Thanks for joining in for the unSeminary podcast. We’re continuing with our special series called unPredictions 2025 – these are timeless topics that will keep shaping church leadership in 2025 and beyond. Today we’re talking with Natalie Frisk, the director of curriculum at Raise Up Faith, about how parents will be worrying about their kids.

Raise Up Faith is an organization which offers a subscription-based platform, providing kids ministry content which communicates the stories and truths of the Bible in rich and meaningful ways.

In a world where digital media is deeply integrated into daily life, parents often feel overwhelmed—unsure how to guide their children in developing healthy digital habits. Tune in as Natalie shares her insights on how churches can address the challenges parents face while navigating technology’s rapid evolution and how innovative digital tools can enhance kids’ ministry.

• Parents in today’s digital world. // Parents of every generation have felt in over their heads at times and don’t understand what their kids are thinking or doing. Today a lot of this disconnect centers around technology because the children growing up today are digital natives, fully immersed in this way of life. Parents and ministry leaders alike need help guiding kids, and organizations like Raise Up Faith are here to support churches as they come alongside parents.
• Recognize that today’s kids are digital natives. // Today’s children are fully immersed in technology and have been part of the digital age from the beginning. The screen isn’t just a form of entertainment for them, but is fully a part of how they experience the world. There is no distinction between online and offline lives and we need to recognize this reality.
• Foster healthy media consumption habits. // The idea of “digital doughnuts” suggests that while some media may not be inherently bad, it should be viewed as “sometimes food” rather than a staple. Encourage families to create a balanced “media diet” by distinguishing between healthy and sometimes media. Churches can help parents teach children to reflect on their media consumption—asking questions about how specific content makes them feel and whether it fosters connection or disconnection. This process helps develop digital discernment from an early age.
• Offer resources to parents. // Not having grown up as digital natives, parents don’t have the same level of familiarity with digital spaces and the complexities of being a teen or child in a digital world. Parents struggle with questions like when to give their child a phone or how to manage healthy digital habits. Churches can step in as guides, offering resources and fostering open discussions to empower families.
• Demonstrate wise use of digital media. // Churches have the opportunity to model wise use of media right from the pulpit and stage. Incorporating high-quality, biblically-based video content can create engaging and meaningful learning experiences for kids. However, it’s important to strike a balance, using video to complement live teaching rather than replace it. The curriculums Raise Up Faith offers provide resources for churches to integrate rich, creative content alongside in-person instruction, enhancing both engagement and spiritual growth.
• A resource to help guide leaders and parents. // Raise Up Faith has a resource called “Mix It Up: Digital Media in Your Kidmin Space” – great for ministry leaders navigating conversations with parents who are digitally hesitant. It covers three reasons why to use video in kids’ ministry and links to organizations that will be helpful in your church context, plus resources to share for at-home use.

You can learn more about Raise Up Faith at www.raiseupfaith.com. Register for free at their website to try out sample resources and see how they can work for your church. Plus download the unPredictions Team Playbook for this podcast episode here.

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Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. Man, I am so glad that you’ve decided to join us today. We are here in the midst of these conversations we’re calling unPredictions 2025. You know, we’re looking at things that were true last year, are going to be true this year, and I’m convinced are going to be true for years to come.

Rich Birch — One of them we’re talking about today is parents will still worry about their kids. The digital age continues to present new challenges for parents. Churches have a unique opportunity—your church does—to provide guidance and support, particularly in the realm of kids ministry. Kids ministry is so critically important, ah whether it’s from, you know, sermons focused on raising kids in a digital age or offering comprehensive family counseling, that sort of thing. There’s ample space for your church to jump in and make significant impact. This is the year you could do that.

Rich Birch — Today we’re excited to have Natalie Frisk with us. She is with an organization called Raise Up Faith, RaiseUpFaith.com. They’re an international team of Jesus followers with thousands of hours of kids ministry experience, theological degrees, and unique partnerships ah partnerships with leading faith and media or and they’re sorry with leading faith and media organizations around the world. They’ve mo mobilized their experience as kids ministry experts to build an incredible platform that provides everything you need to build a thriving ministry. And Natalie is the big dog over there, curriculum director. Natalie, welcome. So glad you’re here.

Natalie Frisk — Oh, so happy to be here. Thanks for having me again, Rich.

Rich Birch — Yeah, so honored to have you back on the episode. And when we were thinking about this, ah literally, you are the first person on my list. I’m like, we got to get Natalie back on. Super excited to have you on today. So fill out the picture, kind of give us a bit of about you, ah you know, about the organization. Tell us a little bit more before we jump in.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, absolutely. I was in church ministry for 15 years and jumped into this role. It’s been almost two and a half years, which has been amazing. Raise Up Faith is a beautiful organization, really um Jesus-y. I have prayed more intensely with this team than any team I’ve ever been on in the past. It has been incredible.

Natalie Frisk — um I am here in Canada. I am just outside of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. And I’m married to Sam, and I’ve got a 13-year-old named Erin. And the new addition to our family has been a dog, Casey, who is…

Rich Birch — Love it. Casey, the podcasting dog.

Natalie Frisk — Oh, man, just wait. Put a mic in front of her. Forget it.

Rich Birch — Yes. Love it.

Natalie Frisk — So that’s been fun. And, um, yeah, I am the director of curriculum for Raise Up Faith and it has been a joy and a privilege to get to, um, just deliver really great quality, uh, content to to folks and also see what else is out there and kind of curate content and, um, bring in some partnerships, um, for us to share other content on our site. It’s been awesome.

Rich Birch — Yeah, fill out tell us a little bit more about Raise Up Faith for folks that haven’t heard…

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …like, if you bump into somebody at a conference and they’re like, Raise Up Faith, tell me about that. What what is that? Help us kind of fill that out a little bit more.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, thank you for asking. Great question. We’re a curriculum platform. It’s a subscription model. So think Netflix for curriculum. So instead of um locking in with one curriculum, which is is not a bad thing, um you have actually access to 18 different curriculum, including we’ve got three VBSs up on on there as well with a fourth coming out in like hours.

Rich Birch — Love it. Love it. Tis is the season, right?

Natalie Frisk — It sure is.

Rich Birch — People are thinking about VBS right now.

Natalie Frisk — It sure is. And yeah, and and like heaps of music and and worship songs and stuff like that for kids. And um it’s just a really neat, it feels really like kingdom to me because you’ve got some of the best quality content from different organizations and all pulled together and then you can access it. So if you choose to kind of lock and land in one scope and sequence of a specific curriculum you absolutely can do that and access it all. But then if you think oh man I’d love to have a couple of extra songs…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — …about that thing you can really easily kind of find them and add them in. Or you need extra, I mean, you fill in the blank, coloring pages, games, activities, whatever, because your church has decided to run a couple of extra programs. You can you can get it all there. So it has been really fun to kind of um research and and get my feelers out into the world ah to see where there are some gaps as well.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Natalie Frisk — And so we’re starting to into the into this new year, kind of um look at places, new partnerships of where we can develop new content um…

Rich Birch — Love it.

Natalie Frisk — …or pull in existing content. And so nothing is out in the open air yet, but some exciting stuff is on the way.

Rich Birch — Pay attention!

Natalie Frisk — Yes!

Rich Birch — Pay attention for big announcements.

Natalie Frisk — Stay tuned!

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — Well, and yeah, I have been impressed friends when I’ve had a chance to kind of dig around a little bit in your service. And it’s funny, I, you described it as the kind of Netflix of curriculum and I hadn’t thought of that, but I I was struck by just how much variety and how much is there. It’s, it really is incredible. It’s, it’s a great resource for folks for sure.

Rich Birch — But today, I want to leverage the fact that you see a lot of different churches, a lot of different contexts. You know, what we’re trying to do in this time of year is to encourage people to be thinking, hey, like in this conversation, we should really be thinking about our kids’ ministry in a strategic way. We should be thinking about how we’re interacting with kids in ah and families in a strategic way. What are some of those issues that bubble to the surface that when you think of parents that like at a you know, almost universal, almost global level that they’re wrestling with that as us as church leaders, we should be thinking about what would be one of those or or a handful of those that would pop to the surface for you.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah. Oh my goodness. I think that parents do now presently and always have felt in over their head in some way, shape or form.

Rich Birch — True.

Natalie Frisk — Whether that’s been, I think historically it’s been, you’d hear the phrase, I don’t know what my kid’s thinking. I don’t know what is going on, you know…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — …the you know you look back various generations and you you you know you can see the the the traits come out and bubble to the surface you know. You know think back hippies had parents too.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Natalie Frisk — And i’m sure those you know those parents were like i don’t know what my kid’s doing.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — You know you jump into the grunge scene of the 90s and those parents i’m sure went i don’t know what my kid is doing.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — And and so parents, they feel in over their heads. And today we’ve got parents who feel in over their heads. And I think a lot of that centers around um technology, um ah ah helping their kids navigate this technological landscape that parents didn’t have to navigate when they were kids or teens.

Rich Birch — Right. That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — And so parents are feeling not just like, inexperienced in how to parent that, but didn’t have the experience. They’re inexperienced in what it was like to live it. And so feeling that gap. And and I think you know no one feels confident to navigate a digital landscape that um hasn’t been navigated before. And um we all we all, ministry leaders and parents included, need help in trying to parent well while guiding um kids…

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — …through ah these these we I love the phrase healthy digital habits. Because what is what does that even mean and do you know anyone with those? Because I would like to meet them.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — So what does that all look like I think is a really important conversation to have, and to have in front of our kids because that’s how they’re going to learn um what that looks like for themselves too.

Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, maybe let’s, let’s dig into that a little bit. What, you know, when you think about for a church leader, it’s listening in, you know, I, what you’ve described is a, is a, you know, the kind of question that we see in front of us. It’s not like we see parents wrestling with this. What would be a few things that you would suggest we kind of think about or frame our discussion with ah the parents in, in our churches? How how should we, how should we work through this?

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, I think, um, was it Dallas Willard that used the phrase being a non-anxious presence? Was it, was it Willard?

Rich Birch — Oh, I think so. I think that was Willard. I think that was Willard. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — Okay, yeah, um, I think that’s something that is really important, is even more so important within a digital landscape. We we get kind of frenetic when it comes to to to digital things. I realize this is not a ah visual medium, but I picked up my phone just to, like, there’s this sense of when my phone’s in my hand, I’m not really focused on the person in front of me. And that’s probably true 98% of the time.

Natalie Frisk — Occasionally, there’s a some type of rationale for it. But so then I think we just need to, like, take a breath, admit the reality that we don’t have a great perspective ourselves. I don’t have a great perspective myself on really kind of like a healthy, balanced digital experience. But I am learning every day and I’m trying to sort out what this looks like in my own life, in my life as a parent. And being honest about the ah pitfalls, I guess.

Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, that’s good.

Natalie Frisk — We we haven’t caught up um to the advancement of technology.

Rich Birch — No, right.

Natalie Frisk — Like we we haven’t been able to. So when you think about the rate of technological advancement and then us trying to like build our own kind of guardrails around it, we’re just getting to the place where we realize, oh yeah, we need guardrails.

Rich Birch — Right, yes.

Natalie Frisk — So there’s there’s that there’s that bit…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — …just like the honest, open reality of the grappling with that we’re doing.

Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah, this is an issue.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — And even even you know the ah the idea of, hey, we we need to acknowledge that parents are struggling with this. This this is a real issue that there’s not um you know It may not be an issue for you, senior leader, but it is for parents in your in your church. They’re they’re thinking about these issues. They’re wondering, you know hey, should I when do I give my kid a phone and do I give my kid a phone? And that’s like a real conversation that they’re, that they’re having.

Natalie Frisk — Oh man. Absolutely.

Rich Birch — How how do you, how do we help them? How do we help families wrestle with this idea that like, um, this doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that we’re going to be able to put back in the box. It feels like, Hey, this is here to stay.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — So, so, you know, I don’t know, although I might want my kids to become Amish, I don’t know that they will. Like, I don’t know that we’re all going to move on to the farm and just have a phone out in the garage. Like, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — But so how do we, how do we work through that? How have you seen that? Um, how do we do that as a church?

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, I think it’s just like recognizing, identifying, um admitting that our kids are, they’re digital natives. They’re they’re beyond…

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — …they’re they they have been born into a world where their parents birthing them probably had a phone in their hand in that moment.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — You know what I mean?

Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. A hundred percent.

Natalie Frisk — Like there’s there’s no there’s no question that our kids have been fully immersed. And so the screen isn’t just an entertainment piece for them, like the TV screen probably was for us when we were growing up. It’s actually part of their communication sphere.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — It’s it’s it’s actually fully how they experience the world. There’s no um distinction anymore between online and offline lives. They’re integrated. um And we just need to recognize that that that is part of the the reality of the situation.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — And and not I think that there are there are certain battles to be fought within that, but I don’t think the battle is let’s get rid of all the screens. I just i think that’s silly um at this point.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — Even how brains have been you know shaped and shifted and how kids learn has been changed and challenged by the digital world. Is that a bad thing? Is that a good thing? I don’t know that it’s either. I think it just is.

Rich Birch — It’s a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Frisk — Throughout history, when we have shifted our, you know, educational platforms and models, like there was time when a book didn’t exist.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Natalie Frisk — And then a book existed. There was time when radio didn’t exist and then it existed, right?

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — Like we have gone through these seasons before, but we’ve just never experienced it in a rate that is so, um, fast and fast and furious coming at us.

Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — So, um, it definitely takes some time to absorb that and then to be able to respond appropriately. But I think that we’re shifting into the phase of whatever this generation is that is learning how to respond appropriately.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — So I think we’re on the cusp of something, Rich.

Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — I want to come back to something you said there ah in a minute.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — I want to put a pin in this idea of, OK, how do we do this corporately? But you said earlier um this idea of like healthy habits, like what what is that? There tou know, what were the kinds of things that we we should be thinking about or maybe even like people look to us, you know, in the church ah to help with their kids. And they they look to us to help them. And this has been, you know, for thousands of years, actually, they’ve looked at the church to to kind of help them navigate. What would be some of those kind of healthy habits that we could try to help families to encourage? What could that look like?

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, so I actually have stolen this line from a colleague of mine, past colleague of mine named Duncan. He coined this term, I think. Maybe he stole it from someone else. Who knows? We’ll just keep passing…

Rich Birch — Yes.

Natalie Frisk — …the the the gratitude along. This idea of digital donuts. Are donuts bad for us? Well, we know now as kids as kids are taught there’s no “bad” food, there’s just “sometimes” foods.

Rich Birch — Okay. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — So there’s certain media that’s probably just “sometimes” media. um But there is actually, in the same way that there’s healthy anytime foods, there is actually healthy media. And so helping kids understand what it looks like to have um some…

Rich Birch — Good.

Natalie Frisk —…they’re learning some digital discernment is what they’re learning. So, you know, prompting kids from a really early age, you know, like after watching that, do you feel do you feel good or do you feel kind of kind of bad?

Rich Birch — Oh, that’s good.

Natalie Frisk — Like, like getting that down to that really simple kind of helping kids feel…

Rich Birch — Yes.

Natalie Frisk — …what is the experience like for them?

Rich Birch — What is that doing to me? What is that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Natalie Frisk — Exactly, exactly.

Natalie Frisk — I mean, you can do this with lots of different things, you know? There’s a certain genre maybe of of reading a book that a kid might… Actually, it it does it ah it doesn’t do good things for them. And so helping them to to navigate, do I feel better or worse after reading that kind of a kind of a ah story? I feel worse. Well, maybe that’s not the type of story that you want to read.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — Similarly with media. Do you feel better? Do you feel worse?

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Natalie Frisk — Do you feel closer to people in community somehow? So, I mean, video games are such a great kind of um thing to to consider with this. I know that um my my daughter’s 13, she’ll jump on at some point in the evening for maybe half an hour, or 45 minutes, an hour of playing some game online with her friends.

Natalie Frisk — Now these are friends who for a number of different reasons she wouldn’t get to hang out with um in physical proximity and she’ll jump on and I hear gut-wrenching laughter. And I hear you know just like everything you would hear if you had kids sitting around playing a board game in your living room you know.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Natalie Frisk — Just and so I can tell when she steps out of that experience, it has been so much joy for her. And so you know if if that had the opposite effect, if she walked out of that and you know the world was hanging around her shoulders, I would say maybe…

Rich Birch — Right. Right. Right. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — …is that a good use of ah your your your evening time or…

Rich Birch — Your evening. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — Or was that, did that make you feel closer to your friends and um the experience of what it is to be in community with them? So there’s that.

Natalie Frisk — And I think just taking those checks…

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — …whatever the media is that our kids are consuming.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — I was in the doctor’s office the other day…

Rich Birch — Yes.

Natalie Frisk — …and there was a two-year-old and he was very loudly watching something on a parent’s tablet.

Rich Birch — Okay.

Natalie Frisk — And you know this is the thing we do we hand their kids a tablet when when we’re in those spaces.

Rich Birch — Yes. Little Bluey or something. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Natalie Frisk — You know I would have given anything for it to have been a little Bluey. It was it was something called Skibbity Toilet…

Rich Birch — Oh yes. Oh my goodness.

Natalie Frisk — …which just saying that i’m embarrassed that those words have come out of my mouth but there you have it.

Rich Birch — Yes. There it is. It just happened.

Natalie Frisk — And and not only was it so if if he was just watching that I would think um it’s kind of a you know…

Rich Birch — It’s kind of weird.

Natalie Frisk — …it’s a sometimes food…

Rich Birch — Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Natalie Frisk — …you know um but he turned it into a communal experience for us all in the waiting room…

Rich Birch — Okay.

Natalie Frisk — …by by providing commentary to us all.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — So i’m sitting this this young kid that’s sitting beside me we’re both laughing our heads off at this kid and it turned into actually a really adorable just kind of found community experience.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — And so you anyway it’s a mixed bag.

Rich Birch — Nice.

Natalie Frisk — And I think that we need to recognize that it’s a mixed bag. And we also need to help our kids discern um how all of this is navigated in that way.

Rich Birch — I don’t know if I want to encourage people that are listening in if they’re not aware of what Skibbity Toilet is…

Natalie Frisk — I I can’t.

Rich Birch — …to to either go and check it out or to avoid it like at all costs. Like well I’m not sure what’s better for you, friends. So yeah I’m going to leave that to your own discernment. If you don’t understand what we’re talking about, it’s fine. You’re probably fine, actually. You can move on.

Natalie Frisk — You probably yeah have a better, richer, deeper life, yeah.

Rich Birch — Yes, OK, I’m going to play a little bit of devil’s advocate here. So which I don’t know if that’s the right thing to say on a on a church leaders podcast.

Rich Birch — But so we know this like I think you’ve established. Well, OK, this is there’s this is not going away. There this is how, you know, our children are being formed. um You know, this is a part of yeah I think that’s a very that image of parents ah birthing children with a phone in their hand. That is very that’s a that’s powerful image. I think that’s true.

Rich Birch — Um, so what do we do as a church? Like, should we just avoid all digital media then? Like maybe this should just be like a, you know, a digital free zone. We’re not going to, we’re going to rip down all the screens. We’re not going to do anything. Or should we be, you know, how should we be thinking about this in our context, kind of as like organizations trying to help people navigate this stuff?

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, I mean this is a question that I kind of wrestle with and wrestle through every single day in in the job that I do. I think it’s modeling wise use of media.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — It’s modeling it right from the quote unquote pulpit or stage.

Natalie Frisk — Man, there are ways that we can utilize really rich media. I mean, I think of the Alpha course. It’s a beautiful, beautiful example of that.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Natalie Frisk — You have these short videos that are rich and powerful, and if somebody attempted to teach the same kind of thing or or kind of navigate those conversations, it would take a really highly experienced individual to do that. And it would limit um what’s able to be done um right around the world. um And so similarly within um kids curriculum, we we view that the same. um We have these brilliant Bible stories that are taught in rich and meaningful ways um with utilizing um all of the different digital mechanisms that kids are used to in their learning.

Natalie Frisk — Just as an offshoot, my team picked up on the fact that um YouTube houses so many different things that um um she has wanted to know how to do. For example, um she took basically took Photoshop courses, and I’m air-quoting…

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Natalie Frisk — …but off of YouTube…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — …has learned how to do Adobe Animate.

Rich Birch — Yep. Right.

Natalie Frisk — Has learned all of these things off of YouTube. The skills that are able to be translated from video in a short period of time are incredible.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s powerful.

Natalie Frisk — And I think the same can be said for our um certain aspects of biblical teaching. um There’s the learning some of the key nuts and bolts, getting story across presented in that way. There’s always going to be space to contextualize a message to the ministry setting that you are in. I don’t think this is just saying the screen only forever and ever. Amen. I think it’s a both/and.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Natalie Frisk — And it’s learning how to navigate that in a in a wise way, recognizing people’s attention spans and and you know kids attention spans are more limited than they used to be. I think they’re actually longer than we give a lot of kids credit for.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s true.

Natalie Frisk — It’s that they don’t have attention for boring.

Rich Birch — Right, right, right.

Natalie Frisk — They they have attention for things that engage them. And so I think one of the things that media can do well is engage meaningfully.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Natalie Frisk — There are, my goodness, um one of our organizations that have partnered with us on Raise Up Faith is Minnow. I’m not sure if all of your listeners would be familiar, but I really love the folks at Minnow. They um provide you know, an episodic but shows for kids. It’s like a subscription service that families can have at home um to watch, you know, biblically-based media. And they do it with such a high quality…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — that that kids want to watch these things.

Rich Birch — Yeah, kids lean in. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — And I think that we go, okay, kids are seeking out this stuff.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — If they’re seeking it out, that means that they have an appetite for it and they want more of it.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — If we can get kids into the Bible in that way…

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great.

Natalie Frisk — …you know, like but what a phenomenal way to to to interact with um this generation.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. But it let’s, I want to double click on this. Help us understand, cause you’ve, you’ve been, um, you’re an expert in this area. Like, I don’t know how else to say this. You’re like, you you know, this stuff well.

Rich Birch — How long, when did one story start? When did you first start making content in this way for the local church? Is it 20 years? Has it been…

Natalie Frisk — Gosh.

Natalie Frisk — No, no, no, no.

Rich Birch — Not quite.

Natalie Frisk — No, I I was, I was but a small child 20 years ago, Rich.

Rich Birch — Yes, but you yes, yes.

Natalie Frisk — I don’t know what you’re talking to about.

Rich Birch — Yeah. What are you talking about?

Natalie Frisk — No, I’m gonna say 12 years ago, maybe 13.

Rich Birch — Okay. Okay.

Natalie Frisk — We started kind of the early, early days process of things.

Rich Birch — Right. So this, well I bring that up because this is okay…

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …so you’re into your second decade—we’ll say that—into your second decade of wrestling with these issues of what what is inappropriate use because I, you know, to be honest, when I, like, I, when I first started in ministry, our kids ministry curriculum was, was all literally printed and, it was like you would get a box at the beginning of the quarter and you would take out a piece of paper and then you’d give it to somebody and they would stand up and read. That one is like we did that at our churches. And then you know organizations like One Story came along with this really novel idea, which is, hey, we’re going to produce videos that are going to be and you’re, there’s kind of like… And and again, I’m not an expert in this area. You are. I’m trying to describe this as a… there’s almost like this relationship between a local instructor, a host leader person, and then you as the curriculum producer. And and where is the line? What is video really good at for kids, engaging kids? What is the local kind of person that we still need people locally to do? Help us understand. Because I think sometimes I’ve seen churches overuse video…

Natalie Frisk — Yeah.

Rich Birch — …where it’s like, they’re going to sit for 30 minutes and watch something, and that is their Sunday morning. That’s not what I see you doing. And I so help us understand, where’s those lines kind of go?

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, I love that. I think um I’m going to borrow from Sesame Street for a second because why not?

Rich Birch — Cause Sesame Street.

Natalie Frisk — So Sesame Street, I mean, don’t even get me started, but I will start just the same. Sesame Street really introduced us to the kind of like um the segment like segmented kids programming. So there, I think it was three minutes, ah three minutes, three minutes, three minutes. And um in in many similar ways, we attempted to think about that in a kind of in physical proximity space. And in the the visual media of of ah ah videos.

Rich Birch — Good.

Natalie Frisk — And so we’ve got interspersed with the physical proximity small group or large group kind of scenarios. These videos that are crafted so that a fair bit of deep rich content is delivered in three to five minutes so that that

Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s astonishing really how much how cut far you go. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — So that can be um then unpacked in the the the physical ah space.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — So how that’s unpacked, and this is I think, I mean, the Lord definitely went before us on this because I could not have fathomed how like the Holy Spirit would have worked through this curriculum, this One Story curriculum in in such a way. But like churches right across the um denominational spectrum have utilized this curriculum. And it’s because we’re really trying to just like unpack the the biblical narrative um and then allow for the um individual expressions of the church to then to then make um application pieces really prominent.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — And so as as leaders are asking kids, you know, what stood out to you? It’s very open-ended in that way, not to say that we leave every single piece of it in open-ended ways. I think there are certain things, you know, Jesus is Lord.

Rich Birch — Yes, yes.

Natalie Frisk — Like there are certain absolute statements we can make that are true right across the board. And so, yeah, getting to to that kind of like episodic segmented place was really helpful. So we do um Bible story content in that way. And and and honestly, like does that mean that a Bible story is never live taught? Absolutely not.

Rich Birch — No, yeah.

Natalie Frisk — We give the opportunity, we we provide notes. for folks that want to deliver that themselves or you know i have a backup in case there’s a power outage and you’re teaching kids by candlelight…

Rich Birch — Right. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — That sounds dangerous, don’t do that. And then we also ah have created like ways to memorize scripture. We we that we call them key verse games. And they’re super fun and super… actually I had a a group with Rich, ah you you up ah you guys were, I think I had you running on the spot…

Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — …ah learning a key verse from a screen um that we all learned together and it was great fun. Although I have learned that I can’t run on the spot for more than 60 seconds.

Rich Birch — Quite as long – yes, exactly.

Natalie Frisk — But you know, there’s learnings all around. um And then the other bit with One Story that we did that to me was a new thing and I think we’re starting to see it more with children’s curriculum is, for lack of a better kind of phrase, it was like these mini testimony videos. They were done in such a way to share someone’s story connected to a big idea that came out of the biblical narrative. And that story is somebody from a completely different setting than your own.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Natalie Frisk — Well I mean, there could be some similarities, obviously, but um we were able to get such a diversity of people on camera. And so if you have a really, for whatever reason, a really really heterogeneous church population within um the content of One Story, you’re going to see just the most incredible variety of people in different places, in different spaces, um from different backgrounds, from ah yeah different different parts of the world, um lived out what it looks like to follow Jesus in real life in their setting.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — And then still find ways that connect with your own story as a you know, a leader or a kid. um And I think that’s the other beauty of it is that it story kind of transcends our ages sometimes.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Natalie Frisk — You know, um I hear from leaders um how um they have learned from these stories themselves. As they are meant to be kind of teaching and facilitating, they are learning and growing as a result of this content, which just, again, I can’t couldn’t have fathomed what the Lord would do with this content when we first set out to create it.

Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool. It, again, I think um the thing I love about your content is it is it feels like it’s like the best of what should be on video. Like, oh, that’s like really resident to what should come by video. It’s like you’re doing, like you say, a testimony like, I can’t inject some other kids story into today’s conversation. Like I can’t bring a kid up and say hey let’s interview you around your… that’s just not gonna happen. Or you know the creative stuff that that does you know fire all the you know brains is just different than it’s made for the you know for the screen. Which I think then I think when you pair that with a great communicator or a great leader they can take that in this kind of partnership dance, not to replace that teacher, not to replace the person locally…

Natalie Frisk — Exactly.

Rich Birch — …but to really enhance their ability to connect with kids. I also think that up that episodic idea too, you know, when I was a kid, they used to, it was like the best day in school, you would see, they would roll down the giant TV and you knew that the teacher was gonna put on like a two hour movie. Now I know looking back on that, that was like the teacher taking a break. They were like, I am done. And, uh, that’s not what this is. This is not like, Hey, we’re going to… They’re still very engaged in the process, which I think is, you know, is fantastic.

Rich Birch — So, man, there’s a lot we could talk about here. So many things you’ve given us this, uh, this resource I want to talk about, which kind of gets back to what originally we’re talking about, mix it up digital media in your kids min’s space.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, yeah.

Rich Birch — We’re going to link to this in the show notes, but kind of tell me what this is and how it’s helpful.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, as we, interact with parents, especially as ministry leaders and directed with parents who are maybe, um we’ll call them digitally hesitant.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Natalie Frisk — This resource is helpful to help navigate some of those conversations or even um get ahead of some of those conversations that are inevitable. I mean, there are folks in every church that will say, oh, I don’t I don’t know about you know my kids. You know, this is the one hour in the week, maybe that they are not bombarded by media. And it’s like, well, let’s think of it in a different light.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — It’s not about being bombarded by media. It’s actually about speaking to them in a way that they have been accustomed to that is actually helpful and meaningful in their settings. So um this covers over um three reasons why to use video in kids’ ministry. A few different links to some great organizations, including Raise Up Faith…

Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely.

Natalie Frisk — …that will be helpful in your church context. And then um for ministry leaders to share some resources that are helpful for at home um context. um There’s some phenomenal stuff for at home use as well that honestly, I think even as a ministry leader to um help to curate a video playlist on YouTube…

Rich Birch — Oh, that’s a great idea.

Natalie Frisk — …for families to engage with at home, Man, um I know a bunch of children’s ministry leaders who um curate their own Spotify playlist so that families can jump in a car and know that their kids are hearing the same songs that they will sing on Sunday morning in their car rides in the week, which helps enhance their experience as well as the discipleship practices. So I think those things can be so helpful and a bunch of this stuff is on that handout.

Rich Birch — Yeah, I love at the bottom here—and again, friends, you just get this link it’s we’re linking in the show notes—ah you know you’ve listed a ah ah bunch of YouTube accounts like from different churches and organizations that provide great content. Like that even that alone, I’m like, man, that’s worth of the price of the download here.

Rich Birch — Because you know like you could see I thought the same thing like what if you know for this coming year we’re trying to acknowledge like hey this isn’t this a real issue I think as as leaders, as a senior leader, executive pastor, lead pastor I’d be saying let’s get our people together let’s get our our kids ministry people together and and talk about this issue. How are we helping our people with the fact that their kids are living in an increasingly digital age? I think that’s one takeaway from today’s conversation.

Natalie Frisk — Absolutely.

Rich Birch — Another thing we could do is like, hey, every month we could feature one of these, our kids ministry group could feature one of these. Here’s some great content if you’re looking for some extra stuff, doesn’t cost you anything. I know, you know, you go onto YouTube and you’re like, I don’t know where to send my kids. And if you, if you don’t, they’ll end up on Mr. Beast eventually. And you know, that’s where, you know, that’s where the algorithm will push them towards. And well, less Skibbity Toilet would be great.

Natalie Frisk — Oh man. Yeah.

Rich Birch — So like, let’s, you know, you know, let’s point them towards some great content. So this is fantastic. What a great resource. I appreciate you putting that together. That’s super helpful.

Natalie Frisk — Oh, thank you. Thanks so much, Rich.

Rich Birch — And then tell us more about Raise Up Faith. Like let’s talk about this. Like your maybe there’s many people that have been listening in today. What’s the kind of church that would really benefit from Raise Up Faith and should be exploring? You know what ah What’s the kind of problems that you feel like you solve particularly well for churches? And that’s just at raiseupfaith.com. I want to send people there to check that out.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, and I’ll just add before I answer your question um that that we have a free sampler account.

Rich Birch — Oh, love it.

Natalie Frisk — So people can go on and they can try out. Gosh, there’s like a ton of lessons that are for free. So even if you’re, I mean, I know some churches that they never know if a kid is going to show up on a Sunday morning. So if you’re just looking for some activity pages to be able to have to hand out to kids that might just happen to show up on a Sunday morning, you can you know download some freebies there as well.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, I think that this has been a really interesting question for us as a company to be um considering. And I think that our, the realities of our experience has shown that Raise Up Faith is for a much more diverse um kind of spectrum of churches then perhaps we had um been I guess…

Rich Birch — Originally thought.

Natalie Frisk — Yeah, yeah. So you know initially we were really, really focused on recognizing that there are so many small churches, like small small churches under 200, that don’t have a paid a paid professional, ah maybe even pastor…

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — …ah let alone a children’s ministry, youth ministry, family ministry person. And so we really wanted to provide excellent quality content for the kids that happen to be in those settings and to make it as accessible and um just kind of low prep as possible for those those those folks who are doing it in a… I’ll be honest with you, um having been at um a really large church for oh gosh, 17, 18 years. I am now in this really, really small church that’s really it’s really sweet.

Rich Birch — Yes. Changes your perspective a little bit.

Natalie Frisk — It it really does.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — And it has helped me um be able to speak into kind of both ends of this, but um I’m presently the the interim children’s ministry director.

Rich Birch — Love it. Love it.

Natalie Frisk — And yeah, yeah you can’t you can take a girl out of something and something, something. There’s a saying that I’m sure somebody can figure that one out.

Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Somewhere in there. Yeah. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — But this small church experience is often patchwork. It’s often um one person is teaching on one Sunday and they have no idea what the person the following Sunday is gonna teach. No idea, no connection to what the person the Sunday after that is gonna teach.

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Natalie Frisk — And it really becomes this kind of, um I don’t know, wild ride for kids that maybe they’re hearing the same story a few weeks in a row, um all of these kinds of things. So we we kind of thought, this is a helpful resource um where folks can easily get connected to a scope and sequence. They can get logins for their various volunteers so that they can just track along together with very low prep. And so we thought small churches, those are that’s our sweet spot. And then we started to get larger churches using this. And we’re like, oh, this is actually helpful for multisite.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — I mean, when we created One Story, um we were utilizing it at a multisite church. But recognizing that having multiple curricula on our platform um allows a multi-site church or or a church with heaps of campuses in a variety of different um kind of demographic areas allows them to just kind of personalize or contextualize certain aspects of their their teaching…

Rich Birch — Oh, that’s good. Yep.

Natalie Frisk — …based on where they are. So, you know, there might be, gosh, um there might be a campus that has a really like musical worshipy kind of foundation to it. And you want to help the kids enter into that same type of thing.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — Well, many, many curriculum ah have somewhat limited music availability.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — And what happens is that um children’s ministry leaders or family ministry leaders are often buying the add-ons.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — So there’s this and then I add on and then I add on.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — This is this has got it this has got all of the pieces so you don’t have to pay out of pocket…

Rich Birch — Add on. Yeah, that makes sense.

Natalie Frisk — …every time you’re looking for something. So um we’ve got this adorable um adorable British ah ah curriculum on our platform for kind of the early years called Little Worship Company.

Rich Birch — Oh, nice. Love it. Yes.

Natalie Frisk — And it is there’s there’s heaps of songs, songs that you would sing in your church community on a Sunday morning. Songs that you probably wouldn’t with grown-ups. So there’s ah like this range of worshipful songs that I just think like, yeah, that’s such a gift to to a certain kind of style of church. And then there’s, you know, we’ve got um heaps of Bible content um that in various ways that will speak to different communities in different ways. And I mean there’s there’s activities I mean the whole gambit of things.

Rich Birch — So good.

You can search for you know if if Rich Birch is in a church and gets tasked with running for example a family ministry night which I know you know your sweet spot…

Rich Birch — Yes. Sure.

Natalie Frisk — …completely being the the MC up front, getting everybody going um and you need some large group games.

Rich Birch — Right.

Natalie Frisk — Well, you can search we have a search an awesome search function search function…

Rich Birch — Function. Yeah.

Natalie Frisk — …that you can um search for those large group games or the the the messy games or the um whatever that might be as you as you go.

Natalie Frisk — So I when I used I would have answered your question. Yeah, we’re for like a small to medium church, because that’s what we kind of were experiencing those as our early adopters. We’re recognizing that actually, we’ve got some extra larger mega churches that have started to use this content and are opening our eyes to the just way that this serves a variety of different churches in different ways.

Rich Birch — For sure. And you can see one of the things that I know has always kind of, um as but not always, I have often puzzled about is like lots of these curriculums are four weeks long. They’re like, we’re doing four weeks on this. And we just ignore the fact that there’s four months every year that have five weeks. And we’re like, which is a third of all months? Like that’s like a non-trivial number of months.

Natalie Frisk — It’s a lot. Yeah.

Rich Birch — Yeah. And yeah, I get it. It’s not every month, but it’s a lot. And if you’re the person that’s got to come up with stuff to do, like those, those weeks come up with uncanny regularity where you’re like, okay, what are we going to do today?

Rich Birch — And so having a platform like yours that yeah, maybe you try something special on those, those weeks, right? Hey, we’re going to do something that’s slightly outside and maybe we deliberately are going to, you know, find something that’s like so different than everything else we’re going to do.

Natalie Frisk — Exactly.

Rich Birch — You know, you’ve got that kind of variety rather than being locked into just a single curriculum. You know, I think that’s a great, you know, there could be a great use for, uh, you know, what you’re doing as well. So. ah This is fantastic. Natalie, I really appreciate you being on today. If we want to send people to kind of get connected with ah Raise Up Faith, where do we want to send them? All that kind of stuff. Give us the coordinates online. We should send people to.

Natalie Frisk — Yes. We want to send them to raiseupfaith.com.

Rich Birch — Perfect.

Natalie Frisk — And when they get there, they can, I heartily encourage them to sign up for a free sampler account.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Natalie Frisk — You don’t have to give your credit card or anything like that.

Rich Birch — Perfect.

Natalie Frisk — So you you can feel very confident in that process. And then when you do that, you can access a bunch of free stuff and poke around there.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Natalie Frisk — If you want to shoot me an email, you’ve got more questions, I’m so happy to interact with folks. My email address is natalie.frisk[at]raiseupfaith.com.

Rich Birch — Love it. Thanks so much. Really appreciate you being here today. Thanks for for being around. Great to see you again, friend. Thanks for being on the show today.

Natalie Frisk — Thanks for having me.