10,000 fathers

“The greatest authority will be gained by him who offers the greatest hope.”
John Dawson – YWAM

“Son, do you know where you are?” the officer asked me as he rolled down the window of his police cruiser. My wife Samantha and I had just pulled into the narrow parking lot in front of the high-rise, low-income building in East St. Louis. We were there for a weekly Bible study that we had with a single mom named Jessica, and her teenage son Jeffery (names have been changed to protect identity). I looked forward to this time each week, getting to talk with Jefferey one on one about following Jesus and being a man of God.

“Yes, sir,” I replied with a nervous smile. I know we must have looked out of place, like tourists who had lost their way. After a long pause, the officer retorted, “You better be careful around here.” We nodded in understanding as he slowly pulled away and moved down the block.

Each week, we saw firsthand the impact on a whole community as a generation of children grew up without fathers. We walked past graffiti-covered walls and a small group of young teenage boys smoking cigarettes and listening to rap music. As we got on the elevator to go up to the ninth floor of the building, a fluorescent bulb flickered weakly in the broken ceiling tile above us. Samantha and I prayed in preparation to minister to this precious mother and son. We walked down the dimly lit hallway and knocked on an old wooden door. Moments later, we could hear multiple bolts being unlocked until finally, the door swung open, and we stood face to face with Jessica; she wore a big smile.

Jesus is God with flesh on. The incarnate God becomes real to us twice: once when we embrace him as Savior and again when we embrace Him as Father. Each week, I had the opportunity to reflect the love of the Father to Jeffery. He was quiet, intelligent, and loved to read. His mother made sure he did not mix with teenagers who were of bad influence. During the school week, Jeffery rode two city buses to get to a charter magnet school where he excelled in academics. What Jeffery was sorely missing was a father figure. Thirty-one years ago, I saw the incredible potency of mentoring, discipleship, and becoming a father to the fatherless in my time with Jeffery.

Today, our society is on the brink of social and moral collapse. At the end of the age, the enemy is raging, for he knows his time is short. There has been a deluge of attacks against the foundation of the traditional family. The enemy has relentlessly sought to destroy what God created to be holy and beautiful – fathers and mothers, sons and daughters living in harmony. If you take out the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.

Consider the following facts:
● Suicide is now the second leading cause of death in young people. Over 5,000 commit suicide every year – more than 13 each day.
● Child Protective Services is able to substantiate the claim of sexual assault on a teenager every 8 minutes. That is 180 confirmed assaults every day. And conservative estimates say 2 out of 3 assaults are never reported, making 540 a day a more accurate figure.
● 719 teenage girls undergo abortions every day – roughly 262,500 each year.
● Roughly 10 million new sexually transmitted diseases and infections occur in teens every year in this country. These diseases, many of them causing sterility and some even death, have become another ploy of Satan to wipe out a generation.
● According to Fox News, the United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. “The United States is the No.1 consumer of sex worldwide. According to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report, over 300,000 of America’s young population is considered at risk for sexual exploitation.”[2]

Satan’s insidious attack on the home has borne fruit. During the twentieth century, the divorce rate rose 700 percent in America. Thirteen million children under the age of 18 are growing up with one or both parents away from home. Seventy percent of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. We wonder why young people grow disillusioned and dysfunctional. The simple truth is they are the product of our rebellion, reaping what we have shamefully sown, but we will not allow this to continue. We are going to defeat this spiritual giant and see a great revival among the youth of America. We WILL pioneer Hebron again. We will see a generation transformed![3]

My friend, these are sobering facts. We face great obstacles as we seek to restore the foundation of families. We need men to rise up in their true identity as sons of God. Only then will we step into our inheritance as godly fathers. Join me on this forty-day adventure as we explore the attributes of what it looks like to become one of the 10,000 fathers. May your heart be impacted by the words of the apostle Paul, which echo through the ages to us today:

Join the journey!

Steve Allen
August 24, 2021
In the Shadow of the Rockies
Secure in the Hands of God
Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
[email protected]
www.allencoaching.com

NOTE: From the sale of this book, 50% of profits will be sown into the adoption movement and missions.