Churches Are Waking Up
A little boy curled up asleep on the floor of an office cubicle, his only pillow a balled-up coat. That’s what changed everything for Bob Coy, pastor of the largest church in Florida. Reading the paper one Sunday morning, he came across this intriguing picture, and he assumed that it was an international report. Bob was shocked when he realized this child lived in his own city of Fort Lauderdale. The boy had been taken into foster care the night before, and there was no home available for him. As a result, he had to sleep in the social worker’s office.
Then Bob remembered the voice of the “Pint-Sized Prophet,” as he calls her—a little lady in his congregation who had been pestering him for years about getting involved with the foster care system. Bob always thought that it was too messy and too political. He did not want anything to do with government-controlled childcare. He had always taken pride in this well-thought-out answer … until now.
As he grabbed his suit coat and headed to church, Bob was struck by the weight of what he had read: A child in his own community was homeless. Picking up the paper again later, Bob began to really feel convicted that his church was missing something right under their noses. They had overlooked something critical—something that Jesus cared about.
Pastor Bob began to take a stand for vulnerable children. It wasn’t popular. It wasn’t easy. But it was right. He was sure of it. It caused quite a bit of a rift when he shared his story with the congregation and announced that the church would be putting the new school building project on hold until something could be put in motion to take care of these children.
Soon, 4KIDS of South Florida was born, a child welfare agency dedicated to meeting the needs of foster children. Their website reads:
It usually surprises people when they hear it for the first time. We have an orphan problem in America. In our country, the most affluent in the world, we have half a million orphans—children living on the streets, in group homes and in foster care. South Florida is no exception: Every day, seven kids in South Florida are removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. 4KIDS’ Vision, “A Home For Every Child in Crisis,” speaks to the solvable nature of the problem. It’s that simple. If we find a home for a child in crisis, that child finds HOPE. Over 14 years, we’ve seen this proven again and again though a partnership of committed churches, corporations, foundations and individuals. Working collectively, we are making a difference one child at a time, and fulfilling our Mission of “Providing Hope … For Kids in Crisis.”
4KIDS provides crisis support through SafePlace, a temporary location for children who are removed from unsafe home environments. SafePlace is staffed by Christian workers and volunteers from participating churches who provide love and care to kids in crisis. In 2011, more than 800 foster kids found a haven in SafePlace.
In situations where Child Protective Services determines it is not safe for children to return home, 4KIDS works to place children in foster families recruited from local churches. 4KIDS also recruits and trains families to become adoptive parents for foster children who are available for adoption.
Today more than 100 churches participate in 4KIDS, an impact far greater than Pastor Bob could have ever accomplished through just building another building. You see, maybe it is not that churches are dreaming too big with our multiple campuses and high-tech worship services. I daresay we are dreaming too small. We are settling for putting on a show while neglecting the heart of true religion.
When my “orphan conversion” happened in 2005 with James’s adoption, I, like Pastor Bob, began to realize the biblical mandate to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. At a luncheon where Steven Curtis Chapman spoke, God began to solidify his calling on my life to challenge the church to care for orphans. And I wanted my church to do something. So, like any good pastor, I got online and decided to order an orphan care ministry kit. I would order the kit, copy the bulletin insert and go from there. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any such kit. I found ministry kits to help churches start a divorce care ministry, a premarital counseling ministry, a singles’ ministry, a spiritual seekers’ ministry, a quilting ministry and even a rodeo ministry.
But Google’s results were surprisingly short when it came to ministry tools for orphan care, adoption or foster care. All I found was sponsorship information for organizations like Compassion, World Vision and World Help. And while that was all well and good, I was convicted to do more than write a check. Needless to say, I was thrilled to get my hands on a prerelease copy of Starting an Orphan Ministry in Your Church by Paul Pennington and Jason Weber at Hope for Orphans.
Today, it’s a whole different story. You can go online right now and order an orphan care ministry kit. You can sign up to attend national conferences like The Orphan Summit or Together for Adoption. You can download multiple resources about how your church can support adoption and foster care. Ministries to orphaned and vulnerable children are sprouting up, not just at Pastor Bob’s church but also in many other places around the country. Many Christian families are stepping forward to become foster parents or to adopt. The church is waking up to the biblical mandate to care for orphaned and vulnerable children. “Adoption steps to the front lines of cultural wars,” Christianity Today asserted in January 2010. It’s about time. Orphan care is close to the heart of God, and it should be to us, his followers.
These days, it’s becoming “cool” in evangelical circles to be involved in orphan care. As an adoptive father myself, I couldn’t be more thrilled. But as excited as I am to see the church mobilized, I have a grave fear: Orphan care may quickly become evangelical America’s latest religious fad. Let’s not make it just another hip thing to do, another box on the checklist of what it means to be a good Christian, another bumper sticker or another wristband.
Many churches view orphan care as a “project,” but biblically, the church is the agent God has set in place for orphan care. As we seek to take seriously God’s command to care for orphaned and vulnerable children, let us not fall prey to just buying the T-shirt and joining the movement. We need to make sure that orphan care and adoption are woven into the very DNA and fabric of our churches.
As with any step of obedience, there are new challenges. Adoptions are definitely not all “roses and sunshine.” Well-meaning adoptive parents who lack the support of their church community can get to the point of feeling so overwhelmed, discouraged and alone that they throw in the towel. One family went so far as to place their adopted child on a plane with a one-way ticket back to Russia. In a few extreme cases, parents have even murdered their adopted children. Let’s not let it come to that.
Churches are now facing issues that they never thought they would have to face. But we cannot turn a blind eye to these challenges or ignore these desperate needs. We must realize that signing the adoption papers is not the end of the journey; it’s just the beginning. Adoptive and foster care families are taking a bold step of faith, but they cannot do it alone.
