Fathers are disappearing from the family was the message delivered at the annual Sav-A-Life banquet Monday.

Sav-A-Life is a non-denominational Christian ministry that promotes a culture of life, health and morality. Locally, the ministry provides pregnancy testing, counseling and other services for expectant mothers at service centers located in Andalusia and Florala.

Guest speaker Ken Bevel, who is most widely known for his roles in the movies “Fireproof” and “Courageous,” brought the message to a crowd of nearly 600 at the Kiwanis Center last night. Bevel also serves on the ministry staff of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.

Bevel spoke of his troubled relationship with his father as well as how he turned his own destructive life around while serving in the Marines. He told of nearly going to jail to being saved in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Bevel’s message centered around the basis of the movie, “Courageous,” which tells the story of four fathers in law enforcement who, after going through a terrible tragedy, begin looking at their roles as fathers, and ultimately begin challenging one another to fulfill God’s intention for fathers.

“There is a plan to cut men out of the family,” he said. “Look at history. We have to work to correct that.”

He said there are four times during a man’s life that a father can “check out.”

“During conception; when the baby is born; when the dad is home but disconnected from the family, and when he’s 50 or older, when he says I’m done,” he said. “The thing about the job of fatherhood is, you’re never done.

“The Bible says every life is worth something,” Bevel said as he gave alarming statistics on abortion – 1 million children per year, of those, 83.5 percent by unwed mothers.

“This is how we correct that,” he said. “One, we challenge men to be the spiritual leader of the family,” he said. “If we did that, there would be no need for a pregnancy resource center, right?

“Then, we need to train our children according to God’s word,” he said. “If our men stand up and get it right, know that God will work wonders for generations to come.”