Strong Fathers = Strong Churches

Blog post courtesy of Legacy Dad. A great site empowering parents to raise spiritual champions.

What impact do fathers have on the family and the local church? Consider these statistics below:

1. 43% of US children live without their father [US Department of Census]
2. 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]
3. 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes. [Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, pp. 403-26, 1978]
4. 71% of pregnant teenagers lack a father. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, Friday, March 26, 1999]
5. 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]
6. 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [Center for Disease Control]
7. 90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother. [Wray Herbert, “Dousing the Kindlers,” Psychology Today, January, 1985, p. 28]
8. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. [National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]
9. 75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. [Rainbows for all God’s Children]
10. 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions have no father. [US Department of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988]
11. 85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. [Fulton County Georgia jail populations, Texas Department of Corrections, 1992]
12. Fatherless boys and girls are: twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [US D.H.H.S. news release, March 26, 1999]

This fact is also true, if you get the fathers you get the whole family. If you want to make a lasting impact in your local community … start engaging with the Dads and getting them involved! Make churches attractive to Dads. Invest in the Dads and equip and empower them to be better men, spiritual leaders and show them how to raise great families.

Many of today’s fathers grew up without a positive male role model in their lives or many harbor emotional wounds from their own fathers harshness or inability to show love. Many parents often jump in the parenting river and start swimming upstream until ultimately they are floundering, tired and default to the helplessness and hopelessness mode.  At this point they become “Google Parents” and simply look to books, churches or blogs like this for quick responses to specific problems and band-aid fixes for terminal cancer like parenting issues.  While in the past, parents brought kids to church on Sunday full and on fire, now kids and parents are showing up empty.

What if we could prevent this from the beginning?
What if we could heal fathers and show them how to change their children and their family legacy?
What if the church and home become strategic partners?
What if we gave fathers a simple parenting roadmap, resources and measurable goals from birth to college?

Thank you Legacy Dad. The stability of a home starts with a father who has come to know the FATHER. More than ever it is critical that fathers engage their families beyond just their jobs. As fathers, our roles are so much more then just "providers" of finances, but we are also providers of Gods love, mercy and grace.

"Our children get their notions of the heavenly Father from their earthly dads."