Adopt-A-People
How you can strategically impact an
unreached people group.
Discovering God’s plan for your church
• The Question: Which unreached people groups is God asking your church to accept responsibility for?
Term and definitions.What do we mean by Adoption?
• The Adopt-A-People program is a church-to-field partnering program designed to develop strong identification and involvement between a church and an unreached people. Adoption itself is the commitment of the church and its members to see the establishment of a strong and growing church movement among a specific unreached people group.
• This program can go by many names “Focus On A People,” “Serve a people,” “People group partnering,” “ministry partnership”, etc.
Term and definitions.What do we mean by Adoption?
• People Group (or people): A significantly large ethnic or sociological grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity with one another. For evangelistic purposes, it is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.
• Unreached People (sometimes called ”Hidden Peoples”): a people group which has no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to finish evangelizing their community without further outside/cross-cultural assistance.
Adopting a people group is:A way to get directly involved, A way to focus.
• Caring for a people
– Different than yourself
– Who don’t have a strong church yet
– More than just caring for a missionary
• Commitment
– To God’s program for the world
– To an unreached people group
– To do everything possible to see this people reached
Adopting a people group is:A way to get directly involved, A way to focus.
• Involvement
– Directly with a people group
– All members of the church in the lives of this people
• Partnership With:
– Mission agencies
– Missionaries on the field
– Other churches and individuals with a similar commitment
A successful adoption requires
• 1. A champion
• 2. Enthusiastic support of the pastoral staff
• 3. Knowledge of missions and frontier missions in particular
• 4. The involvement of the congregation in all phases of the adoption
A successful adoption requires
• 5. Waiting on the Lord for His direction
• 6. A look at the congregation itself,
– Who you are
– What God is doing through you already?
– What you believe God wants to do through you.
• 7. A partnership with a mission agency and their mission field personal
Getting Started• Not one set way to do this
• This happens in many different and wonderful ways in different churches.
• There’s a lot of room here for a creative person to become involved
• The program normally begins with a church getting introduced to the concept through:– A missionary, pastor, a people group advocate or missions speaker who
brings the idea
– From taking a Perspective Class
– Hearing about the blessing of an adoption in another church
How it normally begins
• 1 An interested person takes up the cause to promote it in the church and in the process become the people group champion to lead the program
– Or this interested person inspires, encourages, and motivates another to become the people group champion in the church
• 2 This champion sees that the foundations for a successful program are present or are developed. Some of these are:
– The pastor and pastoral staff understands and fully supports the program.
– The proper governing structures in the church consider and support the program
– On going education of the congregation in frontier missions and the adoption strategy.
Beginning• 1. Evaluation of the church, what God is doing in it and what He wants to do.
• 2. Relationships are established with mission sending agencies seeking help, information ad guidance in this program including names of people groups for possible adoption
• 3. Contact is made with the AAP assisting agencies seeking information, assistance and AAP resources.
• 4. The concept of adoption is introduced to the congregation at large.
• 5. A list of potential people groups to adopt is developed
• 6. The church consider what kind of adoption it want to be involved in and how.
Determining the people group for the church
• 1. This is determined largely by the church’s evaluation of who they are and what they believe God wants them to do.
• 2. Extensive prayer is given by the church leaders and the congregation based on information they are learning about missions and people groups.
• 3. Consideration of the “bridges” to people groups that exist already within the congregation.
Bridges
• a. Missionaries that the church already supports or may support.
• b. The vision or burden of the pastor
• c. Denominational relationship and loyalties
• d. Mission agencies the church already has relations with
• e. People of other nationalities that God has brought to be a part of the church or live in the vicinity of the church
• f. The country or people-group interests that already exist in the church
• g. The people or nations the church has make contact with while on short-term mission trips
• h. Successful sister church adoption
• i. Occupational or geographic closeness
Developing
• Communicate to the congregation the different stages the planning group is going through
• At this stage a vision building trip to the targeted people group is often helpful
• A “critical mass” needs to develop in the congregation concerning which group is right for them
Formal adoption
• Notify your partnering mission agency of your selection.
• Conduct a formal adoption service.
• Notify the “GAAP net –Global adopt-A-People Network” of your adoption
Recommended parts of an ongoing adoption
• 1. The people-group advocate is formally recognized
– a. with formal accountability to the proper governing body in the church
– b. is the point person for the people-group ministry in the church.
– c. A people-group committee should be formed which would work with this people-group advocate.
–
• 2. Establish a regular prayer fellowship for the group.
– a. The people-group advocate could lead this
– b. This advocate will have current information on what is happening in the group
Recommended parts of an ongoing adoption
– 3 Regularly involve the congregation at every possible level of what is happening in the group.
• 4. Network with others who relate to your people group (on the field and at home)
• 5. Become informed about the adopted people group. Become an expert on everything that relates to the people.
Parts of a maturing program• 1. Recruit other churches to adopt this people group and to
partner with you.
• 2. Send church members on short-term mission trips to minister to your people group.
– This in conjunction with the field missionaries
• 3. Look for members of this people group in the United States--or in your country and reach out to them.
• 4. Send the church's own permanent missionaries to this group.
Parts of a maturing program
• 5. Assist in seeing specific projects begun through the mission agencies and missionaries on the field.
• 6. Raise funds to support missionaries on the field and for their special projects.
• 7. Involve the members of the church. The more the members are involved, the more it will impact them and make a difference in their lives.