We moved the following five breakout sessions to the conference auditorium. Registration for each of them has been reopened. If you have already registered for the conference but were not able to sign up for any of these, you may now do so by editing your conference registration.
Breakout Session 1 (10:30 – 11:30am, Friday):
Empowered to Connect Session 1 (Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael and Amy Monroe) – Track #3
Breakout Session 2 (1:30 – 2:30pm, Friday):
Empowered to Connect Session 2 (Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael and Amy Monroe) – Track #3
Breakout Session 3 (4:00 – 5:00pm, Friday):
Adopting Outside Your Skin Color: A Gospel-Centered Look at Transracial Adoption (Dan Cruver, Together for Adoption) – Track #5
Breakout Session 4 (1:15 – 2:15pm, Saturday):
International Adoption (Herbie Newall, Lifeline Children’s Services) – Track #9
Breakout Session 5 (2:30 – 3:30pm):
Digging Deeper into the Theology of Adoption for the Sake of Orphans (Dan Cruver and Jason Kovacs) – non-track
Here are other breakouts that have been reopened as well. These breakouts will likely reach seating capacity quickly, though.
Breakout Session 1 (10:30 – 11:30am, Friday):
A Different Kind of Picture (Esther Havens) – Track #7
Breakout Session 2 (1:30 – 2:30pm, Friday):
Leading Your Family through the Adoption Adventure (John Bryson, Fellowship Memphis – John serves alongside Bryan Loritts) – Track #5
Funding Your Adoption (Jason Kovacs, The ABBA Fund) – Track #9
Breakout Session 3 (4:00 – 5:00pm, Friday):
Empowered to Connect (Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael and Amy Monroe) – Track #3
Domestic Adoption (Cindy Seay, NewLife Adoption) – Track #9
Adoption and Evangelism: Telling your family’s story in a way that communicates the gospel (Trevor Atwood, College Pastor at The Summit Church, Durham, NC). When we understand adoption as God’s idea, not our own, we recognize that it should be saying something primarily about Him, not us. This session would help those who have adopted or are in the process of adopting to bring out gospel truths as they tell their story of adoption to friends, families, or perfect strangers. – non-track
Embryo Adoption and the Protection of Life (Laura Godwin, Nightlight Christian Adoptions) – non-track
Breakout Session 4 (1:15 – 2:15pm, Saturday):
Overcoming Fears & Obstacles to Adoption (Panel Discussion) – Track #5
Empowered to Connect (Dr. Karyn Purvis) – Track #3
How to Mobilize Your Small Group for the Orphan (Todd and Olivia Engstrom, Todd is Pastor of Missional Community, The Austin Stone Community Church) – Track #4
Breakout Session 5 (2:30 – 3:30pm):
Orphan Care and Unreached Peoples (Joey Shaw, Minister of International Mission, The Austin Stone Community Church) – Track #4
Join Woodlands Point Community Church’s group of 27 people and many other church groups who will be attending our upcoming conference in Austin, TX. You won’t find a better opportunity for a group from your church to consider together “The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis.”
Our church discount is $69 per person for groups of 6 or more. Please contact brian.morgan@TogetherforAdoption.org for instructions on how to get our church group discount. Join us!
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 churches orphan care is much more easily seen as an essential part of who they are and what they do. It’s not as easily obscured by a forest of other ministries. As a result, smaller churches have the opportunity to lead the way by more visibly demonstrating that orphan care is not a missional add-on.
There is just one week left to register for our National Conference’s early bird rate of $79. Over 500 people have already registered! So, if you plan on attending, don’t miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of our early bird rate.
Our breakout sessions are filling up quickly as well. Quite a few of them already have over 100 signed up to attend. If you plan on attending the conference, here are some breakouts that you should check out:
A Different Kind of Picture (Esther Havens). How easy is it to get wrapped up in a person’s circumstance and forget to engage in their story? Images have the capability to convey meaning, compel thought and create movement. In this session, we will discuss Humanitarian Photography and how we can be a voice for those who need to be heard. ~Session 1 (Oct. 1, 10:30 – 11:30 am)
Your Church and the Foster Child (Todd Nighswonger – as Executive Pastor at Cornerstone Church, Todd has enjoyed the privilege of serving alongside Francis Chan) ~Session 1 (Oct. 1, 10:30 – 11:30 am)
Honoring First Families (Troy and Tara Livesay). Whether you are simply considering adoption or have been an adoptive parent for many years, this session will help you relate to your child’s first family in healthy ways. We’ll examine positive language about birth-families and ways to build your child’s security as a member in your family. their first family, and God’s family. ~Session 3 (Oct. 1: from 4:00 – 5:00 pm)
Embryo Adoption and the Protection of Life (Laura Godwin, Nightlight Christian Adoptions). There are more than 500,000 embryos in storage. What is their future? Well, there are four options for these embryos: indefinite cryopreservation; objects of research resulting in destruction; destruction; or life. As we consider adoption, some will be called to adopt newborns, some to adopt children in orphanages around the world, and some to adopt waiting embryos. All life is precious in God’s eyes. Whatever our individual emphasis may be, let us stand together in protecting and preserving all life. If you are starting the adoption journey, you may want to consider your role in giving life to one of these embryos. Your adoption will just start earlier than most and you will get to experience pregnancy and the birth of your newborn infant. ~Session 3 (Oct. 1: from 4:00 – 5:00 pm)
How to help 100 orphans for the cost of 1 (Jim Ross, VisionTrust). This session will take a look at the reality of the current global orphan situation, what the statistics mean, and especially what they don’t mean. The session will conclude with practical examples of how large numbers of orphans have been cared for in both extremely life changing AND cost effective ways around the world. ~Session 3 (Oct. 1: from 4:00 – 5:00 pm)
Orphan Sunday: Grow Commitment to Orphans in Your Church and Community (Christian Alliance for Orphans). November 7, 2010 is Orphan Sunday. Churches, community groups, pastors, lay-leaders, and students across the country will harness this day to shine a spotlight on God’s mandate to care for the orphans, and what we can do in response. Locally-led events range from sermons and Sunday School classes to concerts, fundraisers and prayer gatherings. Taken together, hundreds of simple grassroots events will echo nationwide. How can you seize the opportunities presented byOrphan Sunday? Learn how people across the country are using this day to expand energy and engagement in their churches and organizations on behalf of orphans, and how the Christian Alliance for Orphans can help you develop yourown local activities. ~Session 4 (Oct. 2, 1:15 – 2:15 pm)
Digging Deeper into the Theology of Adoption for the Sake of Orphans (Dan Cruver and Jason Kovacs). There is much more to the theology of adoption than initially meets the eye. Join us as we explore the edges of some of the vast vistas of Scripture’s teaching on adoption and their implications for mobilizing the church for orphan care. ~Session 5 (Oct. 2: from 2:30 – 3:30 pm)
Night and Day Prayer for Justice (Randy and Kelsey Bohlender, The Zoe Foundation and International House of Prayer). How prayer and worship can impact a church’s effectiveness in justice ministry. ~Session 5 (Oct. 2: from 2:30 – 3:30 pm)
Encouragement to Keep-On-Keeping-On (Johnny Carr, Director of Church Partnerships forBethany Christian Services). Many people who have started Orphan Care and Adoption Ministries in their churches are burned out and discouraged. We will look at what Scripture has to say about casting your net one more time. ~Session 5 (Oct. 2: from 2:30 – 3:30 pm)
Mini-Breakout Track (only sessions 4-5) – Orphan Care Partnerships: Church-to-Church and Church-to-Community (Food for the Hungry)
Session 4 (October 2, 1:15 – 2:15 pm) James 1:27 in Full: Orphans, Widows, and Defacto Orphans – a groundbreaking, multi-year partnership between churches in Austin and a community in Ethiopia. Learn how one church has launched a $700,000 community-to-community partnership (in conjunction with 17 indigenous churches and Food for the Hungry International) to serve as “virtual foster parents” for 300 orphans living alone, to serve dying widows and their defacto orphans, and to promote indigenous adoption. Pre-read the partnership’s blog at www.zewayupdate.blogspot.com
Session 5 (October 2, 2:30 – 3:30 pm) Orphan Care as True Evangelism – a multi-year orphan care partnership has become a model for evangelism and spreading the Gospel in a predominantly Muslim area of Ethiopia. Learn how meeting the physical, emotional, and intellectual needs of orphans can lead to spiritual transformation, for the orphans and those around them. From mud hut painting, to grief and loss support groups, to building libraries, see the undefiled and pure religion of caring for orphans can bring people to Christ through.
[Guest post by Johnny Carr, National Director of Church Partnerships for Bethany Christian Services]
I love to tell our adoption story when I preach. During the sermon, I show pictures taken within the first few hours of James meeting us. One shows me and James laughing heartily together. Another shows him taking a nap with his new mom. One shows him and his new brother wrestling on the bed, while another has him walking hand-in-hand with his new older brother and sister. We had much the same experience with our daughter Xiaoli’s adoption.
However, what the pictures do not show is the hurt, confusion, and emotional stress our adopted children endured. James was four years old when we adopted him, and Xiaoli was six. They were both old enough to understand that something major was happening but, since they are deaf, they had no way to understand adoption.
Even for the children who do have language, how do you describe adoption? How do you fight the rumors that circulate in the orphanages about what happens to adopted children? How do you prepare them for a family who might not look like them, smell like them, act like them, or use the same language? Every adoption story is accompanied by a story of grief and loss.
With that in mind, consider this: I think we should be very careful if we are trying to create a one-to-one relationship between our spiritual salvation and the earthly adoption of a child. Adoption is only one aspect of a person being born again.
Joel Beeke, author of Heirs with Christ: The Puritans on Adoption, writes that it is important to know that adoption is not regeneration, justification, or sanctification. If you have been regenerated, then you are justified, sanctified, and adopted. If you have been adopted, then you are regenerated, justified, and sanctified. You can’t have one without the other, but each plays a different role within the salvation experience.
When we are adopted into God’s family, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us. This is where the one-to-one relationship breaks down. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to know the mind of Christ through our salvation (1 Cor. 2:10-16). We are made into a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). When children are adopted, they receive a new family and the prospect for a new life, but they are not a new creation.
Adoption does not heal a child’s past. People often say that my adopted children are “lucky” to have been adopted. I know what they are trying to communicate, but they are not grasping the totality of what my children have lived through.
Recently I read an article by Catherine Olian, writer and former producer of 60 Minutes. This is part of what she wrote about her daughter who was adopted from Ukraine:
Outside our home, she behaved herself and charmed most everyone. She did take exception when adults told her she was “lucky”. In her blossoming English she would unhesitatingly respond, “Did you lose your first brother and sister? Did you grow up cold and hungry? Did you live two lives, in two different countries? No? Then you must be the lucky one.” I’ve yet to see anyone disagree with her.
The hurt and pain that adopted children bring with them are real. Here is how the orphan care and adoption ministry of the Church may become part of the solution.
In a Christian worldview, adoption is more than one family adopting a child. Adoption ministry needs to include families who cannot (or who are not called to) adopt—as they are able to provide support for the families who have. Adoption can be a difficult journey. Sometimes it takes the body of Christ working with the adoptive family to deal with many of the issues.
As this incredible wave of orphan care and adoption ministry continues to gain momentum in churches, we must make sure that we have a good theological understanding of adoption and a good practical understanding of adoption.
While I will continue to show the sweet pictures of our adoption journeys during my sermons, I will also take the time to educate families about the grief and loss that is always part of adoption. Healing can take place, and for many children, it starts with adoption…but it doesn’t end there—it never does.
[Johnny will be leading a breakout session at Together for Adoption "Encouragement to Keep-On-Keeping-On." See our breakout listing. Johnny's is a Session 5 breakout.]
In my last post I mentioned the movement for adoption happening in the Ukraine and Russia. Let me introduce you to more of the story. What is happening here blows me away! Don’t miss the video below.
A Home for Every Orphan is a partnership between ten Ukrainian, Russian and American Christian orphancare organizations who are spearheading a nationally led initiative supporting adoption and foster care by believers within their own countries. To give you perspective, the Ukraine and Russia, share over 4 million orphans.
Through this initiative, in the last 2 years over 1000 orphans have been placed in Ukrainian and Russian Christian homes! Glory to God!
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 at Summit VI was the testimony of an 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 are movements in the US, Australia, and Sweden that are 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 all of us put together!
Earlier this week I received a very encouraging email from one of our Swedish Christian brothers. Mattias Abom leads Sweden’s first orphan care and adoption ministry. His passion and objective is to mobilize the body of Christ in Sweden to care for orphans, to teach and challenge Sweden’s Christians and churches to commit themselves to orphans, both in Sweden and around the world. I am extremely grateful to God for all that Mattias is doing in Sweden for the sake of orphans. His work and commitment there are a wonderful example to me.
Mattias will be attending our upcoming conference in Austin. He has a long trip ahead of him! If you’ll be at the conference, make sure you look him up. Learn from him about what God is doing in Sweden in the area of orphan care and adoption ministry. Here’s Mattias’ letter:
Why the Together for Adoption conference is important for Europe and especially Sweden.
There are three important things that make Together for Adoption and your orphan and adoption ministry a good example for Europe and Sweden’s Christian.
1. You preach it
2. You believe it
3. You do it
In many Christian contexts in Europe and in Sweden they do not preach about it, there is no teaching of God’s plan for the orphans or adoption. That is why so many Christians adopt without knowing what the Bible says.
One reason is that the word adoption is not in our translations. It says: to raise as their own. But not many know that it means adoption. It is learned only in the adoption courses. In the English translation, it is clear what it is all about and that it is part of God’s plan.
It is so clear that your commitment to orphan care and adoption is based on biblical ground, actions and commitment to God. There is also thorough and professional in many aspects.
America’s churches have for centuries influenced the churches in Europe and Sweden. Not least in the baptism and the Pentecostal revival. Sweden has since then spread the gospel to most of Latin America for example. The gospel had a ripple effect.
My wish and prayer is that Togheter for Adopting conference and your church orphan and adoption ministry shall create a positive effect for many people, that your work will have ripple effect even to Europe and Sweden.
Your faith, and practical work is a good example for Christians in Sweden to see the work for orphans and adoption from a Christian perspective, by God’s Word, through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we follow each week, good examples so we can be good example! It is not models we need, that is not organization we need. We need to see children in need and children without parents, through the faith in Jesus Christ and through God’s love!
I look forward to seeing you all in Austin!
Best regards
Mattias Abom
Director for Sweden’s first orphan and adoption ministry
”Change Children’s life!”
www.twitter.com/MattiasAbom
www.himmelskaadoptioner.se/En/Home.html
It’s a given: pastors love free books. Pastors and books belong together. Just ask the Apostle Paul.
If you are a pastor who has registered for our upcoming conference, we’d like to give you a free copy of each of the books listed below. To receive your free copies you must be one of the first 50 pastors to send an email to books@TogetherforAdoption.org (put “Registered / Free Books” in the Subject line). The first 50 pastors to send an email in will receive their books when they check in for the conference on October 1st.
Surprise by Grace by Tullian Tchividjian
Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
Adopted for Life by Russell Moore
Introverts in the Church by Adam McHugh
Priceless by Tom Davis
If you haven’t registered yet, do so ASAP and send that email in!
We are just 7 weeks away from our 2010 national conference in Austin, TX. Registrations our up 300 percent from last year’s conference! It’s been exciting to see what God has been doing to bring this event together. Don’t miss out on this wonderful chance to consider in depth our conference theme: “The Gospel, the Church, and the Global Orphan Crisis.” Visit our conference page for more information.
If you haven’t yet heard, our pre-conference event is with Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael and Amy Monroe. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Empowered To Connect to present this Pre-Conference workshop on Thursday, September 30, 2010 in Austin, Texas.
Please help us spread the word about these two events through facebook, Twitter, email, and your blog. If you are on facebook, join our T4A facebook group and invite your friends to do the same.
We hope to see you in October!
The Together for Adoption Team
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 protection of orphans, a concern that is defining for faith. Family nurture in this tradition cannot be a narrow little enterprise about purity and safety; rather, it concerns inculcation into the peculiar ethical patterns of our faith.”
Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey in St. Louis & Vice President of Acts29, invites pastors, couples, singles, seminary and college students to this years conference. He will also share a message at the conference by video. Saint Fults, member at The Journey and Quality Improvement Specialist for the State of Missouri Children’s Division, will be leading a breakout on The Needs of Foster Care Children.
