Happy Father's Day! Is your church doing something special to honor the Dads this Sunday? It should, In fact, congregations should be doing everything they can to get Dads and other men deeply into the life of faith. 

Why? Not only because women statistically outnumber the men in the pews (about 60 percent women to 40 percent men), but more importantly because fathers who are active in church are much more likely to raise children to be churchgoers than mothers who are active in church. It's true.

Researchers studying families in church discovered that when both Dad and Mom go to church regularly, 33 percent of their children will attend church regularly as adults. If only Mom goes regularly, the figure dips down to just 2 percent. Amazingly, they found that if only Dad goes to church regularly while Mom always stays home, a whopping 44 percent of the children are likely to attend church. The findings were reported in Rick Warren's website, Pastors.com (click here to read the article). Look for other interesting articles about men and church in Gleanings.

The implications are staggering for the stewardship of the Christian faith we hope to pass along to future generations: Focusing on bringing men back to church, along with their families, may be the best way to raise up a new generation of believers. Besides, it's good for the men, for their families and for congregational life as well.

So this Father's Day, salute the Dads in your congregation -- and lay plans to increase their numbers by next June.

--Rob Blezard, editor and webmaster
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