Discipling young men: helping dads deepen their relationship with their teen boys
Slowness. Simplicity. Quality time away to connect.
These ideas are the antithesis of the ‘disease of the city’ – where the busyness of life gets in the way of whole-life discipleship. This disease extends to our spiritual life – and the danger of becoming a ‘Sunday Christian’.
Youthworks Getaways were created to counteract this disease, by providing an intentional moment to disconnect from the rush of daily life and enjoy God’s creation with family members. In mid-April 2025, Youthworks Getaways helped The Bridge Church organise their inaugural River Rite weekend camping retreat.
15-year-old Zach participated in the event with his dad. He says, “It's great to spend some time away from all the (phone) notifications and the online world.”
His dad, Rory, says, “As someone who’s a newbie to camping in the remote outdoors, I was pretty apprehensive, but this trip was awesome. It was so well organised, I got some bonding with my boy, so I couldn’t recommend this highly enough.”
Julian Yin, the Youth & Young Adults Pastor at The Bridge Church says, “Rory was the perfect candidate for this weekend getaway because he's a dad who deeply wants to connect with his son. He thinks that escaping to the outdoors would be a good idea, but he probably just doesn't have the know-how, or maybe the courage to organise it himself.”
Besides Rory and Zach, the other River Rite participants were Jacob and his 17-year-old son Claude, and two young adults, Nathan and Alex.
Julian says, “The intergenerational part of the weekend was the most beneficial. You've got dads who were once model youth leaders with plenty of zeal and involvement in the church. But since then, they've had a lifetime of paying bills and taxes, and so they've sort of forgotten what that was like. Now they get a chance to remember that, because they feel the heat of their sons becoming the kind of men that they want them to be.
You've got the teenagers who are just focused on gaming and school and sports. And then you've got the Gen. Z youth leaders who are thinking, ‘Oh, we've arrived, we've left high school. We are the men we want to become.’ But then they've looked at these dads and realised that life is actually really hard and they’ve got a long way to go.”
By spending time with each other, these men in 3 different life stages were able to share the disappointments and encouragements of what they’ve been through or are going through. They had time to really think about what it means to be a man of God.
Most Christian parents love Jesus Christ and are engaged in church; they are the primary disciple makers of their young people, and they want to know how to best disciple their growing kids.
Julian sums it up perfectly, “When you give them something like a River Rite event, it's a really easy buy-in. I'm not going to lecture you on how to parent, but I’ll facilitate a conversation between you and your son. I’ll give you a positive message of what to do, not what you should stop doing.”
Find out more about Youthworks Getaways parent-child adventures.