Father's Day provides opportunity for churches to reach out to men, boys
Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.— Proverbs 23:22-24Butler County churches will have a ready-made subject for a sermon this Sunday: it's Father's Day.Many services will have a moment or two to honor fathers in the congregation.“We design a whole service to honor fathers,” said the Rev. Dave West, pastor of Graceway Community Church, which meets at the Center Township Elementary School.“Our songs for the service are requested by the fathers. The service is designed to compliment them. They stand and we recognize them,” West said.“We're about 7 years old now, and we've done that every year,” West said. The sermon will also have a fathers and family theme.“I'm going to talk about Noah and his family and, like Noah, will you be able to keep your family afloat?” he said.West said Graceway doesn't emphasize Father's Day for secular reasons.“Number one, it's about being part of a family, and the church needs to encourage family,” West said.“Respect for fatherhood is important, and, ultimately, I believe the way we learn to respect parents is the way we learn to respect God as our heavenly father,” he added.“I think we learn respect from our parents and if they are not there or are negligent,” said West. “A person's relationship to his parents reflects their relationship to God, sometimes for the rest of their lives.”“If children don't grow up with respect for their parents, they'll have trouble respecting what God expects of them in life. If you talk to people who have been in gospel ministries, they would agree,” West added.
One person who agrees is the Rev. Leon Blaise, pastor of the Butler Church of the Nazarene, 4410 Oakdale Road.“For years, I couldn't tell you how far back, we recognize Mother's Day, Father's Day and Veterans Day,” he said.“As a biblical church, we emphasize the importance of family. Tradition is very strong. We want to have strong families in the community,” said Blaise.“It's an opportunity to get some of the men who aren't always in church. They come to be with their families that day,” he said. “We have a lot of families in our congregation.”“We'll have a sermon geared toward fathers. We will ask the fathers to stand and be recognized, and I will have a special prayer for them,” Blaise added. “Then, at the conclusion of service, as they leave, the fathers will receive a gift from the church.”Fathers attending the Father's Day breakfast in the social hall of St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church, 432 Center Ave., will also receive a small gift at the end of the event, said Linda Rottman of the St. Michael pastoral council.Rottman said the RSVP-only event is for fathers in the SS. Michael, Paul and Peter parishes.“We haven't done this for several years,” said Rottman. “We had a Mother's Day breakfast earlier.”“The reason we did this, it was an evangelism thing for all three churches,” said Rottman of the 10 a.m. event. “It was just a way for people to get to know each other.”Rottman said St. Michael hopes to revive the Mother's and Father's Day breakfasts and make them annual events.The Rev. John Nuzzo, pastor of Victory Family Church, Cranberry Township, will single out fathers during services Saturday and Sunday.“He will recognize the fathers during the service,” said Nuzzo's executive secretary Stephanie Barr. “He does the same for Mother's Day.”“But beyond that recognition, there won't be any special event,” Barr said.Covenant Presbyterian Church, 230 E. Jefferson St., is extending its recognition.“This year we are doing a tribute to all men and boys in the congregation, rather than celebrating just fathers. We did the same for Mother's Day,” said Nancy Jo Moorhead, chairman of the music and worship committee at Covenant.“We firmly believe the men and women in the congregation nurture everyone, not only in the congregation but in the community,” she said.“All of our men and women are active in the Covenant food cupboard. We participate in housing three of the AA meetings each week, we reach out to as many people as we can in the community,” Moorhead said.Just as the church gave carnations to the women on Mother's Day, it will give carnation boutonnieres to the men and boys who attend Sunday's service.Afterward, she said, there will be a reception and fellowship time in the assembly room.“The theme is going to be picnic because men love picnics,” said Moorhead.“We are an older congregation, and because of that, we don't have that many men, and we don't like the men to be forgotten,” she added.Nor do they forget the men at Faith United Presbyterian Church, 1329 N. Main St. Ext.“Each year we honor the men of the church and the women of the church,” said Faith's pastor, the Rev. Don Aull. “The board of deacons has a small, token gift for them when they come in the church.”“We say a prayer for the fathers,”Aull said. “We don't honor the fathers, per se, because we are aware not every man is a father, whether by choice or circumstance.”Still, said Aull, “I think you want to acknowledge men's role in the church and their roles in the family, whether biological or in the neighborhood.“The Lord has a place for everyone to work toward his kingdom,” Aull said.
