# E587: Become a Student of Your Kids to Raise Them in Love w/Zac Ernst

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fatherhood-field-notes-248446/e587-become-a-student-of-your-kids-to-raise-them-in-love-w-zac-ernst
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fatherhood-field-notes-248446/e587-become-a-student-of-your-kids-to-raise-them-in-love-w-zac-ernst.md
Podcast: [Fatherhood Field Notes](https://stenobird.com/podcast/fatherhood-field-notes-248446)
Published: 2026-07-21T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://fatherhood-field-notes.captivate.fm/episode/e587-become-a-student-of-your-kids-to-raise-them-in-love-w-zac-ernst
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/1bf27634-3d71-4e53-a81a-7424491e6131.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/fatherhood-field-notes-248446/episodes/e587-become-a-student-of-your-kids-to-raise-them-in-love-w-zac-ernst
Duration seconds: 4119

## Resource

Got a teenage son coming of age? Check out Genesis - a Rite of Passage by Rise Up Kings - the program where Ned coaches dads and teen sons. Go to: riseupkings.com/ffn --------- What if becoming a better father has less to do with learning more parenting techniques and more to do with becoming a man who is fully alive ? Zac Ernst is a husband of 22 years, father of two teenagers, entrepreneur, co-founder of ActivityPay, and founder of Pursuit , a men’s movement helping men come fully alive through community, fitness, spiritual formation, and adventure. Living in Seal Beach, California, Zac has built his life around one central conviction: the greatest adventure isn’t paddling to Catalina or riding bicycles down the California coast—it’s becoming the husband and father God created you to be. In this conversation, Ned sits down with Zac Ernst to explore what it looks like to intentionally pursue God, your wife, your children, and your own formation as a man. From the opening minutes discussing dreams and how God still speaks today, the conversation quickly moves into entrepreneurship, margin, fatherhood, adventure, raising teenagers, discipling children, and the loneliness epidemic facing modern men. Zac shares how building businesses wasn’t primarily about money—it was about creating enough freedom to be present at every game, school event, and important moment in his children’s lives. He explains the family values acronym “GraceFi,” why adventure slows time down with kids, and why fathers should become students of their children’s hearts instead of trying to make them into younger versions of themselves. One of the most powerful moments comes when Zac explains the transition every Christian parent eventually faces: moving from telling children about Jesus to revealing J…

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## Transcript

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