Beginning the Adoption

What factors will influence the selection of a particular people?

Counsel

• Adoption Counseling<> Services: There are agencies who will help you through the adoption process personally. This can be a big help to answer the questions that this program may not answer. The program contains a list of adoption<> counselors that is comprised of two secions. 1.Those counselors associated with mission support organizations that will provide counseling to anyone. 2. Those from missionary sending agencies general counsel in relationship to peoples with whom they work.

• Church Leadership Burden: Does your pastor or church leaders have a concern for any of the variables on this list? In one church, the pastor's brother was working among an unreached people, so the church chose that people for adoption. The enthusiasm of a pastor for a particular people goes a long way in building the enthusiasm level of the whole church.

• Mission Agencies: We strongly recommend that you contact mission agencies for advice in selecting a people. The Resource section of this program lists adoption counselors, missions support organizations and missionary sending agencies, most of whom can assist in this area.

Existing Links

• Familiarity:  It may be wise to choose a people already related to your mission program, or to choose one specifically because you have had no previous involvement in the region--in order to broaden the scope of your mission outreach.

• Language Link:  Identify what special language resources are within your congegation. Such abilities could be especially valuable on a prayer or research journey. One church chose a particular people because they speak Mandarin Chinese, which several of the church-supported missionaries also speak. The hope was that the missionaries could assist, at crucial junctures, in speaking to this people on behalf of the church.

• Denominational Link:  Some denominations are eager to provide names of unreached peoples where they are working, where there are indigenous churches nearby, or which they have targeted for mission outreach. Contact your denominational mission board to see what information is available.

• Local Links:  There may be a local group or church of immigrants from a particular people, or an individual immigrant in your area who might work with you. Such a group could offer meaningful local ministry opportunities to your church.

• Networks/Partnerships:  Perhaps you have links to a congregation in another culture and can partner with them. An enriching dynamic occurs when churches of different cultures can partner to reach an unreached people. Both churches adopt the same unreached people and thereby develop a closer relationship with each other as well as facilitating a more effective adoption. Or you may already have a relationship with a church within your own culture that has adopted an unreached people. You could partner with them. There are agencies who may be able to assist you in finding other contacts.  See Locating<> Potential Networks or Members.

• Near-Culture Missionaries:  Another link can be working through a partnership agency to sponsor a missionary from a culture different than yours to work in an unreached one. Many times this is more efficient, not only financially, but in effectiveness. Similarities in culture and language may accelrate the missionary's orientation and increase his understanding of the new culture. It is wise to consider the implications of a partnership between your congregation and a national church body, national mission agency or national worker.

• Missionary Links:  Your church, as it promotes the concept of adopting a people, can build upon relationships with missionaries/tentmakers which your congregation currently supports who are working among an unreached people. If your church does not have any individuals working with an unreached people, perhaps one of the agencies with which your missionaries are connected have ministries to unreached peoples.

• Business/Vocational Links:  There may also be natural business or educational ties to an unreached people. For example, if someone in your church is employed by an oil company, that person may be able to help secure jobs for qualified personnel in the Middle East among an unreached people. Medical personnel, English teachers, and engineers are often wanted by overseas companies. If your church is already involved locally with teaching English as a second language, members might choose a people where English teachers are in high demand. Some churches have assessed their members' skills, talents, and interests to determine how they might best serve a people. One church identified its largest resources in the areas of computer technology, medicine, construction, airline pilots and teachers, and chose a group which would welcome help in those areas.

Statistics 

• Spiritual Need: Does your church want to go where almost no one has gone before? The hundreds of cooperating agencies and churches making up the AD2000 and Beyond Movement are together asking you to consider choosing a people from the Joshua<> Project 2000 list. This is not meant to imply that other peoples are not unreached, but, that researchers have agreed that the Joshua Project 2000 peoples are the largest ethnolinguistic peoples having the least access to the gospel. A subset of that list is the regularly updated Untargeted List,<> comprising Joshua Project 2000 peoples among whom we have no reported commitment for church planting.

• Church Adoptions: Does your fellowship want to consider a people that no one else has yet adopted, or does it want one which others have adopted in order to network with them? In reality, it is unlikely that your church will remain as the only congregation to adopt your chosen people. A church which is among the first to adopt a people may initiate a network for that people as other churches become involved.

• Size: How large or small a people do you wish to adopt? Some are only several thousand in number while others are several million. All the peoples on the Joshua Project 2000 list each number more than 10,000 in population.

• Religion: Is there a certain religion or sect within a religion that your church wants to target? In the Muslim world, you could adopt Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims or a people who practice folk Islam. Your church may choose either a broad or a specific religious category.

• Location: Is geography significant? You may prefer a people living near missionaries already associated with your church or denomination. If you intend to send a prayer or research team in the future, this could be an advantage.

• Accessibility: Does your church want to send prayer journey teams, research teams, or church planting teams? Many countries restrict missionaries from entering their borders (for example, India, China, or Yemen), but may allow Christians to enter as business professionals (i.e. tentmaking missionaries). One of the major reasons peoples are unreached is because they are inaccessible to traditional ways of presenting the gospel.

• Livelihood:  Does your congregation have a special affinity for farmers, herdsmen, or fishermen?

• Demographics:  Do you want to adopt an urban, rural, or nomadic people? The nomadic Mobororo people in Central African Republic herdsmen have no church or a gospel witness. This could present some peculiar challenges for a missionary, who might have to adopt a nomadic lifestyle in order to reach them.

• Nearby Ministry Opportunities: Your congregation may want to adopt a people with immigrants living nearby so that it can minister both in the United States and elsewhere simultaneously. In San Diego, California, for example, there are over 5,000 Kurds. A church in San Diego might adopt the Kurds both in Iraq, and San Diego, so that they can be involved both locally and globally.

• Resources: It is a considerable task to keep your congregation informed and praying for an unreached people. You may want to adopt a people for which literature about the people is readily available. Your denomination, the Adopt-A-People<> Clearinghouse, U.S. Adopt-A-People Campaign,<> AD2000/Joshua Project<> 2000 Unreached Peoples Information, and others might have some resources for you to adapt for your congregation.

• Miscellaneous factors: Your church may be motivated to work with the poor, or with refugees (i.e. Somalis living in Kenya). One church, for example, chose a group that had refugees in Western Europe, where it could minister freely, since the native country was closed to traditional missions. Would your congregation choose a people that appears receptive to the gospel? Should it focus on a people within a "sister-city" to your community?

Thanks to Bruce Camp and the US Center for World Mission for sharing much of the information which formed the basis of this section. Used by permission. Material first appeared in ADOPTION: A Practical Guide to Successfully Adopting an Unreached People Group. To order the complete manual, please contact:

U.S Center for World Mission
Adopt A People Campaign
1605 Elizabeth Street
Pasadena, CA 91104
Phone: (626) 398-2200
Fax: (626) 398-2206
Email: uscwmmob@aol.com
Website: http://www.uscwm.org

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