CAFO Summit Conference- Justice & Mercy Flow From the Gospel

Before you start to tune this post out, just because you think I’m only going to talk about orphans and adoption, let me encourage you to read more and learn more about what CAFO is all about.  Since I was unable to attend in person, I watched a portion of this conference this evening through a LIVE simulcast and it just made me wish that I could have been there even more. This week’s Christian Alliance for Orphan’s Conference, held in Southern California, is themed:


    “Mercy and Justice Flow from the Gospel”. 

This conference is held annually in different parts of the U.S. and is more than simply a conference about orphans and adoption, but rather a conference aimed to motivate the church to participate in ministry through orphan care, foster care, adoption, and other global initiatives.

This event generally attracts 2,000 pastors, church leaders, organization leaders, and other ministries, and is organized and sponsored by many Christian ministries and adoption agencies (i.e. Compassion International, Show Hope, Focus on the Family, Family Life Today--to name a few—and if I may add, the agency I work for is very involved in this too, I couldn’t leave that out now could I?). 

CAFO recognizes that the Biblical mandate to care for orphans cannot be achieved by government, nor can it be carried out by full-time ministry professionals alone.  Rather, the conference stresses the strategic importance of mobilizing, equipping, and interconnecting Christians for lifelong engagement in adoption, foster care and global orphan ministries rooted in the local church.

Numerous speakers and artists grace the Summit’s stage to share personal stories of adoption, global ministry, and ways the church can impact their local community. Speakers and artists such as Steven Curtis Chapman, Geoff Moore, Francis Chan, Rick Warren, Crawford Lorrits, Dennis & Barbara Rainey, Dr. Russell Moore, Dr. Karen Purvis, and more share their own personal stories of adoption, foster care, and other ministries that they have launched in their communities or in their local churches and provide resources and information to equip other church leaders and individuals to do the same.

This year’s Summit had over 80 breakout sessions and covered topics such as “How to Reach Orphans in Unreached People Groups”, “Keeping Marriage & Family Strong”, “Building Church Ministries”,  “Mentoring America’s Fatherless”,  “Growing a Heart for the Orphan through Youth & Children’s Ministries”,  “Human Trafficking & the Orphan Crisis”, “The Church as an Alternative to Foster Care”, & “Growing a Church that Mirrors God’s Heart” to name several.   

While listening to the simulcast briefly tonight, one of the speakers noted how adoption is the heart of the Gospel and how often we see Christ’s example of caring for “the least of these” and his mandate to “make disciples” expressed throughout Scripture. He talked about how if every believer and church would take to heart what the Bible teaches about caring for the poor, the fatherless, etc. - there would never be a need for our government to try to intervene in these areas. The speaker noted that once we realize what the Scriptures teach in this area, Christians should be the first ones in line to be a voice for those who have no voice, and to seek to foster, adopt, or assist those who desire to do these things.  It should become “the norm” within the church today.  (I will also insert here that I realize there are scores of other commands equally as important within the Bible to which we are mandated to obey as well, but for the sake of this post, I’m sticking to this particular thought just for tonight)

One thought-provoking question that I've been challenged by recently is "If not the church- then who?"  Let this thought sink a bit deeper into your mind, your heart, and I challenge you to seek what the Scriptures teach in these areas—I promise you’ll find it is talked about a lot more than you may have realized and there is no way to get around Christ's second greatest commandment in Mark 12:30-31 "Love your neighbor as yourself."  That's a challenging command and some pretty big shoes to fill.