Ministry to 21st Century Orphans in America

by Johnny Sweet

These are tragic times in the l ives of children throughout America. From time to time there will be traumatic events such as a hurricane, tornado or other disasters that impact the lives of children and families. There will arise a great response from media that initiates reactions from churches and other entities. For the children who come to Smoky Mountain Children’s Home there are tragedies just as real as Katrina that have traumatized their lives

The violence of abuse and the floods of hopelessness are just as real to them as any child of Katrina. There will not be major network coverage, but the bruises are real. No caravan of rescue personnel will arrive to support the wounded child. No, our children represent those in every community whose storm is behind closed doors and whose wounds have occurred over months and years, rather than a horrific moment.

We are the voice of these children crying to the church for support. I have no doubt that the need for the church to care for hurting and displaced children will grow exponentially as the coming of Christ nears. There could be no greater time to be involved in ministry to children-at-risk and their families. I believe it is the time for the Church of God to redefine and lift up a Godly standard in care for these children.

I awake most mornings thinking about what the future holds for one or more of the children in our care. How can our staff work to give them the best possible options? The initial question then is what is our goal for every child that comes into our care? Do we believe in families? Do we believe that a family is the best place to raise a child? What then should be the goal for every child that comes into our care?

The questions continue with what kinds of children should we take or are we equipped to deal with? How much should the ministry be involved in culling children from our programs? There has been a great deal of rhetoric about severely abused or delinquent children in our programs. I submit that when the church turns away from poor, misdirected, misguided, abused and neglected
children, it amounts to nothing less than “Social Abortion.” What is the responsibility of the church to the poor children that were not aborted? This is the ethical theological question that lies at the heart of this discussion.

The answer may come in properly defining orphan—a child whose parents are both dead or who has been abandoned by his or her parents, especially a child not adopted by another family (Encarta Dictionary online). The Greek “orphanos” which is rendered those bereft of a teacher, guide, guardian (TDNT) gives us the theological position. The Hebrew word gives much the same connotation. The popular idea that an orphan is only a child who has lost
both parents to death neither fits the secular or theological definitions. The accurate argument can be made that every child in our programs is indeed an orphan.

Then we must ask more accurately, “What is the church’s responsibility to the orphaned?” I offer that those that James spoke about are indeed those poor, misdirected, misguided, abused, and neglected children that we are asked to serve on a daily basis. As mentioned, these are tragic times for children in United States. Whether in an inner-city slum, an Appalachian shack, or a rural or suburban neighborhood, children are being neglected, abused, and abandoned in alarming rates near every Church of God in our movement. Our ministry vision is to see the Church of God place workers in position to save every child and family possible. When the trumpet sounds let it be that the Church of God was ministering to orphaned children in America and around the world.