Key Takeaways

• Communio founder J.P. De Gance published a Father’s Day op-ed in the Washington Examiner, one of America’s most-read political and cultural publications, arguing that fathers are one of the strongest influences on whether children retain faith into adulthood.

• The culture has blamed pastors, youth ministries, Christian schools, social media, and politics for young people leaving the church. But new research suggests the answer is closer to home.

• Only 17% of fathers believe they are primarily responsible for their children’s religious formation, compared to 39% of mothers. The Passing the Torch data consistently points to a different reality.

• Children who attended church weekly with both parents were significantly more likely to attend as adults. Adults with a very good father relationship were substantially more likely to pray, attend church, and believe in God.

• Dad may be preaching a sermon every day, whether he realizes it or not. The fathers who shape the faith of the next generation are not necessarily extraordinary. They are present, consistent, and engaged.

The Story: A National Platform for a Countercultural Argument

Every year, the conversation about young people leaving the church runs in a familiar direction. Pastors are blamed. Youth ministries are blamed. Christian schools are blamed. Social media is blamed. Politics is blamed. Each diagnosis produces its own prescribed remedy, and the church responds with programs, pivots, and cultural adjustments.

On June 21, 2026, Father’s Day, J.P. De Gance published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner — one of America’s most widely-read political and cultural publications — that redirected that entire conversation with a single question.

What if one of the biggest influences on whether a child keeps the faith is found much closer to home?

The op-ed, published in the Examiner’s Restoring America section under the Faith, Freedom, and Self-Reliance banner, draws on the Passing the Torch report from Communio and the Institute for Family Studies to make a case that is both data-grounded and pastorally urgent: fathers are preaching a sermon every single day, whether they realize it or not. And the question of whether the next generation stays in church may hinge more on that sermon than on anything happening in a church building.

The Core Finding: Children Are Watching Before They Are Listening

The Passing the Torch report draws on data from more than 60,000 Americans to examine why some children retain religious belief as adults while others drift away. The finding the Washington Examiner op-ed centers on is striking in its simplicity.

Children notice whether faith is simply something their father endorses or something he actively lives. Before they are influenced by a pastor, a youth leader, or a Christian teacher, they are watching their fathers. And what they see shapes what they believe, what they practice, and whether faith becomes their own.

The data makes this concrete. Children who attended church weekly with both mother and father were significantly more likely to attend church as adults compared to those who attended with only one parent. The same pattern appeared across prayer, belief in God, reading Scripture, and the importance of religion in daily life. When both parents are present and engaged, the transmission of faith is measurably more reliable.

The quality of the father-child relationship compounds this further. Adults who described their relationship with their father as very good were substantially more likely to attend church regularly, pray daily, believe in God, and describe religion as highly important in their lives. And when parents regularly discussed faith with their children, those children were twice as likely to attend church, pray daily, and say religion was very important to them as young adults.

The Counterintuitive Angle: The Youth Ministry Crisis Is Really a Fatherhood Crisis

Here is the reframe at the heart of J.P.’s Washington Examiner op-ed, and it is worth sitting with.

For years, churches have diagnosed the problem of young people leaving as a youth ministry problem. The solution, accordingly, has been better youth programming, more engaging worship for teenagers, sharper apologetics, and stronger community. These investments are not wrong. But the data consistently suggests they are addressing a downstream symptom rather than the upstream cause.

The Passing the Torch report points to something more fundamental. A father’s influence is strongest when it is woven into the ordinary rhythms of daily family life rather than compressed into an hour on Sunday morning. And for the millions of fathers who live apart from their children, even those weekly hours are not available. Research on nonresident fathers finds that the vast majority see their children only a limited number of days per month within a few years of separation. Fewer shared meals, conversations, and daily routines mean fewer opportunities to pass on values and faith.

This is why, as J.P. writes in the op-ed, marriage and family stability are not separate from faith formation. They help create the environment in which faith is most often transmitted. A church that invests in strengthening the marriages of its congregation is not running a social program alongside its ministry. It is protecting the primary channel through which faith reaches the next generation.

The youth ministry crisis is real. But its root cause is not in the youth room. It is in the home. And the most strategic response is not a better program for teenagers. It is a stronger marriage for their parents.

What This Means for Your Church

At Communio, J.P.’s Washington Examiner op-ed captures something we have seen confirmed across hundreds of church partnerships: the pastors who understand the connection between marriage health and youth retention are the pastors who are building congregations that endure.

The closing line of the op-ed is one worth printing and putting on the desk of every pastor in America: “Dad may be preaching a sermon every day — whether he realizes it or not.”

That is the invitation the local church is uniquely positioned to extend to the fathers in its congregation. Not an invitation to theological expertise or public spiritual performance, but an invitation to presence, consistency, and the kind of ordinary engaged fatherhood that the data shows is irreplaceable.

Think about the fathers in your congregation right now. The men who show up on Sunday but have never been told how decisive that habit is for their children’s faith. The dads who feel unqualified to lead their families spiritually and have quietly handed that responsibility to their wives or to the church program. The fathers who don’t yet know that the ordinary moments, grace before dinner, a bedtime prayer, a conversation in the car about what they believe and why, are adding up to something that will shape their children’s lives long after those children have left home.

Communio helps churches build the kind of culture where those men are encouraged, equipped, and engaged. Where marriage is strengthened so that fathers remain present. Where the connection between a dad’s daily faith practice and his children’s adult belief is made explicit, celebrated, and supported.

The most important youth pastor in America may well be sitting in your church right now. Communio helps you equip him.

Take the Next Step

Communio partners with churches to build marriage and family ministry that strengthens the relational foundations where faith is formed and passed to the next generation.

► Read J.P. De Gance’s full Washington Examiner op-ed → washingtonexaminer.com

► Download the Passing the Torch report → communio.org/passing-the-torch-report

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does J.P. De Gance say we have been blaming the wrong people for young adults leaving the church? In his Washington Examiner op-ed, De Gance argues that the culture has consistently blamed pastors, youth ministries, social media, and politics for young people disengaging from faith. But the Passing the Torch report, drawing on data from more than 60,000 Americans, points to a different primary cause: the level of a father’s active, consistent engagement in his family’s faith life is one of the strongest predictors of whether children retain faith as adults.

What does the Passing the Torch research show about fathers and faith transmission? Children who attended church weekly with both parents were significantly more likely to attend as adults compared to those who attended with only one parent. Adults with a very good father relationship were substantially more likely to pray regularly, attend church, and believe in God. When parents discussed faith with their children regularly, those children were twice as likely to remain religiously active as young adults.

Why is marriage stability connected to a father’s influence on his children’s faith? A father’s influence on his children’s faith is strongest when it is embedded in the ordinary daily routines of family life: shared meals, conversations, prayer, and consistent church attendance. Research on nonresident fathers shows that the vast majority see their children only a limited number of days per month within a few years of separation, dramatically reducing those opportunities. Strengthening marriages directly protects a father’s ability to transmit faith through daily presence.

What does De Gance mean when he says dad is preaching a sermon every day? Children are paying attention to their fathers’ faith long before they ask difficult theological questions. They notice whether church attendance is a priority, whether prayer is natural, and whether faith shapes everyday decisions. A father who shows up, prays out loud, and talks about what he believes is transmitting faith through ordinary moments that accumulate over years into the foundational convictions his children carry into adulthood.

How can churches help fathers become more engaged in their children’s faith formation? Many fathers feel ill-equipped to lead their families spiritually and have quietly delegated that responsibility to others. Communio helps churches build a marriage and family culture that equips men as husbands and fathers, connects their daily faith practices to research showing just how decisive those habits are, and creates the kind of community where engaged fatherhood is celebrated and supported.

Credit: This post draws on J.P. De Gance’s op-ed published in the Washington Examiner on June 21, 2026. The MSN syndication of this article can be found here. Read the original Washington Examiner op-ed here.