Fathers Walk 2024
HOW TO LEAD OR PARTICIPATE
Here’s how to take part in the Fathers Walk 2024 — to fast, walk, and pray together at your church or solo.
This Father’s Day we’re going beyond Hallmark cards. We’re banding together to make a statement of faith, contrition, and strength in service to our families.
Men: we need you. Your families need you. This event is to rally us, solo or together—we don’t need to walk alone. This Father’s Day weekend, fast, walk, and pray with us.
FAST
Call yourself to attention by fasting, starting Saturday, June 15, 2024. Cut out the crutches that distract you: food, your phone, or the news. By moderating ourselves, we snap out of fear, friction, and regret. We ‘sharpen our swords’ as protectors.
WALK
Then on Sunday morning — June 16, 2024 — walk to church with us. Gather all men in your congregation or join one of our groups to meet up and walk within a mile. We’re going to show up to church early, before our families, and start the day in prayer.
PRAY
Together we’ll pray for new fathers finding their way; for men who had no father around to show them how; for grace through hostility or alienation. We will pray for our over-indulged yet ailing culture, and we will pray for lost children and families.
A Fathers Walk message from our Founder
INVITE MEN TO JOIN YOU
Put the word out on social media, by text, and at church, inviting as many men as possible to walk together for solidarity and healing on Sunday, June 16, 2024.
SIGN UP
Before Father’s Day Weekend, follow the QR code to add your names, churches, and numbers to the sign-up sheet so we know you’ll be walking.
INFORM YOUR CHURCH
Some churches are encouraging the men of their congregations to participate, and some may set aside time to pray with walking men at the front of the church during the Father’s Day service. If your church does not sanction the walk as an official event, walk and pray independently—but let them know ahead of time in case they give your group a boost.
SHARE YOUR RALLY POINT
Choose a place and time to meet and share it with the men in your group. Keep a few cars on the church end for carpooling back to the rally point after the service, if you like.
Pick a start point with parking 1.5 miles / 2 kilometers or so from your church. You’ll want to get to church early, and have time for prayer and discussion along the way.
Pick a start point with parking 1.5 miles / 2 kilometers or so from your church. You’ll want to get to church early, and have time for prayer and discussion along the way.
SATURDAY JUNE 15, 2024
1. FAST
Kick off Father’s Day Weekend by dropping your crutches, whatever they may be: excess food, the news, or your phone. Lock up what depletes and distracts your energy as a father and redirect it back where it belongs. Renewal starts here.
SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2024
2. WALK
Before you walk, read Psalm 51—King David’s letter to God.
Men need to come back to God as did David, a king who coveted and impregnated his best friend’s wife, conspired to have him killed in battle, and tried to cover up his shame and sin as noble. Confronted by the prophet Nathan, the king fell to his feet and repented, weeping. Shortly after Besheba gave birth to their illegitimate son, the baby died—and David’s contrition made him a man after God’s own heart. He owned his sins completely. The story of King David reminds us God looks into our heart. From there he gives us the light and the bridge to Him that was Jesus.
Psalm 51: David’s Letter to God
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love.
Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts.
Wash away my wrongdoing.
Cleanse me of my sin.
For I am aware of my rebellious acts;
I am forever conscious of my sin.
Against you—you above all—I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So you are just when you confront me;
you are right when you condemn me.
Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,
a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
Look, you desire integrity in the inner man;
you want me to possess wisdom.
Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be pure;
wash me and I will be whiter than snow.
Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven.
May the bones you crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins.
Wipe away all my guilt.
Create for me a pure heart, O God.
Renew a resolute spirit within me.
Each Walk Leader can choose from the following conversation prompts along the way, as you walk. Or if you’re on your own, go to a quiet place and contemplate:
I’m the kind of dad who…
My father was always…
My father was never…
What I worry about most as a father is…
Here’s what I’d say to a young man about to become a father…
The one thing holding me back from the kind of father I want to be is…
When I first found out I was going to be a father, my first thought was…
My greatest hope for my children is that they will…
If I could start over, I’d…
My children need me to be…
ARRIVAL AT CHURCH
3. PRAY
The building is not the church. We are the church. God always starts with one man. Prayer will be individual, with all of us orienting to an intimate, one-on-one moment with God in which we all say: against you and you alone have I sinned. This is where our refocused attention, devotion, and service begins.
If you like, each Walk Leader can orient your group’s prayer with this blessing before you enter the church:Today we fast, walk, and pray for our fathers; for ourselves as their sons; for our children today, and our children still to come. We come to the Lord in humble contrition with a personal pledge of owning our sin. This is where our renewed fatherhood begins.
We bring our failures to the altar. We bring our excuses. We bring what makes us spiral to the altar—the vices that distract us. We bring our stories of victimhood to the altar, and we will leave it there with God. We bring our seeds of bitterness to the altar, and we will leave them there with God.
ll Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
CLOSING THE LOOP
SHARE WITH US
Follow Fathers for Fathers on Facebook (/FathersForFathersGlobal) or Instagram (@fathers.for.fathers) and tag us with your videos, pictures, or your reflections. We’d love to see you all out there.
Church is not your destination. It’s your starting line.
At Fathers for Fathers, we’re igniting a movement. Join together in communion with other dads and send us a video, pictures, or your reflections. What kind of father are you? What kind do you want to be? And how can we show up for our sons and daughters the way our Heavenly Father shows up for us? #fatherswalk