Fatherhood: A Gospel Strategy

My family has the privilege of serving the Church in the country of South Africa. We have been here for five years and we have experienced a country of unlimited beauty, extreme diversity, and incredible opportunity. The work of the Gospel is going forth here, but it is met with many challenges.

One of the challenges to seeing deep-rooted Gospel impact in this country is the lack of fathers in the home. Most children do not have a father to guide and direct them in life. Many of these children do not even know their father. This provides a great obstacle to seeing the Gospel have a long-standing impact from one generation to the next. It is estimated that 6 out of 10 children do not live with their father in South Africa with some demographic groups being as high as 7 out of 10.¹ This is not the way that God intended His creative order to work; and yet, this is a challenge that the Church faces today.

My goal for this article is to provide a motivation for men to embrace their role as fathers as an effective and crucial strategy for seeing the Gospel take root in their children and the generations beyond them.

Fatherhood Allows Us to Teach the Gospel

One of the greatest benefits of parenting is the privilege to nurture and train our children in the truths of the Christian faith. We are given the responsibility of shaping their worldview and immersing their growing minds in the Scriptures. Beyond the privilege of parenting, God has designed the role of the father to lead in this training initiative. Ephesians 6:4 encourages fathers to “not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (ESV).”

Clinton Arnold writes, “Fathers have the ultimate responsibility of raising their children in such a way that they will be trained in understanding the essence of the Christian faith and that they will be instructed and admonished on how to live this out.”² At the core of our responsibility to train our children in the “essence of the Christian faith” is the responsibility to teach the Gospel. The Gospel is the only way in which our children will truly embrace the Christian faith as well as grow in their understanding of it.

Fatherhood Allows Us to Demonstrate Sanctification

The Christian life is full of ups and downs. Although every father is progressively growing in sanctification, trials, hardships, and sin are a constant challenge and struggle. It is tempting to try and shield our children from these challenges.

As a father, we desire to provide and protect our children, but it is also our responsibility to equip them for a lifetime of walking with the Lord. One way in which we do this is to allow them to see us during the high points of spiritual victory as well as the low points of sin and struggle. By our testimony, our children are able to see how we respond when tempted by sin. Our children are able to witness how we respond to our wives when a challenging circumstance comes our way.

They will remember how often, or not, we came to them and asked forgiveness when we had done wrong. It is not always easy, but fatherhood provides our children with a front row seat to see and learn from our own sanctification process.

Fatherhood Allows Us to Make Disciples

In Matthew 28:19-20, we see the command to make disciples of all nations. This passage is used often in the church to stir us towards Great Commission advance. We read this text and immediately think of the nations (as we should). But could it be that one of the greatest ways in which we can make disciples of the nations is to first make disciples of our children.

Fathers, we must see our children as our first-priority disciples. We may be mentoring some people in our church for 1 or 2 hours a week, but we have our children for much longer than that. God’s design for the family presents an environment where disciple-making can flourish, but fathers must be intentional in this ministry opportunity. Discipleship does not happen by chance; therefore, we must be intentional in using our God-given role of fatherhood as an opportunity for discipleship.

Conclusion

So what is our conclusion? We should embrace fatherhood as a platform that God has provided us for Gospel ministry. We have a short window in our children’s lives to impact them for eternity, but what an awesome opportunity it is. Don’t waste this opportunity!

Deuteronomy 6:7 provides us with one of the best strategies for Gospel impact in our homes, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (ESV).” Fathers, the best strategy for multi-generational impact in the family is always fathers teaching their children. And the best time to do this is, ALWAYS.

So, embrace this Gospel-advancing role that God has given you and do it with all your might until Jesus comes. While my prayer is that God would raise up many pastors, missionaries, Christian educators, and Gospel laborers in Africa, even more so, I pray that God would raise up a whole army of Gospel-focused fathers throughout this land who take their responsibility seriously and carry it out joyfully for the glory of God!