Adoption Care Ministry:
Here at Harbor Church, we have several families who have been foster parents and adopted children into their families. Adoption is one of the most tangible ways we live out the Gospel and display it for others to see. In our natural state, we are sinners and separated from God due to our rebellion (Col. 1:21; Eph. 2:12-14). God being rich in love and mercy sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins to save us from the punishment that we rightly deserve and from God’s just wrath. Jesus reconciled us to God and through faith we are adopted as children of God (Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). When we adopt children and graft them into our family, we are displaying elements of the Gospel that those children get to experience and our community gets to physically see.
There is a special place in God’s heart for children and the orphaned. God carved a graceful provision into the Old Testament laws for the orphaned (Exodus 22:22; Deut. 24:17-22; Isa. 1:17; Zechariah 7:10). God instructed the Hebrews to care for and provide for orphans, those who do not have parents. This moral command is carried on into the New Testament through the teachings of James (Jesus’s Brother).
James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
This moral imperative was not only taught and practiced by the early church but it was carried throughout church history. God created man and woman (and children) in the “image of God” (Imago Dei) and God imparted on all human life value and worth (Gen. 1:27). Early Christians felt that this value and worth also applied to infants. Unlike their pagan neighbors in Roman society, Christians refused to take their weak and unwanted children out in the woods and leave them to die (Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 43). Early Christians were known for adopting and saving these abandoned children (Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization, 52).
It is with this biblical instruction and example from church history that we are encouraged to do this valuable kingdom work: to help, evangelize, equip, and disciple the parentless. We have also learned that parents who get to meet and talk with adoptive families (and their children) are more likely to adopt because it settles fears and answers questions.
This kingdom work is equal parts rewarding and challenging. That is why we have begun an adoption care ministry. It is for those fostering, adopting, with kinship placements, and any other unique situation the Lord places us in. We meet together monthly in fellowship, encourage one another, share wisdom and our experiences to help each other fulfill this calling.
Please prayerfully consider supporting and/or joining this ministry.
If you are interested in adoption and have questions please reach out to someone on the team. If you would like to join please fill out this contact form.