Note from the editor: Dads, don’t miss this piece. I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with Ben at some length at the 2024 Mid-Winter Conference in Lancaster. His message to fathers is of vital importance for our homes, cities, states, and nation. Persevere in the role God has given you and lead well!

My name is Ben Myers; my wife Felicita and I have eight children, from age 13 to newborn. We lead a ministry called “Inner-City Movement” in Philadelphia where we have served thousands of youth and their families for over twenty years. We started off using under-tent outreaches in which we shared the Gospel through drama, which led to young people wanting to be discipled and become a part of the presentations. Since most of them came from broken homes without fathers present, we assumed that we would become their spiritual champions. We traveled around the region showing churches how they too could use the arts to disciple youth and do major shows and outreaches.

After ten years, we moved into a building that had formerly been a movie theatre in the 1920’s. It had 1600 seats, but it was dilapidated. We renovated it and began our programming targeted to young people. We had theatre Bible trainings and large shows presented in a very immersive way. Eventually, our need for HVAC and other systems drove us to think more creatively. God brought us back to our beginnings with a “tent of meeting.” We built the world’s first 360-degree projection dome for live theatre, complete with moving seats, wind, mist, bubbles and flying actors. We designed the placement of the projectors just right so that the actors looked like they were “on location” (in the Holy Land) on the massive 360 ̊ screen. We produced and presented professional-level productions that featured the kids.

However, it was not long before we became very sad as we watched a startling phenomenon. More than 70% of the youth that came through our program were showing no sign of lasting faith after they left. The 30% of children that DID show good fruit had a dad and mom that were spiritually leading them. This really confused us as we had such cutting-edge technology AND an engaging Bible discipleship strategy! What was missing?

Around this same time, Felicita and I began to desire to have children of our own. Soon, the news came that I was going to be a dad, and the fear of the Lord gripped me for the first time in my life. I knew that my hidden sins were going to have a direct impact on my soon-to-arrive daughter, and that shook me to my core. God directed me to His Word, and for the nine months that my daughter was coming into the world, I read through the Bible with trembling hands three times. I now knew who He was, the horror of my sins, and the glory of the Gospel! Though I would have told you that I had loved God all my life, I had really loved my sins and planned to sin. Finally, at the age of 30, I surrendered. When my daughter was delivered, so was I.

As I was reading through the Bible chronologically, my theatre/director mind began to envision God as the Greatest Producer/Director of all times. After all, He had written a script, casted parts, male, female, husband, wife, children, Jew, Gentile, villains, and a Hero. By us playing our parts written before the set (the earth) was made, we give Him Glory and tell His story of Who He is and what He has done, shown on the stage of our home, church, and communities. I clearly saw my role in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength and teach these things diligently to your children.” Malachi 4:6 says, “I will send the Spirit of Elijah a great turning of the hearts of the Fathers to their children and children to their fathers.” Ephesians 5:25 reads, “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.”  Ephesians 6:4 likewise: “Do not provoke your children to wrath but raise them in the fear and instruction of the Lord.”

I now knew that I was to lead my family with daily times around God’s Word. But I didn’t know how. My father was a first-generation believer, and no man ever came around him to teach him how to lead his family toward God through the Bible. Thus, I too was void of God’s Word, leading to 30 years of hidden sin and dysfunction. But I was willing to try. I found out that, 200 years ago, it was normal for Christian men to lead family devotions, where the family prayed prayers, sang a song, and read a passage of Scripture that they then discussed. I thought “I could do this.”  So I gathered my young family and tried it. It went horribly. Everyone was distracted, including my wife. I asked God for help, and help He did. It felt as though He said to me, “Cast parts like you do in the theatre ministry,” and so I did…and it worked. Everyone got excited and played their part, saying their lines as we spoon-fed it to them until they could read. The Bible came alive in our home and we were being changed, especially me.

We were now convinced from Scripture that God created the family as the institution for discipleship to be humbly led by the father, so we began to re-think what to do with our youth theatre ministry. I felt as though God was asking, “Ben how many of those kids don’t have dads?” I’d reply, “All of them, God.” He’d say, “That is not what I asked. How many of them don’t have a living dad?” And all of them did except one set of twins that were adopted by their grandparents. “None,” I said. “Then stop going after the kids! If you want to see lasting fruit, go after their dads, and I will help you.”

We decided to change from a youth-focused ministry to a family-focused one, because we wanted the families to experience the same transformation we had seen in our home. Put simply, this was God’s original design from the beginning. We decided to make an app called ActorsBible that would help fathers direct their families through a fun, interactive, scripted version of the entire Bible, made up of 62 acts and 833 chronological scenes. ActorsBible gives everything needed to easily act out Scripture. There is a a teleprompter script, a musical score, songs with lyrics, application questions, and 360 ̊ visuals of the Holy Lands. (My family traveled to Turkey, Greece, Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, capturing the exact locations with an 8k, 360 ̊ camera and put it in the app, so families are literally transported to the Holy Lands every time they have family devotions.)

Now, when kids want to be part of the ministry program, we start with their dad. He begins by participating in the “Director Dad Vision Casting Call.” During this, he hears how God has specifically casted HIM to play the role of director, and that he has more anointing in his pinky finger to direct his family toward or away from God than 100 million seminary-trained pastors. WHY? Because God has casted him alone for this role. The fathers get excited when they find that they are wanted, needed and have a job…no…a great quest to accomplish. They then commit to a 21-day family meeting challenge (using the ActorsBible app at home) going through 21 scenes with their family that cover the Gospel, from Genesis to Revelation. They then have an opportunity to come together with all participating families at the theatre to present the stories back to back as one whole musical show. We run the show in our Dome using the ActorsBible software, displaying the 360 ̊ Holy Land images, teleprompter in the back, complete with music, moving seats, lighting, and special effects.

Over the last three years, we have been traveling the US in an RV doing the ActorsBible Experience RV Tour at churches, conferences, workshops, expos, house meetings, and more. We have shared about the importance of family discipleship and demonstrated the power of ActorsBible by facilitating devotions as one large group. It has been incredible to witness the power of enacting God’s Word to bring families to God and each other. This year we will add a projection dome to the tour!

In God’s final act of the greatest show on earth, He pours out the Spirit of Elijah, a turning of Fathers’ hearts to their children. This ultimately leads to a people prepared, playing their parts, a straightening of crooked ways for our Lord’s return. In addition to evangelism, and the restoration of family discipleship, our goal with ActorsBible is to help people realize that God has written a script (the Bible) and casted parts; male, female, children, Jew, and Gentile. Though all are equal before God, He has a specific role for each of us to play according to the Script, “as it is written.” His Will be done, and for His glory. It’s time for each of us to play our part, not someone else’s. We have to get in order in time for the finale! Let’s get to our places; the curtain is going up!

Curiosity is inevitable in children, and trying to suppress that natural yearning for knowledge is more often than not the wrong decision. There is a very real dichotomy of risk and benefit to technology: it may serve as a tool to open up the world to someone, yet it can inadvertently shut a person out of the world. As parents raise their children in a technologically-savvy culture, they must learn to balance their children’s exposure. On the one hand, barring your child from all devices until they are twenty years old will certainly hinder them. On the other hand, permitting them to play video games all day is certainly not healthy either.

If your child is taking up more than a passing interest in technology, there are many ways to foster that insatiable curiosity through education. There are many steps a young person can take to prepare themselves for a career in technology. Allow me to share four lessons I have personally learned that helped me secure some amazing opportunities within the tech space (without even having a college degree!).

First, make learning the objective. In doing so, you’ve made it so you can’t lose. Your child may pursue many different vocational paths with technology that can take him or her down many different routes. I’m so thankful that my parents let me explore all of the options available to me before I settled on one. Because I learned about the tech space as a whole throughout the process, spending a year doing something different from my current career was still worth it.

Making learning fun for a child may seem impossible, but there are so many resources available to do just that. Using free courses on Khan Academy to build basic HTML websites at twelve years old gave me the foundational knowledge to help me make my first income online. Learning how to build silly games on scratch.mit.edu later empowered me to create systems for my employer. Taking apart hard drives when I could barely turn a screwdriver created a strong knowledge of hardware that let me later earn a side income with IT. Although your child may bounce around a bit, they will always win when learning is the objective.

It should be noted here that if learning is the objective, money will not be the priority (at least in the beginning). I got my first internship because I told a classmate’s father I would work for free if he gave me a chance. That foot-in-the-door led to getting professional references and gave me the confidence to ask for my next high-paying, much more impressive internship. Even though technology moves fast, careers still need the long game to be played.

Second, help your child to build skills and share them with others. These two should go hand in hand. Building skills can be through projects or “gig” work. If you’ve followed step one and made learning the goal, then hopefully your child is willing to go out of their comfort zone a little bit. I often took up tasks I did not fully understand knowing that to complete the task I would need to learn quite a bit.

After your child has explored different tech fields, they will probably find one that resonates with them. If it’s website development, you can ask people at your church or co-op if they need any work done to create or maintain their webpage. If it’s digital marketing, you can ask around to see if anyone in the field would be open to being shadowed for a time.

A career in a technology field likely means your child will need to “sell” themselves as a person. This will require your child to reach out to people in their life. For instance, my first website development client was a friend of my youth group leader who heard I did some work in that industry. The first copywriting I did was for my friend’s mother! All of it starts with building various skills and being able to jump into available opportunities. If I didn’t know how to make a website, I would have had to say no, and that’s another opportunity to learn and gain experience that I would have lost.

The third lesson that your child should strive for is to share their skills. There came a point in my life where I had learned many facets of technology due to my interest in it. I had learned enough that when people asked me questions I could either answer their query or direct them to the right source. (This was always for free!)

Sharing skills is one of the most important steps because it requires two things from your child: mastering the skills themselves and knowing them well enough that they can communicate them clearly to others. Many qualified people have been passed over in their field because they could not clearly articulate their impressive abilities.

I also encourage young people to have a presence on LinkedIn. Although social media can often be a waste of time, networking is still massively important. LinkedIn is a social networking app/website that encourages users to post business/marketing/technology-related information to share with others in your network. It can also substitute for a resume, showing work experience, educational background, and even references. The position I currently hold can be attributed to growing my LinkedIn from a young age and focusing on providing professional value. It meant I had to learn skills and also learn how to share those skills with others. LinkedIn provided yet another way to share the skills I had worked so hard to learn with others.

Finally, prepare your child to future-proof their career. It will be so much harder for your child to work in technology if they do not see an iPhone until they are 17. However, there are still ways to learn some skills that nearly every tech career will require. Learning how to use Gmail, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Excel proved invaluable as they are frequently-used tools in my career. Learning to use simple apps like these can propel your child a long way.

Currently, many people do not appreciate what Artificial Intelligence (AI) means to the workforce. AI will be one of the biggest movers in the tech industry in the coming years. Learning some AI skills will give your child a head start on productivity and an increase in salary, so learning the basics of ChatGPT and machine learning will prove invaluable as they grow their overall tech skillset.

In the end, we want our children to always be learning. Many other industries seem to have reached a plateau in terms of skilled employees, but that is not true of technology. Tech jobs are often high-paying and are constantly needed in today’s society. I hope you can see how your child’s tech curiosity is one of the greatest gifts when entering this field. Help them learn the skills, build their knowledge, share it with others, and future-proof it all by continuously exploring the ever-evolving world of technology.

Asher Fogie

And no, AI did not write this.