Barna Group - Becoming Home: Adoption, Foster Care, and Mentoring —Living Out Gods Heart for Orphans

ZONDERVAN

Becoming Home

Copyright 2013 by Barna Group

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ISBN 978-0-310-43337-8 (softcover)

EPub Edition DECEMBER, 2013: ISBN 978-0-310-43350-7

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Cover design and interior graphics: Amy Duty

Interior design: Kate Mulvaney

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

BY BARNA GROUP

BY JEDD MEDEFIND

BY FRANCIS CHAN, CARISSA WOODWYK, RUSLAN MALIUTA, DAVID PLATT, AND JIM DALY

These days, you probably find yourself with less time than ever.

Everything seems like its moving at a faster pace except your ability to keep up.

Somehow, you are weighed down with more obligations than you have ever had before.

Life feels more complicated. More complex.

If youre like most people, you probably have lots of questions about how to live a life that matters. You feel as though you have more to learn than can possibly be learned. But with smaller chunks of time and more sources of information than ever before, where can you turn for real insight and livable wisdom?

Barna Group has produced this series to examine the complicated issues of life and to help you live more meaningfully. We call it FRAMES like a good set of eyeglasses that help you see the world more clearly... or a work of art perfectly hung that invites you to look more closely... or a buildings skeleton, the part that is most essential to its structure.

The FRAMES Season 1 collection provides thoughtful and concise, data-driven and visually appealing insights for anyone who wants a more faith-driven and fulfilling life. In each FRAME we couple new cultural analysis from our team at Barna with an essay from leading voices in the field, providing information and ideas for you to digest in a more easily consumed number of words.

After all, its a fast-paced world, full of words and images vying for your attention. Most of us have a number of half-read or read someday books on our shelves. But each FRAME aims to give you the essential information and real-life application behind one of todays most crucial trends in less than one-quarter the length of most books. These are big ideas in small books designed so you truly can read less but know more. And the infographics and ideas in this FRAME are intended for share-ability. So read it, then find someone to frame with these ideas, and keep the conversation going (see Share This Frame on ).

Furthermore, each FRAME brings a distinctly Christian point of view to todays trends. In times of uncertainty, people look for guides. And we believe the Christian community is trying to make sense of the dramatic social changes happening around us.

Over the past thirty years, Barna Group has built a reputation as a trusted analyst of religion and culture. We offer cultural discernment for the Christian community by thoughtful analysts who care enough to tell the truth about whats really happening in todays society.

So sit back, but not for long. With FRAMES we invite you to read less and know more.

DAVID KINNAMAN

FRAMES, executive producer

president / Barna Group

ROXANNE STONE

FRAMES, general editor

vice president / Barna Group

Learn more at www.barnaframes.com.

When you hear loving orphans, what comes to mind?

Have you ever considered adoption or foster care? What were some of the factors that went into your decision whether or not to follow through with it?

Why do you think Scripture places a particular emphasis on Gods love for the orphan?

Even if your family didnt adopt or foster a child, what are other ways you imagine you could care for orphans?

When have you seen adoption or orphan care go wrong? What are some fears or negative perceptions you have about it?

How does your church support orphan care through services, support for adoptive or fostering families, or in other ways?

What has caused you to be interested in this topic and this book? What has God placed in your heart that draws you to adoption, fostering, or orphan care?

Adoption, foster care and other ways of aiding vulnerable children represent vital engagement with a critical social justice need. But they also offer a rich theological expression of our relationship with God. So it only makes sense that Christians would be the first to champion the cause of orphans around the globe.

Our FRAMES research shows Christians, in fact, are deeply engaged in this issue. If youre reading this book, you are probably one of those people who are making a difference. Maybe youre an adoptive or foster parent, or a mentor yourself. Or maybe youd like to be, and youre doing the research, praying through the process, and getting increasingly excited about the possibility of inviting a child into your home. Or maybe you support organizations working to serve orphans around the world. Or maybe youre not personally called to or able to adopt, but all the same, youve caught on to the passion of Gods heart for orphans, and you want to help. But for such a great need as this, how does one get started?

Thats what this book is designed to help you find out.

Adoption by the Numbers

If the legal record is any indication, America has come a long way in the past few decades in orphan care. Only a trickle of seven pieces of federal legislation passed concerning child protection, welfare, and adoption between 1974s Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and the Family Preservation and Support Services Program Act of 1993. Over the next two decades, however, almost three times as many bills were signed into law.