Sean Teis, who was abandoned by his father at a young age, calls fatherlessness a national epidemic.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy and criminality,” he states. “We look at our country, and we’re like, ‘Why are all these things happening? Why are all these people committing crimes? Why is all this abortion happening?’ And it’s not always from fatherlessness, but many times these kids are growing up without a dad, without a mom, without both.”
Teis and his wife, Jackie, founded Life Factors Fatherless Ministries, which equips individuals to fulfill James 1:27 through practical ministry in their churches and communities to fatherless families. The ministry, which has the stated aim of “spreading awareness, creating unique resources, speaking, partnering with local churches and establishing local fatherless family ministries and support for these families nationwide,” employs a multifaceted approach to combat this crisis.
Initiatives range from informative books such as “The Fatherless Journey for Guys” and “The Fatherless Journey for Girls” to digital resources and mobile applications such as GodismyDad.com. The ministry also advocates for mentoring and local church involvement, offering a non-programmatic, organic approach to support.
“The ‘God is my Dad’ brand has been such a positive thing for children who don’t have an earthly dad,” Teis said. “God is my dad and he cares about me. It’s my story, too: God’s my dad and through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, God will be your heavenly father.”
Despite the evident need for addressing fatherlessness, Teis, a former youth pastor himself, said there’s been a significant challenge in gaining widespread attention from both cultural and, tragically, religious platforms.
“It’s been an uphill climb, really, over the past 15-plus years trying to get pastors to take this issue seriously,” he said. “It’s affecting every single person in the United States of America, we try to tell people that in churches, when I speak, it’s affecting everybody. But they don’t want to shine a light on it. I’m not bashing pastors, but I honestly believe that churches need to shine a light on this, and we have resources to help them with that.”
Now a father of three himself, Teis said he’s even more determined to break the cycle of fatherlessness.