Dads in church

Last Saturday I spent a rather unproductive day in Early Learning Centre trying to recruit volunteers for work. Most of those who came in were far too pre occupied trying to stop their children taking everything off the shelves to think about volunteering with our charity.

However, it did give me time to do a good bit of people watching. The most interesting group of people coming in were the Dads with their children. Most of the dads fell into two distinct catergories. There were the dads who were fraught with the whole shopping experience and then those who were so excited about being able to play in the Early Learning Centre without getting funny looks! There was one dad in particular who was thrilled by all the different gadgets and toys to play with. His favourite was a very cool policeman's helmet that had a flashing blue light and siren on top. I must admit, I would have liked to have one!!

It did make me wonder though if we are missing a trick at church. Traditional patterns of church probably do suit women better than they suit men and I wonder if we could do more activities to engage men, and dads in particular, in church. We should consider having more activities that revolve around gadgets and toys that many men can enjoy being part of. We should also focus on doing activities that bring whole families together. Not just something that one parent (often the mother) and the children attend, but have events that really do engage everybody. This may mean that for some of the time there is more than one activity happening so that all are fully engaged. The church should be promoting and modelling the family unit. Famillies are often men and women, old and young and that is how our churches should be. Families shouldn't stay together purely because it is economically beneficial to do so, but rather because being part of a truly loving family is the best place to be.