“When Dad leaves, something dies.” Those 5 words from the book ‘Fatherless Generation’ so strongly describe what our church’s outreach teams have seen in hundreds of kids at foster homes and juvenile detention centers time and again these past 3 years. Regardless of how things are when we get home for us with our own families, theres a pain that stings so deep one almost wants to put a turnicate on the heart. That pain of knowing that, for those kids, a part of them is dead.
I’m so glad John Sowers has brought his voice into the culture and beckoned a generation to bring life back into those millions of souls. The conversation on manhood the past 18 or so years in christendom has been dominated by living up to basic “1st mile” responsibilities to your own wife, kids, and church. This has been both noble and helpful, but somehow incomplete, or maybe better said, unfinished by a long shot.
Omniabsence
Even while many men walked that first mile well, Don Miller (the author who wrote a heart moving foreword for this book) became a voice in the wilderness and jumpstarted a conversation of fatherlessness around the “churchy” table. John offers an all important voice on this growing conversation: the grassroots real voices of the kids both young and old walking their miles alone. I find the book does a great job of putting us in those shoes. For those of us who already walk in those shoes, he lets us know why our feet ache and how this fatherly omniabsence has “formed a callousness” in us we don’t quite understand because we’ve never known differently.
Voices of a generation
The first half of the book is John taking out his earbuds and letting us in on what he’s been listening to. In this plugged in/blaring out 21st century world, he took time to listen to the voices of the fatherless through social media. Before you think some quoted social mediums are archaic, do recall that this conversation was on AOL, blogs and myspace in the early-mid 2000′s before twitter, facebook, and others gained their mainstream momentum. While the book is not statistic laden or politically driven, it gives a disinctly broad and human voice to the reality of this generation’s heartcry: “We are a generation that desperately wants to be found, a generation that desperately wants to be home.”
Becoming part of the story
The second half gives practical language, principles, and action steps to “Redeeming the story”. The author gives real life example and traction to walking a 2nd mile faith around the track of life as a mentor to the fatherless.
Interweaving stories of his own life with scripture and conversations with other Christian leaders, Sowers leads the reader to see that mentoring is not only needed, but that it’s doable. He cites several instances from his own life, along with keys to being an effective mentor.
Again, it isn’t the end of the converstion. If anything, this second half not only warrants a follow up volume by the author himself, but realistically it’s this call to action that will produce thousands of follow up stories by the lives touched by the actions of the ongoing, real time arm of this book… Sowers non profit organization “The Mentoring Project”, which has a goal to train 10,000 mentors in 1,000 churches nationwide.
Buy It, Gift It, Read It, Repeat
I’ve bought this book for my leaders, youth workers, and also friends who still struggle with this issue in adulthood. I recommend it for similar people in your life: pastors, leaders, potential mentors, and friends. Regardless, become part of the story.
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Tags: addiction, crime, dr. john sowers, drugs, fatherless generation, fatherlessness, foster care, mentoring, prison, runaways
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