Get the Dad – Get the Family (re-post from Bryan Mills)

Get the Dad – Get the Family

April 12, 2012

It should be no surprise to church leaders and pastors that Dads can have an amazing impact on the local church … and so much more … to the family.

If I were looking to grow my church … I would be looking for meaningful and relevant ways to connect with Dads. I believe that if you get the Dad … you get the family. 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]

Church! If you want to make a dent in your local community … start engaging with the Dads! Make your church attractive to Dads. Invest in the Dads. If you do this well … you’ll have SIGNIFICANT impact on your local community.

QUESTION: what is your church doing to attract Dads? How do you plan to connect with them?

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