Fathers and faith formation

On this day after Father’s Day, after the cards and cookouts, it’s worth pausing on one of the most consequential things a dad does: shaping whether his children grow up to share his faith. Our recent report with the Institute for Family Studies and Communio, Passing the Torch: How Faith Moves Across Generations, offers a striking reminder that fathers carry an influence far greater than they often realize.

The report addresses a sobering trend: religious participation in America has fallen by nearly every measure (church attendance, belief in God, self-reported faith, etc.) since the 1990s. This decline is largely generational, with each new cohort entering adulthood less connected to faith than the one before.

But buried in the data is a hopeful counter-message: Parents play a powerful role in shaping their children’s religious lives from childhood into adulthood. The research confirms parents are our most important spiritual role models. And within the family, the influence of fathers is both underappreciated and irreplaceable.

In many homes, the spiritual heavy lifting falls to mothers. When parents were asked who bears more responsibility for how their children learn about religion, only 17% of dads named themselves, compared to 39% of moms. Among children who attend services with just one parent, nearly four out of five go with their mother. Many fathers have quietly drifted to the sidelines of their children's spiritual lives—perhaps assuming moms have it under control.

We find, however, that when fathers are involved in the family’s religious life, those children tend to be more religious, even in adulthood. Those who attended church with both parents growing up, rather than just one, were more likely to be churchgoers themselves, pray daily, read sacred texts, believe in God, and identify religion as something highly important in their lives. The difference is significant, as 41 percent of children who attended church with both parents will do so as adults. This figure drops to 29 percent among children who attended church with one parent. Similar patterns exist for the aforementioned religious practices.

Furthermore, those who regularly discussed matters of faith with their mothers and fathers during childhood tended to go on to have more faith conversations with their own children. In other words, fathers’ involvement in their children’s spiritual formation can ripple down through multiple generations. A father who shows up spiritually doesn’t just shape his children—he shapes his grandchildren.

Fathers don’t need to become biblical scholars or theologians to provide their children a strong faith foundation. It’s largely a matter of doing simple things on a regular basis: going to church, praying, and making discussion of spiritual matters in the context of daily life normal and comfortable. The task is simply to serve as both a model and guide, so children know what a life of religious commitment is supposed to look like.

But our report also shows that faith formation doesn't happen in isolation. Fathers need to be present in the fullest sense—as husbands and dads. When fathers are part of stable, happy marriages, their children are more likely to carry the family faith with them into adulthood. Stable and happy marriages create the conditions for greater amounts of religious practices and religious socialization, making it more likely that religious transmission succeeds.

Similarly, adults who reported having had very good relationships with their own fathers growing up demonstrated higher religious commitment across multiple indicators, including belief in God, religious importance, and attending church weekly. Warm parental relationships make parental guidance more credible while increasing openness to instruction and children’s identification with their parents.

In other words, both father-mother and father-child relationships matter. A loving, happy, cohesive household offers the best environment for faith formation.

Ultimately, the data point to a simple but powerful conclusion: The most consequential thing most dads will ever do happens in the ordinary rhythms of family life—showing up at church, saying grace, being present. The influence fathers have in these moments can extend well beyond childhood, shaping their children’s religious lives for years to come.