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Atlanta Pastor: "We Will Care for Any Newborn"

From 11 Alive News:

METRO ATLANTA, Ga. -- Last weekend an Atlanta pastor made a promise that stunned his congregation and most of the people who heard it.

In a speech that discussed abortion, the President, and the sanctity of life, the most provocative statement from Pastor Vic Pentz of Peachtree Presbyterian Church came towards sermon's end:

"I make a promise to you now and I don't want you to keep this a secret," the pastor pronounced, "the Peachtree Presbyterian Church will care for any newborn baby you bring to this church.

"We will be the family to find a home for that child, and there's no limit on this. You can tell your friends, you can tell your family, you can tell the whole world ..."

Reflected Pentz a week later, "I seem to have touched a nerve by saying that to the congregation."

It's a speech he repeated this past Sunday, and it can be found on the church's web site under the sermon title, "Ethics of Life".

 

Adopted For Life

Crossway Blog alerts us that Dr. Russell Moore has been posting short videos on each of the chapters in his book, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.  Moore argues biblically that Christians ought to embrace adoption as both a "gospel and missiological issue."

Here’s a round-up of all ten videos:

Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book

Chapter 1: Jesus, Adoption, and You

Chapter 2: Are They Brothers?

Chapter 3: Jesus of Nazareth vs. Planned Parenthood

Chapter 4: Don’t You Want Your Own Kids?

Chapter 5: Paperwork, Finances, and Other Threats to Personal Sanctification

Chapter 6: Jim Crow in the Church Nursery

Chapter 7: It Takes a Village to Adopt a Child

Chapter 8: Adoption is a Past-Tense Verb

Chapter 9: Concluding Thoughts

Read the first chapter of the book for free.

Together For Adoption Conference Audio Now Online

Jason Kovacs and Maridel Sandberg - “Conference Welcome and the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ Vision for Orphan Ministry“

Dan Cruver - “Adoption in God’s Story of Redemption“

Rick Phillips - “The Good News of Adoption“

Carl Robbins - “Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God“

Tullian Tchividjian - “Our Adoption and Visiting Orphans in Their Affliction“

(HT: Jason Kovacs)

Adoption Awareness Month: When Does Live Begin? Watch This Video

November is Adoption Awareness Month. Pregnant and unwed? Get help for you and your unborn child.

Adoption: Georgia Football Coach Mark Richt

Mark Richt, head football coach at the Unversity of Georgia, talks about his family's decision to adopt two children from the Ukraine, one of whom has a facial deformity, after reading in the Bible that the church is commanded by God to care for orphans.  From today's ESPN Gameday. 

Go Dawgs. 

I hope my son, who my wife and I adopted, one day plays football for a coach like this.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Who Cares? Social Justice and Worship, Part 2

The second and final installment on the topic of Social Justice and Worship.  Text: James 1:27.  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this.  To look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Here's Part 1.

And here's an introduction to Part 2, offered after hearing Part 1.  CliffsNotes follow.

Cliffs Notes:

1) We should have a different value system and definition of success than those who do not know Jesus.  We are polluted when we measure ourselves by non-biblical standards and adopt the ways and values of the unbelieving world.

2) God has a special place in his heart for orphans and widows.  Caring for them represents God's faithfulness as a spiritual Father and Husband to those who have none.

We should not be focused on hoarding our assets.  They belong to God.  They should be used to honor God and care for those who He has commanded us to care for, as they all belong to God.

How can we actively seek justice?

Listen to the cries of the orphans, the widows, the oppressed.  Listen to God.  What would he have you to do?  "Nothing" is not an option for the pure worshipper.  You may be called to go, or you may be called to give generously to support those who do go.  Some of you will take foster children into your gargantuan and empty mansions and houses.  Example of a church doing this: Johnny Hunt, pastor at First Baptist Woodstock (and current president of the Southern Baptist Convention), recently challenged his congregation to eliminate the foster care crisis in that community.  Hundreds are being trained and for the first time ever---ever---it appears there will be an abundance of families in that county willing to take foster children--orphans-- into their homes.  What has God called you to do in obedience to James 1:27?  We have been bought with a price and we will do what God calls us to do.  Only then can we really worship.

Defend the Orphan: An Age-Old Christian Lesson Gets a New Lease on Life

The Wall Street Journal reports on the increase in adoptions among evangelicals.   Mentioned are Tony Nolan, himself an adoptee, and Russell Moore of Southern Seminary who has a forthcoming book on the topic entitled Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches.

"...represents something of a shift, says Kelly Rosati, who oversees Focus on the Family's adoption and orphan-care division and is the mother of four adopted children. "The traditional way of viewing adoption was something you considered if you were facing infertility." You could call it God's Plan B for the Couple. But now, according to Ms. Rosati, "the commitment to adoption is part of a holistic sanctity-of-human-life ethic."

November is National Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.  Pictured here is our son and daughter, both of whom came into our family by adoption.

Writes Dan Cruver:

One of my deepest desires is that the doctrine of adoption would be recovered within the Christian church, that it would be valued, treasured and articulated by pastors (and their people) and theologians even as the doctrine of justification is. Progress is being made, but there is much more needed—not only in its recovery but also in its proper understanding. It is a doctrine that makes known the great glory of God’s grace (see Ephesians 1:5-6). If you desire to marvel at the precious grace of God more deeply, explore Scripture’s teaching on adoption. My prayer is that the church would come to a fresh understanding of this highest blessing of the gospel and, as a result, come to treasure our Triune God more.

Also consider:

• A discussion about adoption between Dan Cruver, Voddie Baucham, and Laura Godwin on the topic of adoption as a needed ministry of the local church.
• The words of John Piper in a message called Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel: Eight Similarities Between God's Adoption of Us and Our Adoption of Children, given at the MICAH Fund Adoption Enrichment Seminar.
• African-Americans Voddie Baucham and Thabiti Anyabwile on adoption
• Recording artist Mark Schultz discloses he was adopted
• The Culture of the Congregation -- Celebrating Adoption, by Al Mohler

Adoption : Everything To Me

In recent months recording artist Mark Schultz disclosed that he is adopted.  After a concert for adoption agency Bethany Christian Services , Mark had an encounter with an adoption counselor who helped Mark understand what a priceless gift he was given by his birth mother.  In his adoption testimony Mark recalls what she told him:

"Your birth Mom was very special...a birth mom has three options.  She can have an abortion, and you wouldn't be here right now.  She could have given birth to you and said, 'you know what, I don't have a great life, and I don't have a lot of money, and I'm not in a great situation but this is my kid and I'm going to keep it whether it has a great life or not, it's still my kid and I'm not going to let him go.'  But she did the most unselfish thing because she carried it for nine months through the pain and the struggles with that and then gave birth to you and then held you and looked you in the eyes and said 'I love you so much that I can't keep you myself because I can't give you the best life' and she handed you off to a family who loved you and cared for you and gave you the best life."

Continues Mark:

And I went, you are so right.  So I said I think I'd like to write a song, and I started to think about it, what would I say to my birth Mom if I ever saw her...and I thought about going to her front door (just in my mind I was walking through) I imagined myself knocking on the door, and as she opened up the door, I think I would just get tears in my eyes and say thank you so much...because I've had a great life.

So we started writing this song...

It hit home, the circle of life, how it just doesn't affect one person when there is a adoption, and I sang half the song at a Bethany Christian Services benefit one night just as an idea and I got halfway thorugh it and I stopped and I said that's really all I have right now.  A lady came up afterwards and said you don't know this, but there's a lady, a girl here in the audience that's pregnant, and she's been dead set on having an abortion but she said she heard your song and decided tonight she's going to put it for adoption because she can't fathom not giving this little person life.  And it started to hit me: this isn't just a song, this is something more special than that and I can't wait someday to in heaven meet people who were born because their birth parents heard this song and said I want to give them more life, and I can't wait for my birth Mom to meet those people so she can realize she didn't make a mistake. And I want my parents, I want them all to be there for that. It's just really special, so it goes beyond just being a song.

Watch the entire four minute testimony here

His new CD, Broken & Beautiful, contains a track called "Everything To Me" (Video Introduction),  a song inspired by his gratitude for the decision his adoptive mother made.  Mark writes in the song:

You gave life to me A chance to find my dreams And a chance to fall in love You should have seen her shining face On our wedding day Oh is this the dream you had in mind When you gave me up You gave everything to me

Graham, adopted son of Worship.com editors

Christianity Today also recently talked to Mark about his new CD, which will be available in late September.   The article opens:

Mark Schultz knows he's lucky to be alive today, because his birthmother chose to give him up for adoption rather than abort. He tells the story in a new song … and here.