Sunday, June 24, 2018

Excellent Pro-Life Program Transforms Men Into Godly Fathers


By Jen Taggart
Life News


“Mike” answered to no one.

His job situation was in a constant state of flux. Every time he got into conflict with a supervisor or coworker, he would quit his job or make a brash statement that would get him fired.

“It’s not because he’s not smart, it’s not because he didn’t have abilities, it’s because he had really no sense of authority, no respect for authority, no willingness to serve under the authority of someone else,” said Jonathan Bright, founder of Faith for Fathers and leader of Dad-to-Dad, a program at Carolina Pregnancy Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“It’s probably because he never had it in his life—no one’s ever really taught him,” Bright said. “He never really understood why you have to function under someone else’s authority. We all do.”
But that all changed when Mike’s girlfriend (now wife), “Melissa,” a client at the Carolina Pregnancy Center, heard about the center’s Dad-to-Dad program and recommended it to Mike. They had one young child at the time.

The Dad-to-Dad program was formed in 2016 as a partnership between Faith for Fathers and the Carolina Pregnancy Center. Bright created Faith for Fathers in Spartanburg in 2013 to help dads build a godly legacy through events catered to them and their children, and monthly luncheons connected to family devotions.

“Our heartbeat is fathers and really trying to get them to recognize the significance of their role and how important their role is and how there’s really no replacement,” Bright said. “Society tries to fill in the gap with coaches and youth pastors and moms and those are great things, but ultimately there’s no replacement for the man being in the home leading his family spiritually and emotionally.”
Bright is close friends with Alexia Newman, executive director of the Carolina Pregnancy Center. In 2016, Newman came to Bright, asking for help in reaching the boyfriends and husbands of pregnancy center clients.
“We just saw a natural coalition, a natural way to work together—he was working with men already,” Newman said. “He had men that could be mentors to our guys.”
Bright saw the relationship as a perfect fit, too.
“The guys that we deal with at the pregnancy center typically aren’t going to be the kind of guy that’s going to go bring his daughter or son to an event or show up at a luncheon just for dads to learn how to be a better dad,” Bright said. “We saw it as a way to expand our outreach.”
When a man comes to the pregnancy center with his wife or girlfriend, the volunteers gather the man’s contact information so that Bright can connect with him. The Dad-to-Dad program offers one-on-one mentoring, a Wednesday night group meeting, a monthly dinner and Daddy Dollars to use in the center’s Earn-While-You-Learn store.





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