How does an Orphan Ministry operate? We are working with our wonderful pastor and his wife to come up with some ideas for how to start an orphan ministry in our church. Since I’ve never been a part of one, nor have I even had the chance to witness one, I am having a hard time explaining how it might function within the body of the church. Also, our pastor is new to the idea of an orphan ministry, yet he seems very open to starting one in our church. So I am enlisting your help 🙂 If you belong to one, or better yet, if you have started one at your church, I need your input! I’d love to hear about how your ministry works, what materials you use (if any), how often you meet and in what capacity. Any and all advice would be SO appreciated!
We have a few more months left at our church before we have to move and I would be positively giddy if we were able to plant a tiny seed in the heart of our church for the needs of orphans.
We have a few more months left at our church before we have to move and I would be positively giddy if we were able to plant a tiny seed in the heart of our church for the needs of orphans.
Check out hopefororphans.com
They have a LOT of info on beginning an orphan ministry and will send you a packet in the mail that is very helpful…step by step guidance on setting up a ministry in your church.
This is God’s heart! For more churches to be involved…Oh Stefanie I will be praying that this will grow and serve the Lord’s purposes long after yall move!!!!!!!!
Stefanie-
We are trying to do the SAME thing at our own church!
Shaohannah’s hope has a resource that I bought from Focus on the Family for $5 called Building A Bridge- An Adoption Resource Guide for Your Ministry.
It is WONDERFUL!
Go to http://www.focusonthefamily.org and search for it.It is such a gem and comes with a DVD you can show at your church as well. The table of contents are:
1. Children are Waiting
2. Building Bridges of Hope
3. Caring for Orphans
4. Planning Your Ministry
5. Establishing Your Ministry
6. Adoption Financing
7. How to Adopt
Please check it out. May the Lord move in the hearts of His people!
Holly
Hi Stephani,
I also feel called to start a ministry at our church.I have been researching it but haven’t approached our staff at church yet. I Ordered a booklet called “Launching an Orphan Ministry in your church” from Familylife Today. It gives step by step instructions on how to do this. It also has a DVD with it. In the back is a list of churchs with Orphan ministries in place that you can contact. It is really informative.(www.familylife.com)(Hope for the Orphans vision-casting DVD) Focus on the Family, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Familylife formed a group called “Cry of the orphan” or something like that. You can also get on Shoahannah’s Hope and their is info there. Hope this helps.
Melissa in Mo
We have started an “adoption fellowship” at our church with the hopes that eventually it will become an “orphan ministry”. I believe that if we get enough like-minded people together, those that have a heart for orphans, there’s really only one place we’ll be led—to help orphans!! :o)
We’ve only had a couple of meetings so far…but I’m really excited about what I can “see” will happen.
I guess what I wanted to say was just let the Lord lead you! He’ll let you know what He wants you to do and how to do it! Don’t get tripped up by the “how to’s”. :o) Just plod forward!!
Blessings,
Jenn
Love this idea, Stefanie!!
I have no experience with this whatsoever, but sometimes that’s a good place to start brainstorming…no preconceived notions.
What about initiating various “drives” (monthly? quarterly?) through your church for items such as clothing, food, medical items, etc. & distributing the items to orphanages in need through an agency/organization (e.g. Lifeline, LWB, Half the Sky or any other reputable one)?
Just a thought…
I was sooo excited to see your post today. There is no doubt in my mind that God is moving His churches BIG TIME when it comes to the fatherless. My husband and I are in the process of starting an Orphan’s Ministry at our church and we have 3 other friends who are doing the same in their churches. I would love to share with you what we have come up with so far (a good starting point). I am SOOOOO excited to see what the Lord has in store…it’s something big…that I know for sure. You can email me at wearechinabound@gmail.com.
Blessings, stacy
http://www.mycupoverfloweth.blogspot.com
I picked up a book recently called
Launching an Orphans Ministry in your church! It is written by Jason Weber with Paul Pennington and it is through FamilyLife Publishing. http://www.familylife.com
I can’t help you with any tips or ideas, as we are also trying to figure it out on our end! So glad you posted about it though, would love to hear some thoughts and ideas!
I was considering this a short time ago and actually ordered some free material from Steven Curtis Chapman’s site. I can’t remember if it is from his site or the Shohannah’s Hope site but you should be able to find it ok through either. It has great ideas and talks about many different ways people can help. What a wonderful thing you are doing!!
Oh Stef, This is so wonderful. I don’t have any practical advice but WOW! I am so impressed.
We used Family Life’s materials and highly recommend them.
We also just launched a website, which is still a bit of a work in progress but you are welcome to visit: http://www.onesuchchild.com.
Love,
Rebecca
We have started one at our church and I used information from Shaohannah’s Hope website. Our staff was on board and we still have some work to do to get it going. We are incorporating Covenant Care Ministries in this endeavor as well because they work with birth mothers in the area and we do not want them to be forgotten as they made a huge sacrifice to give their children for adoption so they could bless the life of another family. We wanted to include them in at least our prayers and maybe even in other things. We haven’t gotten that far yet. Our primary goal for this ministry was to encourage those in our church who had adopted and families seeking adoption to have a place to come and learn more. We are also starting a fund to help families financially. Best wishes on this endeavor!
What a great question…I’ve been praying about approaching our pastor with this idea as well. I can’t wait to read everyone’s responses!
Contact Kim at the Seventh Diamond blog too—she might have ideas:)
This is a great idea–you have planted a seed….
On January 20th of this year, Sanctity of Life Sunday, we launched an Orphan’s Ministry at our church. We followed the guidelines from the book “How to Start an Orphan’s Minstry at Your Church”. We ordered all materials at Family Life Today. Please check us out at http://www.calvarychurch.com. We are on the front page and we are called H.O.M.E. (Hearts for Orphans Ministering for Eternity). Please contact any of the leaders listed on the site if you have questions. We are located in Charlotte, NC. We are sending some of our leaders to Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit in FL on May 1-3. It would be a great conference for you church leaders to attend before launching. There are several breakout sessions to help you get started. Many blessings to you as you reach out to help these precious children.
That picture just melts and breaks my heart….. oh, how I long to be able to start our journey to bring our daughter home….
Thank you so much for doing this. I will be praying for you and this ministry.
Oh I love that you’ll be involved in this Stef, so up your alley… looks like you’ve gotten some good advice too!
I too am in process of starting an adoption ministry at our church. My vision is to create a strong community among the adoptive families in the church and within the community. Then I hope to see passions and ministries birth out of that network…one being an orphan ministry….that way non adoptive families could get involved. I havent’ read it yet, but I have Laura Christianson’s book called the Adoptive Network. I also have found Kingdom Kids Ministry http://www.kingdomkidsadoption.org/ very helpful. They adopted like 12 kids! I also contacted a lot of churches around the country. Everyone does it different so you have to figure out what will fit your church and culture. Good luck!
Oh! I’ll be watching this process carefully as you go – I’m trying to figure out how to possibly instigate such a ministry in our church. Coool!
http://www.kingdomkidsadoption.org has a resource available called “Developing a Church Adoption Ministry”
Section 1:The Value of Children
Section 2:The Biblical Basis for Adoption
Section 3:Adoption and Your Local Church
Section 4:Developing an Adoption Support Group
Section 5:Common Concerns and Considerations about Adoption
Section 6:How to get started in Adoption
Section 7:Large Family Considerations
Section 8:The Alliance of Christian Adoption Ministries
Section 9:Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries Information
The Gardners have 12 children-3 bio, 1-China, 1-Russia, 1-India, and 6-Ethiopia.
Blessings,
Cheri
Stefanie,
Holly is a great friend of mine and she sent me a link to your question. Lifesong for Orphans has helped numerous churches launch Church Adoption Funds (grants & loans) for Christian families wanting to adopt but feel a financial barrier. Also we help Churches launch an “adopt-an-orphanage” sponsorship with orphanages in Ukraine, Zambia, and India.
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/helpOrphan.html
Also – I would encourage & invite ANYONE interested to the Orphan Summit May 1-3 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL – the main purpose is to EQUIP churches to do Orphan Ministry — http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org
Andy Lehman
Lifesong for Orphans