There were certainly a number of Morning Star people who would’ve liked to attend the first annual conference put on by Together for Adoption (Nov. 1 in Greenville, SC), including several adoptive dads who were prevented by work obligations and other developments in the weeks before the conference. I was able to go and help the volunteer staff. It was a privilege to meet some more brothers and sisters in the family of God who are even more passionate about “vertical adoption” (God’s adoption of His children) than they are about “horizontal adoption” (and they are pretty passionate about that, too).

We are commanded again and again in God’s Word to meditate on the Gospel, to interact with people on the basis of the Gospel’s effects on us and the Gospel’s effects on them, to be motivated by the Gospel, to be enabled by the Gospel, and to exult in it. The T4A conference was, essentially, an entire day devoted to glorying in the story of what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has done and continues to do. The residual and continual effects of that story should be dazzlingly evident in the lives of God’s redeemed sons and daughters. And that living-out of the Gospel is described in its purest form in James 1:27—helping widows and orphans in their trouble and keeping unstained from the world’s anti-Godness.

Sadly, many believers are marked up by remnants of worldly thinking. We do not think of ourselves in light of God’s Gospel, what He has taken us out of and what He is making of us. We do not think of others the way God would, nor do we respond to them the way He would have us do. God has adopted transracially, drawing children to Himself from every tribe, tongue, nation. (Talk about a “conspicuous family”–what a beautiful picture adoption is of what heaven will one day be like!) But many believers think less of people of other cultures and other colors, thinking less of their capacities (including their spiritual capacities). And in general, we are constantly sinning against the Giver of the Gospel by the way we leave it out of everything we do, when in fact, it ought to permeate our thoughts and become the fundamental rationale and compassionate power behind everything we do.

One thing I took away from the conference was that adoption itself is not a “ministry” the way we sometimes think of it. Adoption is a serious family choice to parent a child; it’s a lifelong commitment, and it isn’t for everybody. Being passionate about adoption does not equal fulfilling the implied mandate of James 1:27. There is an orphan crisis (143+million!), and there are countless ways for individuals and churches to be actively engaged in ministering Gospel-glorifying love to needy children in accordance with God’s Word to us.

The audio recordings from the conference are available online now as downloads from here. All of the sessions were good for different reasons.
I would especially recommend these two:

“Adoption in God’s Story of Redemption” by Dan Cruver of T4A

“Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God”* by Carl Robbins
(pastor of Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC)
* This is a Bible-based case against doubting the legitimacy and wisdom of transracial adoption.

Dan also shared some great excerpts and notes from Carl’s sermon. I hope you will take the time to check them out:
“Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God” [part 1]
“Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God” [part 2]