November is National Adoption Awareness Month and we know that the Church has a mandate to “look after orphans in their distress” (James 1.27). In addition to supporting local adoptive parents it is important that churches are recruiting families from their congregation to adopt. Right now there are 35 children from Midland and Ector County waiting to be adopted and there is nowhere better to recruit than the local church. Here are 5 things your church can do to encourage families to adopt.
1) Pray that families would rise up to adopt the children waiting to be adopted.
James 5:16 says that the “prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective.” You can start praying NOW! Pray that God would raise up families within your church to adopt the children that are waiting for a family to choose them.
2)Talk about the problem from the pulpit.
Psalm 68:5 says that God is “father to the fatherless and a defender to the widows.” Truly, we serve a God that is concerned about the most vulnerable marginalized people in society. Ephesians 1:5 says, “He has predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ” showing that God has a heart for engrafting boys and girls...men and women into His family. Clearly, since we are His creation and made in His image we too share that heart. It practically preaches itself.
3) Create teams to provide wraparound care for adoptive and foster parents
We have written about this before and this is what the church is good at...supporting their people. Create a way to help your adoptive families. Then use this program as an onramp for recruiting more families to adopt. It has worked for The Attic!
4) Tell your adoptive families’ stories.
With so many unknowns around adoption its best that people can relate to others stories of adoptions. Not only will churches want to show the impact on the child but also the impact on the family.
5) Host adoption training and information meetings.
Last, host adoption training and information meetings. There is no way around it prospective adoptive parents need people to relate and connect with before they make their decision to adopt. Contact us if you would like help with putting on your own info meeting or would like to host a training. Of course it will work best if you can also provide child care for the parents that attend.