A central conviction underlying the work of the Christian Alliance for Orphans is that Christians can’t answer God’s call to care for the fatherless via formal organizations alone.  Rather, meeting the deepest needs of an orphaned boy or girl requires the personal, wholehearted involvement of caring believers:  as foster parents and mentors, adoptive families and engaged supporters of orphan care ministry.  Just as important, this personal involvement isn’t the role of an isolated family here and there acting alone, but ideally will happen as part of communities in local churches that walk this journey together, supporting, encouraging and enabling each other.

An article last week by our good friend Dan Cruver on www.edstetzer.com does an excellent job explaining why this vision isn’t the sole territory of the large, well-resourced church.  Rather, he explains that often it is the small church that embraces orphan ministry in the fullest manner possible:  not seeing it merely as “one more good cause” but as a core aspect of the church’s character, representing not only a ministry of mercy, but also a vital force for discipleship and proclamation of the Good News.

Read the whole article here.  And, if you haven’t already, make sure to register for Together for Adoption’s upcoming conference in Austin.

I spent the last two days in Louisville along with my trusted Alliance co-laborer, Elizabeth Wiebe, laying groundwork for Summit VII (May 11-13, 2011).  We came away full up with enthusiasm and certain there could not be a better location for next year’s Summit.

Louisville is a beautiful city and will be in top shape in mid-Spring a week after the Kentucky Derby (thankfully minus the crowds.)  Meanwhile, the facilities at Southeast Christian Church are nothing short of amazing.  The area is also easily accessible by road from countless southern and mid-western cities, and via air as well.

Yet there’s one factor far more compelling than any of the others.  Henry Blackaby urges, “Look for where God is working and join Him there.”  In orphan care, the Louisville region certainly fits that description.  Churches across the city and surrounding areas are at the forefront of the stirring that’s happening all across the country as Christians rise to God’s call to “defend the fatherless.”  The community is alive with energy for this work, from huge congregations like Southeast Christian Church and Highview Baptist, to an expansive network of small churches across southern Indiana, to the region-wide Orphan Care Alliance, to all that Russell Moore is doing out of SBTS.

Best of all, these churches and many others are taking a personal ownership of Summit VII.  It will not only be an event of national reach and global impact.  It will also be a conference truly rooted in the local church.  We’re excited to pair this local team with the volunteers that step forward from around the country to make Summit all it can be.

Elizabeth and I are now headed back to our respective offices on our respective coasts (DC and CA), but we leave refreshed by the time with such remarkable friends, new and old.  Just as much, we’re more excited than ever by the glimpses of all that God is doing in the area already, and by all that will happen when we (and you!) get to join Him there next May!

Paul Pennington at Family Life’s Hope for Orphans shared this great news with us about stories and interviews recorded at Summit VI in Minneapolis:

Monday, August 30^th through Friday, September 3^rd, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman will be guests on FamilyLife Today.  As many of you know, the Chapmans adopted three girls from China and several years ago began a ministry, now called Show Hope.  As many of you also know, the Chapmans lost their precious daughter, Maria Sue, in a tragic accident in May 2008.

In addition to the Chapman shows next week, FamilyLife Today will also be featuring several orphan ministry leaders in a two-part series in mid-September.  Hope for Orphans has had the privilege of helping hundreds of churches start orphans ministries over the past seven years.  These two broadcasts will feature some of our special friends who have been pioneers in this movement, including, on September 16^th, Rocky Gill, Founder of Hope for 100 at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, TX, Elizabeth Styffe, Director of both the HIV and Orphan Care Initiatives at Saddleback Church (where Rick Warren is the Senior Pastor) in Lake Forest, CA, and Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans and former Director of President George W. Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative.  On September 17^th, guests include three local church orphans ministry leaders:  Beau Fournet of Watermark Church in Dallas, TX, Jodi Lewis of Kentwood Community Church in Kentwood, MI, and Jill Toth of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.  Please make sure you tune in on both dates and hear what God is doing through churches all across the nation to bring His love to the fatherless.

The Cry of the Orphan partners (Focus on the Family, Show Hope, and Hope for Orphans) are excited about our special, one-hour, pre-recorded program called Answer the Cry which was produced to support this year’s Orphan Sunday, scheduled for November 7^th, 2010.  Come back to Hope for Orphans in September for the soon-to-be announced details on how you can use this program for your church or Bible Study via DVD or live streaming.  The program features Francis and Lisa Chan, Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman, Mark Shultz, and interviews with Hope for Orphans’ own Paul and Robin Pennington, as well as Kelly and John Rosati of Focus on the Family.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of being interviewed by a friend, Ken Coleman, the voice of the highly popular Catalyst podcast series.  Catalyst is a potent influencer of young pastors and other leaders, so it’s been exciting to see how Ken and other Catalyst leaders are using their platform to challenge Christian leaders to consider adoption and other ways of caring for orphans.  Ken asked great questions as an interviewer—perhaps in part because he’s an adoptive father himself.  Hear the Alliance segment of the podcast here.

Last month marked the half-year anniversary since Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake. Aside from the small uptick in coverage at the milestone, the eyes of the world have largely turned elsewhere: oil leaks, soccer matches, November elections. Of course, this was all but inevitable. The 24-hour news cycle is fueled by “new,” and tales of ongoing struggle, grinding poverty, and a less-than-hoped-for rebuilding are anything but new.

There’s certainly good reason for frustration at the reality every news programmer knows all too well: news consumers rarely remain interested in other people’s tragedy for more than a few months, at most. Such is human nature, as much a testimony to evil in our world as Haiti’s earthquake itself. The truth is, if we tried to sustain concern for every tragedy we’ve ever seen on TV, we’d melt like cheese on a stovetop. So, as the media’s conveyor belt of heartbreaking stories rolls on, we are left making uneasy peace with an emotional journey that looks like an EKG: long stretches of numbed apathy spiked by occasional moments of empathetic sorrow. Is this really the best way to live?

Read the full article on Cardus online.

One of the slipperiest elements of orphan advocacy is the statistics often quoted to describe the number of orphans worldwide.

These often-varying estimates are sometimes misstated and frequently misapplied. For example, the various global estimates (143 M, 145 M, 163 M, etc) are often quoted in ways that imply that all of these children have no living parents.  It’s hard not to make that mistake, since most people typically think of an “orphan” as a child that has lost both parents.  But since global orphan estimates include children who’ve lost either one or both parents, roughly 90 percent of children classified as “orphans” have one living parent.  This does not mean that these children are not highly vulnerable, but it does mean that the best response to their needs is often not adoption or some form of orphan home, but helping the family remain intact or reunite.

In recent years, the most frequently quoted numbers have been UNICEF estimates.  However, the data used to produce UNICEF’s most recent estimate (145 million) is three years old.  Previous UNICEF estimates also include the frequently quoted 143 million figure.

The most recent and, according to many experts, most accurate numbers we have at this point are those delivered in a U.S. government report from late 2009.   These numbers are expected to be updated late this year.  This report projects:

• Total global orphan estimates for 2008 are 163 million (Children having lost one or both parents).
• Of these, an estimated 55.3 million have lost a mother and 126 million have lost a father.
• An estimated 18.3 million children have lost both parents.

In addition to the fact that such statistics are often misquoted or misunderstood, the simple truth is that statistics rarely motivate to action.  If anything, they create a paralyzing sense of “what can one person do?”  (See this prior blog posts on the shortcomings of orphan statistics).  So, while it certainly is important to have a good grasp of the numbers and what they actually mean, it is vital that advocates emphasize the most important statistic of all:  it only takes one caring individual to transform the life of an orphan.

Finally, Christians also need to understand that the biblical concept of “orphans” or “the fatherless” found throughout Scripture is a category that includes much more than just the boy or girl who has lost both parents.  Rather, it describes the child that faces the world without provider or protector.  Some children who fit this description have one living parent.  In some cases, such children may even have two living parents who’ve abandoned or abused them, or simply have no capacity to care for them.  No statistical analysis will ever perfectly capture the global number of children who fit in this category, but that need be of little concern.  Ultimately, God’s call is to defend the defenseless child—whatever the particulars of her situation may be.

Wednesday’s blog post noted the shortcomings of this week’s NY Times article on adoptions from Haiti.  That same article, however, also contained one small line of no small note for Christians who desire to see Christians again be known as a people who live out a sacrificial, Christ-honoring care for orphans.   Noting the involvement of churches in response to Haiti’s orphan crisis, the article described matter-of-factly, “Evangelical Christian churches, which have increasingly taken up orphan care as a tenet of their faith…”

That line wasn’t a compliment or an analysis, just a fact.    What it says is that the New York Times—a publication that often proves to be as unaware of what’s happening in American Christianity as any—is beginning to recognize what many of us have seen for quite some time:  Christians across America are once again choosing to mirror God’s heart in caring for orphans in their distress.

When we do, even those most prone to be critics take notice.

New adoption statistics from Alliance member Bethany Christian Service brought cheers from orphan advocates this week.  As reported by Bethany and covered in the Christian Post, January to June 2010 was Bethany’s “highest-ever increase in adoption placements for a half-year period.”

Bethany Christian Services reported that the combined international and domestic adoption placement increased 26 percent over the six-month period of January to June compared to the same time period in 2009.

Intercountry adoption inquiries were ahead by over 5,000 requests the first half of this year compared to 2009, totaling an unprecedented 10,567. Meanwhile, there were 8,037 domestic infant adoption inquiries, which is also higher than in 2009.

Alongside it’s excellent work in facilitating adoptions, Bethany is also providing remarkable leadership on other fronts as well—serving children that will never be adopted, and championing the “cause of the fatherless” in ways that benefit other organizations and expand Christian engagement in all forms of orphan ministry.  Internationally, this includes in-country care for orphans in more than 12 countries.  Domestically, Bethany is also helping expand the cutting-edge “Safe Families” foster care alternative beyond Illinois, where it has proven remarkably successful, to other parts of the country.   Bethany has also worked with the SBC to establish an innovative new fund providing scholarships to help SBC pastors adopt.

It’s thrilling to see organizations like Bethany acting out a vision that’s larger than their own organization alone.  Again and again, I’ve seen Bethany’s leaders work behind the scenes—in ways that will likely never be noticed or praised—simply to help advance the cause of the orphan and God’s kingdom.   Having friends and co-laborers like that makes work with the Christian Alliance for Orphans a privilege like none other.

It’s a beautiful thing.  For Christians who yearn to see the Church grow impassioned for the Gospel and the orphan, the newly-arrived July edition of Christianity Today is little short of thrilling.  The cover declares, Abba Changes Everything:  Why every Christian is called to rescue orphans. Inside, an excellent introduction framing the magazine is headlined, “Adoption is Everywhere.  Even God is into it.”

That the leading print voice of evangelicalism in America would choose to make orphan care and adoption the center of its July magazine underscores what many of us already knew:  God is stirring His people to again be known as those who “defend the cause of the fatherless” (Is 1:17).

Page 18 begins a tremendous article by Russell Moore, which gave the magazine its cover language, “Abba Changes Everything.”  I’ve heard Dr. Moore articulate this message from the podium, via radio and over the dinner table, but I must admit I felt my heart expand against my ribcage as I read this fresh expression.  Beautiful and heartbreaking; daunting and inspiring; and profoundly rooted in the ultimate reason for it all:  the Father-love of our God revealed through the Gospel.

Page 23 starts the cover story, “Coming Alongside Parents:  Churches are getting real about adoption’s challenges—and helping families after the child arrives.”  It shares the experience of Summit VI and highlights the robust growth of orphan ministry within churches.  Writes author Carla Barnhill, “…[T]he Summit drew more than 1,200 attendees, most of them ministering to orphans through their home churches.  Watching those gathered, I knew this was not my parent’s generation.”

Finally, page 52 carries the section “My Top 5 Books on Orphan Care” that I had the opportunity to provide:   Russell Moore’s Adopted for Life, Dr. Karyn Purvis’ The Connected Child; Melissa Fay Greene’s There is No Me Without You; Tom Davis’ Fields of the Fatherless, and Doug Sauder’s The One Factor.  (Several others came to mind after I’d submitted that I wish I’d included as well, but five was the limit).

If you can, pick up a copy of CT from the newsstand today.  If not, all these articles will come available online over the month ahead, and we’ll post them on the Alliance blog as they do.  In the meantime, advocates of the orphan care take heart:  God continues to build both passion and action in His Church for these children He so deeply loves.

Unwanted infants in ancient Rome were often disposed of via the practice of “exposing.” Whether undesirable because it was malformed, female or simply inconvenient, the child would be left alone, outside the city walls, without defense before glaring sun, icy winds or roving animals.

In 374 AD, the Christian emperor Valentinian banned the practice. But for centuries prior, a marginalized group gained a reputation for rescuing these children: Christians. The early church was known, even among many who despised it, as a people who defended the orphan. Believers went outside the city to find infants abandoned there, taking them in, and often raising them as their own. This witness was one powerful factor in the vibrant life and growth of Christianity in its first 300 years, and at other high points in history as well. It can be that way again…

Read the full article here.