Let me ask you a question.
If you knew if you took your family to a professional sporting event every weekend, then your kids would grow up to be professional athletes, would you make sure to take them?
How about knowing that if you took your kids to a movie every weekend, they'd become an Oscar-winning movie star?
What if watching C-SPAN would ensure they grew up to be President of the United States someday?
Think about it. They'd have success. They'd be set for life. They wouldn't have to worry about their future at all because they would make zillions of dollars. Of course, any dad would make the effort to set their kids up for life in this way.
Of course, it isn't possible to ensure that your kids become star athletes, movie stars, or Presidents, but it is possible for you, as a dad, to set your kids up for this life as well as eternity by taking them to one place every weekend. Where is it? Take them to church!
Just check out these stats.
-If a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5% probability that everyone else in the household will follow.
-If the mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a 17% probability that everyone else in the household will follow.
When the father is first, there is a 93% probability that everyone else in the household will follow.
Look at these numbers.
-If a father does not go to church, even if his wife does, only one child in fifty will become a regular worshiper.
-If a father does regularly go, regardless of what the mother does, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will attend church as adults.
Here are even more interesting stats:
-When both parents attend Bible study in addition to the Sunday service, 72% of their children attend Sunday school when grown.
-When only the father attends Sunday school or Bible Study, 55% of the children attend when grown.
-When only the mother attends Sunday school or Bible Study, 15% of the children attend when grown.
-When neither parent attends Sunday school or Bible Study, only 6% of the children attend when grown.
Kids watch what their dads do spiritually, and it impacts their actions.
Men, you need to make sure you take responsibility to get your children to church. Make it a priority in your family. Let your kids see that it is essential to you. Let them see you raising your hands in worship and taking notes in the sermon. Show them your desire to grow spiritually by going to the altar during the altar call.
Proverbs 22:6 tells fathers to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (ESV)
Train your children to make weekly worship and church attendance a part of their lives.
Please don't make it your wife's responsibility. Step up and let your children know it is what you do as a family. Also, don't allow other things like sports practice or other activities to keep your kids out of church. Those things have no eternal value. Your kids may fuss about it now, but they will thank you later in life.
Guys, I can't express enough to you the importance of shouldering this responsibility and making sure your family attends church regularly. It's a massive part of what you do as a man of God.
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