By Johnston Moore and Scott Williams
As we think about the social problems affecting American families and particularly children, we usually focus on divorce, out of wedlock births, absent fathers, and the like. Children in these situations grow up disadvantaged by their family situations. But what about the children who don't even have the blessing of a family?
More than half a million children are currently in foster care in the U.S. Of those, 125,000 boys and girls are waiting to be adopted, but only 50,000 will find an adoptive home this year. Approximately 20,000 children age out of the foster care system each year without any permanent connections—no mom, no dad, no family to call their own.
So who is listening? It's not that there's a lack of families fit to adopt. Over one in three Americans have considered adopting, but fewer than one in fifty actually follow through. Why so few?
The cry for homes for our nation’s most vulnerable children finds itself competing with a barrage of messages from our culture that promote a different message: Look out for number one. Reduce your stress. Be as comfortable as you can possibly be. Get what you can, while you can.
In the face of such messages, we hear the simple words of Jesus, telling us to give our lives away for the sake of others. It is impossible to deny that throughout Scripture, God makes His case for biblical hospitality—opening one’s home and life to others—abundantly clear. He cares for those on the margins of society (including the fatherless, or orphans), and He expects His people to do the same.
Biblical hospitality is a notion that was crucial to the growth and witness of the early church, but has been largely lost in today’s world when the concept of hospitality is reduced to Martha Stewart-style dinner parties thrown for those who will make us feel better about ourselves through association.
We know that we are to care for widows, orphans, and strangers—we’ve heard it before, maybe hundreds, even thousands of times. The early church didn’t just hear it, though. They lived it…and as a result, they impacted the world around them in incredible ways for the sake of the Gospel. In fact, the early church was known for taking in and sharing what little they had with those who had no one, and nothing, to call their own.
The culture we're living in is, in many ways, similar to the fourth century Roman Empire. Julian, who served as Emperor from 361 to 363 AD, complained to his people about the spread of Christianity, attributing it in large part to the hospitality shown by Christians to strangers, not just their own, but to non-Christians as well. He even issued an order in an effort to persuade his people to imitate Christians’ “benevolence toward strangers.” His words to his people were strong and pointed—“It is disgraceful that when … the impious Galileans (Christians) support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men should see how our people lack aid from us.”
In a nation of approximately 18 million evangelical Christian adults (according to Barna), there are 125,000 children in the United States foster care system that are waiting for adoptive families. If you do the math, that’s 144 evangelical Christian adults for every child in our country that needs a home.
If the church would take care of the 125,000 waiting children in foster care, imagine the impact it would have on our society. Imagine the ripple effect on churches around the world as they reach out to the 130 million plus orphans across our globe. Imagine God’s people showing a hurting world what it means to be followers of Jesus…and imagine the world watching in awe, and giving the glory to God.
November is National Adoption Month and Christian leaders, media outlets, and child advocates are trumpeting the need for adoptive homes for the nation’s approximately 125,000 foster children that are currently waiting for adoptive families, as well as the millions of other children around our globe who so desperately need moms and dads of their own.
To find out more about the need and how you can help meet that need, consider these outstanding resources:
Stumble It!
