I'm certainly not done rambling on about orphans and the church's role in their lives, but I figured I'd take a break from that for a post or two.
Last January there was an event in the Chicago area that was a sort of debate called the Elephant Room. Here's the official description of the Elephant Room:
"The Elephant Room features blunt conversations between seven influential pastors who take differing approaches to ministry. No keynotes. No canned messages. These are “the conversations you never thought you’d hear.” All conversations are moderated by James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel and Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church"
Back in January, Jason and I really wanted to do the simulcast of this event, but it was too expensive. Since that time, we've had random conversations here and there and we've watched video clips that we could find on YouTube and the Elephant Room website as we ran across them.
Over the summer we started talking to some friends about some of these clips, and then we finally decided just to break down and buy the DVD set. The DVDs came in the mail a couple of weeks ago and we've spent hours watching the sessions, pausing for commentary, rewatch sessions, and pausing to insert our own opinions. We've watched with a couple of our friends, and that is where my thoughts for this post were born.
Four of us sat in the living room watching one of the sessions (I honestly don't even remember what the topic was) and David Platt, our pastor, made a comment. He wasn't one of the debaters for that topic, but usually they'll ask the pastors sitting on the "sidelines" to interject their thoughts on a topic throughout the session.
Let me mention before I go any further than in my opinion, Platt kind of sticks out in the context of the Elephant Room. He doesn't stick out in a bad way, but he's quieter than the other pastors and he doesn't necessarily jump at every opportunity to speak. He's careful about what he says, and most importantly, he's extremely humble throughout each and every session.
While we were watching this particular sessions, Platt said something which prompted a lot of thought and was kind of a different take on the subject in contrast with what most of the other pastors had been saying. One of our friends said, "Wow, he's really the elephant in the room."
I'm not sure how he meant this, and honestly, it doesn't really even matter that much (to me the Elephant Room isn't about celebrity pastors, who's podcast sermons I listen to the most, or even about who I identified with more in each session). But, this comment made me think, "Am I ever the elephant in the room?"
As believers we're called to be different, set apart from the world and set apart from our flesh. We're called to live for eternity instead of earthly desires.
This is what the trusted Wikipedia says about the expression "Elephant in the room":
"Elephant in the room" is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss. It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there have chosen to avoid dealing with the looming big issue.
My goal is to be the elephant. Sometimes Jason will jokingly call me an elephant because I never forget anything that he says (an elephant never forgets). But after some thought, I truly aim to be an elephant in the room.
I want to be so clothed in Christ that my faith and my salvation cannot go unaddressed. I want to take risks that people are afraid to take themselves in hopes that it will encourage others to take risks themselves and it will foster discussion about Christ. I want it to be so impossible to overlook my belief in God's Word that people will feel it His presence looming and it will open up opportunities for me to share the Gospel with them.
Let us not shy away from the Gospel. Let us not sink into the background and blend into the world. Let us be set apart and bold. Let the God's truth be so evident in our lives that we are the elephant in every room.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Serving the Father to the Fatherless - Part Two
Yesterday was Orphan Sunday. I'm not 100% sure what all that involves, who started it, or who all participates in it, but I thought that part two of my Serving the Father to the Fatherless posts would be relevant to write today.
I attend a church here in Birmingham that puts more time, money, energy, and effort into serving the fatherless than any other church I have attended. Granted, I haven't been to a ton of churches, but still I appreciate the emphasis that The Church at Brook Hills puts on the subjects of adoption, orphans, foster care, and serving the fatherless.
Just about a year ago I heard a song written on the subject of adoption by my friend, Mandi Mapes. She was asked to write the song to go alongside a sermon on this topic by the pastor of our church, David Platt. Unfortunately, I did not attend this faith-family at the time that this sermon was preached, but I do remember the sermon (or at least the time period that he preached it) very vividly because I was asked to put together a bunch of foster care informational packets while I was an intern at the Children's Homes (see part one). I remember hearing someone [jokingly] say, "After last Sunday everyone at Brook Hills wants to be a foster parent."
A few paper cuts and about a year and a half later, I finally heard the song that accompanied the sermon that has made an impact on me, and much of our faith-family. It brought tears to my eyes as I sat in the car last December and listened to the words of this song called, This Love, with my boyfriend Jason. Again, the longing that I have inside me to care for an orphan was touched, and I wanted to talk about it for hours on end. Fortunately, I had Jason there to listen to me ramble on and on about how I remember when Brook Hills did a big push for families to get involved in foster care and how much I wanted to be a part of that someday.
I realize that not everyone at Brook Hills is involved in serving the fatherless, but I appreciate those who are. As I look around my faith-family, my heart is gladened for the families that I see with children that are not biologically their own.
In July, our pastor announced that he and his wife, Heather, would be adopting a little girl from China in the late part of 2011. This will be their second adopted child and third child. I have heard him ask for prayers for the adoption process over the last year that I have attended Brook Hills because the process to adopt from overseas, and really just in general, can also bring forth a lot of anxiety. angst, and frustration. This past Friday he announced that the Platt family will travel overseas to get their little girl in the next few weeks.
I am ecstatic for David and Heather Platt to adopt a little girl from overseas. When I first heard that they had finally received word that they would be blessed with a daughter from China, I began to cry tears of joy for the happiness that she will bring into their lives. Now, as I watch my pastor announce with giddiness to the church that he will be going in upcoming weeks to go get this child and bring her home, I cannot help but praise the sovereign Lord for the gift of adoption.
I am thankful for the example that the Platt family has set. I truly believe that many of the families that attend Brook Hills would have been involved with foster care and/or adoption because of a calling that God had for them apart from the church they attend. But I also believe that the example and the vocal challenge that David Platt has given the Church of Brook Hills to pray for orphans, to become a foster parent, or to adopt a child has spurred many families to follow after God's will for them to be involved in foster care and/or adoption. He's given them an extra little push in that direction, and I couldn't be more thankful for it. I hope for and look forward to the day that I am blessed enough to be included!
Each week Brook Hills collectively prays for churches and ministries, locally in Birmingham and also globally. This week we will be praying for the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes as a faith-family. I urge anyone that reads this to take it upon yourself to join us in that this week. I pray that Orphan Sunday is not just a Sunday that comes and goes each year. For families who immerse themselves in the lives of orphans, this is a calling that they live out daily. We, as God's church, should continually lift up them up in prayer and unite ourselves with them as the Body of Christ.
We are serving the one true God and he is the Father to the fatherless.
Resources:
Mandi Mapes, This Love
The Church at Brook Hills Podcast from 9/5/09 Faith Loves (on adoption & foster care)
The Church at Brook Hills Podcast from 7/2/11 The Child Yet Unborn (David Platt's announcement of adoption from China)
Orphan Sunday Video by the Christian Alliance for Orphans
Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries website
The Church at Brook Hills Weekly Local Prayer Guide (this week for The Children's Homes)
I attend a church here in Birmingham that puts more time, money, energy, and effort into serving the fatherless than any other church I have attended. Granted, I haven't been to a ton of churches, but still I appreciate the emphasis that The Church at Brook Hills puts on the subjects of adoption, orphans, foster care, and serving the fatherless.
Just about a year ago I heard a song written on the subject of adoption by my friend, Mandi Mapes. She was asked to write the song to go alongside a sermon on this topic by the pastor of our church, David Platt. Unfortunately, I did not attend this faith-family at the time that this sermon was preached, but I do remember the sermon (or at least the time period that he preached it) very vividly because I was asked to put together a bunch of foster care informational packets while I was an intern at the Children's Homes (see part one). I remember hearing someone [jokingly] say, "After last Sunday everyone at Brook Hills wants to be a foster parent."
A few paper cuts and about a year and a half later, I finally heard the song that accompanied the sermon that has made an impact on me, and much of our faith-family. It brought tears to my eyes as I sat in the car last December and listened to the words of this song called, This Love, with my boyfriend Jason. Again, the longing that I have inside me to care for an orphan was touched, and I wanted to talk about it for hours on end. Fortunately, I had Jason there to listen to me ramble on and on about how I remember when Brook Hills did a big push for families to get involved in foster care and how much I wanted to be a part of that someday.
I realize that not everyone at Brook Hills is involved in serving the fatherless, but I appreciate those who are. As I look around my faith-family, my heart is gladened for the families that I see with children that are not biologically their own.
In July, our pastor announced that he and his wife, Heather, would be adopting a little girl from China in the late part of 2011. This will be their second adopted child and third child. I have heard him ask for prayers for the adoption process over the last year that I have attended Brook Hills because the process to adopt from overseas, and really just in general, can also bring forth a lot of anxiety. angst, and frustration. This past Friday he announced that the Platt family will travel overseas to get their little girl in the next few weeks.
I am ecstatic for David and Heather Platt to adopt a little girl from overseas. When I first heard that they had finally received word that they would be blessed with a daughter from China, I began to cry tears of joy for the happiness that she will bring into their lives. Now, as I watch my pastor announce with giddiness to the church that he will be going in upcoming weeks to go get this child and bring her home, I cannot help but praise the sovereign Lord for the gift of adoption.
I am thankful for the example that the Platt family has set. I truly believe that many of the families that attend Brook Hills would have been involved with foster care and/or adoption because of a calling that God had for them apart from the church they attend. But I also believe that the example and the vocal challenge that David Platt has given the Church of Brook Hills to pray for orphans, to become a foster parent, or to adopt a child has spurred many families to follow after God's will for them to be involved in foster care and/or adoption. He's given them an extra little push in that direction, and I couldn't be more thankful for it. I hope for and look forward to the day that I am blessed enough to be included!
Each week Brook Hills collectively prays for churches and ministries, locally in Birmingham and also globally. This week we will be praying for the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes as a faith-family. I urge anyone that reads this to take it upon yourself to join us in that this week. I pray that Orphan Sunday is not just a Sunday that comes and goes each year. For families who immerse themselves in the lives of orphans, this is a calling that they live out daily. We, as God's church, should continually lift up them up in prayer and unite ourselves with them as the Body of Christ.
We are serving the one true God and he is the Father to the fatherless.
Resources:
Mandi Mapes, This Love
The Church at Brook Hills Podcast from 9/5/09 Faith Loves (on adoption & foster care)
The Church at Brook Hills Podcast from 7/2/11 The Child Yet Unborn (David Platt's announcement of adoption from China)
Orphan Sunday Video by the Christian Alliance for Orphans
Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries website
The Church at Brook Hills Weekly Local Prayer Guide (this week for The Children's Homes)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Serving the Father to the Fatherless - Part One
Disclaimer: I've been thinking about writing this post for a long time so I have a lot to say about this topic and I'm going to have to write it in sections.
I have had a heart for orphans for a really long time. In fact, I can remember talking to a friend in Starbucks the summer in between high school and college about how someday I would love to adopt. That summer I was a lost 18-year-old who didn't really know what I wanted out of life. Almost daily I was faced with the question of what I wanted; did I want Jesus or did I want the pleasures the world had to offer me? About 90% of the time, I chose the world because it just seemed a lot easier and more comfortable. But yet, I had this longing to be a mother to a child who did not have a mother, and I had this desire to adopt and care for a child that was not my own. This was a very biblical picture of grace for someone who didn't even crack open her bible open other than maybe on Sunday and maybe the week of Christmas and Easter.
Fast forward two years...
June 9, 2009 I finally committed my life to Christ. I finally decided to quit running, let go, die to myself, and live my life for Jesus. I was about to embark on my junior year of college and I was working over 40 hours a week while I was at home for the summer. One job was an internship that was great experience, but I didn't enjoy it like I wanted to, and the other was in the restaurant industry. I was saving up to study abroad for a few weeks over JanTerm, so basically everything I made went into savings, and by the end of the summer I was still short a few hundred dollars. When I returned to Samford for my junior year, I began searching for another internship. This time I wanted something totally different from what I'd done over the summer. I wanted to work for a nonprofit. I wanted to write. I wanted to make a difference in someones life. BUT, I needed to make money to for JanTerm. So I applied for a paid internship at the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes...what a blessing that turned out to be.
Working for the Children's Homes, or ABCH, opened my eyes to the need for people to step up and become a foster parent. There is such a need, in Alabama, in Jefferson County, and in Birmingham for people just to love kids who don't have anyone else. Before I worked at ABCH, I knew that there were kids out there who needed a roof over their head, someone to love them and care for them, and someone to share Jesus' love with them, but it wasn't very real to me; it wasn't tangible. Interning at the Children's Homes made such an impact on my life. I could literally see that there are children out there who need love, care, attention, and salvation.
I was blessed to be able to write stories about how God had used the Children's Homes to lift someone out of their darkest days (see Susan's Homecoming). I was able to write about how people were giving of their money and of their life for this cause (see Edith Snider, Lifelong Ambassador). I spoke with people about how this ministry has provided hope for them and even created an interest for the next generation (see LifePrints Cultivates Interest, Appreciation in Heart of Young Fan and Grace Through Restitution) and most importantly how people had come to know Christ through this ministry (see Salvation Story). Since beginning my internship in the Fall of 2009, I have been working pretty consistently with the Children's Homes.
In June of this year I was honored to attend Camp of Champions, which is the annual camp that ABCH holds for all of the kids in care. ABCH employees put on a VBS-ish curriculum for a couple of days while house parents and foster parents meet. They also get to swim, play paintball, watch movies, and just have fun together and share in the community of Christ that has been fostered through this ministry. My job was to take pictures that will be a lifelong reminder of God's sovereignty for these families and the ABCH ministry(see photos here and read Children’s Homes ministers to children, parents through Camp of Champions). I was humbled to witness the amount of love that God has provided to these children.
As I got into my car to drive back to Birmingham from camp, I was reignited with this longing to provide that same love to a child, or children, someday. I've been given so much, and not just material possessions and financial stability. I've been given love, grace, forgiveness, and a multitude of joy. I have to share it. We, God's church, have to share it.
I have had a heart for orphans for a really long time. In fact, I can remember talking to a friend in Starbucks the summer in between high school and college about how someday I would love to adopt. That summer I was a lost 18-year-old who didn't really know what I wanted out of life. Almost daily I was faced with the question of what I wanted; did I want Jesus or did I want the pleasures the world had to offer me? About 90% of the time, I chose the world because it just seemed a lot easier and more comfortable. But yet, I had this longing to be a mother to a child who did not have a mother, and I had this desire to adopt and care for a child that was not my own. This was a very biblical picture of grace for someone who didn't even crack open her bible open other than maybe on Sunday and maybe the week of Christmas and Easter.
Fast forward two years...
June 9, 2009 I finally committed my life to Christ. I finally decided to quit running, let go, die to myself, and live my life for Jesus. I was about to embark on my junior year of college and I was working over 40 hours a week while I was at home for the summer. One job was an internship that was great experience, but I didn't enjoy it like I wanted to, and the other was in the restaurant industry. I was saving up to study abroad for a few weeks over JanTerm, so basically everything I made went into savings, and by the end of the summer I was still short a few hundred dollars. When I returned to Samford for my junior year, I began searching for another internship. This time I wanted something totally different from what I'd done over the summer. I wanted to work for a nonprofit. I wanted to write. I wanted to make a difference in someones life. BUT, I needed to make money to for JanTerm. So I applied for a paid internship at the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes...what a blessing that turned out to be.
Working for the Children's Homes, or ABCH, opened my eyes to the need for people to step up and become a foster parent. There is such a need, in Alabama, in Jefferson County, and in Birmingham for people just to love kids who don't have anyone else. Before I worked at ABCH, I knew that there were kids out there who needed a roof over their head, someone to love them and care for them, and someone to share Jesus' love with them, but it wasn't very real to me; it wasn't tangible. Interning at the Children's Homes made such an impact on my life. I could literally see that there are children out there who need love, care, attention, and salvation.
I was blessed to be able to write stories about how God had used the Children's Homes to lift someone out of their darkest days (see Susan's Homecoming). I was able to write about how people were giving of their money and of their life for this cause (see Edith Snider, Lifelong Ambassador). I spoke with people about how this ministry has provided hope for them and even created an interest for the next generation (see LifePrints Cultivates Interest, Appreciation in Heart of Young Fan and Grace Through Restitution) and most importantly how people had come to know Christ through this ministry (see Salvation Story). Since beginning my internship in the Fall of 2009, I have been working pretty consistently with the Children's Homes.
In June of this year I was honored to attend Camp of Champions, which is the annual camp that ABCH holds for all of the kids in care. ABCH employees put on a VBS-ish curriculum for a couple of days while house parents and foster parents meet. They also get to swim, play paintball, watch movies, and just have fun together and share in the community of Christ that has been fostered through this ministry. My job was to take pictures that will be a lifelong reminder of God's sovereignty for these families and the ABCH ministry(see photos here and read Children’s Homes ministers to children, parents through Camp of Champions). I was humbled to witness the amount of love that God has provided to these children.
As I got into my car to drive back to Birmingham from camp, I was reignited with this longing to provide that same love to a child, or children, someday. I've been given so much, and not just material possessions and financial stability. I've been given love, grace, forgiveness, and a multitude of joy. I have to share it. We, God's church, have to share it.
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