God’s adoption plan provides the church with the perfect ministry model.
"At the heart of orphan care at Saddleback Church is the desire to end the orphan crisis. We believe every child deserves a loving, lasting, legal, lifelong family of their own—and we believe this is doable. If every church empowered their members to care for orphans in ways that helped and didn’t hurt, the orphan crisis could be over.
Unfortunately, though there are still more than 163 million orphans and vulnerable children in the world today, little has been done yet to help orphans stop being orphans. As a culture, we’ve spent years trying to put Band-Aids on the orphanage institution. But children need more than food, shelter, clothing and education. We don’t want children to just survive, but to thrive—and children thrive in family.
At Saddleback, we began asking ourselves, 'How can we end the orphan crisis, and is there something every church can do?' Here are what we believe are the answers to those questions...." Read the full article to learn six things every church can do.
As Elizabeth Styffe concludes, "The church’s approach to orphan care has changed dramatically from what it once was (as the two lists below clearly show). Let’s continue moving closer to God’s heart for adoption, as found in His Word. He’s given us the perfect ministry model, so let’s embrace it. By working together, churches can end the current worldwide orphan crisis."
