Roughly 600 people came to Southern Seminary to hear about embodying the Gospel by responding to the cry of the orphan at the 2010 Adopting for Life conference at Southern.
Russell D. Moore had this to say, among other things, in an article reflecting on the event:
“On Friday night, the chapel floor here was filled with people on their knees, seeking the face of God, with brothers and sisters laying hands on them and praying. People hugged one another, encouraged one another, and (to that point) total strangers cried as they prayed for new friends.
“I was able to pray with people who are infertile and grieving, with people who are thinking about whether God is calling them to adopt, with people who are discouraged about the prospects of starting orphan ministries. One man sought prayer in repentance for being an orphan maker, having abandoned his wife and children years earlier through divorce.
“There was a freedom in prayer. It wasn’t ‘habbity-habbity-habbity, in Jesus name, Amen.’ Broken people and hopeful people were crying out ‘Abba.'”
This issue of Towers includes an article on the three main speakers at AFL 2010: Moore, senior vice president for academic administration and dean of the School of Theology at Southern; Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, and David Platt, lead pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.
Another story provides a summary of several of the breakout sessions held at the event. The breakouts were largely geared toward practical application, addressing the topics of funding an adoption, nuts and bolts of international and domestic adoptions, ministry to the birth mother, developing an orphan care culture in your church and other issues.
Ronnie Floyd also delivered a Great Commission Resurgence Task Force progress report to the SBC Executive Committee near the end of February. Towers features a first-time published response article by Chuck Lawless, dean of the Billy Graham School at Southern, and a response article by Aaron Coe, lead pastor of the Gallery Church in New York City. R. Albert Mohler Jr. has also written an article specifically focusing on the task force’s recommendations relating to the North American Mission Board.
We were grateful to Andrew Peterson for taking the time to do a 3 questions feature, and to Trent Hunter an SBTS alum who briefly detailed and reflected on he and his wife Kristi’s two recent adoptions.