Father’s Day: The High Calling of Fatherhood

As we remember the millions of American soldiers who have died, served, or are currently deployed all over the world, we Christians must also realize that we have been similarly deployed by our Commander-in-Chief, the Lord Jesus! Tragically, the majority of American Christians act as though there is no war going on. We act as if the Christian life is welfare, not warfare! Many of our troops are AWOL—absent without leave. We have retreated from the battlefront. We come to church, sit around the barracks, and polish our boots and brass.

Why? We are a post-war generation like the generations following Joshua’s death. Both in society and in the Church, we have a generation who need to be “taught warfare” because they have little or no “previous battle experience.” As a result, we too have compromised with the people among whom we live, and have “served their gods” (Judges 3:1–6).

It is time for us to prepare for war. We have a far greater enemy than any dictator or terrorist: Satan. He is the archenemy of our souls. And the only way we will turn the tide and win the battle is for us to regain the mentality of a soldier. We need to have a warfare mentality in how we view at least five areas: the world, our fellow man, our Savior, our Church, and our mission. We need to have warfare thinking, praying, giving, and going.

We are living in the greatest and most challenging days of human history. It is time for those in the slumbering ecclesiastical giant called the Church to heed the call: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14). It is time to “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12).

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Father’s Day—Third Sunday in June

For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:11–12

Father’s Day is when we honor our fathers, the men who provided for us, loved us, and protected us. I was very fortunate to have a father who loved the Lord and lived his whole adult life in dedicated service to Him as a local pastor. He did remarkably well in that role even though he struggled with some masculine deficiencies. His natural father died when he was a young boy, and his stepfather was an abusive alcoholic.

Dad and I shared a lot of common interests like a love for animals, exploring the great outdoors, travel, camping, and hunting. We were both collectors and fixers who never threw anything away that we thought we could save, repair, and use later!

Thankfully, my dad had a Christian worldview even before the term was popular. Because of a yearlong trip around the world with my mother after their marriage, he kept foreign missions a top priority in our family values. He and mother reared us as Great Commission Christians rather than as parochial ones.

My father died suddenly while I was a senior in college. It was the night of my very first date with Patt. I was deeply saddened to no longer have him as a role model, mentor, and friend—just before I was to graduate from college and enter seminary to prepare to go into full-time Christian work. While I know God is sovereign and good, I will always have a wishful longing that Dad could have lived long enough to be a part of my life and ministry, to meet Patt, our children, and our grandchildren. That will have to wait until heaven.

I want to encourage you dads to intentionally devote yourselves

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