ACTION POINTS for Committed Dads

Turn off TVs, iPods, cell phones, and computers and gather your family around the dinner table for a good, old-fashioned card game or board game. You don’t need electricity to have energy in the room.

Take note of what your teenager spends his time doing and start a conversation by asking open-ended questions like, “What makes you so good at ____?” or “Why do you like ___ so much?”

“Give action” to your young child; get down on his or her level to play cars, have a tea party, build with blocks, etc. If you have your kids for the weekend, tell them to bring along their favorite game to play. Talk to them about it during the week and build anticipation and excitement for the weekend.

What’s your favorite sport or hobby? Think of ways you can use the language and concepts of that activity to help keep you motivated and on track as a father.

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Pew Research Better Than Reported

A lot of press has been given to a recent Pew Research study showing that 44% of American adults “have left the faith of their childhood.” But that’s not really the whole story. 16% out of that 44% simply left one Protestant denomination for another, meaning only 28% of adults have left the faith of their childhood. Add to that that some of those 28% left atheism or other religions for Christianity, and the picture looks even brighter. So perhaps the best way to say it is, “72% of all American adults have stayed in the faith they were brought up in, including those who changed denominations within the Protestant Church.” Now it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

The full article is available at http://pewforum.org/

Factoids for Prison Ministries to Men
The U.S. has more people in prison than any other country. Approximately 1% of all adults in U.S. are in jail or prison, 2,319,258 out of almost 230 million American adults, or one out of every 99.1 adults. In one state, the crime rate has increased only about 3% in the past 30 years, while its inmate population has increased by 600%.