oh, I missed it." Are there tools, principles that if they started today at 17, even to get a couple years in before they're off to college—would you say still activate?
Matt Hanson: Yeah, absolutely. And we've had a number of 17-year-old dads. In fact, the 30 conversations that we talked about at the beginning—I just started with my 29-year-old son. That can be done at any time. If you're working on building a heart connection and skills with your kid, the age just—it doesn't matter. There's something very significant about the rite of passage in that 12, 13, 14, 15 bracket. But there are elements that are valuable at any age. It'll be a decade before it's normal, and then every church will be inviting the class of 12 and 13-year-olds. But until then, they'll be just the circumstance you mentioned.
Jeff Zaugg: I love that you're like, "This is going to be the norm." Churches, regardless of denomination, churches that are following the Bible, following Jesus—this is going to be the norm: that three-year journey in this window of time. I'd love to hear just even another pass though of your heart, your vision, your long-term—where Ion Path is headed.
Matt Hanson: Yeah, so that is the long-term vision. The Ion Path came out of the National Rite of Passage Council, which is this coalition of faith leaders across denominational lines that believe by 2035, we can have it be normal for pastors to invite the parents of their 12, 13, 14-year-olds into a journey of a Christian rite of passage. I often say it's like an Eagle Scout marries a Bat Mitzvah. The Ion Path is one of those journeys for dads that's designed to be very intentional and to equip the dad to be successful over a three-year period.
Jeff Zaugg: We have a dream at Dad Awesome that the local church would be famous for helping dads. That at the soccer field, regardless of this friend—if they've ever been to church before—it'd be like, "Well, at least come with me, because it's going to help you be an awesome dad." Just such tools, help, no pressure, no "you have to fit this mold." It's like, "No, the local church is known for that place of—why would you not as a dad come get the resourcing?" So I feel like we're on the same mission.
Matt Hanson: I love that—100%, right? You get the dad, you get the family. You get the family, you get the church. You get the church, you get the community. It is the powder keg. It's the one. I just love what you just expressed. I'm all in. I think we can be an incredible element of good news and energy and positivity in our world. We don't have to surrender to the negativity.
Jeff Zaugg: Matt, I'm going to ask you to pray over all of the dads listening. And I just want to say thank you for the team you've assembled—for already the last two years of just, "We're going all in." Obviously you're not gearing this thing to make a lot of money. This is a nonprofit and you're probably at a lot more expenses than you do $16-a-month dads. So my prayer is that this multiplies beyond your wildest dreams, and everyone—like again, the rising men—every fatherhood ministry is going to benefit from what you guys are leading. So thank you. And the show notes are going to be all of these guides. I talked about that video series, a way to text and just have that sent right to your phone. So that's all going to be available to dads. But Matt, would you say a short prayer over all of our dads?
Matt Hanson: Absolutely. Thanks, Jeff.
Father God, Holy Spirit, we just invite you into the conversation. And it's one of those amazing things about your presence—that you can be with us wherever we are. And I want to just acknowledge the dad that's listening to this, that has already demonstrated their intentionality about wanting to lead their family well, lead their kids well. And I just want to ask that you show up today in their life in a way that they unmistakably know that you have their back, that you're with them.
Lord, I'm grateful for Dad Awesome. I'm grateful for the vision. And we ask your favor as we endeavor to equip dads to be the heroes in their homes, to love their wives well, to love their children well, to lead well in their community from a place of grace, humility, and strength. In Jesus' name, amen.
Jeff Zaugg: Amen.
Thank you so much for joining us for episode 412 with Matt Hanson. I want to encourage you guys—jump to our show notes, dadawesome.org/podcast, and then just look for the top one. Episode 412 is going to have—there's like four different really clear, helpful guides that the Ion Path has created, along with a number to text. If you send that text message or scan the QR code, you can right away get these five short—they're all like a minute long. It's a five-minute investment of your time to walk you through kind of the framework and the next steps to discover more and to take your son or your daughter through this journey. And then how easy it is to partner with a local church and to have community surround this. So I want to send you to the show notes, dadawesome.org/podcast.
Last quick invitation—we're launching the next round of the Dad Awesome Accelerator, our six-week coaching cohort. That's launching in January, the second week of January. Make sure to jump to dadawesome.org/coaching if you want to learn more and register.
So praying for you guys. Thank you for listening today. Thank you for being dads who take action. We do not glorify God by being dads of intent. We are dads who take action—courageous, prayerful action towards pursuing the heart of our kids.
Way to go, guys. Way to be dad awesome.
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"It's more important to be in the conversation than be right. I heard one person say that they've only had one conversation with their daughter, but it started when she was four and it never stopped."
"If it's a 100-point game, Dad is the LeBron James. He's 50 to 60 points in that game."
"Aion is a Greek word that means a moment in time that impacts all of time. As dads, we are in a series of moments in time and we are forming the next generation, which will last a long time."
"If I finish and check off all 30 of those skills with my son, my son's not going to enter adulthood wondering if he's a capable person—because he's going to know there's at least 30 things I know, and I learned them from my dad."
"You get the dad, you get the family. You get the family, you get the church. You get the church, you get the community. It is the powder keg."
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