Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Why the Church Must Reclaim Imagination and Storytelling [Featuring Eric Newman & Candace Lee]

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

What if the greatest battle facing the next generation is the battle for their imaginations? In this episode of Culture & Christianity, Pastor Allen Jackson sits down with storytellers Eric Newman and Candace Lee to discuss their new book, George Goodwin, Dragon Slayer, and why courage, imagination, and identity matter now more than ever. Together, they unpack the cultural defeatism affecting young people, the dangers of “safe spaces” without resilience, and why Christians must raise "dragon slayers" instead of passive spectators. This conversation is a powerful reminder that faith was never meant to shrink back in fear—it was meant to overcome.

We really do think that the imagination is that bridge between the heart and the mind. And the enemy really comes at us in our minds. You know, Romans 12 wanted to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, that is the imagination. You know, faith begins as imagination. Doesn't that suggest we should have imaginations that are good? The destruction came because we had completely surrendered our imagination to evil.

What if we surrendered to the Holy Spirit? If you look around at the world, it's easy to see that there are dragons. The people who are going to slay those dragons are playing on Little League teams and they're sitting in Sunday school classrooms and they're in the backseat of our car. And this really is a story to plant that seed in their imaginations that there is a dragon that they were born to slay. Well, welcome to culture and Christianity. I'm excited today. I get to introduce you to some people I think will be new to you. You know, our goal is to get our faith outside the walls of the church.

So we are constantly trying to introduce you to ideas and people with God stories that are making an impact in our world. And today, they're not new friends to me, but they're going to be new friends to you. Candice Lee and Eric Newman, I guess I'm going to introduce you as authors, but you wear many hats. Yes, we have over the years. You have done a lot more than just author books. But New York Times bestselling authors, their new book is George Godwin the Dragon Slayer. and they're going to tell us about it. I'll show it to you and I'll show it to you again.

You and Rabbi Google can find it up close and personal. But this is an amazing project. It's written for younger people, but I love to read, so I'll read. And this book pulls you in. Some books you read because you have to and some books I read because my mama told me I should. But this book, it pulled me into a story that I wanted to know the end of. of and it kept pulling me through it. So congratulations.

That's not easy to do. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. We are glad it's finally a book that people can read. 15-year project? Yes, we've been carrying the story in our hearts for a long time. It has been a journey. You know, Eric and I, we come from a background of working in film and TV, and we've

collaborated together for, we are calculating over 20 years now. Well, that's how I've known you. I've known you more through television and video production and those things. So this was exciting. Yes. Yeah. We had done everything from, you know, Veggie Tales to shows with Bear Grills. She's worked a lot with Andrea Bichelli.

But all through these years, we just keep returning to this story. This is just a passion project. Vegetales and Andrea Bocchelli. Those go together. Right. Yes, we wear many, many hats. And Bear Grills wrote forward to this. Yeah, he did.

Yes. He did. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it was great. We got to jump off a mountain in order. to make that happen? Just about. We did have to eat a desert in the locusts in the desert.

Okay. So, yeah. But we didn't jump off anything too high. Yeah, we did a project with him and Israel, and he is exactly the person you hope he would be. He's fun. He moves so fast. He's so adventurous, and he loved the story, which was a great honor. Well, maybe we just jump in, but can you give us kind of an overview of the book?

Yeah. For the story to make us want to read it without giving away the punchline? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So it's a 12-year-old scout who comes from this dying West Virginia town. He is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to his father who was killed in a mining disaster. And, you know, he has this hunch that his dad was on to something that that would kind of bring their town back to life. And that's that quest that drives him into this really dangerous spot, a place every West Virginia kid knows they should. shouldn't go a coal mine. And he's searching for a little bit of treasure. And so, you know, Bear Grill is actually his forward. He summed it up really well. He's like, it's got coal mines. It's got, you know, ruthless thieves. It has treasure and true love and all the things that legends are made of. And we really tried to kind of weave that into this story. But really, it's a quest

for a young guy to redeem his family's name. You know, his name's George Goodwin. And there's a line in the book that it feels like, you know, everybody's robbed the good out of their name in town because they sort of blame his dad for what's happened. And so he's trying to redeem that family name. And it really is an identity story. We wanted to be able to tell a story about a young boy who just defies impossible odds and steps into this identity that is so much bigger than he expected. And along the way, he draws friends into it. You know, we like to say, we think all the characters in the book are awesome. even the moms. I'm a mom now, so that was important to me. So anyway. So it's a, it's a story that's 15 years in the making. Yeah, we had had the spark of an idea. We were working on a screenplay

about a little league team. And there was a scout in it, and we thought, it'd be fun to have a story about the scout. And he didn't end up making the final cut of that movie. But we, we were talking one day and like, you know, in today's day and age, and this is a while back, 15 years ago, there aren't many opportunities for kids. just to ride their bike and have an adventure like I grew up. And so we thought, They have to have helmets and knee pads and mobile pads. And then cell phones and they're checking in with their mom every five minutes.

So we thought, wouldn't it be fun to create a story about with a scout at the center where these young people go on a wild adventure and it just came to us, a dragon. And then we're like, where does it take place? When we said, West Virginia. Neither of us have been to West Virginia, but we just imagined a dragon and a coal mine. That just seemed like, that's the kind of story I want. If I had to go to coal mine, it'd be where I'd think of it was. But that spark just, we loved the story.

But for us, as storytellers, a fun story just isn't enough. And it's not enough to take you through 15 years of writing and working and figuring all that out. We wanted something more. And so we kind of did some soul searching like, okay, is there a reason we should tell the story? You know, why? And we were just talking a little bit ago about we came across this podcast. a TED talk, I think it was 2010, 2010, 2011 called The Demise of Guys. And it was about the almost impossible trajectory and path that young men face coming into adulthood.

You know, you've got, you know, suicide rates of young men is four times more than what it is for girls. The grading scores are so much lower. You know, by the time a young man is turns 21, he's spent about 10,000 hours playing video games. And if you think video games, that's in a room by yourself most of the time. Maybe you're talking to a friend. And so you have like a generation of young men who online pornography, online video gaming, it's just isolated. And so they don't have that, as kids say now, touch the grass. They're not out there touching the grass kind of living life.

they're not having that iron sharpening iron experience. And so, and they're not really able to work out or there's a, the question that every young man faces is, do I have what it takes? And so when we saw that TED talk, and that's not even, it wasn't even a spiritual or Christian, it was just the psychologist saying, hey, guys, there's a crisis. There's a crisis here. And we just looked at each other and like, this is why we have to.

tell the story. We have to help young men and women answer the question, do I have what it takes? So that's really what fueled the adventure behind the adventure. Well, the adventure is amazing. In fact, you talk about a Slayer creed that you teach to your care or the characters learn in the story. Yeah. Which I think is so awesome putting in the hearts of young people that they can be overcomers. Yeah. And not be overcome. Yeah. Because it feels like there's a defeatism that is being built into the hearts of our young people that We can't allow to take root. Absolutely.

And this book helps overcome that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, that came to Candace in a dream. Yeah, yeah. I read a bunch of Psalms the night before. And so there's kind of elements of those ideas that are kind of woven in. And I think that really is. We wanted to tell a story that would really inspire people to walk in virtue.

That would just sort of call it up. You know, I think what you probably noticed in the book is the characters are definitely not perfect. They try things. They fail a bunch of times. They feel terrified and they find a way to do things, you know, anyway in spite of their fear. Courageous and wild things. There's characters that you look at them at first and they do not at all look like a dragon slayer. But as the story goes on, you find out the little idiosyncrasies that they carry are the exact thing that helps them slay the dragon. And we just love, you know, there is a- Sounds really biblical. Yeah. There's a reason why God made us the way we are. and there's a purpose for it.

And so we wanted to be able to just exemplify that. You know, we wanted kids to see characters who are heroes still make mistakes and see how, what does it look like to move past a challenge? What does it look like to, you know, overcome a time when I've made a mistake? What does it look like to overcome a time when I just was dealt a bad hand? We have characters that come from troubled backgrounds. and they're alongside, you know, people who have totally different stories. And yet they all kind of come together and are ultimately challenged with the same thing to overcome fear and become who they're supposed to be.

You know, this podcast is made possible because of sponsors. And one of our sponsors is preserve gold. And I appreciate their partnership with us. And I pray it's a blessing to you. You know, one of the things that I hear most often right now is this, that people are doing their best plan for the future. future, but they're not sure what's trust anymore. You know, the headlines, they change every day. And the economy, it feels pretty unpredictable. And that uncertainty, it's unsettling to all of us. But as people of faith, we're not called to live in fear. We're called to live with wisdom,

with discernment, and with peace. Well, part of that is simply taking practical steps to protect what you've worked so hard to build and establish for yourself and your family. That's why many are turning to time-tested assets like gold and silver. not as a reaction, but as a way to bring stability into their financial plans. Well, if you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to connect with preserve gold. They've helped many people understand how to diversify their savings with physical gold and silver, including in retirement accounts. And right now, you can get their free wealth protection guide by texting Allen,

it's A-L-L-E-N to 50-505. Plus, with a qualified purchase, you can receive up to 15,000. $1,000 in free gold or silver. Well, if you want to learn how precious metals could help protect your savings, text Allen to 50505 today. You'll receive your free wealth protection guide. You know, as a pastor, I tell people all the time that your circumstances don't define your future unless you allow them to. And that's what I loved about your book, because you keep showing us these young people and try to give, they have this courage to continue forward. I mean, I don't, I don't think it's the only thing.

theme in the book, but it's a primary theme in the book. So if you're trying to raise some courageous young people, this has got to be on a must read list for your summer reading program. I would hope so. We would hope so. What we love now that we had a chance to hear from readers is that we, I would say, we kind of say we're goonies at heart. Like we love fun adventures. And so we, that was as critical as it, you know, having the meaning and the message. We wanted it to be a great story that people wanted to read. And we wanted it to be fun and have moments that are funny. Yes, and scary and funny and dangerous and Beargirls in the forward.

He wrote a line, you know, the dragon is dangerous, but even more dangerous are the kids in the story. They are awesome and they know how to do stuff. And they really carry that David versus Goliath kind of attitude. And, you know, even though they have real moments of fear where they kind of settle is, okay, we're here, we've got to do this. I love to read. And so oftentimes when I'll pick up a Christian fiction book, the biblical part of the story

is present, but the story part of the book is so weak that you have to love Jesus to slog through the book. And this is not that way. The story in this is so engaging. Yeah. And, you know, we have a heritage as Christian. Jesus was a great storyteller. Yeah.

I mean, he used the real life experiences of the people to make his kingdom principles. Yeah. And then we step into C.S. Lewis or Tolkien. I mean, these crazy storytellers. And I mean, I'm not, I'm not forcing that mantle upon you in this early day. But this book pulls me into the narrative in that way. Yeah. That's not an accident. That's hard work. Yeah. There's a passage in Mark for the message version has an interesting take on it that has really inspired us over the years. And it's after Jesus tells some of these stories, his disciples pull them aside. I'm like, why do you keep telling these stories that nobody understands?

Of course, I'm paraphrasing now too. He says, to some, the kingdom of God comes in parables and stories, nudging them towards receptive insight. And I love that because, you know, sometimes if somebody's coming at you with information, you're like, I don't know, I already know that. You kind of close the doors. But if you open with, hey, once upon a time, you know, you kind of lean in. And that's really what we're hoping.

You know, I had, I've told the story about my son a few times. He's 13 now. When he was three, I took him on a father-son camp out. And he was pretty young for it. And I thought, ah, he'll be fine, you know. And I'm sorry, Zander, I'm telling this. But he wore diapers at night. Okay.

So he sneaks out of the tent in his diaper. All these other boys, a little bit older than him, don't wear diapers anymore. You know, they're mature and wise at six years old. They see him and are pointing. They're shaving every morning. They're shaving every morning, right. They look at him and they start pointing. And I hear to them, I hear the volume level raising.

I'm somewhere else getting food or something. And they're yelling at him like, you're a baby. You wear a diaper. And I was like, oh, no, this was too soon. So I'm like running over there to intervene and kind of like break it up. I find my son, Zander, is laughing. And he goes, I'm not a baby. I'm a dragon slayer.

So the insult didn't stick because he was like, they just don't know who I am. And that for me was such a moment because, you know, no matter whether you're three or you're 30 or, you know, 99 years old, we all face, you know, those moments where our life events or our circumstances or what other people say try to define the narrative of who we are. But if we can anchor ourselves into who God says we are, those things just don't stick. And that is one of the things that has kept me writing for 15 years.

I think it's more important than that. One of the titles that is given to Satan in the scripture is the accuser of the brother. And the best lies have a component of the truth in them. And that's how the devil attacks all of us, me, not just your three-year-old. Right. He's just, he was far more spiritual than I am most of the time. And we have to have the wisdom of the discernment, the help, the leading of the Holy Spirit, however you want to box that, to take those attacks that say, because he brings them to all of us. We're not enough. We failed too much. We came from the wrong family. We don't look the right way. There's too much of us or too little of us. And you two make imagination, you're champions for imagination as a spiritual tool. And that is so powerful. You've got to talk

about that a little bit because it's a gift we all need to turn back on the enemy, the attacks. He sees this as a failure and we have to tell him he's the failure. Yeah. Well, we really do think that the imagination is that bridge between the heart and the mind. and the enemy really comes at us in our minds. And there's, you know, if you look at the way that scripture talks about imagination, there's not really one word for it. It just sort of means the plotting of the heart. And what's interesting to see is if you look back in the Old Testament,

most of the time that words used, it's not good. You know, it says that every imagination of man's heart was evil, and that's why the flood came. You know, there's the imagination. Excuse me, but doesn't that suggest. suggest we should have imaginations that are good. Absolutely. Destruction came because we had completely surrendered our imagination to evil.

Exactly. What if we surrendered to the Holy Spirit? Yes, that's what we, you know, the same imagination that can make like the Tower of Babel can also build Noah's Ark. It can build the tabernacle. And we have so much, it is such a gift that we've uniquely been given. And, you know, Jesus, he, there's a reason why he gathered people around to plant seeds, the kingdom of heaven of heaven looks like this. The kingdom of heaven looks like that because there's

power in using our imagination to engage with who God is, how he's made this world around us. And so we, I mean, I think that is one of the reasons why there is such a battleground for the imagination because it is ultimately where we're forming our ideas about, you know, who God has called us to be, you know, the world that he's made. What is our purpose? You know, and there's you know, there are amazing sermons that can tell us all those things. And I've heard some of them from you. But especially when we're talking to kids, some of those ideas can kind of be hard to figure out. So how do I, how do I internalize that? And I think that's where a story kind of puts it in practice in a way that it kind of moves from an idea that's out here to a truth that is here.

And we want to kind of help kids take these, even beliefs that they may have and turn them into real convictions that can't be shaken out by the world. You all have sparked something in me. Maybe it's because I read some before we talked, but I think imagination is this amazing bridge to faith. Yeah. Because we think of faith as kind of a sterile fact, faith base. I mean, but when Exodus 15, when they come to Mara and they can't drink the water,

they just saw the Red Sea parted. You would think that would fuel vaccination. Yeah. And three days later, they're at Mar and they can't drink the water and everybody's complaining. And God says to Moses, throw this stick, this tree into the water. Well, I can't imagine why that would do any good. But Moses does it. Yeah.

And the water's sweet. And I'm thinking, without imagination, you'd never be obedient. Yeah. And how can you imagine man at a feet a million people? You've never seen man at a feet a million people. It takes imagination to be faithful. It does. I've got a new sermon series coming.

I will give you credit the first time I said. That's awesome. After the first time, it's mine. But I'll give you credit the first time. But imagination's important. It's not child's play. No, it's not. On that note, I was on a shoot years ago.

And we had just this disastrous day. A car wreck, a broken camera, just we were overseas. So like nothing's working. Language barriers, just nothing. It was all falling apart. And I remember, and I'm, yeah, I was directing and producing that. So it's just, it's all my shoulders too. So I'm going to bed and I'm just like, just like the ticker, worrying.

And then I'm imagining more problems. Okay, if we get that. And then okay, no, no, no, then that's going to happen. And that's going to get worse. And it's three in the morning. And I don't often, I don't really ever say like God spoke to me. But I felt like if he did, he did right then and there, almost like shaken. Like, is this what you're going to do with your imagination?

And I heard that like so loud. it just shook me. And I said, I just sat up in bed and I'm like, Lord, I'm sorry. And I went and I took a shower. It's the middle of the night. And I'm like, Lord, I don't want to use my imagination in a destructive way thinking of all the things that could go wrong. What if I use my imagination differently? And so to echo what you're saying, it is, you know, Romans 12, 1 and 2 to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, that is the imagination. And that is, you know, faith begins as imagination. And it's so, so important.

Not necessarily a little off topic from the book, but that is what really sparks so much of those things. I think the topic of the book is overcoming and imagining that God will help you achieve and you face your greatest challenges and dangers and threats. And that requires an imagination that God will make you victorious. Yeah, it does. You see, a dream to me is nebulous. It doesn't have activity attached to it. Imagination, we want to act out. You know, we want to go put on a costume or go grab a sword or go slay a dragon.

Yeah. And so I don't, that doesn't bother. In fact, I'm not done with the point yet. I think every part of us that God created, he created is for his glory. Yeah. And that with the fall, all of that got surrendered over to evil. And we get redeemed component at a time. You know, when we're born again, God does something supernaturally for us.

But we have to renew our minds. we have to learn to manage our carnal nature. And I love the idea that our imagination has to be submitted to God. Why would we just imagine that our imagination is a doorway for evil? Why shouldn't imagination be a doorway for the spirit of God to make us more than? Yeah. Absolutely. There's a line in the book that's always stuck out to me.

It takes place in a dying cold town of West Virginia. And it talks about how the kids in this town, they see their, lives through coal-colored coal-colored glasses and that they've never they can't imagine themselves doing anything other than, you know, living a life of failure than what they see around them. And so sometimes it does take that external forces just shaking you up and just saying like, no, no, no, let me take off those glasses so you can see something, see a picture of who you can be. Yeah. Actually, the prologue of the book starts with, it's a town with a poor imagination. It's a town that has lost the ability to see who and what they could be.

And because they've lost that kind of power of imagination, they can't really imagine what could save them, a young boy, or what is coming after them, you know, this dragon. A young boy with a tragic story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like his life is perfect.

No, yeah. So anyway, we really, I think that that thread is woven in just because it is, it is so much a part of who we are. And to be able to even have a true identity, to have the God-given identity, we have to stir that imagination. I know G.K. Chesterton has a quote. He says that fairy tales exist not to tell children that dragons are real, but to tell them that dragons can be killed. And, you know, we, that's really why we're telling the story. I mean, if you look around at the world, it's easy to see that there are dragons. And we have a hunch that the people who are going to slay those dragons are playing on Little League teams and they're sitting in Sunday school

classrooms and they're in the backseat of our car. And this really is a story to plant that seed in their imaginations that there is a dragon that they were born to slay. And that, you know, we welcome any child into the order of the dragon slayer because it is so important, you know, to carry those virtues. You know, the Dragon Slayer Creed you mentioned, you know, it says, you know, courage is your brother, fighting with you to the end. There's, you know, the kids are defenders of truth and humility. You know, love, justice and peace, hate only what is evil. There's these threads that we would hope that kids would carry in so that even when we are taking on this idea of maybe slaying a cultural dragon, we're doing it with the virtues that God has kind of called us to. So that, you know,

that even the fight that they're fighting, it's a good fight. It's a good fight. Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier. And I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident. But that hasn't been my experience. So what do we do in a world where there's so many options and diets seem to be like fashion trends? They change with every season. How do we respond? Well, I want to tell you about something that I trust, something that has worked in my life. Ancient nutrition gives you a whole menu of supplements, sources for protein, and collagen that I have found made a difference in my life. You know, I decline most of sponsorship invitations, but this isn't something that is just an invitation to be a sponsor for something.

I've actually used it in my life, and it's made a difference. Jordan Rubin happens to live in the Nashville area, so he and I have become friends long before I was doing this podcast. And his coaching has helped me lead a healthier life. And I have found those ancient nutrition supplements to be very valuable, whether it's the multi-collegin or now the new multi-protein. It's hard to eat enough protein sometimes as you age to maintain the muscle that we want to maintain. And those supplements have been very helpful for me. They've been gracious enough to give those of you who are listeners to our program. If you'll use the code fuel 26, you'll get a 26% discount sitewide on ancient nutrition.

That's ancientnutrition.com. Let's make choices to be healthier, and maybe we can limit the pharmaceuticals will be dependent upon. That would be a God thing. God's moving in the earth, and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork

and not just the pills we take. You know, if parents or grandparents buy this for family members, I'm happy, but I'll be happier if they read it before they give it to them. Because young people are not the only ones that are challenged the defeatism. Like I think one of the failures of contemporary evangelicalism is there's a defeatist nature too.

We're waiting for the rapture. Yep. But between here and there, it's just going to get dark and grim. And that's not what I read in the characters in the Bible. It's my heroes. And even just to liken it to the kids in the story, how often do we see the world through those like coal-covered glasses? You know, it's like, you know, it can be so quick just to see like all that's wrong with the world. But instead of seeing like, no, no, no, no, I'm here for a reason, for a purpose.

You know, one of the things there's, you know, when you talk about identity, which is a big topic, always has been, but I think it's especially a big topic in our youth right now. So much of the conversation has become so inward. Who do you feel? Who do you think? How do you feel? It's just, it's just such an inward thing. and one of the things we wanted to we wanted to invert that a little bit

instead of, you know, we have a character in here who says there's, as long as there's breath in my lungs, I still have breath in my lungs, it must be for something. And we wanted to kind of trigger people to set, instead of being so inwardly focused, you know, what purpose is there in your life? You've got breath and your lungs. There's a reason for that.

Discover that purpose. That's who you are. And, you know, just going back to what you were saying about having a parent read or a grandparent read, you know, one of the things that I pull from that story that we told about how Jesus would kind of tell, kind of gave his disciples the inside scoop about how parables work. Behind the curtain. Yeah. He was really saying to them, you know, he was saying, this is a story that I will share with everyone. But then I'll use this story to disciple those who have eyes to see. And so for, you know, our, we wrote the story for everyone. so that you could give it to a neighbor, and hopefully they would enjoy it, and you could talk about it. And you might talk about it like a regular book, and there may be opportunity to talk about what we're talking about right now. But for families that do have eyes to see the story that God's placed them in, we see this like a campfire story.

You know, gather the family around, read it aloud. We actually, you know, first imagined it as a movie. And so I think because of that, it does read aloud in a way that is sort of fun. It feels cinematic in that way. But really, you know, Eric, you did a lot of kind of stop and talk as you read it through it for the first time with your kids. And I think that's so cool. Yeah. They were the first live audience with it.

And they're not the easiest crowd. I think we call that guinea pigs. Yeah, they're guinea pigs. They have good taste. So they're, they'll tell us. If they don't like it, they'll tell me. They had a few lines that made it in the book, which is fun. But it was fun after a few chapters, you know.

at its core, it's a story about courage. But what I love about our hero, George, is he would never describe himself as courageous, and he is certainly not fearless. And so what I loved, you know, we would finish a chapter or two, and I'd be, I'd ask, you know, what do you think about, how do you think George felt in that moment? He was terrified. How would you feel in that moment? Like, terrified.

I would not want to be there. That would be the worst thing ever, you know. But then to see, like, this character that they're, following, these characters that they're following, are scared out of their boots, but they're taking the next step anyway. And that was a fun thing just to reading that with my kids and getting to talk about some of those things was a blast. And it was, it's good to see like, okay, does it work? Is this funny? Is it landing? Well, I've been inviting our listeners for a while now to at least once a week, maybe once a week to have a meal at the table with their family. And what's come out of

that is what do you do? Because I said, it's a faith time. It's a, it's a wellness check. It's a learning. And this is a wonderful read for your dinner time with your family. You take a chapter a week. They'll make you want to read more than one chapter. It's hard to stop. It pulls you along. But turn that into something they anticipate. Wait until they ask you for the second night a week. And they're willing to yield their schedule. And I think it's so important. But you said something though I want to come back to. You're talking about feelings. And the current mantra is no one can tell me what I feel. I disagree wholeheartedly. Somebody better be telling me how to process feelings. Yeah. Because my feelings left to themselves are not godly. He created me with feelings.

Right. But they have to be yielded to God. Absolutely. And if I allow my feelings to dictate my behavior without the influence of people with more experience, more wisdom, more spirituality, I'm abandoning my role. I love the call in this book to courage to biblical virtues and values without rapid. It doesn't feel like I'm getting sermonized. Yeah. You're helping me imagine I can be courageous when I'm afraid. You talked about the goonies and those things that shaped your childhood. Yeah.

And they frightened us, but they modeled for us that we could overcome our fear. Yeah. And I don't think that's being modeled as well. I think we've institutionalized giving into that. People are bullying me. Yeah, they always will. Yeah. You've got to overcome the bullies.

Yeah. And even just the concept of like safe spaces, which is like there's no safe space in this story. But even if you think of, you know, at its core, it's a David and Goliath story. You think of like if David had spent his formative years in a safe space, he wouldn't have faced the lion. And he wouldn't have faced the bear. And so when Goliath came calling, he probably would have respectfully declined. But it was, it was, it was that lifestyle of, or that, that exposure to those dangers that, that built that courage, not just the courage, but the identity of who he was.

So that when he faced Goliath, you know, he didn't do it in Saul's armor. He did it as David the shepherd boy. And, you know, that's the tools he trusted. With the tools. I think of courage is a muscle. Yeah. Yeah. And if you exercise it, you gain more capacity.

And if you don't exercise it, it atrophies. Then you depend on it less and less. So I love teaching young people to cultivate courage. And we won't always get it right. Sometimes we'll give in to fear. The disciples ran away when they arrested Jesus. But after Jesus ascension, they didn't run away anymore. They stood right there.

And that's what I hope's happening in me. There have been times I've run away or hidden my faith. They've been embarrassed. That's why it's not just a kid's book. Adults can read it because I don't really need it. It's for the kids. But I'm going to get a good dose of it. courage by reading it. So thank you for. We had a friend who worked in coal mining for 30 years.

And we would submit when we were, we'd ask him questions along the way. And then we submitted the nearly final manuscript to him. And he got back to us like a week later. And he goes, I didn't sleep. I didn't get to bed last night until 4 a.m. And I'm blaming it on you. And he read it all in one sitting. But yeah, we'll take it. Absolutely. I've got some friends from West Virginia. Yeah. They didn't move to Tennessee. So they're getting copies. Oh, that's great. I've already got a plan for that. That's great. You know, I know a little bit of how much time and effort it takes to get a book across the finish line. And this is a 15-year project, so I don't have that imagination. But if you could look in the camera and tell the people why you invested that energy and what that impact you wanted to have in their family and the people they care about.

Yeah. When this journey began, we loved the concept. We love the story. We love adventurous stories. But what really the vision behind this is we want to inspire a generation of young men and women to be prepared mentally, physically, spiritually to slay life's dragons. We couldn't think of a more important, now that I'm a father, began this not as a father, but now I have two kids on my own. I can't think of a more important message that I could leave with my own kids than that. Yeah. And I mean, we believe that there is a hero inside of everyone. And sometimes it takes a dragon to draw it out. So you might know a child who doesn't feel like that hero just yet. We want to put a book in their hands that helps them recognize that potential inside of them to look around and figure out which dragon was I born to slay. We really believe this will awaken purpose. It will awaken imagination. And really, you know, we we wanted this to be a book that surprised and delighted and stirred people's hearts to wonder and, you know, wonder at just the way that God works. You know, he modeled the story first with the David and Goliath. And this is really, you know, there's a reason why we went with this image.

It was, we actually pulled this with kids and this was the image that lit them up because immediately there's something exciting about seeing this big scary dragon and knowing that that kid is somehow going to take him down. And so, You know, we're trying to get this into the answers as many young people as possible to just awaken that sense of destiny. You know, if you've heard the phrase, pay it forward, we like to say, maybe you could slay it forward to someone that you know that needs that story. We're celebrating this year the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What a wonderful privilege we have. You know, God has blessed our nation so many good things.

People say to me, well, our whole history is not good. Well, folks, you know, my history's not great. Your family history is not perfect, but you love your family, you love your children, in spite of our weaknesses. Well, our nation hadn't been perfect, but through that whole story, the goodness of God is evident, it still is.

Let's ask God to bless America again. I believe you will. As we celebrate 250 years of God's faithfulness to our nation, we want to help you carry that message along with you. This commemorative tote bag and blanket, our simple reminder, of his goodness and a way to spark meaningful conversations wherever you go.

Request your limited edition tote bag and blanket today while supplies last with your gift of $100 or more at allan jackson.com or call 800 8805102. I meet men a lot who kind of boastfully say I don't read. And so I've suggested they change their line to I choose to be ignorant. You may not like to read, but you can't afford not to. And this is a great book to read with your family for yourself. If you feel more overwhelmed than you feel like you're a conqueror, it will build faith in you because it will feed your imagination. And so, again, if you didn't catch it at the beginning, it's George Goodwin, Dragon Slayer.

It's something that is available emotionally to anybody that will take the time to read it. And I think it will pull you into the story. It did me. And I'm hard-hearted book reading. calloused, all those things. And it actually pulled me on to the next page. I'm excited, you know, yielding our imaginations to the spirit of God, inviting creativity back into the midst of the people of God, and not leaving it in a secular culture, and challenging us to be overcomers. Those are core principles of our Bible. And you all have made it available to us

in a story form, which is a valuable, valuable gift. I thank you for it. it. Yeah. You had to travel to Tennessee to do this podcast today. We're honored to be here. We are. That takes some imagination. It takes courage. It does. It really does. We'll teach you to say you all. I have a new board at home, so it took a lot of courage. Maybe we do an update in a few months. I want to hear how it does. Yeah. And what you're going to learn a lot out of this, walking this thing out. I always do. And you know, this is the first in a three book series. So there's more to come, more adventures to come. A lot more imagination that we're stirring. Am I allowed to be.

We're about two-thirds of the way through. Yes. So we're excited about it. It's a different kind of story, but it's even more dangerous than the first. After you slay dragons, what's next? I don't tell me. We'll get you a copy. I look forward to that.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your investment. There's something that, to me, feels so vulnerable when you bring a new book out. And to be willing to do that, particularly one that's around story and creativity and invite people to faith. It's a great tool for people you have that aren't Christians because it'll open doors for some God conversations. It's going to bear fruit. Amen. Thank you. Culture and Christianity. You got a new tool. It's summertime. It's growing season. Let's take this. See how many copies we can get out there. How many God stories we can initiate. Let's all be dragon slayers. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity Podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.