The Lord has given me opportunities to speak in numerous churches in recent years.  My primary focus is to encourage and challenge men in and to ministry.  Our families and our churches need godly men to step up and be the spiritual leaders God has called us to be.  As part of emphasizing the need and importance of this idea, I often make the following statement as I try to make eye contact with as many of the men in the congregation as possible;

If you are a Christ follower and are part of this church body, then you are a spiritual father to every young man and boy in this congregation.

This is a very important and powerful concept that I have been pondering and praying over a great deal in recent months.  I need to give credit to Dan Schaffer for stirring my heart on this issue.  Dan is the founder of Building Brothers ministry and author of the book “Spiritual Fathers” - Restoring the Reproductive Church. 

As husbands and fathers we must lead our families spiritually.  As much as you and I may struggle with this, it is not optional.  We must show our families the love and strength of spiritual leadership that models for them the attributes God calls us to - the fruits of the Spirit.  As men, as fathers, we must wrestle with our relational side seeking to develop a close personal walk with our Lord and allowing Him to show us the ways we can build deep relationships with our families - relationships that lead them to their own close, powerful, life-changing relationships with Jesus Christ.  And we must be willing to invest in the lives of young men and boys as God brings them across our path and into our life.  With God’s help this is how we can build spiritual strength back into our families and churches.  This is how we can help create a strong spiritual legacy for generations.

In reading Dan Schaffer’s book, I came away with a very powerful and convicting thought that I cannot escape.  If my desire is to be a spiritual father, then I must actually be a spiritual grand-father for that to be true of me.  Think about that; I must invest in someone’s life not simply bringing them to the point of becoming a Christ-follower, but I must invest in them to the point that they have the capacity to disciple someone else to that moment of making the decision to also be a Christ-follower.  This is a picture of what God truly wants from us as men.  To truly empty ourselves and be led by His Spirit, who will then equip us to lead in our families and our churches with spiritual strength, with boldness and with humility as one who has been redeemed our our Spiritual Father!  To lead and disciple others to the point that they are passionate to lead and disciple others...and so on...and so on…

He is..."able to do immeasurably more more than all we ask or imagine...” Ephesians 3:20