Check out my article on “Small Churches Doing Orphan Care” over at EdStetzer.com. Here’s an excerpt:
I have actually found that smaller churches are often more effective in caring for orphans before a watching world than larger churches are. In larger churches orphan care can simply become one ministry among many, many others. But in smaller [...]

Toby Sumpter wrote a very helpful post about Walter Brueggemann’s insight into the connection between nurturing our children and defending the fatherless. Here’s the Brueggemann quotation that Toby writes about:
“The ultimate content of family nurture in this tradition is in order that our own children in faith have front and center in their vision the [...]

Our good friends at World Orphans gave me the opportunity to put together a brief document that introduces the theology of adoption. It will be used as part of their equipping of national pastors in Kenya and Ethiopia to start. Click on the image below to read or download this two-page article.

This morning at breakfast, my children got into a dispute about who should get to pray first.  I am happy to report that it didn’t escalate into a physical altercation.  I can see it now – “Where did that scratch come from?”
“Oh, just praying at breakfast.”
Well, in an effort to resolve the issue, I pointed [...]

While reading Seth Godin’s most recent blog post, “The power of sync,” I thought about its relevance to our upcoming national conference. Why have over 1,000 people gather together to consider the gospel, the church, and the global orphan crisis? Because nothing creates the power of sync like the power of God — the Gospel!
Check [...]

The Gospel is the answer to the global orphan crisis, and the Church is the people through whom the answer is applied. In His great wisdom God has called the Church to care for the orphan and the widow (James 1:27), but without the Gospel there is no empowerment for the church to do what [...]

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As of late, I’ve tried to begin each day by asking two questions: (1) Who is Jesus? and (2) Who am I in relationship with him? Asking those two questions helps me begin each day with Jesus at the center and not myself—not my problems, struggles, or even successes. If Jesus [...]

I received an email many months ago from a couple that decided to move to Africa in order to bring their children home. So difficult had the adoption process become that they realized that the only way to bring their children home was move to Africa—and move they did! What in the world motivated this [...]

In the Apostle Paul’s day, when people heard the word adoption, their thoughts usually moved horizontally, not vertically. Since it was a word that came from the world of law, people usually thought about the Roman or Greek practices of adoption. Their thoughts usually moved along a horizontal plane and not a vertical one. But [...]

Tom Davis:
The July edition of Christianity Today is focused on the needs of orphans around the world. It’s about time! The lead article is written by Dr. Russell Moore entitled, “Abba Changes Everything – Why Every Christian is Called to Rescue Orphans.”
A special thanks to my friend, Jedd Medifind who wrote this piece on Christian [...]

The title of this post probably should have read, “Adoption Doesn’t Just Mean Adoption.” But I thought I’d be more provocative. So why use a provocative title?
Biblically speaking, adoption is about more than just child-placement. As I recently wrote, the Greek word for adoption is a compound of the word “son” and the word “to [...]

What’s theology have to do with conference exhibitors? Together for Adoption’s conference ministry is intentionally and carefully centered upon theology. Since theology is a necessary consideration of not only facts about our Triune God but also our grace-granted participation in the mutual knowing and loving of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then a theology-centered [...]