Healing the Wounded Father – The Contemporary Fathering Crisis The Wounded Father In his book Finding Our Fathers, psychologist Samuel Osherson tells about a forty-two-year-old doctor who came to him with a problem. His younger brother’s wedding had brought the entire family, including their divorced parents, together in St. Louis. The physician spent most of[.....]

      Part 1: Fathers in the Bible The word “father” appears in the Bible over 1,500 times. Most Christians could name dozens of biblical fathers and sons, from Adam and his sons, Cain and Abel, to Zebedee and his sons, James and John. We could cite several father and daughter relationships, including the[.....]

    Part 2: God as Father God as Father is well known to most Christians. In the New Testament, God is called father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 15:6 and several other texts), father of mercies and all comfort (2 Cor 1:3) and father of glory (Eph 1:17). God is also father of[.....]

  Part 3: God as Father of the Fatherless The Bible calls God the father of the fatherless (Psalm 68:5). About forty times, the Old Testament describes orphaned children as fatherless. Perhaps they were called fatherless because the high casualty rates in the numerous Old Testament wars left them with mothers, but no fathers. Orphans[.....]

  “Reclaiming our Children’s Childhood” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA Jon Partlow preaches for the Pennyrile Church of Christ in Madisonville, Kentucky. One day, while reading the local paper, he read two unrelated articles about children involved in sexual acts (all under the age of ten) at two different elementary schools. Speaking for him[.....]

  “Baby Pictures  In The Bible” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA The people of the Old Testament didn’t paint pictures on walls or carve images in stone like the ancient Egyptians or Babylonians, but they did leave snapshots in words. Many of these images are of their youngsters. Take a quick look at some[.....]

  National Day of Prayer Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA The National Day of Prayer for Children among Churches of Christ falls on October 3, 2004. Although such a day may seem more political than biblical, we find rationale for such an event in the Old Testament book of Joel. Writing in the midst[.....]

“Meet my foster father, His Royal Highness, the King.” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA We were at the Memphis City Library. The little boy’s face beamed as he looked up at the businessman who held his hand. “This is my new dad.” All of us who witnessed his claim admired the man who adopted[.....]

  “Open Our Eyes” Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA An at-risk child plays a key role in Victor Hugo’s, Les Misérables, a story made popular in recent years by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Broadway musical. Fantine, a poverty-stricken factory worker, places her illegitimate child, Cosette, in the care of an evil inn owner,[.....]

  Orphans by Choice Harold Shank National Spokesperson for CCFSA The words used to describe at-risk children provide an insight into the cultures of different times. In an earlier generation, Americans often spoke of “orphans.” That word is used less often in contemporary society, but has been replaced by phrases such as “parentless children” or[.....]