Fatherhood – An Alien Concept

The prevailing culture always presents the church with evangelistic challenges; how to reach people with the Good News about Jesus without compromising Biblical doctrine and without employing unbiblical methodologies. The Biblical method of reaching people hasn’t changed for over 2000 years – Faithful Preaching of God’s Word, applied by the Holy Spirit to hearts that have been awakened by God to their sinfulness and need of the Saviour.

That evangelistic challenge to the church seems to be more acute than ever. A few years ago modernisers used to complain that the culture couldn’t understand Biblical words and meanings; words like ‘justification,’ ‘propitiation,’ etc. We were urged to drop these for easier versions…

But what now, – how do we explain THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD to the second generation of children to whom, in some cases, fatherhood is a totally alien concept? Some of today’s children not only have no fatherly influence, but no grandfather’s influence either.

Got some if this blighted generation, a father is just a biological sperm donor, a night’s indiscretion, or a passport to a career on welfare.

This problem became clear to me on a visit to a primary school in a deprived area of Belfast. In the head teacher’s office before I spoke to the kids he advised, ‘talk about parents if you must, but try to avoid terms like ‘mum and dad’ – most of them don’t know what a dad is’.

So how can they appreciate the role of their Heavenly Father?

The day may come when evangelist will have to go one further step back in his messages and perhaps start to explain even the most elementary of concepts.