Who are the teachers that shaped you the most in life?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with educator Breanna Churchill. Breanna shares her journey from teaching preschoolers to becoming an award-winning children’s author to launching the Brown Bear Book Club, explores practical ways families can disciple their kids at home, and offers advice for people who are interested in becoming teachers.

• [00:07:54] How playful teaching fuels spiritual growth and purpose in raising Christian kids
• [00:10:22] What Breanna’s classroom revealed about God’s patience, creativity, and faith woven through every subject
• [00:13:19] The story behind Brown Bear Book Club
• [00:16:51] Inspiration and practical strategies for parents (and kids) to reconnect with God and nurture faith at home

Resources:

• brownbearbookclub.com
• Recommended Episodes:
  
  • Episode 156 - Jason Raitz
  • Episode 181 - Ryan George
  • Episode 193 - Hayley Arceneaux (astronaut)
  • Episode 213 - Rousseaux Brasseur (The Quester)
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

From Stage to Classroom: "I thought I was going to be an actress and singing, but teaching, I felt like teaching was the perfect place to be creative and teach young children."

— Breanna Churchill [00:06:28 → 00:06:38]

Viral Topic: Preventing Burnout in Parents and Teachers: "it's hard for us to be ready to teach our kids or our students if we're coming from an empty, burnt out and overwhelmed place."

— Breanna Churchill [00:15:46 → 00:15:54]

Morning Routines: "One of the things I do is start my day with God. I start my day with Him. And so it's prayer, it's worship, turning on music, sometimes not turning on music, sometimes it's just singing naturally, journaling, writing things down and just being honest and real with God."

— Breanna Churchill [00:16:51 → 00:17:09]

"Nobody feels totally equipped. I mean, even Moses, everybody's like, what, God? You want me to do what?"

— Breanna Churchill [00:19:45 → 00:19:51]

Viral Topic: The Importance of Experience for Aspiring Teachers: "I highly recommend that teachers, anybody thinking about being a teacher get experience. Experience working with children."

— Breanna Churchill [00:20:25 → 00:20:32]

"One thing I love about God is that he is so patient. I think God is so patient with us. But then I also realized God is so creative. Each child he created so uniquely, and they learn differently and they grasp concepts differently."

— Breanna Churchill [00:10:45 → 00:10:57]

How The Brown Bear Book Club Began: "I realized I wanted to take the things that I learned in the classroom, and I'm like, I still want to share this with the world. And so that's how the Bro

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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What if the power and hope of Easter could transform your family’s faith and purpose, uniting you around the message of Jesus’ resurrection?

On this special Easter episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark welcomes Dr. Esau McCaulley—pastor, professor, and author of “God’s Colorful Kingdom” and “God’s Colorful Easter.” Dive into a dynamic conversation about Christian parenting, raising Christian kids, and how to cultivate joy, discipleship, and spiritual growth through family time and the diverse beauty of God’s story.

• [00:03:32] Esau McCaulley’s journey as a pastor, professor, dad
• [00:06:52] Why writing for kids matters
• [00:08:03] Diversity in God’s colorful kingdom
• [00:10:09] The meaning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and why the hope of the resurrection is the heartbeat of discipleship at home

Resources:

• esaumccaulley.com
• Books: God’s Colorful Easter & God's Colorful Kingdom Storybook Bible
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Viral Topic: How COVID Changed My Writing Journey: "Normally I write, like, you know, academic books, but during COVID it was so stressful, and there's. We had kids at home and all of these other things, and I really didn't feel in the mood to write a Big technical, academic book."

— Esau McCaulley [00:06:56 → 00:07:10]

The Meaning of Maundy Thursday and the Love Command: "So on Thursday, we remember the love command, the command that we have to love one another."

— Esau McCaulley [00:11:03 → 00:11:07]

Living With Hope Amid Sadness: "We live in a world that is sad and broken, and we sometimes feel the weight of that sadness, but we never weep as those who without hope, because we trust in the Savior who has come to rescue us."

— Esau McCaulley [00:12:32 → 00:12:42]

Viral Gospel Connections: "So when God, when Mark was written, Mark was saying, hey, if you don't believe this version of the story, go ask Rufus and Alexander. They're in the church."

— Esau McCaulley [00:18:45 → 00:18:54]

Viral Topic: Surprising Clues About Simon of Cyrene's Family Background: "Yeah, Simon, Rufus and Alexander are Greek names, right? So that probably means that Simon at some point became a Roman citizen and he gave his kids names that were Greek. It probably also means that maybe Simon's wife would have been a Gentile, and that Simon, who's married to a Gentile woman, eventually."

— Esau McCaulley [00:19:13 → 00:19:36]

Viral Topic: The Mysterious Journey of Simon of Cyrene

"It's possible that Simon of Cyrene, who's from Northern Africa, who comes to Jerusalem, who is Jewish, who gets converted to Christianity, possibly to a Gentile woman, then has two Gentile sons who become Christians, who are all in the early church."

— Esau McCaulley [00:19:50 → 00:20:07]

Viral Topic: The Universal Message of the Cross

"It's not just the diversity of what the story of Easter contains. It's what it does. Like on the cross, right? It says in three languages, the King of the Jews, right? And all of the gospel writers make a point of saying it's in three languages. So no matter where you're from, you can see on the cross."

— Esau McCaulley [00:21:03 → 00:21:23]

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What if creativity isn’t really about talent, at all?

On this episode of the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Brennan McPherson—writer, game developer, and lead producer of the Light of the World animated film. Listen in as Brennan shares his inspiring journey from aspiring rock star to leading a ministry focused on bringing the story of Jesus to kids and families through powerful hand-drawn animation. Discover fresh insights into being a professional artist and why creativity is less about talent than we might think.

• [00:06:12] Brennan’s path from being a professional drummer to leading a media production ministry
• [00:10:09] The heart and vision behind the Light of the World film
• [00:12:10] What it means to be a creative producer
• [00:15:02] Brennan’s real talk about professional creativity and perseverance

Resources:

• Animated Jesus film: www.lightoftheworld.com
• Brennan’s Website: brennanmcpherson.com
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Viral Topic: Transforming Nonprofit Media

"I came into the position of being the president of the organization and decided that we were going to take the nonprofit in a new direction and craft it into a full-blown media company crafting entertainment that makes the gospel simple to understand and impossible to forget."

— Brennan McPherson [00:06:38 → 00:06:53]

Viral Topic: "Why Isn’t There a Great Animated Jesus Movie?": "There's no good animated feature film on the life of Jesus. I couldn't even hardly believe it. For like a couple of years, I was like, are you sure? There's no— I mean, I kept like checking, trying to find if there was one that was, you know, there's a couple that are like really, really, really low budget that no one's ever seen."

— Brennan McPherson [00:10:11 → 00:10:25]

Viral Topic Title: "Reimagining the Disciples as Teenagers"

Quote: "We realized with the research that most of the disciples were likely teenagers. Peter was in his 20s, you know, but he was one of the oldest. So they weren't these old bearded guys that you see in all the representations."

— Brennan McPherson [00:11:16 → 00:11:27]

What Does a Producer Really Do?: "a producer's job is to solve problems before they derail the whole thing and collapse the film. Because if a film— it's like you're starting a business with hundreds of people you've never worked with before."

— Brennan McPherson [00:12:46 → 00:12:56]

The Secret to Creative Success

Quote: "my advice to anyone who wants to be creative is find the thing that you love doing. And then approach it in a systematic way."

— Brennan McPherson [00:17:57 → 00:18:05]

Success at Movie Guide Awards: "We just won Best Children's Film at the Movie Guide Awards and beat out King of Kings from Angel Studios and Zootopia 2 from Disney for that award, and so we're very, very proud of it, but really for us, this film is a long-term ministry initiative."

— Brennan McPherson [00:21:48 → 00:22:06]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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What if God could use even your brokenness to create something beautiful and inspire your whole family’s faith journey?

This week on the Collide Kids Podcast, host Christen Clark sits down with Jamie Statema—award-winning songwriter, producer, and GO FISH! co-founder—to explore how families can nurture spiritual growth, purpose, and discipleship at home. Jamie shares behind-the-scenes stories about being a Christian artist, raising Christian kids through music, and his powerful new children's book, "A Broken Crayon," a reminder that God uses every part of our stories—even the hard parts!

• [00:02:25] Jamie Statema’s musical journey with GO FISH!
• [00:09:27] The story behind "A Broken Crayon"
• [00:13:45] Real talk: Overcoming performance and embracing brokenness
• [00:16:02] Making home and church safe for authentic conversations

Resources:

• gofishresources.com
• Jamie’s New Book: A Broken Crayon
• Website: collidekidspodcast.com
• Instagram: @collidekidspod

Clip Finder:

Viral Origin Stories: "I'm the OG GO FISH! guy. But when we originally started, it was myself and a friend from my church up in Minneapolis, Minnesota had this idea to do like an a cappella group."

— Jamie Statema [00:06:12 → 00:06:24]

Viral Topic: "Kids Can Handle Deep Truths — Music for All Ages": "The key, I feel, to making great music for kids that won't drive parents bonkers is to not talk down to kids because kids are way smarter than most people give them credit for."

— Jamie Statema [00:07:33 → 00:07:43]

Viral Topic: How Music Helps Memory

"It's amazing how music does, you know, it helps you remember things. It's a great way to learn things."

— Jamie Statema [00:08:38 → 00:08:43]

Viral Topic: Turning Brokenness into Beauty

Quote: "It's all about how God can take broken things and turn them into beautiful things."

— Jamie Statema [00:09:59 → 00:10:04]

The Danger of Too Much Information: "Sometimes you just got to follow God's leading, just do the next right thing. And then just see what happens."

— Jamie Statema [00:11:56 → 00:12:02]

Redefining Greatness in Faith: "Being a good dad is doing a great thing for God, you know, being a good husband, serving in the church, serving others, whatever it may be. It doesn't have to be in the spotlight to be considered great, and that's something I talk about a lot."

— Jamie Statema [00:13:31 → 00:13:45]

Viral Topic: Redemption Through Brokenness: "That’s really the message of the book, that even when you feel broken, it’s not over."

— Jamie Statema [00:15:51 → 00:15:55]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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

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

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

Resources:

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

Clip Finder:

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

— Brock Eastman [00:09:18 → 00:09:22]

Modern Storytelling and Ancient Parables

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

— Brock Eastman [00:17:36 → 00:17:49]

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

— Brock Eastman [00:18:22 → 00:18:27]

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

— Brock Eastman [00:21:54 → 00:22:02]

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

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

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

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

Viral Topic: The Power of Parables

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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

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

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

Resources:

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

Clip Finder:

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:07:08 → 00:07:13]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:10:49 → 00:10:51]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:13:26 → 00:13:32]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:17:39 → 00:17:43]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:18:13 → 00:18:27]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:24:33 → 00:24:43]

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

— Molly Sanborn [00:30:11 → 00:30:18]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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

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

Resources:

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

Clip Finder:

Teaching Kids About Value

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

— Stephen Day [00:09:18 → 00:09:30]

Building Lifelong Habits

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

— Stephen Day [00:09:50 → 00:10:11]

The Importance of Skill in Chores

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

— Stephen Day [00:10:43 → 00:10:49]

Teaching Kids Responsibility

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

— Stephen Day [00:12:12 → 00:12:27]

Parenting Hack

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

— Stephen Day [00:14:14 → 00:14:26]

Teaching Kids About Money Management

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

— Stephen Day [00:17:32 → 00:17:41]

Training Kids to Avoid Impulse Buying

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

— Stephen Day [00:22:02 → 00:22:17]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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

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

Resources:

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

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

Clip Finder:

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:03:32 → 00:03:42]

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:10:36 → 00:10:55]

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:12:22 → 00:13:03]

Viral Topic Title: Lent Sacrifices and Their True Purpose

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:18:05 → 00:18:20]

Title: The Most Important Decision

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:19:40 → 00:20:00]

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

— Vanessa Myers [00:21:59 → 00:22:16]

Bark proactively works to monitor, detect, and alert you to potential issues on your kids' devices. Visit bark.us to learn more about how you can keep your kids safe online. Use the code COLLIDEKIDS to get 15% off Your Bark Technologies Plan !

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