“Faithful to Me,” “Home in the Family” and “What’s a Father’s Like”. These are the title of the three new worship songs that will be released for the upcoming CAFO2024 Summit hosted by Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville, TN, from September 17 to 20. Inspired to reflect God’s heart for orphans and the vulnerable, the songs were written by people who themselves had personal journeys of adoption and fostering within their own families or ministry involvement.
“Throughout history, Christians at their best have been known for their special care for children the world discards,” said Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), a non-profit organization based in McLean, VA, that brings together 250 churches and organizations worldwide that are passionate about the welfare of vulnerable children and families.
“This care reveals God’s character to the world – the One who is both all-powerful and yet also so tender and near to the most vulnerable. We long for the church and all people to know this God more deeply, and worship music can play a vital role in that.”
Emerging from a collaboration between CAFO and The Worship Initiative, the songs are the fruit of meetings between the writers with artists and theologians at The Worship Initiative studios in Dallas, Texas, in February for a two-day retreat in prayer and songwriting.
The new songs birthed out of that time of fellowship seek to help people see God as the Father to the fatherless, referencing Psalm 68: 5-6: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” They will be released to the public on Sept. 20.
“For any believer, understanding God as Father can be such a beautiful thing, but also a hard concept for those who don’t have an earthly father,” said Robbie Seay, Executive Vice President of Leader Development and Content at The Worship Initiative. “For us to look to the Word of God, sing that, and proclaim that, is a powerful thing.”
Thousands of children still wait to be adopted in the U.S, according to latest figures released by business data platform Statista in July (2024). The currently known figure stands at 113,589 youngsters - a decrease from the last record of 133,682 children in 2007. At the same time, 391,098 children lived in foster care in 2021 – a drop from the previous year when 407, 318 were recorded.
Other people involved in the project have spoken of the profound personal effect it has had on their own lives.
The Rev. Stephen Newby, a theologian and inaugural holder of The Lev H. Prichard III Chair in the Study of Black Worship at Baylor University, said the communal experience of adoption for both himself and his church, was “transformative.”
“It was as if the scales were dropped from our eyes,” Newby said. “We became more aware of the simpler things and it changed our hearts. We relinquished our preferences, seeing the needs of someone else as more important than our own needs… [adoption] had a big impact on my life. I became more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in caring about the things the heavenly Father cares about.”
David Gentiles and his wife Emily have fostered and adopted two children at their home in Houston, Texas. A songwriter and worship leader, known for writing “Thank You Jesus for the Blood,” Gentiles spoke of the powerful effect of the adoption issue in his church, First Baptist Church Friendswood.
Some 60 to 70 percent of church members were involved in fostering, adoption and serving vulnerable families, according to Gentiles. He described the experience as “miraculous.”
“It was remarkable, it totally changed the language and spirit of that church,” Gentiles said. “I think when a church begins to bloom in its heart for the orphan, there’s actually this community-gelling aspect – just this supernatural melding of the hearts of that Body – and they become even more unified because they are offering their lives to one another.
“It’s beautiful to see.”
After the general release of these latest songs, CAFO and The Worship Initiative plan to provide a full resource suite available free-of-charge from the same day (Sept. 20) to help equip worship leaders and churches across the U.S. This includes devotions, song chores, charts and lead sheets, according to a news release. The idea is that worship leaders can use the music for Pure Religion Sunday, also known as Orphan Sunday, on November 10.
