Abba's Way

MISSION
Abba’s Way (Abba is Hebrew for “Father “) is a grassroots organization founded by three men with a desire to be better fathers themselves and to teach their sons to become wise men and fathers someday. Abba’s Way seeks to encourage, educate and equip fathers to engage with their children and to provide masculine leadership in order to strengthen families. The primary way we accomplish these goals is through Father’s Heart weekends, but we also hope to develop resources (books, music, electronic resources) in the future.

We desire to see fathers become involved, responsible, and committed for the benefit of their children and families as well as for future generations. We also desire to:

1. Educate and encourage fathers—by providing resources, books, music and media which promote responsible and committed fatherhood and family life;

2. Equip fathers through the development of curricula, training of practical skills, and the modeling of healthy interpersonal interaction;

3. Serve under-privileged families by providing financial assistance to attend Abba’s Way events; and

4. Engage religious, social and non-profit organizations through strategic alliances and partnerships.

The first Father’s Heart Weekend occurred in 2008 with 60 fathers and sons from five states participating. In 2009, we doubled attendance with 120 fathers and sons from seven different states. Our goal is to increase the number of events for 2010 and add a father/daughter event to the line-up.

Activities during the weekend encourage fathers to tune in to the hearts of their sons. We call these experiences “father/son accelerators” since they give fathers and sons a compelling vision for what is possible in their relationship. We seek to equip fathers to return to their homes and be fully present: physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Through unique experiential activities, men will be better equipped to protect their children, affirm them, and provide for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. See testimonials from the fathers who have attended and provided feedback on the Father’s Heart Weekend.

QUALIFICATIONS OF PERSONNEL
Since the founders of Abba’s Way are also fathers, they are personally and deeply committed to inspiring men to become better fathers through personal lessons learned as well as extensive research undertaken in developing Father’s Heart Weekends.

We have a variety of specialized consultants involved in our event planning, including a professional therapist who specializes in boys’ counseling(David Thomas, Daystar Counseling) and a variety of fathers who teach/write/lead in the area of men’s issues (emotional/spiritual).

The founders also bring diverse and complementary personal and professional skills to the organization:

Tom White is particularly gifted in operations, administration and logistics through his expertise of spreadsheets, accounting programs, etc. He holds a Bachelor Business degree from University of San Diego and an MBA from California Polytechnic University Pomona. He has been employed with FedEx for the past 20 years and is currently a Global Account Manager in the sales division.

Phil Davis is employed with a religious publisher and is experienced in research, development, writing, editing and the promotional aspects of curriculum specific to men’s issues (one of the ways we plan to educate fathers is through the use of creative and experiential teaching resources). Phil holds a Business and Marketing degree from Texas A&M University.

Glenn McClure just completed his Masters Degree in Worship Studies from Robert E. Webber Institute; studying the theological, historical, cultural implications of spirituality in a postmodern and trans-cultural world. Glenn also holds a Bachelor of Music from University of North Texas. Glenn also has an extensive background in starting new businesses, public speaking, and in music production (we are currently creating a CD featuring music themed to fatherhood and masculine issues).

Additionally, Glenn and Phil have attended multiple conferences dealing with the issues of masculinity including those given by New York Times best-selling author and expert on the subject of men and fatherhood issues, John Eldredge. Each of the founders is committed to the expansion of Abba’s Way and has dedicated their time and resources to accomplish this goal.

DEMOGRAPHIC
Father’s Heart Weekends were created for fathers from all walks of life and we continually seek opportunities to bring ethnic diversity to our events. By offering scholarships, we make events accessible for men of all economic backgrounds.  Attendees are generally Christian, representing a wide variety of denominations (Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc.), but men of any (or no) religious background are welcome. Statistically, the majority of attendees are married but since two of the founding members are single fathers, special attention is made to reach out to fathers outside of the traditional, nuclear family and provide them with skills, inspiration, and opportunities to affirm and connect with their children in new and profound ways. Since our weekends are for fathers of sons ages 6 – 12, the ages of the fathers range widely, but generally fall within the range of early 20s to around age 50.

RECRUITMENT
Abba’s Way promotes to participants via word of mouth, email marketing, some radio, and local partnerships with churches, counseling offices, and retreat centers. We are in the initial stages of a strategic partnership with a local non-profit, “Blue Skies”,that serves fatherless boys. Through this partnership, we will be in a position to allow a man to step into a fatherless boy’s life and serve as a surrogate father by joining him on a Father’s Heart Weekend. We are looking for resources that will enable us to increase our community networking and web presence in order to better market our services to a wider range of fathers. We are developing relationships with Daystar Counseling, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Deer Run Retreat and the YMCA. We are currently in sponsorship relationships with Lowe’s Home Improvement, Dicks Sporting Goods, REI, LifeWay Christian Resources, B&H Publishers and Brand Waves, LLC.

1. Abba’s Way supports responsible fatherhood by teaching men to value their roles as fathers, equipping them to become more actively involved fathers, and helping them discover and appreciate the unique talents and attributes of their children. We also encourage men who are not yet fathers to volunteer and support father/child relationships for others in the community. The philosophy is based on an understanding that rearing children is the work of a community and that initiation and rites of passage do not come exclusively from the father, but are achieved through a close fellowship of men speaking into a boy’s life. For this reason the volunteers/facilitators of the Father’s Heart Weekends are part of a collective community of men committed to the support and enrichment of fathers throughout Middle Tennessee. A core value of Abba’s Way is to facilitate and provide a community where men can live authentically among other men. Research has shown that an “uninitiated” man is often one that is isolated and lives as a loner, which fuels addictive behaviors and prevents men from being responsible fathers, committed husbands, and stable providers. An additional goal of ours is to create and provide a variety of ongoing resources further promoting responsible/active fatherhood, including books, music, curricula, and electronic media.

2. Abba’s Way supports marriages by encouraging men to be fully engaged in their homes, both as father and husbands. We urge men to be fully present in family life, as opposed to the societal norm of men who are disengaged from the hearts and minds of their families. We seek to inspire men to take a servant/leader role in their family and to initiate intentional times of connection with their children and their wives. We educate men that the role of a father is to actively and sacrificially love each member of the family by serving them. This principle of servant leadership is a core value and emphasis is placed on educating both the men and their sons that masculine strength is meant to be used to serve others rather than for their own personal comfort. One way we model this in the Father’s Heart Weekends is by providing volunteer roles for boys who have attended a previous weekend to serve those boys who are attending for the first time.

3. Abba’s Way encourages men to embrace their roles as providers for their families, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We invite those who have already attended a Father’s Heart Weekend to donate to support scholarships for fathers/sons who would like to attend but have financial limitations.

Organizationally, Abba’s Way has a network of consultants involved in all event planning, including a professional therapist who specializes in boys’ issues and a variety of fathers who teach/write/lead in the area of men’s issues (emotional/spiritual) in both church and professional settings. The founders also bring personal and professional skills to the organization. One founder is particularly gifted in administration, another in the world of publishing and another in music production (we are currently creating a CD featuring music themed to fatherhood and masculine issues). We are willing to share our organizational assets with other organizations that advocate for men and fathers.

Abba’s Way seeks to encourage, educate and equip fathers to engage with their children. At this time we specifically accomplish this goal via father/son weekend experiences, giving fathers opportunities to spend one-on-one time with their sons and initiate them into masculinity with rite of passage ceremonies, practical skill-building, and relationship-building activities. We call these weekends “The Father’s Heart Weekend” where we “Celebrate the Boy and Call Out the Man.” This program has proven effective in reaching out to both fathers and sons. This program is an “experiential” event held at a retreat center where activities are crafted in such a way that fathers and sons are able to focus on each other and build trust. Research demonstrates that men and boys communicate and learn best by doing activities together. For this reason, we use a template of 95% experience and 5% proposition. Through experience, play, observation and affirmation men and boys are bonded together in a very unique fashion.

Fathers leave our weekends feeling stronger and with more confidence to the task of fatherhood. Boys leave affirmed and celebrated. We use low ropes initiatives to help fathers and sons build trust and learn how to work together. We use climbing walls to build confidence in achieving difficult tasks, a fire ceremony where fathers are asked to affirm their sons in front of other men and boys. Anyone can pass on an activity for any reason.

We call the Father’s Heart Weekend experiences “father/son accelerators” since they are designed to give fathers and sons a compelling vision for what is possible in their relationship–even beyond the weekend. We desire to equip fathers to return to their homes and be fully present with their families: physically, emotionally and spiritually. We hope they end the weekend feeling better equipped to affirm, protect and provide for their children.

We currently maintain a blog and small website to disseminate event information and encourage father’s, but we hope to expand this site in the future. We hope to expand future events to include father/daughter weekends, family camping, and mountain climbs for men and adolescents.

Additionally, we desire to create resources (books, CDs, curricula, electronic media) that men can take home from the weekend to help them grow in their roles as fathers at home. We’d also like to expand our blog/website to provide more resources for fathers and the family.

We recognize our need for assistance with organizational development, to discover our strengths and weaknesses, and to help us create a strategic plan and working budget. Organizational development would allow us to better assess our current weaknesses and strengths so we could better plan for the future. We do not currently have a fully formed strategic plan, but know this is a vital element for our continued expansion. We have been working on a “cash in/cash out” basis to date. We need assistance to create a budget that reflects not only our current fiscal situation but also our future goals.
Guidance in community engagement is also critical to our future growth. We need to discover how to include a wider diversity (racial, socio-economic) in our weekends, and we would like to make a larger group of men aware of the opportunities we offer. We have begun to network with a handful of other organizations, but we see that there is room for a vast improvement in this area. Specifically, we hope for assistance helping us accomplish these goals:

• Build a website in order to provide ongoing education and inspiration for fathers
• Design a new logo for Abba’s Way that could be used in marketing events and resources
• Create new relationships with event site providers outside Middle Tennessee
• Create curricula for fathers to use after the weekend events
• Create a music CD for fathers/boys
• Increase our capacity for community engagement and partnerships

During the next several years, we expect individuals, organizations and event fees to continue to supply a substantial portion of our financial support. We are currently filing as a corporation and are in the process of applying for official 501(C)3 non-profit status so that donors can enjoy the tax benefit of giving to a recognized charity. We also are applying for grants that can support expansion efforts that will not be supported by donations and fees alone. Additionally, we hope to increase the base of volunteers who will help with events and organizational tasks. The addition of music, curricula, and other educational and inspirational resources will provide an additional stream of revenue to make the organization self-sustaining.

The challenges we face are varied. We have very limited funding yet we need to keep our weekend events affordable; not a simple task. We require a great number of volunteers to execute each Father’s Heart Weekend and while we have a solid base of volunteers in Middle Tennessee, opportunities in other locales are opening up–requiring an entirely new base of volunteers. For example, an organization has requested to sponsor a Father’s Heart Weekend in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We have a challenge of finding the resources and experienced facilitators to accommodate the first of what we expect to be a growing need. An additional opportunity we are pursuing is initial talks with a large publisher to create a “retreat in a box” curriculum that would provide all the tools needed for other organizations to offer a Father’s Heart Weekend. Again, we are challenged to pursue this in a robust fashion because of a lack of strategic planning, full assessment of strengths and weaknesses, etc. As the organization grows, we expect to transition at least one person to a paid, full-time position in support of the mission of Abba’s Way but would need assistance to plan for long-term sustainability and growth.

Support Father’s Heart and Abba’s Way
Please!  Would you consider financially supporting the Father’s Heart Weekends and continued ministry?  Any gift would be so appreciated.  Checks should be made to “Abba’s Way” and mailed to 616 Bonnie Place, Franklin, TN 37064.

If you have any questions about the ministry, please call Glenn McClure at 615-294-5072.