On Friday and Saturday, July 20-21, 2012 The Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church will hold our annual Family Summit. This year's theme is, "Dear Daddy...I'm Moving Forward."
The Family Summit is a place where the community comes together to face some of the sticky issues that plague our families. This year, we will address the impact of our fathers' absence or presence in our lives. We are so excited that our neighbors at the First Rock Baptist Church are on board with us this year because we can't have these important conversations alone.
Fathers are designed to be the anchors in the family. Yet, far too many of us have never experienced what it's like to be anchored and covered by a man who seeks after God's own heart and leads his family as God leads him. Most of the ones who didn't cover us had no one to show them what a covering really looked like. As a result, they fumbled through fatherhood and made a fumbling handoff to the next generation.
We have seen fatherhood foiled by the same frustrating fumbles time and time again. As I asked last week, when will we stop going around in circles and finally move forward? Just imagine you were watching a football game and no matter who the players were, they fumbled at the same point, every time. You would probably not just shrug it off or adjust your expectations to accept it as normal. So why do we continue to accept family dysfunction without attempting to reverse the curse and cancel the cycle?
One of the sessions at the Family Summit is entitled, "I'm the Daddy Now! But Daddy Never Taught Me How...." That session is not designed to condemn fathers, but to commend those who are willing to see that they can't give what they have never been given. Instead of going around with empty spiritual and emotional tanks, we want to encourage fathers to allow the Lord to enter into their broken and empty places and fill them with the power of His holy Spirit.
When we come together and work through our common challenges we can begin to stop the cycle of anger, frustration and insecurity that has marred generations of good men and left too many families without an anchorman.
There will be special sessions for men, women, teens/young adults, and children. If you or your family are in the Washington metropolitan area, make every effort to be at this year's Summit. And, bring someone with you. The more people we have moving forward, the less we will have left behind.
The Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church
Annual Family Summit
Friday and Saturday, July 20-21, 2012
3000 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, DC 20020
e-mail myfamilysummit@gmail.com for details.
BNcouraged!
Rev. karen
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