I will never forget the first time a family in our church arrived on Sunday morning with their brand-new foster placement.
They were a young couple, married just a few years, with no biological children of their own. They had spent months journeying through the licensing process. Now, on that Sunday morning, so much of what had been largely conceptual, theoretical and even theological became real. It’s as if time slowed down and the Red Sea parted as they walked through the lobby and people stood by in wonder.
This was a real-life child, with a real-life story, now placed in a real-life foster home and walking into our real-life church.
The tipping point
That morning, a snowball began rolling down the hill within our church, and it continued to grow in strength, size and intensity over the months and years to come. This was a significant turning point – or perhaps a tipping point – for us, and it changed everything.
What was possibly most striking for me as the pastor was the reality that when this family brought a child into their home, they also brought that child – and the new dynamics of their family – into our church.
As a church, we now had the privilege and responsibility to embrace this new reality and to find ways to serve, love and support those involved. I began asking myself questions like:
What kinds of support will this young couple need as they walk this journey?
How can we best accommodate the needs of this child, and many others to come just like her, in our children and student ministries?
How do I, as the pastor, now talk about this not as a mere theological concept, but as a reality of what God is doing and will continue to do in greater measure in our church?
Nothing in our church could or would be the same.
As Pastor Alex Blake put it, “Serving our community is not so much about us impacting our community, but about our community changing us. It’s changed the way we think, worship and live from the inside out.”
Why the Church?
The implications of that day reached far into the fabric of our church in ways that we would continue to discover as the years went on. Even with all the unknowns, I was confident of one thing: the Church was exactly the place where this should be happening.
We (not just our church, but the Church collectively) are uniquely equipped and called to do this very thing. I don’t mean that we should bypass the crucial role that entities like the government, nonprofits, organizations, agencies and community advocates hold in this space. It will take all of us collectively working together to make lasting change.
What I do mean is that the unparalleled strength of the Church is found in its diversity; each unique, individual member of a church and each unique, individual church within a community all have a part to play.
In the Body of Christ, we’re not all called to do the same thing, but everyone can do something to care for vulnerable children and families. And together, we have the ability to address big problems in big ways.
Recent data shows that U.S. Christians remain committed to caring for vulnerable children in their communities and that congregational leaders are increasingly emphasizing the importance of the Church engaging in issues of foster care, adoption and family support.
This should come as no surprise. Though what happened that Sunday was new to our church, it was not new to the Church.
Historically, the Church has been at its best when it is meaningfully engaged in what God declares to be of utmost importance. Our congregation was just another small seed bearing fruit in the garden of God, as He cultivated expressions of His Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”
The heart of God for the vulnerable
It was never God’s intent for children to be without a family. We live in a fatally sin-scarred world; this is evident when we see families torn apart by poverty, addiction and abuse. It pains the heart of God, which is why Scripture says He executes justice for the fatherless (Deut. 10:18) and assumes the role of a good, loving and gracious Father to the fatherless (Psalms 65:8).
In other words, the thing that grieves God’s heart also drives His actions.
If you were to read the Bible cover to cover, you’d see several consistent themes come to the surface. For example: God’s power, faithfulness and mercy is contrasted with man’s weakness, rebellion and need for redemption. These and many other themes fill the pages of both the Old and New Testaments, telling a beautiful story of God’s relentless pursuit of His people whom He loves.
One theme shines with unparalleled clarity, prominence and stature: God protects and provides for the vulnerable.
A look at God’s heart in Scripture
From the beginning of time to the end, God intercedes on behalf of the needy and offers them His abundant sufficiency. Through Jesus, He fills the empty, embraces the marginalized and heals the broken and destitute.
In 2 Corinthians 8:9, the Apostle Paul articulates it this way: “ … you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
We simply cannot escape this theme in Scripture. But it doesn’t end there.
God expects that what breaks His heart would also break ours, and that what drives His actions would also drive ours. God’s abundance was poured into us when we were empty and destitute, but it was never intended to stop there. Rather, His abundance is now to be extended to those around us.
We are called to imitate our God by giving justice to the weak and fatherless (Psalm 82:3).
As seekers of justice and correctors of oppression (Isaiah 1:16-17), we care for vulnerable children and families because we have been greatly cared for in Jesus.
We seek justice for them because justice has been won for us in Jesus. We step into their brokenness because Jesus sacrificially stepped into ours. And we adopt because Jesus came so that we might receive adoption (Galatians 4:5). His work on our behalf becomes the motivation behind our work on others’ behalf.
A specific demonstration of the love of Jesus
This leads us to the New Testament’s clarion passage on caring for the most vulnerable around us:
“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.” (James 1:27)
The means by which our faith is expressed are seemingly endless and full of possibilities – think of prayer, generosity, worship, service, etc. Yet out of all the ways we might live out our faith, taking care of the orphan and widow is specifically called out in this verse.
Caring for the vulnerable in their distress is one of the purest and most undefiled demonstrations of the heart of God and the work of Jesus that this world will ever see.
If the gospel is ultimately the story of those who were empty and isolated from God being brought into His family by the work of Jesus, then the local church’s care for the vulnerable and orphaned is a beautiful continuation of the redemption story of God and a vivid demonstration of the love of Jesus extended through us.
If not the Church, then who?
A common sentiment is this: “If not the Church, then who?”
For far too long, the answer to that question has been: “If not the Church, then the government, or activism, or policy reform, or a few isolated people doing their best with minimal support.”
But not anymore.
The sentiment expressed throughout Scripture, and increasingly demonstrated by churches and congregations around the globe, is this: “It’s us, the Church. Period.”
We must be at the center of this holy and helpful work.
When at its best, the Church is a gathered and widespread community of Jesus followers who celebrate the truth of the gospel in their own lives and demonstrate that gospel in the lives of the most vulnerable around them.
With a strength, size, capacity and calling unlike any other gathered entity in this world, the Church is uniquely qualified to joyfully empty themselves so that others might be filled.
In the end, we may find that some of the most sacred spaces of worship are not the seats of the sanctuary, but the hard and broken places where vulnerability and oppression are met with a fullness and hope that only the Church can offer.
It’s us, the Church. We can do this. We get to do this. We’re at our best when we do.
– Jason Johnson is the National Director of The Pure Religion Project, facilitated by the CAFO community.
Everyone Can Do Something: A Field Guide for Strategically Rallying Your Church Around the Orphaned and Vulnerable
To explore the variety of ways that you and your church can engage in caring for vulnerable children and families in your community and around the world, check out Everyone Can Do Something – available in English or Spanish. Find your church’s “something” today!
