Good morning on this Saturday, June 16th. Tomorrow is Father's Day and we will be recognizing our many fathers who attend Edgewood as well as honoring a select group of our oldest fathers in our Sunday services. In today's blog I would like to share some facts with you about the important role fathers play in the spiritual development of their children. In an article in Religion Today entitled, "Fathers: Key to Their Children's Faith," the author points out that many fathers in today's culture believe that it is primarily the mother's role to provide spiritual leadership for the family. In fact many studies have found that the physical and/or emotional absence of the father in a home is a contributing factor to many societal problems. The conclusion about the father's role in children's spiritual development and practices is, "It is the religious practices of the father of the family that, above, all, determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children." The breakdown is as follows:

(1) If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all.
(2) If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.
(3) If the father is non-practicing and mother regular, only 2 percent of children will become regular worshippers, and 37 percent will attend irregularly. Over 60 percent of their children will be lost completely to the church!

Additionally, if the father is a regular attender and the mother is irregular or non-practicing, between 38 percent (with irregular attending mothers) and 44 percent (with non-practicing mothers) of their children will become regular churchgoers.

The article concludes with this observation: In short, if a father does not go to church ... only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers (regular and irregular). One of the reasons suggested for this distinction is that children tend to take their cues about domestic life from Mom while their conceptions of the world outside come from Dad. If Dad takes faith in God seriously then the message to their children is that God should be taken seriously.

If ever there is an incentive for fathers to step forward and assume the role God intended for them to play spiritually in their family, this is it. Dads, are you willing to be God's man in your family?

Tomorrow's sermon is another in the series of messages on prophecy. I hope you'll be there to hear it.
Mel Brown