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The phone rang. It was my Dad, the one and only Warwick Marsh. “Hey Nat, do you want to interview a friend of mine from Kansas City?”

“Sure, tell me more!” was my quick response, as Dad knows I love meeting and interviewing people. Dad continued, “Dean Briggs is His name. He’s a big deal in the global prayer movement, and has written a book called Brave Quest.”

Sounded interesting to me. So after some Googling, I came across this from Dean, “Fathers you have a brief, powerful window to teach your son to slay dragons and ready him for manhood. If you don’t, the world will.” I couldn’t have agreed more!

A few days later, I was sitting in a well-lit lounge room with Dad and Sam, our cameraman. We had the absolute honour of spending some time with Dean to hear all about Brave Quest and his heart to encourage fathers in their vital calling. You can watch a one-minute clip of the interview here and we’re planning to show the full-length interview soon at one of our upcoming Band of Brothers Webinars – more details to follow.

Dean makes the point that rites-of-passage have been part of almost every culture for thousands of years. In modern society, sadly they are lacking, and our culture is showing the cracks. Says Dean,

“I think we ask far too little of our sons. They are looking for the great invitation to significance, and we have given them the crumbs: dust and ashes of a cultural wasteland.”

Dean continues,

“Where they can spend their lives wasted on Xbox and Call of Duty, earning badges in a fake war, and think they’re heroes of the earth. No, they (our sons) want to be summoned to significance! A rite of passage… is an ancient form of wisdom to summon a man out of immaturity into maturity.”

Strong words, but Dean speaks the truth. As fathers, we need to both provide and guide, and the summoning into manhood for our sons, or womanhood for our daughters, is a critical role for us dads.

Dean’s book is ‘an interactive, thrilling fantasy adventure to help you mentor and call to maturity the young man you are responsible for’ and Dads4Kids highly recommends it. Find out more here.

What if, like me, you only have daughters? Never fear, there are other, excellent rites-of-passage resources available for Dads. Our friend Brian Molitor has written a great book on the subject, and another friend of Dads4Kids, Darren Lewis, runs fantastic Fathering Adventures right here in Australia!

After the privilege of a few hours with Dean Briggs, I was greatly encouraged and inspired in my fathering journey, my very own Brave Quest, with my five beautiful daughters. I hope you are too.

Lovework

Check out Dean Briggs’ book and create your own personal Brave Quest for your kids.

Yours for the Brave Quest,

Nathaniel Marsh

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Originally published at Dads4Kids. Photo by Ksenia Chernaya.