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Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches Paperback – October 31, 2015
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The doctrine of adoption―God’s decision to adopt sinful men and women into his family―stands at the heart of Christianity. In light of this, Christians’ efforts to adopt beautifully illustrate the truth of the gospel. In this popular-level and practical manifesto, Russell Moore encourages Christians to adopt children and to help other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who have struggled to have children. Rather, it’s about an entire culture within evangelicalism―a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrossway
- Publication dateOctober 31, 2015
- Dimensions6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101433549212
- ISBN-13978-1433549212
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“Russell Moore has given the church a God-centered, gospel-saturated, culturally-sensitive, mission-focused, desperately needed exploration of the priority and privilege of adoption. Readers will find themselves laughing on one page, crying on the next, and ultimately bowing before God thanking him for adopting them into his heavenly family and considering how to show his love to the fatherless on earth.”
―David Platt, Pastor, McLean Bible Church, McLean, Virginia; Founder, Radical; author, Don’t Hold Back
“Adopted for Life is one of the most compelling books I have ever read―both deeply touching and richly theological. You will never look at adoption or the gospel in quite the same way after reading this book. How could the church have been missing this for so long?”
―R. Albert Mohler Jr., President and Centennial Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“Personal, practical, and rich in theology, this book is a ‘must-read’ for anyone interested in adoption. Dr. Moore reveals the love of God through the redemptive beauty of adoption. Whether your interest is personal or church related, this book is for you.”
―Kelly Rosati, Vice President for Community Outreach, Focus on the Family
“Anyone who has adopted, who is considering adoption, or who has been adopted should read Adopted for Life. And anyone who wants to a get a glimpse of the greatness of the Father’s love for him or her should read it as well.”
―Thom S. Rainer, President and CEO, LifeWay Christian Resources
“This book is for all who have been adopted by God. Moore illumines the beauty and wonder of our adoption in Christ and its profound implications for orphan care. If you want to deepen your worship of the God who adopts, Adopted for Life will serve you exceptionally well.”
―Dan Cruver, Director, Together for Adoption; author, Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father
“This book offers both practical advice and courage to every couple considering adoption. For all readers, it shows how the act of adoption actually reveals core truths about the gospel of Christ.”
―Allan C. Carlson, President, The Howard Center for Family, Religion, & Society; Founder and International Secretary, the World Congress of Families; Distinguished Visiting Professor of History, Hillsdale College
“Dr. Moore draws on his family’s own experience with adoption to help others understand that by adopting orphaned children we can grow in love of God and neighbor and come to appreciate more deeply our own adoption into the family of God.”
―Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University
“I know of no other book so biblically rich, so very practical, and so authentic and heart-felt about the beautiful gift of adoption as this one. It’s a powerfully insightful book of how adoption is a beautiful act of love and mission for the gospel. I pray that God uses it to encourage and impact many, many lives.”
―Dan Kimball, Pastor, Vintage Faith Church; author, They Like Jesus but Not the Church
“Russell Moore has out of personal experience and with biblical accuracy produced in this work an understanding of God’s purposes in adoption and its connection with gospel compassion. Every pastor should consider the responsibility he has in making adoption a priority for the church as a viable representation of the gospel doctrine of adoption.”
―John MacArthur, Pastor, Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California; Chancellor, The Master’s University and Seminary
“Russell Moore invites readers to learn to think of adoption in the light of Christian faith. This is a book not only for those who have adopted, those who may adopt, or those who have been adopted, but for all who know themselves to have been freely adopted by God’s grace.”
―Gilbert Meilaender, Duesenberg Professor in Christian Ethics, Valparaiso University
“Adopted for Life is a well-written rooting of adoption in biblical theology. Moore shows how churches should view adoption as part of their mission and the difference it would make if Christians were known as the people who take in orphans and make them sons and daughters.”
―Marvin Olasky
“The care and honesty Russell Moore demonstrates throughout Adopted for Life should inspire every believer to consider God’s heart for children without a family. Just like a parable of Christ, adoption provides a lost world the powerful picture of God’s personal love for his children. The church must take the lead in caring for orphans and at-risk children, so that adoption is once again united with the gospel.”
―Mark A. Tatlock, Provost and Senior Vice President, The Master's College
“God is working to bring revival and revolution to his church through orphan ministry, and this book is a must for those who will receive his invitation to consider a fatherless child or simply love them through missions.”
―Paul Pennington, Executive Director, Hope for Orphans
“Russell Moore’s life has validated every word he has written. In this book he speaks from his heart, mind, and life to ours about the possibility of incarnating adoption as a fleshed out reality in the world of our own families.”
―Michael Card, musician; Bible teacher; author, A Better Freedom
“Russell Moore challenges Christians to an aspect of Christ’s lordship that many have never considered. His remarkable way of putting our salvation into the context of being adopted into God’s family brings a new perspective on being the recipient of undeserved mercy and grace.”
―Jerry Rankin, President Emeritus, Southern Baptist International Mission Board
“James offers this injunction to the early church: ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world’ (James 1:27 KJV). Russell Moore offers a compelling account of these and other lessons of Scripture so that our communities of faith may put them into practice and become more like that ‘shining city on a hill.’”
―Francis J. Beckwith, Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy, Baylor University
About the Author
Russell Moore (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is public theologian at Christianity Today and director of Christianity Today’s Public Theology Project. He is a widely-sought commentator and the author of several books, including The Kingdom of Christ; Adopted for Life; and Tempted and Tried. Moore blogs regularly at RussellMoore.com and tweets at @drmoore. He and his wife, Maria, have five sons.
President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
Product details
- Publisher : Crossway; Enlarged edition (October 31, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1433549212
- ISBN-13 : 978-1433549212
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.66 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #122,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #68 in Adoption (Books)
- #398 in Christian Social Issues (Books)
- #619 in Christian Family & Relationships
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
C.J. Mahaney serves as the Senior Pastor for Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. He is the author of Living the Cross Centered Life; Humility: True Greatness; Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God; Don’t Waste Your Sports; and the editor of Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. C.J. and his wife, Carolyn, have three married daughters, one son, and twelve grandchildren.
Russell Moore is Editor in Chief of Christianity Today and is the author of Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America (Penguin Random House).
He also hosts the weekly podcast The Russell Moore Show and is co-host of Christianity Today’s weekly news and analysis podcast, The Bulletin.
The Wall Street Journal has called Moore “vigorous, cheerful, and fiercely articulate.” He was named in 2017 to Politico Magazine’s list of top fifty influence-makers in Washington, and has been profiled by such publications as the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, The Atlantic, and the New Yorker.
An ordained Baptist minister, Moore served previously as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and, before that, as the chief academic officer and dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also taught theology and ethics.
Moore was a Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and currently serves on the board of the Becket Law and as a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum in Washington, D.C.
A native Mississippian, he and his wife Maria are the parents of five sons.
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Adopted for Life is primarily a work of theology, using the doctrine of adoption as a framework for the book. Moore uses the idea that we, as Christians, have all been adopted into a family, leaving behind the filthy orphanages of the world and becoming heirs of the living God.
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Galatians 4:4-7).
Since we are no longer orphans but sons, Christians should have an especially sensitive heart for the orphans in the world. We are told to care for the widows and orphans as an act of justice. This focus is the one in Moore's book, not telling us the best agencies or the most accommodating countries for adoption. We should adopt mainly because we were adopted.
Our worldview leads us into being a part of families and churches where adoption should be the norm, not the exception. Who more should care for the fatherless than the ones who were once themselves fatherless and homeless?
In addition to the powerful content, Adopted for Life is creatively written. Moore has a readable style that is concrete and vivid, funny, and honest. I feel like I know this man after reading this, or, at least, I feel like I want to know him more. Because of this, I highly recommend this, wherever you are in thinking about adoption.
As soon as I closed the book, I was online looking into agencies to see what God has for us because I am grateful to no longer be in the "cosmic orphanage."
What this book does so well is intertwine Moore's own experience of adopting two boys from Russia with theology about adopting. There is a stigma about adoption especially for those who are struggling to conceive naturally. There is a sense that an adopted baby is not really `yours'. Moore bluntly asks one couple who he was counselling whether their reticence to adopt was because they wanted to propagate their DNA rather than be parents. Moore himself has felt the discrimination of adoption when he was `told' that he must of course be proud of his son. When the inquirer was told he was proud of all his sons, the reply was, `but especially Sam as he is your own flesh and blood.'
While Moore touches us with his own story, and educates us with a theology of adoption, he also challenges us both individually and as a `Church' to consider adoption. Moore writes Adoption would become a priority in our churches if our churches themselves saw our brotherhood and sisterhood in the church itself rather than in our fleshly identities.
While millions of dollars a year are spent on IVF treatment, babies lie languishing in orphanages around the globe. For the cost of one IVF treatment, which may or may not work, a couple could adopt TWO children and give them homes filled with love.
Moore's challenge is: [what would it mean if ]our churches and families were known as the people who adopt babies - and toddlers, and children and teenagers. What if we as Christians were known, once again, as the people who take in orphans and make of them beloved sons and daughters?
Highly Recommended.
There are plenty of "how-to" books regarding adoption. There are plenty of books describing the great need for adoptive families felt by orphans all over the world. There are plenty of books examining the theological doctrine of spiritual adoption. This, to the best of my knowledge, is the only book that combines these three in a manner that shows how these issues absolutely cannot be separated.
Russell Moore is a professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, but he writes this book as both an adoptive father and an adopted son of our Heavenly Father. His book argues that the Bible does not draw any lines between theological adoption and practical adoption, so Christians should not, either. The Bible tells us over and over what it means to be adopted into the family of God, as sons of the Father and co-heirs with Christ. It also tells us that pure & undefiled religion requires the care and rescue of orphans, just as Christ did not leave us as orphans.
Moore does not assert that all Christian families are called or equipped to adopt, but he DOES assert that EVERY Christian has a responsibility to be involved in adoption, whether through becoming adoptive parents, helping others to adopt, or working to create and/or support an adoption ministry in the local church. After reading this book, I am 100% convinced that this is absolutely true. After your Bible, I don't know that there is a more important book that I could commend to you than this one.
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