Great Fathers Are Family Evangelists

What Makes a Great Dad?

There are not too many personal nor political issues on which I would agree with President Barrack Obama on, but his call for real and serious fatherhood this past Father's Day might be one. Abandoned by his father as a child, the President understands what it means to be fatherless, like a ship at sea without a rudder, if not a compass. According to his biography, he got a basketball, his first name and ambition from his father, but little else. I would argue the greatest defficiency he suffered from in that home was a spiritual one, which may be a defficiency he's still looking to fill.

This past Father's Day Sunday, He said he came to understand the importance of fatherhood from its absence in his childhood homes — just as an estimated 24 million Americans today are growing up without a dad. It is that absence, particularly that of a godly man in the home, that has produced more than a generation of fatherless boys who are much more likely to be drug-addicted, alcoholic, poor, uneducated and crime-ridden than boys who grow up in the home of their biological father. President Obama' relative success is the exception- not the rule according to virtually every bit of sociological data we have. Why? Is it just a matter of a fatherly presence in the home that makes a difference?

What exactly did God intend for fathers to be to their children? One little boy said..."The primary duty of my dad is to take out the trash." Suprisingly enough, the primary duty of a father is not even to bring home the bacon. The primary duty of a father is not to fix what's broken. The primary of a duty of a father is to bring his children to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then to teach holy living to his children. Fathers are to be primarily evangelists, pastors and preachers of good news and wisdom to their families as the first 10 chapters of the book of Proverbs teaches. Admittedly, parenting is a difficult and challenging 24/7/365 job and has never been more difficult than it is in 2009. However, the Job description has never changed in God's economy. As I drill in the head of my three children who in their flesh yearn for me to be more friend than father, I exist to provide, protect and prepare. The former two items are for now, the latter is current preparation of their hearts and minds for the future.

Above all dads, don't fall prey to today's post-modern and post-Christian culture which teaches you to leave all or most of the parenting to mom, step-mom, school, day-care and yes- church (i.e. youth group). But instead, love your wife and the mother of your child or children as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:22) and love your children enough to tell them as we've been saying the last two weeks at CCC, that they're born rebels, dead in sin and need new life that only God who created them through you and who loves you even more than you do, can save them from the penalty of their sin by their repenting and placing their trust and faith in His Son, King Jesus. Though God will take care of the outcome, be what God wants you to be first and foremost in your home- an evangelist of life-saving truth.