July Member Spotlight: Grady Hauser and Baton 100

For Grady Hauser’s sons, Saturday mornings as children didn’t mean sitting in front of a TV to be assaulted by cartoons and advertising.

Instead, Colson and Graham would routinely go somewhere for breakfast with Dad, who would use the opportunity to talk to them about principles they would need then and later in life.

“It was those Saturday mornings that we memorized Scripture, discussed spiritual and life principles—and ate enough Egg McMuffins to last a lifetime,” Colson says.

Samaritan Ministries member Grady has distilled those Saturday morning dates and other times with his boys into Passing the Baton: 100 Life Principles and Skills Every Father Needs to Teach His Children—principles and skills designed to last a lifetime, and with much more value than breakfast sandwiches.

Passing the Baton, endorsed by men’s ministry leader Steve Farrar, gives guidance on how dads can teach their children things like holding up the Bible as the Christian’s final authority; how your house can reflect Biblical values; worship and fasting; when in doubt, don’t speak out; pornography as a progressive and ugly trap; small acts of unexpected generosity; meeting and working with powerful people; 10 questions when considering marriage; sleep with dogs and you get fleas; reading a map with a compass; changing a tire—in the dark; cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver and first aid; loaning and collecting money; and managing a checking account.

A quick perusal of just those 14 topics also reveals the structure of the book. Grady starts with a spiritual foundation, proceeds to general principles, then to general skills, and ends with financial principles and skills. He breaks each category into age-appropriate groupings: elementary (5-11), early teens (12-15) and older teens (16-18+). The book is designed to be used repeatedly through many years.

“It truly is a user’s manual,” says Grady, who is general manager of a printing and mailing distributor-ship in the Chicago area. “It’s objective, practical. It’s a little left-brained.”

The chapters are short, points out son Graham, who “likens the book almost to a checklist that a father can use to create goals, follow and use for several years.”

Colson says the book is for those fathers already convinced they are—or need to be—the spiritual leader of their families.

“They’re looking for tangible, concrete material to pass on to their kids,” he says. “Baton is the Red Bull (caffeine drink) for the father who wants to do all he can in raising his children in spiritual and general maturity. The book is a tool, not the manual. But, for those who are so inclined, it is a very valuable tool.”

And although mothers are obviously vital to the rearing of children, “this particular book is intended to get dad off his couch and really get him in the game of being the day-to-day model teacher of the children,” Grady says.

It’s also intended, the author and teacher emphasizes, to be used during that “18-year horizon” during which a father can have an impact before the child leaves home. By the time he started teaching the skills and principles in the book in the 1990s, though, his boys were already growing up. He wrote a lot of the book then, but held off sending it to publishers on the advice of Lora Sue.

“It was my wife, Lora Sue, who said, ‘You’re going to have to have 10 years to really play this out in the laboratory of our home.’ She was right in that,” Grady says. “That really molded and made a lot of contributions to the way the book finally came out.”

The Hausers have always tried to have a marriage-centered home, Grady says, while trying to “enact and write and implement specific child-directed principles.”

“If a house gets off-keel and the kids become the center and the parents are orbiting around the kids, all manner of imbalance starts to happen,” he says.

In advising her husband on the book, Lora Sue also suggested that Grady wait until the boys were in their 20s and out of the house before publishing it, “because who’s going to take advice from a dad with a 10-year-old in the house?”

Once the book was written, he sent drafts to several publishers. They all turned him down, but they also made solid suggestions on how to structure the book, something which Grady says he’s grateful for.

The essential threads remain in the tapestry of the book, though.

The concept of consequences. “[This] is something that is true for boys and girls, it’s true for teenagers, it’s true for young adults and parents, it’s true for nations and governments. We are all fallen, sinful creatures and we will tend to err on the side of believing that ‘I’m the exception and there aren’t consequences for me,’ until we find out from our dad that there really are consequences.”

Dads need to pay attention to that 18-year horizon. “Time is short if they don’t pay attention. Time is adequate if they do pay attention.”

Intentionality. “This thing will not happen by accident, but with intentionality, it can be a great success story.”

Part of that intentionality for Grady was having those Saturday morning chats over breakfast. He encourages dads to carve out time for their children and be alert for any opportunity to impart a principle or skill.

Teaching those principles and skills will help dads as well, he says.

“A father will grow in his own confidence and in his own character, and thus, he will become what he is talking about,” Grady says.

The process also will draw children close to their earthly father, which will help them in their perception of their Heavenly Father.

“A child’s concept of God the Father is unavoidably tied up in their human dad,” Grady says. “For that reason, it’s a wonderful opportunity to mold our children’s concept of Who God the Father is. In my conferences, I say that boys will become like us and girls will marry someone similar to who we are as a result of years of loving and intentional interaction with the kids.”

So far, so good with the boys. Colson, named after Prison Fellowship Ministries founder Chuck Colson, and Graham are doing well. The recently married Colson, 23, is a broker in Geneva, Illinois. Graham, 20, has just finished his sophomore year in the digital design/art program at Taylor University in Indiana.

Both said they have taken away valuable principles from their time with dad.

Colson says he remembers the “Trees and Forests” principle of breaking a large task into smaller parts; and “understanding our spiritual heritage as Christians and the legacy that the patriarchs, prophets, saints and modern-day bastions of faith offer.”

Graham says he remembers to always “Assume you’re being watched.”

“It supports the typical ‘live out your faith wherever you go’ type lesson, but a little more,” he says. “It has not only helped me maintain my accountability in public places, but the ability to be consistent in everything that life gives me.”

Hopefully, that consistency will result in Colson and Graham passing on the baton that their father handed them.

To order a copy of Passing the Baton, go to baton100.com. Cost is $15 plus shipping. You can also send a check or money order payable to Baton100 to: Baton 100, One Northfield Plaza 3rd Fl., Northfield, IL 60093. Check the website for shipping costs.

For more information about having Grady Hauser as a speaker, or about a teacher’s manual that will be published soon, send email to [email protected]. The skills and principles in the book can be the basis of a conference, session or class. Grady is available to lead a two-day Baton 100 conference or speak at other men’s conferences.

Grady will be at Bourbonnais Evangelical Free Church in Bourbonnais, Illinois, on Aug. 29 as that congregation wraps up a 13-week class using the manual that will eventually be made available on baton100.com. The guide will include teacher’s notes, stories and illustrations, class handouts and a PowerPoint DVD. It will cost $49.95, with Passing the Baton books discounted to $10 each when purchased in lots of 20 or more. The manuals will be available at baton100.com.

Grady also will speak at an Iron Sharpens Iron conference in February 2011 in Richmond, Virginia.

His full Baton 100 conferences are two days long. They include an introductory session on a Friday night with a focus on the four categories offered in the book on Saturday.