Pastor Greg Matte on Adoption and Community Impact

And we were able to talk to Greg about the church's adoption and foster care ministry. Pastor Greg shared with us his journey from being vocal about anti abortion and really advocating for life to actively supporting adoption as a proactive measure. He is part of a church that has raised up a substantial ministry to adoptive families, providing resources to them through adoption grants, as well as surrounding them in a holistic ministry called Legacy 685. They offer counseling therapy, legal aid, all under 1 roof. Really have a model of the way that a church can holistically dive into adoption and resource their members together.

Pastor Greg emphasizes the importance of taking incremental steps of faith and involving passionate members in leadership. And this was just 1 of the most fun conversations that we've had in a long time. And so today, as we're honored to have Pastor Greg Mott joining us, 1 of the things he talked about is the vital role of community support. And that's exactly what we see in Lifeline's, run for 15 ks. And we invite you to join us on September 7th for this family friendly event that raises funds for vulnerable children worldwide through lifelines of unadopted international orphan care ministry.

Whether you're in Birmingham or joining us virtually, every step supports children finding love, education and hope. The Birmingham race starts at Dawson Church's Recreation Center, featuring a fun 1 mile fun run for kids, as well as the 5 ks. If you can't join us in Birmingham, we want you to sign up for our virtual run and receive a packet to participate anywhere. As a matter of fact, you can get a group of people together at your church or in your neighborhood to run. We love the idea that people are literally running all over the world on behalf of orphans around the world in the Run for 15.

Find out more and find out how to register by going to lifelinechild.org/run, or you can check it out in the show notes. And so, as I said, our guest today is Pastor Greg Mott. He's the pastor of Houston's First Baptist Church. Been there since 2004. He founded Breakaway Ministries at Texas A&M University, which is the largest college Bible study in the nation.

Greg's an accomplished author. He's written books like Salvation to Come, and also Capture the Moment. He holds degrees from Texas A&M University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves on the board of both Houston's Christian High School and Houston Christian University. He and his wife Kelly have 2 children.

I've known Greg for a long, long time through youth ministry and college circles. And it's been such an incredible thing to see him shepherd Houston's First Baptist Church. And take what is a historically strong church, and lead it to greater heights and greater impact for the kingdom. And so hope you enjoy this conversation that Herbie and I were able to have with him a few weeks ago. And hope you'll be encouraged as you and your church seek to care for the fatherless in the name of Jesus.

And so without further ado, here's our conversation with Pastor Greg Mott. All right. We're back again at the Lifeline booth for the Defender Podcast. I'm Rick Morton along with my cohost, Herbie Newell. Herbie, how are

I'm also not adopted, and yet I lead an organization for adoption foster care. And I think it's I think that's important because it really does show it's a biblical call to care for the vulnerable and doesn't give us a prescription of how we care for the vulnerable. And so we're grateful for you and the way that you champion Houston's First to care for orphan and vulnerable children. I'd love for you to just to give us a background on how Houston's first got introduced to this ministry. But also, you y'all live with eyes wide open to know this isn't just a a button down ministry that's sweet, and you can say, look at what we do for mercy and justice, but it's it's tough.

Well, there is a lot of things we're against. That's true. But there's also a flip of of whatever we're against, there's something that we're for on the other side of that coin. Right. And so I just thought, well, you know, we need to really investigate and look at adoption ministry and say, we're for this.

So we began to champion that. So I had this idea. I thought, you know, we've got adoptive families in our church. What if we were to bring them all up on stage and just say, look at these adoptive families. Let them be seen, heard.

This is folks you know that maybe you didn't really even realize that they had adopted children. So I brought them up on stage, and god put a vision in my heart of raising money that day that we would raise money, and we would say we're gonna help fund adoption. And I thought it was kind of a 1 time. We're gonna do this. I didn't think we were starting a whole ministry.

But we raised money, and that day, we we raised these are crazy numbers, but our goal was a $100, 000. We raised 87, 000. The next week, I came back and said, hey. I think there's $13, 000 that you meant to give that you just forgot. And I didn't know this was like an amazing fundraising technique.

You know what I mean? I wasn't trying to manipulate. I just thought, you know, we leave with our best intentions, and and so everybody was like, yes. Well, then, like, I think a couple $100, 000 came in.

My wife and I were praying about adoption. He said, I want you to use your platform to send 1, 000 in your place. And I was like, gosh, lord. That seems so big, but we did that 1 first step, and then it took off from there. And then people were so excited, and it began to develop.

So that's that's the heart that it came from of me really going to the lord and saying, god, do you have for us to adopt? And him saying, I I want you to use your platform in this way. And it just took off for the races from there.

And my sweet wife calls me and she said, we're either called to foster or you're called to lead the organization. Wow. She said, but we can't do both. Yeah. She said, I need you home if we're gonna be able to do this. But it is so important to know what we're called to do and that we're all called to do something even if it's not to adopt or to foster. But also even by that call from my sweet wife, it's hard. It's a hard call. These kids come in with trauma. They come in with hurt.

And and these parents that were commissioning, were commissioning for a lifetime to wrestle with the hurt and the pain. We're inviting someone else's messy into our life, which is what God calls us to do. I love what Houston's First has done. And Tony Steers, a good friend of mine who leads your adoption ministry there. But y'all really are wrestling with with counseling and education and helping these families and these children, not just get into families, but to thrive in those families.

Talk about that heartbeat just a little bit.

And, boy, adoption and foster care, it is 3 through 8. I mean, it is 3 through 8 in, like, boldface 14 font print. Yeah. And, that's the thing people don't really realize that you have this sweet moment. And I've been watch I watched this, you know, as we've done this for years now, the sweet moment of god's calling us to adopt, and it's it's romantic, and it feels so great.

And then there's the moment that you see this adoptive kids now, you know, the next Billy Graham. You know? Yeah. And then in the middle of that 3 through 8 is a lot of counseling. Uh-huh. It's a lot of you know? I mean, it could be physical therapy.

We'll bring lawyers to you. You come to 1 stop shop because people are going all over the city. Right. Houston we we say in Houston. Houston is an hour from Houston. Right. You're always driving in Houston. So we got this 1 stop shop, and that's something we've really had to lean into. And and just full disclosure, I didn't realize that. I thought, you know, my 1 and 2 gifts and my 9 and 10 gifts, I thought, well, we'll bring the people up on stage.

We'll raise some money, and we'll just check the box and everything will be hunky dory from there. And I was like, woah. What do you mean Right. Trauma? What do you mean Mhmm. You know, all the the stuff that's gone through it? I mean, it could be drugs. It could be Right. Who knows what.

But Greg, I think as we as we hear that, I know that there are pastors that are processing all that, and there's there's a little bit of AA0, okay, well, you're like, you're not, are you sure you're focused on the right things? And this really is about the Great Commission and the Great Commandments, right? Like it really is about the fundamentals, and so talk about as a pastor how you lead a church to do these things where you're bringing important tangible services into the lives of people, but you're keeping your eye on the ball of of doing the things that most fundamentally God's called you to do as a church. Yes.

To bring them to the gospel, to have them a place to invite their friends. So we're shifting that. We're doing that for families that are particular families just as we have a single parent ministry.

They need this kind of support. They need we we have life bible study is what we call come our studies ministry. So we have an adoptive family life bible study Yeah. That those parents can get in there together as that people group. And no 1 would say, well, what do you mean you put the 8th graders together? And they all right. Well, of course, we do. They they're 8th graders. They know how to connect. Of course, we put these families together.

Nothing go anywhere they want. They don't have to go to that class. We don't require it, but they they want to. So now they've got these relationships. And then we can do retreat, and then those kids don't feel like, you know, well, I'm adopted. They sheepishly raise their hand, and we're we're who's not like the other? There's a group, and there's a connection, and they're celebrated in our church. So I see it as a great way to reach out. And 1 other thing, it's a great witness. Yeah.

There's there's a guy that, he and I go back and forth. He's everything I'm for, he's against. I mean, you know, he's not a believer.

It's like, oh, wow. And there's there's there's just it's a witness to him. I'm using as a gospel tool to minister to him as well.

But they also asked the question, where do you actually go for help? And the church was almost at the bottom of the list. And so I think you know we're just incredibly grateful for what you guys continue to do as a church because you're just continuing to get into the hard and to get into the messy and press in with those families, but to bring productive services and things together. And the whole goal of that is, it's discipleship. It's recognizing that these kids made in the image of God, that have been adopted into these families that the journey is not complete when they come home to a family where they have a comfortable house or a school that's reliable to go to or bike to ride or a cul de sac to live in or any of that sort of stuff.

That the journey's complete when they when they know Jesus, and they're following Jesus, and they're and they're at the point of being ready to make disciples again. And so and so thank you for the example that they they you all as a church live to, you know, to do that.

We just 1 day decided to have an offering.

We're like, what can we do with it? So we said, why don't we do this? And so we refurbished it, and and everybody just said, this is great. And so then you just take those steps, you know, and to let the Lord do that. But it's it's a joy.

We love it. You know? We have a big special needs ministry too. And when I have parents of special needs kids or adoptive kids come up and say thank you, it's it's worth so much in my heart. And I just I'm so grateful for it because I know that we're making difference in those kids' lives. It's making a difference in family's lives. Mhmm. And our church is so proud, like, in good pride. There's church pride that could be bad pride. This is good pride.

Like, I am so glad we're doing this. And that helps me as a pastor to keep the momentum going in the right direction. And and it's it's just it's it's a lot of fun too. I mean, it's just really great. These are great kids.

Like we would have just done a little bit of a lesser thing.

And so let's step out and do that. And I think, but I think it's a beautiful story of the fact that so much of your you know it's taking the just doing the next right thing,

That's good. So let's get them in the kitchen. Let's get them helping with it, planning out what do y'all need, what's this, that, and the other. Then how do we put some resources with it, some monetary things? 1 of the most fun things that we've done, we'll have adopted families on stage, and, I'll say, you know, here they are, and I'll say now so and so is about to adopt another kid or so and so is about to adopt.

They don't know it, but church, we've got a check for x amount of dollars. They walk over, and I hand them that check. We pray for them. The mom's crying. The dad's shocked. The congregation's cheering, and people go, oh, wow. Because what we say is too let me say it like this. I always say to our church, you don't give to the church, you give through the church. That's right. That's right. So they see giving to the church, but we wanna see given through the church.

I'll you know, Tony, who you mentioned in charge of our our ministry. I'll say, let's meet with the adoptive family in my office before service. I wanna pray for them. And then in my in my office, I'll say, we we're gonna give you a check, or we're gonna help you in this way. And I love it. That's awesome. I mean, I'm a giver. It's it's like, this is the most exciting thing in the world. And so you see that. Your people get excited about it.

It's just 1 little step. Yeah. Maybe you have 3 families in your church. Maybe you do this once a year.

And so they're sending their kids to places where they're teaching them worldviews that are antithetical to the Christian gospel and to the word. And so we need, because we're the body of Christ, churches like Houston's First doing the Oaks, while other churches like Temple in Hattiesburg can come along and support their people and work together as a body of Christ. And that's just so important. Yes. And I love the other thing that you said, because sometimes I feel like I'm good with 1, 2, and and 9, 10 as well.

But in this journey, we need the power of prayer. Yes. And and I'm sure that's been AAA undergirding there at Houston's First. We just celebrated last week the story of a young lady that was adopted from China and was sent to Hong Kong to minister to to Chinese people within Hong Kong. And that yet the middle from the time she came home to the time she left, it was difficult.

It was hard. It was messy. But it's through the power of prayer, the faithfulness of a church, and the the obedience of parents, they were able to to get through that 3 through 8. It was messy and hard. And so just as as we close pastorally, as a pastor who is working with these families that are struggling and hurting, can you just give a word to that mom or that dad right now who's going, I don't know if I can make it through 3 through 8. Sure.

If you want to connect with me, please visit herbynewell.com. Follow us at Lifeline on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child. You can email us directly at info at lifelinechild.org. Beloved, will you allow god to use the gospel to you to impact the life of a child? Please contact us because we are here to defend the fatherless. We'll see you again next week for the defender pipe.