Fathers Day brunch

Over the last few years we have done a whole series of  different meals
These are occasions when we invite people from the local community to join us and to eat with us
Mostly we do these on a Friday night but a couple of times a year we do them on Sunday mornings.
The great thing is that our neighbours come and so over time we have got to know some of them pretty well and really enjoyed their company
Yesterday was Fathers day so we had a brunch with bacon rolls and other good food as well as coffee and tea. We also encouraged some of the guys to bring along their favourite boys toys and for some reason ended up with a lot of toy helicopters!
We took the opportunity to show some  material from CVM   see here about being a father and then retold the story of the Prodigal Son.It is not for me to say "a  great time was had by all" but people certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves.
In our regular Sunday morning series we have been thinking about " A meal with Jesus" (which I highly recommend).In the book  Tim Chester talks frequently about the importance of meals and hospitality and it is great to see this in action.
However we are now thinking of ways to encourage this on an individual, as well as a church wide basis .
I suppose as with most things it needs to start with us leaders

Thoughts about Fathers Day

Sunday is Father's Day!
I always find it difficult to know how to acknowledge and even celebrate  these days in our Sunday services.
Sometimes we do a church family service which in many ways makes things a bit easier to plan. This year however we did our all age  service on Pentecost Sunday here
I always worry though for those who have not got a dad(or perhaps never even known their dad) ,for those dads'who have lost children, or even lost touch with their children,for those men who would love to have had children and either because they never met the right person, or for reasons of infertility, never had the children they longed for.( Contrary to the modern myth many men also  grieve for the children they never had). I also think of those whose relationships with their dad was poor.
Perhaps I am just over sensitive. I do want to celebrate fatherhood and acknowledge just how important fathers are; but how to do it without unintentionally hurting others?( I know some women who go for a long walk on Mothers day rather than face church)

Amazingly it is now almost 5 years since my dad died.He always wanted to be a painter (his self portrait above and picture of his studio below) but ended up in business which he didn't love

His values were different from mine (when I told him I had become a Christian he said " Don't worry I was a communist for 6 months at your age!") and his self published autobiography is called
" sins ancient and modern " but he was my dad and I still miss him and will think about him on Fathers Day and indeed most other days too