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The Lifeway Research team talks with Micah Fries about adoption and foster care and some recent research on what churches are doing in this area.
25% of American churchgoers say they have seen someone in their church providing foster care in their church
What makes adoption and foster care something churches should be concerned about?
Micah describes adoption and foster care as an immediate and explicit ramification of the Gospel. Gospel is conveyed in adoption. When we adopt children who do not have parents, we are mirroring the activity of God. God loves us so intensely that he both created us and adopted us.
14% of American churchgoers say they see their pastors encouraging members to adopt.
Micah advocates that everyone in the church should be involved in adoption and foster care but not everyone should adopt and foster children themselves.
45% of American churchgoers say their church is not doing anything in regards to adoption and foster care.
Micah suggests that the fact that many churches overlook this ministry is related to it being “out of sight, out of mind.” It is likely that in many churches, there simply isn’t an orphan or foster child within the congregation.
Be sure to Tweet your questions and comments to us: @LifewayResearch and individually: @smcconn, @statsguycasey, and @lizettebeard. Join us next time for another edition of Keep Asking.
Micah Fries (pronounced Freeze) is the Senior Pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. Prior to serving at Brainerd, he served as the Vice President of Lifeway Research in Nashville, TN and as a frequent speaker in churches and conferences. He has served as a Senior Pastor in Missouri and an international church planter in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Micah is currently a Ph.D. student, studying North American Missiology at Southeastern Seminary.
