Welcome to

the defender podcast, a resource to help mobilize and equip the body of Christ to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services, and I'm your host, Herbie Newell.

Hey there, and welcome to the Defender Podcast. This is Rick Morton, and today is July 17th 2024. Yours truly is actually celebrating another lap around the sun. And so today, for my birthday, I get to enjoy a present with you as Herbie and I had an opportunity a couple weeks ago at the Southern Baptist Convention to sit down with Pastor Greg Mott. Greg is a pastor of Houston's First Baptist Church.

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

you doing? You know what, doctor Rick? I'm great. It's great to be here, And, we have gathered with us pastor Greg Mott, and we were just chatting even before we started. And I didn't tell you this, but I also have not adopted.

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.

Yeah. It takes a lot. Well, thanks, Herbie, and thanks, Rick, for having me. It's such a joy. And, you know, you go back in my life where I felt like as a pastor, we were always talking about how we're against abortion.

Mhmm.

And we are. There's no doubt. And that's a great message, and we we we preach that message. But I started thinking, I want us to be for something, you know, not just against something. As you would see in the news, you'd see politically, everybody was like, well, the Christians are all against such and such.

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.

Good night.

So we were at a place we're looking at, like, I I think it was, like, 3 or $400, 000 that we're looking at going, what in the world? Wow. And it all came from a place in my heart where god laid on my heart. He said this, and this was what I felt like he said. I was praying about adoption.

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.

Well, I remember to that end, you know, the Lord brought my wife and I to Lifeline. She was working at a crisis pregnancy center. We were praying. I was an accountant. We were praying around the table about the women she would meet and the Lord led us to Lifeline.

And we thought maybe 1 day we would adopt. And I I'll never forget. It was 2, 000 and 12. I was actually doing a ribbon cutting at an office in Kansas. And we had agreed to foster these kids for a season.

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.

That's great. Well, you know, I tell our staff, that I'm good at steps 1 and 2 and 9 and 10, and I need your help with 3 through 8. So I have this great idea. And then tell me when give me the microphone. I'll cut the ribbon.

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.

Yep.

It could be occupational. I mean, all these things. And so what we've done, and we we can maybe get to it in a minute, but we've put together an entire ministry Mhmm. Legacy 68.5. And now we have a center called the Oaks that is a holistic care that you can come to 1 place and get parent counseling, kid counseling, occupational therapy type stuff.

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.

You

know, that's happened to these kids. And so watching all of that happen, so now we've put this holistic care thing together. I think it's I think we're 1 of the few churches in the nation that's done it.

Yeah.

And and it's a bit of an experiment. I mean, we've we've only been open for a bit, but we're loving it, and our people are so proud of it.

Oh, yeah.

So proud of it.

Well, it's it's just an amazing gift, I think, to to the community. It's an amazing gift to the church to to to be able to have the church to to be the center point and the hub of the things that that they're doing as an adoptive family in order to you know ultimately to unlock the heart of their child. You know we talk about the fact that, we're called, you know James 127 is really plain, right? Like we're called to care for widows and orphans, and that's that's part of, you know, that's part of gospel intentionality that we're supposed to have. But the reality of the what it takes to visit, when you're bringing a child into your home, I mean we know where this is our, you know Denise and I have lived this, and so to hear what you guys are doing and for us to process and so say wait a minute, like all those doctors and people and services and things that we ran pillar posts for for, you know, for years years years, here's a church that's actually bringing those things together.

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.

I see it as 1 of the many routes we have as a church to do the great commandment and great commission. It's not an auxiliary item. Nobody would say, hey. You have a student ministry? What are you doing taking those kids to camp?

That's that's not a part of the great commission. You're like, what are you talking about? And and somehow, beach camp, you know, retreats, whatever. Just, you know, the fun Right. You're meeting a need of a student Right.

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.

Right.

We've got, I mean, we've got a lot of different ministries and and churches do. But this is this is a this is a people group, if you will, that we're saying, how do we minister to this particular people group? And it's not someone in, you know, across the ocean, but how do we minister them? Well, here's what they need. They need this type of counseling.

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.

People on our lives.

Right? He's not a believer. Yeah. He's he's of a different faith background. Didn't even practice that.

But, he has always always wanted to talk about abortion Yeah. Women's rights, and these these sort of things, you know, women's right to choose. And I'm I tell him often, let me tell you what we're doing. Yeah. And and there's no there's not any, like, oh, that you shouldn't do that.

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.

For sure. And and all those families that are in your community that are adoptive families that are not believing families. That's right. And the fact that this gives an open door to the Church to be able to meet needs that are, you know, really, really tough in the lives of those families, and to do it in a way that we're doing it in Jesus name.

That's right.

And that's an important thing. I think, you know, focus on the family a few years ago, it's probably been, gosh, probably what, 10, 12 years ago now, did, did a study. And and they asked Christian adoptive families, where, you know, where do you want to go for help? Number 1 answer was the church. Yeah.

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.

Well, it's it's our joy. And just to encourage pastors and people, you know, just take a take the next step God wants you to take. You know, we've been at this 10 years or so now, and I I would have never thought we would be doing all this. But you just take the natural next step, and and and we're doing a lot now. And I wouldn't want anybody to hear and feel like, oh, this is that's that big church, and they got a bunch of resources, and, you know, it's really not.

We just 1 day decided to have an offering.

Yeah.

God did something. Then 1 day, we thought we need to we need to hire somebody, and then we thought we need to hire somebody else. Then we had this this empty space in a building was a, where we have this, the the the Oaks, our center. Some it was a church that was donated to our church. It's about 2 miles from our main campus, the Loop campus, and and we had this extra space.

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.

And I appreciate you saying that about the fact that this is this is not about scale. Right? This is not about, and I think we do, sometimes people will look at that and say, man, I'm looking at Houston's first, and we don't have all those resources, and we can't do all those things. You know, like I honestly, I told you I have a little bit of a grudge against you. We we had a we had a moment here before we got went on air that you know back when back when I was serving at Hattiesburg at Temple Baptist Church there was a little bit of an arms race in the church world over animals in Christmas programs.

Yes and we wanted to win that arms race.

You did, you did.

Because Use of time and money to win with animals at church. That's what Christmas is about.

There may be a point in heaven where we discuss that, right? Like, boys, what were you doing? But we, you know, there's a there's a video from Temple of of a of a donkey falling off the platform and, Mary going sailing and and making a it's a good thing she was a gymnast, let's just say that she was safe. But but we did a really hazardous thing bringing a you know donkey, which was also a constipated donkey because we didn't want him making a mess anywhere, into into the worship center and it was all because of Houston's First, because Greg Mott and his people, they decided to have an elephant. And so, you know, we, I mean, if you guys had had a donkey, we probably would have had like a cat and a couple of stray dogs.

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

The smaller animals at the manger scene that day.

Absolutely. That's right. It's like it was yeah, the fringe players that were around, but you know, but the truth is that that I say that jokingly but our church rose up and did an adoption fund. And you know we didn't raise $400, 000 but we raised a good amount of money and began to launch a lot of families into, into foster care and into adoption as a result of, seeing a church that we loved and respected that had a great idea, and we said, hey, we can't do that, we can't do because we're not that, but we can do something. Sure.

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,

it's

taking the next step that God puts in front of you, but you've made mistakes along the way too right? And there has to be a freedom as a church and there has to be a freedom as a pastor to say, we're gonna we're gonna try this Yes. And and take a risk on on behalf of serving those families. Yeah.

For sure. You know, you're never gonna do anything perfectly, and sometimes we want our vision to be so But I I think there's even a better thing to say is, you know, thy word is a lamp, and we're gonna But I I think there's even a better thing to say is, you know, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, and I'm just gonna take a step. He's gonna give me light for that, take another step. And the the the beginning steps are 1 to acknowledge that there's adoptive families in your church.

Yeah.

And there's families that want to adopt in your church.

If you

just take that acknowledgment, take that to the lord, and say, okay. What do we do? Then I think secondly, find your best leader of adopted mom and dad and make them kind of the chairman of the board of that adoption ministry. Say, hey, would you help us with this? Mhmm.

Bring them into it. Because a lot of times, we try to bake the pie as ministers and then serve it on Sunday. Right. Well, I I would rather get some people in the kitchen that know how to bake the pie. Pie.

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.

Yep.

And there's not a dry eye in the place when that mom's up there crying and we just gave x amount of dollars, it doesn't have to be a it could be $500. It could be $5, 000, whatever it is. Adoption's expensive. And do that and pray for them and watch that happening. Or I'll bring, adoptive family.

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.

Yeah.

Maybe it's x amount of dollars, whatever. It doesn't have to build out like we built it out. But if you start doing that, you know, god starts blessing it.

That's right.

From that day when we raised that money, that was kind of the miraculous race. We have never been without, and we've never gone lower than that that amount. I think if my numbers are right, God has always we've literally given money away, and somebody that day has said, well, we we felt led to give this, and it's been the same amount.

That's so cool.

It's miraculous because, you know, god is for the widow and the orphan. Right. And you get on his plan. God's power always follows god's plans.

Yeah. Amen.

So how do I get into god's plans in this arena, if we could say it like that, and then you just let the lord provide for it. And then you just sit back as a pastor or the leader, and you just smile. You're like,

man.

I'm as shocked as anybody. What am I doing on a podcast talking about this?

I don't know.

You know? I mean, it's crazy. That's awesome.

Well, obviously, we've talked about donkeys and elephants and and camels. But, you know, thank you as a pastor though for being faithful for with your influence.

Yeah.

And so

That's right.

The 1 warning about this podcast is the families that are listening may all start moving to Houston because of these rocks. Come on over.

But it

is a need, and it's a need that just to even show you the power of the Lord. We've been praying about for so long. And I was meeting with Tony last September, and she said, let me tell you about the Oaks. Yeah. It's such a need because families are needing that therapeutic care in a biblical gospel centered way because there aren't Christians who are doing this work.

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.

Yeah. I just the long game is what we've gotta be about as believers, and we live in such a short game society. Yep. You know? What's happening today?

What's the news cycle today? What's the 24 hour news? What's gonna happen? Blah blah blah. But to look at that long game, you know, parenting is hard already.

Right. Yep.

Just mark it down. Write it down. You have your own biological children. It's gonna be hard. Now you take, as we were talking about, another child at various ages.

Right. I mean, who knows which age this is gonna happen from various traumas

Right.

From a whole different set of DNA that something is not going well or this we wouldn't be here.

That's right.

And then you put that into a family and we think, oh, well, if we give them a nice room and everything's good, it's all gonna be fine. Just play the long game. Hang in there. Don't put guilt upon yourself. Don't try to fix everything.

You know, the Holy Spirit's gotta do work, and you can get through and be faithful to God Mhmm. And still have a very difficult journey.

Yep.

And I think we have equated faithfulness with God as rainbows and smiles. Yeah. That's right. It's not. I mean, being a pastor's hard.

Yeah.

Being a parent's hard. Being a Christian's hard, and it's probably gonna get harder in our society. So just hang in there. The work you're doing is important whether you can see the fruit now or you're gonna see it later or you're never gonna see it. Right.

Well done, my good and faithful servant. You know? Great is your reward. Right. We're gonna get jewels on our crown in heaven that we're never gonna see on earth, and that's good.

Those are eternal.

That's right.

So just hang in there. Good old perseverance

Yeah.

Is what we need as a Christian. You know? The unsung attributes of dependability and perseverance is pretty good stuff.

Pastor Greg Mott, thank you. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for thanks for the your friendship and your partnership at Houston First Baptist. We love your church. We're thankful for you guys, and thanks for joining us today on the Defender Podcast.

Well, my joy, and thanks for what y'all are doing. Y'all are carrying a heavy load, and we love being partners with y'all and love just watching God use you and the fellowship that we have. And it's gonna take a lot of folks to make this happen. It's not just gonna be 1 superhero. So we need we need a lot of us.

So thank you for what y'all are doing as well, and it's a joy to be on here with you. I can't believe I get to do this. Yeah.

What a joy. We can't either. Yeah.

We don't have that right

either. Yeah. Awesome.

Thanks. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Defender Podcast. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the Defender Podcast to make it easier for more people to find. For more information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, visit us at lifelinechild.org.

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.