Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches

Dr. Moore has done a wonderful service for orphans and the church alike with Adopted For Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christians Families & Churches.The church has so many competing priorities clamoring for attention (and money) and many of them are only superficially Kingdom work. Adoption can be lost in the shuffle but we lose sight of adoption at our peril. There is a consistent theme of God's concern for the orphan and the fatherless throughout the Scriptures and adoption of an orphan into a loving family is the single greatest picture of the grace of God we can be involved in. We can talk and talk about theology all day long and quote our favorite Puritan to impress people at a party but when we adopt a child we show people the Gospel instead of just talking about it. There are of course other ways to care for orphans, such as supporting groups like The Haiti Orphan project, but adoption is one of the clearest pictures of the Gospel a Christian family can engage in.Adopted for Life is a comprehensive survey of adoption and it attempts (and for the most part succeeds) in covering the gamut when it comes to adoption, looking at the theological underpinnings of adoption, examining practical considerations, offering helpful advice, hammering those who oppose "cross-racial" adoption and providing advice for the Body of Christ on ways to support adopting parents and foster a culture of adoption in the church. Because Dr. Moore covers so much ground, none of the sections gets a truly thorough treatment but this book is clearly aimed at introducing people to adoption and has to cover a lot of ground. As far as an introductory survey to the topic, I can't imagine there is a better treatment out there.I liked the way he dealt with our usual view of adoption, which is often seen as something to be considered as a last resort when a couple is unable to have children. After trying everything you can ethically to have a child, when you finally give up, then consider adoption. I would love to see families that have children "naturally" and are adopting children at the same time. What a wonderful blessing that would be for that family, for the children being adopted and for the witness of the church! I also appreciate that Dr. Moore has no use for those who question cross-racial adoptions. There are a ton of children who are not Caucasian who need families and a lot of Caucasian families who are in a position to adopt. Should we deny these children a home because they have different color skin or differently shaped eyes?The weakest chapter dealt with adoption and the local church. While I think Dr. Moore's advice would be great in a traditional church setting, I think it also is held captive by our traditional understanding of what the local church is, how it should function and where its priorities should be. Dr. Moore calls on the local church to financially aid couples seeking adoption but suggests restricting aid to "members" and he reassures readers that the local church can financially support couples without interfering with the general budget. Given the very real call to care for the orphan in Scripture and the silence in the same for most of what local churches spend their "general fund" money on, i.e. buildings and staff, I would rather he call on local churches to make adoption a priority over hiring another pastor or buying the latest, greatest VBS curriculum. If you don't have room for adoption in your general fund, your general fund priorities are out of whack.In some places, especially early on, Dr. Moore gets a little scattered. His thoughts sort of meander a bit which can make it difficult to follow his reasoning but he also is often putting down his own personal experiences and the emotionalism of those events makes it hard to write cogently. He also tends to force Scripture into his ideas, I found some of the parenthetical Scriptural references to be a bit of a stretch. I am always a bit nervous when you toss a parenthetical Scripture reference at the end of a sentence with no context.Overall though, this as an excellent book, a great resource for those who are thinking about adopting and those who are personally familiar with adoption or even people who have no prior interest in adoption. I would hope it spurs people to action and not be a read, think "That's nice" and return to the shelf kind of book. Dr. Moore's bold and passionate plea for the fatherless should move Christians to respond. We already have eight kids of our own so we seem like unlikely candidates for adoption but the call of the fatherless is an insistent one. There is no lack of orphans waiting for adoption and if we can find a way to overcome the financial barrier and regulatory hoops, we would love to welcome a child into our home and family. It is what God has done for us.

Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches is considered one of the foundational books of the Christian Orphan Care movement and author Russell Moore as one of the pioneers. Moore is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the adoptive father of two boys from Russia.This sub-genre of adoption books encourages adoption of orphans and setting the care of orphans as a priority for the outreach of the churches in the United States. They also parallel orphan care and adoption with the adoption God performs for Christians when they accepted Christ.How ToThe book is filled with general practical advice concerning adoption. Moore spends plenty of ink on the important topic of paying for an adoption. Unless you are adopting from American Foster Care, adoptions are very expensive and Moore rightly teaches to avoid debt in this, and all issues. He gives ideas and references for raising funds and encourages the church to help pay for adoptions as normal course of business.As an adoptive dad, a pastor, and an academic, Moore has encounter many stories concerning adoption; therefore, he offers plenty of wisdom and advice to consider both as an adoptive parent and as a people taking on the call of orphan care.Ethic AdoptionI have heard that it was Martin Luther King, Jr. that said Sunday mornings are the most racist times in America. Moore applies this observation to adoption by asking the question if Christians would make adoption a greater priority if we could see those outside of our ethic groups as our brothers and sisters. He asks if because many Christians don't see other ethnic groups in our pews, how can they be family.In Chapter 6, "Jim Crow in the Nursery", Moore gives examples and advice for dealing these important issues. I have to believe God gave us peoples of many colors and thousands of years to figure out how to love as He does. We have a VERY long way to go.TitlesMoore brought up an issue that I have struggled with. I do refer to my adopted daughter as my adopted daughter. Five of the six people in my family are from various European ethic groups, one member is all Guatemalan. Moore encourages me not to refer to my daughter as my adopted daughter but as my daughter. He uses the example of their biological son who was born premature. He does not introduce that son as his premature son nor does he introduce his two adopted sons as "my adopted sons".He is not encouraging us to hide adoption - rather hard in my family though my wife was once asked if our daughter was the product of an affair - but to encourage a sense of belonging. By referring to her as my adopted daughter when I don't need to, I could be driving a divide between her and the rest of the family.It was from this book I first heard the idea not to call them "crisis pregnancies" because no pregnancy is a crisis but a gift; rather, pregnant women in a crisis situation.Great CommissionMoore wrote, "Adoption is not just about couples who want children--or who want more children. Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself."This is the philosophy critics have jumped on because it reduces adoption and orphan care as a means to personal salvation rather the life-giving events they are. As I read and re-read chapter 7 in particular, I understood what he was saying because I agreed with the critics on first read.I believe what he is saying is that for a church community to integrate orphan care into their mission, they must develop the understanding that ALL humans are family, that all life is important, that being a Christian is more than attending a service on Sunday or even reading Scripture. By doing all this, the church must change to become a people who accomplish all this. In doing so, they will become a stronger witness to the world and better able to fulfill the Great Commission.ConclusionI recommend this book to all Christians who are: considering adoption, considering being a part of or starting an orphan care ministry, in church leadership, in the pro-life movement.The book may seem a little preachy (Moore is a preacher) and you may have to read sections a couple of times to unpack what his talking about but the effort is worth the wisdom and insight you will gain.

This book is an in-depth, honest look at a Biblical view of adoption. I was willing, but reluctant to adopt before reading this book. I can honestly say it has changed my view not only of adoption but of fatherhood.

Amazing book and real encouragement that adopting is not a 'Plan B' for building a family but rather a challenge and blessing to build a family, a real family, based on the ultimate example of what it means to be adopted.

Must read for Christians who consider adoption

Good book great advise for those wanting to adopt

Great book that gives a Biblical perspective on adoption. Helped me to wrap my head around WHY we should adopt and the beautiful picture it is.