God's Step-Children

  I have been thinking about this post for a while.  I have always worked with people who were out of the bounds of  churches.  Not out of bounds of the love of God, but out of the scope of churches. 
  I spent 20 years working with juvenile delinquents.  They usually aren't your first choice - church folks and churches aren't making people who break the law the target group of their next outreach campaign.  Or planning a VBS to reach all the gang members in their neighborhoods. 
  I spent 20+ years working with schools and students.  
While the Harris County juvenile delinquents would never go to Pearland churches, the students would go to a church in their Pearland neighborhood.   
  It seems, that it is easier to get a student to Christ than to get a church to a student.  
  When I review a church budget - which is one of my favorite things to do - I am always amazed at what a church will spend for outreach to a group - that is often within the reach of its members.  And what they won't spend to reach a group who has little or no access to the gospel.
  Think for a minute:  When did your church last address the needs of the poor, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners, the homeless, the oppressed, the lost, the fatherless?  Did they educate you on those people groups that are dear to the heart of God?  What do you know about the needs of those people groups that God loves so dearly?
  Students, either in school or in jail, have always been what I have been passionate about.  And this is what we know:  they are interested in the issues of purpose and the meaning of life and figuring out those issues at this stage of life.  We know that less than 20% of them will have contact with a church or ministry.  We know that businesses spends Billions of advertising dollars to convince this people group to be customers, because they know the value of reaching them when they are young: they will be customers for life!  
  We also know:  God only has children.  No step children.  All children deserve to hear the message of love from their father.