Faith Like My Father with John Fela

Created In The Image of God
April 19, 2026

Some dads pass on a lifetime of memories; John Fela’s father handed him two words: “Don’t panic.” Growing up on the north side of Chicago in a stereotypical blue‑collar Catholic home—with a truck‑driver dad who drank every day and a mom holding the family together—John watched a man he loved slowly check out of his own life, yet still show up for work and provide. As a teenager, he wrote his father off as “a drunken fool,” only to realize years later that those two words would become some of the best advice he’d ever received—especially once he became the dad of a son with severe autism.

In this episode, John traces how his parents’ messy faithfulness gave him the fortitude he needed for his own journey. He talks candidly about growing up around alcoholism, late‑night medical crises, and parents who could stay strangely calm when everything was on the line. Those experiences, he says, trained him to handle big emergencies even if the “little things” still get under his skin. When his son Chris was born and later diagnosed with nonverbal autism, that training—and a later‑in‑life encounter with Christ—shaped how he chose to show up: not panicking, not walking away, but learning to love and advocate with persistence.

Out of that has come John’s work as a “Swiss Army knife of disability advocacy,” with a Master’s in Education, years in the classroom, and national advocacy roles, including time with Joni and Friends. Drawing from his book Faith Like My Father, he shares what he’s learned about co‑parenting after divorce, supporting special‑needs families in the church, and helping dads move beyond shame or helplessness into real engagement with their kids. Through it all, he circles back to a simple conviction: you don’t give up on the people you love—and you learn to trust a Father whose plan is bigger than your pain.

For parents raising kids with disabilities, pastors wondering how to do more than “mention inclusion,” or anyone still sorting out a complicated relationship with their own dad, this conversation offers honesty, hard‑won wisdom, and hope grounded in a God who never panics and never walks away.