Together For Adoption 2012

Free eBook from Together For Adoption

Get it here.

Two Together For Adoption National Conferences This Fall

Together for Adoption:

Together for Adoption is holding two national conferences this fall for you to consider attending:

September 14-15 National Conference in Atlanta, GA. Speakers include Noel Piper, Tony Carter, Reddit Andrews, Leonce Crump, and Tony Merida. Conference theme is God’s Story of Adoption for a Broken World.

October 4-5 Conference for Pastors & Adoption/Orphan Care Ministry Leaders at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Speakers include Sinclair Ferguson, Michael Horton, Fred Sanders, and Robert Smith, Jr. Conference theme is Our Triune God & the Pastor: A Theology of Adoption for the Church. 

Registration for both conferences is now open.

Together for Adoption 2011 National Conference

The Together for Adoption 2011 National Conference will be October 21-22 in Phoenix, hosted by Redemption Church. This year's theme is Missional Living, the Gospel and Orphan Care.

Registration

• Early Bird Registration: $109 Per Person (good through August 31st)
• Regular Registration: $149 Per Person (price from September 1 until October 21)

Register for the conference online.

General Session Speakers

• Darrin Patrick
• Tullian Tchividjian
• Tim Chester
• Bryan Loritts
• Juan Sanchez
• Jeff Vanderstelt

Together For Adoption - 2011 National Conference

Click here to register.

Transformative Effects of the Gospel and Adoption

Vermon and Dennae Pierre share some very insightful and edifying thoughts about the transformative effects of the Gospel and adoption upon us and our local churches. Great story of God's faithfulness. Vermon is lead pastor of Roosevelt Community Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and Dennae is now a regular writer for the Together for Adoption website.

This interview segment was part 2 our our second house conference in Phoenix.

T4A House Conferences

Guest Post by Dan Cruver.

[See below for an explanation of this video]

Recently, Together for Adoption launched a house conference initiative to bring teaching on God’s story of adoption and its implications for the global orphan crisis to living rooms in select cities across the United States. Obviously, not everyone can fly across the country to attend a T4A conference. So, in part, the house conference initiative aims to “bring a T4A conference to a living room near you . . . for free.”

House Conference Format: 20-20-20

- 20 minutes of teaching: The Story Behind the Story of Adoption – Sparking the Conversation
- 20 minutes of discussion: In-House Interviews – Continuing the Conversation
- 20 minutes of questions: Q & A – Expanding the Conversation

Together for Adoption's hope is to use house conferences to spark continuing conversations about orphan care that move Christians/churches toward greater collaboration and implementation. Why are these conferences hosted in homes? Because the orphan crisis is something that Christians should grapple with in their living rooms. It should be that personal to us.

In the video above, I talk about the relationship between the Trinity and our adoption in Christ and its implications for global orphan care. I'll post a few more house conference videos the rest of this week.

The Need for Adoption - The Latest Stats

Shawnda Kovacs:

Have you seen the latest UNICEF orphan #'s?: 

India at 25M, China 17M, Nigeria 9.7M, Ethiopia 5M, Bangladesh 5M, DRC 4.5M, Indonesia 4.4M, Russia 4M, Pakistan 3.9M, Tanzania 2.6M.

Did you notice the unreached peoples in the top 10? The enemy is prowling around, desiring to distract us from keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the One who desires that all should be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), the One who longs to see the solitary placed in a family (Psalm 68:6), the only One where 'there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

The Lord is at work, giving His people an understanding that WE were once orphaned, and He chose us, adopted us, and made us His own. 

Together for Adoption is a great opportunity to pray and seek and discern where the Lord may be asking you to live out His heart for the orphan and the widow! Even if you weren't called to adopt, there are MANY other ways to get involved in caring for the orphan and widow! Come and see and hear and DO and be blessed far more than you can imagine!

Indigenous Adoption

Jason Kovacs:

In a earlier post this year I wrote about the growing burden to see the global church grasp their responsibility for the orphan. I believe more than ever that along with inter-country adoption, the only viable and biblical solution to the global orphan crisis is for a movement of indigenous, in-country adoption. 

I have been encouraged to hear others talking about this as well. And it is happening – The highlight for me atSummit VI was the testimony of a Ukranian pastor who shared how God gripped his heart for the orphans in his own country and how he was led to adopt a child. He is now leading a movement of other pastors to mobilize the Ukranian church to adopt the orphans in their country. Not only that, they are now going to Russia to encourage pastors there to do the same! 

Along with the Ukraine, there is a movements in the US, Australia, and Sweden gaining momentum to see every waiting child adopted. God is moving in the hearts of His people! Let us join together in praying that this kind of movement would be sparked within every country in the world where orphans exist. 

God is big. He can do it. He cares more about the orphan than any of us put together!

Missional Communities and Adoption

Dan Cruver:

One of our hopes for the Together for Adoption National Conference in Austin is to begin serious, Spirit-led dialogue about how to intentionally and strategically unite the church’s missional engagement in the world, both locally and globally, with its privilege and responsibility to care for orphans. How can the church be what it is to be missionally and have orphan care be an integral part of its missional engagement? This question that we will be seeking to answer is one that both encourages and discourages me at the same time.

First, the discouraging part: I once heard a church-planting organization say that it tells its church planters not to get involved in orphan care because orphan care is a distraction from the church’s mission. To be fair, I think I understand what they mean. But I would have a difficult time saying that kind of thing in front of “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I just do not think that James would let a statement like that go unchallenged. If the practice of true religion necessarily involves caring for orphans and widows in their affliction, than it seems to me that orphan care must be an integral part of what the church is and does. So, I’m somewhat discouraged by the fact that we even have to ask and answer that question.

But there is also a very encouraging part: many missional leaders are beginning to ask this question because they are convinced of its biblical importance. They are seeing orphan care not as a missional add-on but as a vital aspect of what the church is to be and do missionally. In God’s infinite wisdom, he has made orphan care a key component of the church’s missional DNA. If something is part of your DNA, it will have an impact upon both your being and your doing. No longer is the orphan care part of the church’s spiritual DNA lying dormant. God is at work to awaken it within the church, and for that I am extremely encouraged.

Read the rest.

I will be live-blogging the conference again this year and providing some video support as well. Hope to see you there! It was a GREAT conference last year and looks to be even better this year.

T4A - 2010

Together For Adoption - Main Session MP3s

• Dan Cruver, Adoption: Making Outsiders Insiders
• Scotty Smith, The Freedom of Adoption
• Scott Roley, Adoption and the Pursuit of Racial Reconciliation
• Ed Stetzer, The Gospel, Social Justice and the Missional Church
• Michael Easley, Orphan Care and Jesus, the Great Servant of the Poor
• Russell Moore, Adoption and the Renewal of Creation

Together For Adoption eBook

Dan Cruver:

Our first ebook, Our Adoption in Christ: What It Means for Us and for Orphans, is now available for free download! This book was written to equip churches theologically in the areas of orphan care and earthly adoption. We believe that robust theology produces robust action. So, our writing objective was to put the gospel at the center of the global orphan crisis. If the church is to be mobilized to care for 143 million orphaned and vulnerable children, then the gospel must be the main thing. Our prayer is that God will use this brief book to equip and empower churches to serve orphans. Click on the image below to download.

Together For Adoption - Message Summaries and Interviews

• Session One – Adoption: Outsiders Made Insiders, Dan Cruver
• Session Two – The Freedoms of Adoption, Scotty Smith
• Session Three – Adoption and the Pursuit of Racial Reconciliation, Scott Roley
• Session Four – The Gospel, Social Justice, and the Missional Church, Ed Stetzer
• Session Five – Orphan Care and Jesus, the Great Servant of the Poor, Michael Easley
• Session Six – Adoption and the Renewal of Creation, Russell Moore

Some highlights:

Session one with Dan Cruver: When we look to the gospel, we will have true religion. The Gospel is the power of God to bridle the tongue, because it speaks good news to us. The Gospel is the power of God to visit orphans and widows. The Gospel is the power of God to free us from performance based religion that equates to being stained by the world.

Session Two with Scotty Smith: “With Romans 8:18-25 in mind, Scotty reminded us that one day God is going to finish his story. One day orphans will be orphans no more. We won’t even need the word “orphan” anymore. Now we get to work with God in his mission. This is not a burden, but a blessing to be entered into. Jesus’ work for us signs us on for a new job. Not to earn anything, but to be blessed to share in the work of making things right again.”

Session Three with Scott Roley: “There is no bias in the adoptive work of Christ. Scott reminded us that we are one body in many different tribes. We can reflect the adoptive work of Christ (who is no respecter of race when he adopts lost and forgotten people into his family) when we adopt. He adopts from ALL tribes, tongues, and nations. He is creating a new family. There is one unity in this family and his new family in the New Heavens and New Earth will be gloriously diverse. We are pursuing and following our leader in doing this work now. We are acting out the prayer, “Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done” when we pursue transracial adoption.”

Session Four with Ed Stetzer: “It is interesting to note that Paul is far less vocal about social justice than Jesus was. There is a perceived tension here and historically churches have not resolved this very well. The solution is not in the dichotomy but in the robust engagement in both proclamation AND pursuit of societal transformation.”

Session Five with Michael Easley: Michael “ended his message by challenging those of us to quit talking about the financial obstacles as if God will not provide. If God cares for the weak as much as he says he does in his word, then would it not follow that he will provide for those who want to be his hand and feet in caring for these weak ones? He will provide the path and resources.”

Session Seven with Russell Moore: “If the orphan care movement is going to be successful, it cannot be a movement. It has to bubble up out of real churches. It’s can’t be a special interest group competing with other groups. If it becomes a group movement like Homeschoolers, then it is not calling us to what the doctrine of adoption is about in the first place. We are not adopted because of what we have done based on deeds, how cool we are for adopting, or for what we have accomplished. We cannot get prideful and frustrated by those who don’t ‘get it’ or share our vision of adoption care but rather we know that we are saved by grace and so we can extend grace to those who ‘don’t get it.’”

Together For Adoption - Session Six - Russell Moore

Russell Moore is a unique man. He is exceptionally articulate and winsome and his influence in the evangelical world is surely to increase. I fully welcome it. He is a voice that needs to be heard. If you don’t have his book, Adopted For Life, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The title of Russell Moore’s message was “Adoption and The Renewal of Creation”.

Dr. Moore began his message by telling the story of being struck with the silence of the Russian orphanage where he picked up his two adopted boys. Think of it, a building full of babies and it’s silent. The reason for the silence is that babies will eventually learn that if they cry and no one comes, crying doesn’t accomplish anything and they will be quiet.

He recounted that his boys remained silent with them for most of the time during the days that he and his wife were there with them at the orphanage until the day they had to leave and go home without them waiting for the Russian government to process all the paperwork. They would come back to get them a few weeks to months later.

On that day when they had to leave, he heard his boys scream for the first time. He said it was the most “horrifyingly beautiful thing he had ever heard” because he knew that his boys knew that the Moores were their parents. This showed him what the ABBA cry of the Christian is all about.

Dr. Moore claims that we need to teach our churches what this primal scream of horror is all about if we are ever to grow ministries that care for orphans.

If the orphan care movement is going to be successful, it cannot be a movement. It has to bubble up out of real churches. It’s can’t be a special interest group competing with other groups. If it becomes a group movement like Homeschoolers, then it is not calling us to what the doctrine of adoption is about in the first place. We are not adopted because of what we have done based on deeds, how cool we are for adopting, or for what we have accomplished. We cannot get prideful and frustrated by those who don’t “get it” or share our vision of adoption care but rather we know that we are saved by grace and so we can extend grace to those who “don’t get it”.

Mission of adoption has to start with a unity of the church. If you don’t recognize the reality of the church as family, then how will they understand the adoptive family? The orphan care movement will explode when we no longer have to talk about white and black churches, or rich and poor churches. As a church, we have to understand ourselves as family not defined by blood lines or accomplishments. If we can start here then we’ll get physical adoption.

This is our identity that is crucified and resurrected. We have to understand this identity. As a Church, we need to scream as we ache for a fully made new identity that we begin to now model. Those who have been brought into the family of God start to look around at all the squaller we are in and we along with the creation say, "I know this is not all there is and oh God please bring it more fully revealed and actualized".

Adoption and orphan care is not about finding babies for infertile people. Adoption and orphan care is about saying to the powers of this age, "you can’t have them", because Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Based on Darwinian theory we shouldn’t love them, but we love them because of the Spirit of Christ.

We have to repent of not being broken over spiritual orphans, all people who are far from Christ. Many are marching towards a fatherless eternity and God wants us to scream for the Spirit for them.

Together For Adoption - The Exhibitors

The conference is giving the opportunity to many different exhibitors to interact with all the attendees of the conference. I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of them. Please take a moment to explore these various ministries below. They are all doing a very significant work and could use your help!



Nightlight Christian Adoptions
www.nightlight.org

Nightlight provides domestic, international, and embryo adoption services to families in all 50 states. In addition, we provide free counseling and support to women who are facing an unplanned pregnancy. Nightlight has been providing adoption and counseling services to the community since 1959. Since 1995, the agency has been under the direction of our current Executive Director, Ronald L. Stoddart.

Mission:
Our mission is to share God’s love by:
Helping children, both domestic and international, to find loving families
Assisting birthparents and genetic parents in making a wise and loving plan for their child’s future
Preparing families to be committed and effective parents to adoptive children






Bethany and Ryan Bomberger founded The Radiance Foundation (www.theradiancefoundation.org) to empower and inspire people to live a life of meaning by understanding their God-given Purpose. Through speaking engagements and multi-media presentations (broadcast/print/web/music) Ryan addresses issues spanning from his own incredible adoption story to pop culture and pluralism to exploring and debunking the propaganda of the abortion industry. Bethany's upcoming original book series, Sweet Radiance, focuses on issues for young children as its main character discovers her own self-worth and beauty through her whimsical adventures set to poetic rhyme. The Radiance Foundation illuminates Truth, which is what sets us all free. Be sure to visit the foundation's Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/radiancefoundation.






The Retail Orphan Initiative was created to leverage the strengths and resources of the $12 trillion global retail industry to provide real solutions for 143 Million orphaned children. Check out The Retail Orphan Initiative - www.retailroi.org








www.bethanychampions.org

Gary Ringger from Lifesong on Vimeo.

www.lifesongfororphans.org







Just Love Coffee Roasters specializes in roasting 100% Fair Trade Coffees to help adoptive families, foster families, adoption organzinations, churches, mission teams, and other benevolent organizations raise money by setting up customized online storefronts for each participant. Participants purchase nothing and Just Love handles everything from roasting the Fair Trade coffees to order to order fulfillment and customer service. All the participants have to do is customize their storefront which includes uploading an image and assigning it a unique URL. That's it. We send all participants a check for their proceeds ($5 per bag of coffee and t-shirts, $3 per tote bag, travel mug and hat, & $1 per coffee scoop) once a month. You can sign up now at http://www.justlovecoffee.com.





Websites:
www.orphanoutreach.org
www.missionbackpack.org

Mission Statement:
The mission of Orphan Outreach is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by ministering to orphans around the world by meeting spiritual, physical, emotional and educational needs.

Overview:
Orphan Outreach serves orphans and vulnerable children by developing and supporting programs that prepare them for a fulfilling independent Christian life in their community. Our goal is to work with the local Christian Churches to involve them in caring for these children through programs like; Christian schools, group homes, foster care, community-based services, and support of orphanages.

Orphan Outreach connects churches and individuals with these ministry opportunities to orphans around the world.

Orphan Outreach’s Mission Backpack collection drives provide orphans and children in desperate need with a new backpack and the message that they do not walk alone.

Current programs are in Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Russia with developing programs in several other countries.

We offer churches and individuals opportunities to partner with orphanages and Christian schools on short and long term projects and mission trips.






WORLD ORPHANS is committed to rescuing millions of ORPHANED AND ABANDONED CHILDREN, the strengthening of thousands of INDIGENOUS CHURCHES, and the impacting of hundreds of COMMUNITIES with the Gospel of Jesus Christ…through the COST-EFFECTIVE empowerment of CHURCH-BASED orphan prevention, rescue, care and transition programs in the LEAST REACHED AREAS of the world.

Together For Adoption - Session Five - Michael Easley

The title of Michael’s message was “Orphan Care And Jesus, The Great Servant of the Poor”

He began by giving us a tour of the word “orphan” from the Old and New Testaments. It occurs 41 times in the Old and 2 times in the New.

In the OT there is a trinity of three types of oppressed people. The orphan, the alien and the widow. These three types of people all are given by God as examples of those people who represent the weak and vulnerable. God’s people, Israel, are commanded to not oppress these people. Given their history in Egypt they should remember what it feels like to be weak and vulnerable and thus be very slow to mistreat anyone like that.

Michael said God is “freight train” serious about this. Hell is for those who would abuse the weak. Malachi 3:5 demonstrates this very well.

Michael reminded us that we were spiritual throw away children the moment we were conceived. We were dead in sin. If you don’t know Christ you are in more peril than an orphan who does.

He then gave us some examples of people who are living out these truths of the gospel in the area of adoption. One of them is the story of Katie. She moved to Uganda to care for the poor. She ended up staying there and adopting 14 children. She is only 21. You can read her blog here. This is a staggering story of selflessness, sacrifice, and blessing.

He then showed us the video that I posted a few days ago. If you did not watch it then I would encourage you to watch it now. May our churches be full of people who would do the same as this couple had done to them.

He ended his message by challenging those of us to quit talking about the financial obstacles as if God will not provide. If God cares for the weak as much as he says he does in his word, then would it not follow that he will provide for those who want to be his hand and feet in caring for these weak ones? He will provide the path and resources.

Click here for a bio of Michael Easley.

Together For Adoption - Session Four - Ed Stetzer

The title of Ed’s Message was “The Gospel, Social Justice, and The Missional Church”

Is it dangerous to talk about social justice in the church? Historically speaking, yes it is, but we have to continue to do so. Jesus inaugurated his ministry (Luke 4) by describing it as a ministry of restoration and recovery. Matthew 25’s account of the sheep and the goats reminds us that living out the implications of the Gospel, by serving the poor and helpless, is central to our very mission.

Ed was very clear to remind us that it’s not the Great Commandment vs. the Great Commission, but we often pit those two mandates against one another in that way.

It is interesting to note that Paul is far less vocal about social justice than Jesus was. There is a perceived tension here and historically churches have not resolved this very well. The solution is not in the dichotomy but in the robust engagement in both proclamation AND pursuit of societal transformation.

But... While we pursue societal transformation we need to be fully aware of the dangers. Church history should cause us to be cautious to not forget proclamation. This has been the trend. Many people in the past have sought to make the gospel “wider”. This has resulted in the Gospel being redefined as simply doing good deeds. This is clearly a death warrant for the church.

We need to also be careful though to not overreact to this trend. This has also occurred in recent church history. Some would say that the church only exists for gospel proclamation and not societal transformation. This would be a wrong assumption as well. We are clearly called to both.

Ed reminded us that the church is not the kingdom of God, but is a sign and instrument of the kingdom of God. People should be able to look at the church and say, “Oh! That is what the kingdom of God looks like! That is what God’s rule looks like in people lives!” The church is a tool in the hand of God to join Jesus in his mission.

His ending conclusion was a powerful reminder. We must be clear that social justice is close to the heart of God and should be close to ours as well. But don’t be naive to think that we are not susceptible to the same mistakes that people in the past made. When you speak of justice they will praise you, when you speak of Jesus they will resist you. Jesus is a stumbling block. We can be accepted by the world if we place the proclamation of Jesus as secondary. If every orphan is adopted and we lose the gospel we lose everything.

Together For Adoption - Session Three - Scott Roley

“Adoption and the Pursuit of Racial Reconciliation”

Scott gave a very passionate message about how we can see the Gospel in transracial adoption.

There is no bias in the adoptive work of Christ. Scott reminded us that we are one body in many different tribes. We can reflect the adoptive work of Christ (who is no respecter of race when he adopts lost and forgotten people into his family) when we adopt. He adopts from ALL tribes, tongues, and nations. He is creating a new family. There is one unity in this family and his new family in the New Heavens and New Earth will be gloriously diverse. We are pursuing and following our leader in doing this work now. We are acting out the prayer, “Let your Kingdom come, let your will be done” when we pursue transracial adoption.

After laying this theological foundation he took us through a tour of his life and experience with providing foster care for many different children over the years and adopting some of these children.

Scott told us many stories of how these truths worked out in his life. These stories were passionate and motivational. He closed with some bullet points that I feel are noteworthy:

• He has felt that for some races, transracial adoption is the equivalent of genocide. This is a lie of the enemy and should be fought against.
• He told us that by 2050 the ethic landscape of the whole United States will be completely different. Anglos will soon be a minority. Are we ready for this? Are Christians willing to lead out in modeling grace and unity with other races?
• We holler about stopping abortion, but we have to be consistently pro-life from the womb to the tomb. Let’s be a community that is known for caring for orphans. That is our calling.

Go to www.scottroley.com

Visit Scott on Facebook

Together For Adoption - Session Two - Scotty Smith

A verbal preview of his message:



The title of Scotty's message was, "The Freedom of Adoption".

His three main points were very foundation for our understanding of spiritual adoption.

1. Freedom of legal rights - Adoption secures us in a state of objective blessings

Through the use of Gal. 4:4-7 and Col. 1:12-13, Scotty demonstrated for us the greatness and glory of our legal standing, in Christ, as justified. These are objective blessings that are true about us whether we feel them or not. We have an eternal inheritance that will be made manifest in the New Heavens and the New Earth. These are huge cosmic truths that should be mediated upon over and over again. We no longer relate to God as our judge, but as our Father. This is a huge difference. This quote was notable, "Do you know that by God’s bidding, when you look in your judge’s face you find a savior there?" We can't add to this good news. Not even by adopting 17 kids. You can't add to the finished work of Christ. It's a done deal. Accept it. Believe it. Place your trust and faith in it.

2. Freedom of personal delights - Adoption calls us into a realm of subjective wonder.

These truths should cause our hearts to spring forth with a personal experience of awe, wonder, and delight. What a blessing it is to know that Jesus said he would not "leave us as orphans" (John 14:18). We like to operate with God as if we are Fatherless, but through repeated meditation upon the truths of point #1 above, over time, our subjective experience of joy in the Gospel will consistently increase.

3. Freedom of the missional life

With Romans 8:18-25 in mind, Scotty reminded us that one day God is going to finish his story. One day orphans will be orphans no more. We won't even need the word "orphan" anymore. Now we get to work with God in his mission. This is not a burden, but a blessing to be entered into. Jesus' work for us signs us on for a new job. Not to earn anything, but to be blessed to share in the work of making things right again.

The Gospel will motivate us to live sacrificially. We just have to get the Gospel. We have to let the Gospel propel us forward. We are living God’ story to his glory.