I know we are well into the New Year and I am not even going to ask how you are doing with your New Year resolutions. What I do ask is that you prayerfully consider adding one more resolution to join us in 2020 - Faithful Fathering resolves to start a fathering movement that engages dads in raising a godly generation and reinvigorates churches on the fathering front.

Statistics reflect that marriages fail nearly half the time but did you know that marriages in which the husband and wife pray together daily fail less than one percent of the time? Praying together as a couple is the upstream solution for divorce. Similarly, it is known that kids without dad in the home are twice as likely to drop out of high school, ten times as likely to have behavioral problems and young ladies are three times as likely to become teen mothers than kids with dad in the home. The numbers in churches reflect those in society. The upstream solution for these and many other societal woes is to raise the bar for fathering in the church.

The Lord established Faithful Fathering to empower churches as a beacon for fathering – to shine the light of the Heavenly Father through earthly fathers in order to glorify Himself through marriages and families. Then His light through the church will become a Kingdom influence in a confused world. Please prayerfully consider starting a fathering movement in your church utilizing Faithful Fathering’s PASS strategy: ‘P’ is for a Purpose-filled group of 8-10 dads, lay-leaders that work to raise the bar for fathering individually and corporately throughout the church; the ‘A’ is for Activities – fun, easy to engage in activities for dads & kids in the church and the surrounding community; the ‘S’ is for Studies for dads conducted in small groups or in a broader workshop format; and the second ‘S’ is Staying connected as the father-child relationship matures through orchestrated one-on-one time such as father-daughter and father-son weekend retreats.

Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse. – Malachi 4:5-6. Faithful Fathering envisions 2020 as the year a fathering movement will build momentum through the church to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Join the movement to PASS the BATON well to the next generation and let the heart-turning begin.

Prayer guide: Lord, thank You for Your word and Your design for marriage and family. I confess I have allowed cultural influences to distract me as a husband and father. I have not been praying with my wife or with my kids. I have not even been praying much on my own. I have not lived into Your design. Forgive me. Your call for heart-turning has opened my eyes to the responsibility I have for living into Your design in my home and church – the ultimate upstream solution to so many societal woes. Grant me wisdom to live under Your word and into Your design as the man, husband and father You call me to be, that the next generation needs to see. Amen.

A faithful father invests upstream in his marriage, family and church.