Churches can begin and deepen their engagement in foster care ministry by focusing on discipleship, leveraging their existing ministries to care for vulnerable children and families, or starting a new church foster care ministry focused on a specific facet of child welfare.
[Editor’s Note: This National Foster Care Month, we are looking at the state of foster care through three lenses – before, during and beyond – to assess what strategic actions make an impact in each unique area. This is the fourth article in that series. You can read the first, second and third articles here.]
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When you look at strategic ways your community can fill the gaps that will make the biggest difference for children and families in foster care, there’s one player that’s equipped and resourced to make a unique difference: the local church.
When the church is finding families for children, rallying around biological families, supporting child welfare professionals, meeting adoptive family’s needs as soon as they arise, and caring for youth who have aged out of foster care, it is living out its true character. And in every stage of foster care—before, during, and beyond—local churches can help lead and provide the relational and practical support vulnerable children and families need.
Most churches want to live out this calling to serve vulnerable people and make an impact. 2022 data shows a growing percentage of churchgoers are hearing encouragement from church leaders on adoption and foster care. The issue is churches often don’t know how to get started with church foster care ministry.
Churches can begin and deepen their engagement in foster care by focusing on discipleship, leveraging their existing ministries to care for vulnerable children and families, or starting a new church foster care ministry focused on a specific facet of child welfare.
Focus on discipleship to engage your church in foster care
The “how” of helping vulnerable children and families actually begins with discipleship. As James 1:27 puts it:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (ESV).
James 1:27 (ESV)
James says pure religion is a life untainted and set apart; it transcends corruption and falseness. It is a life rooted in pursuing holiness and transformation.
But James also says pure religion is more than piety. Pure religion lives in service to others, especially people on the margins. Following the footsteps of Jesus in the incarnation, it opens itself to sorrow to give hands-on care to the most vulnerable, particularly the orphan and the widow – the vulnerable children and families of James’ day.
As churches pursue Christ-likeness and care for children and families in foster care, they are living out this identity of being holy and helpful.
As individuals and congregations, it’s easy to lose sight of one of these components. Our churches must build and sustain commitments to being both holy and helpful through ongoing discipleship.
Tools to disciple your congregation toward foster care ministry
As your church considers its role in caring for children and families, you can use resources from CAFO’s Pure Religion Project to help lay this foundation. From books and courses for church leaders to tools like Pure Religion Sunday to directly invite congregants to get involved, the Pure Religion Project can help your church move forward in church foster care ministry.
Similarly, the Forgotten Initiative has published a free four-part video series and toolkit, Foster Care & The Church, designed to help mobilize and equip churches to engage in the world of caring for vulnerable children and families. The kit includes graphics, discussion guides, resources and videos to see churches in your community engage in meaningful ways with those impacted by foster care.
Leverage your church’s existing ministries to care for children and families in foster care
Your church or churches in your community may feel they don’t have anything to offer vulnerable children and families unless they start an entirely new ministry. But in reality, churches are already full of resources and ministries that can help provide more than enough for children and families in foster care.
Provide relational support before, during, and beyond foster care
Church communities are often built around relational spaces like small groups where interpersonal support and mentorship can flourish. Healthy, compassionate community is essential for everyone involved at every stage of the foster care journey – from biological, kinship, foster, and adoptive families to caseworkers to former foster youth.
As the Body of Christ, churches are uniquely called and resourced by the Holy Spirit to offer this type of connection. Churches can take further steps to equip congregants to navigate the specific complexities of foster care. They can share trainings and resources to equip congregants to recognize and respond to trauma appropriately, helping them effectively walk alongside children and families in foster care. Churches can also dive deep into understanding specific challenges that biological families experience like poverty.
More foundational than any formal program, children and families in foster care need empathetic, faithful community members to walk alongside them in supportive relationships. And your church can provide exactly that.
Connect the dots between your church’s ministries and vulnerable children and families
But chances are, your church’s more formal programs also intersect with the world of foster care.
For example, your church could be all-in on ministry with people who are homeless, providing both crisis support and economic development opportunities like job preparedness training. Many of the people your church serves in this ministry likely experienced the child welfare system. And your church’s jobs preparedness classes might include biological families trying to stay together or get back together – or they could include biological families, if you connect with social services to make these ministries explicitly available to them.
The same is true of any justice and mercy ministry at your church, whether recovery programs, financial education classes, or benevolence ministry.
Connect the dots between what you are doing and foster care – rather than assuming you need to start something new.
As you do, you will build a culture that believes everyone can do something to care for children and families in foster care. Highlighting these points of connection helps people see how the church is creatively involved in child welfare and casts a vision that individuals can be, as well.
Launch a specific foster care ministry at your church
After investing in discipleship and leveraging existing ministries, some churches will identify foster care and adoption as a specific ministry focus and want to start something new. When launching a church foster care ministry, choose a specific lane, like family preservation and reunification or wrap-around support for foster and kinship families, based on the assets and passions God has given your church. Then start with simple projects and programs, start slow, and start small to build a sustainable ministry.
You can also learn from the voices of other church leaders who have built these types of ministries in their churches, letting their experiences and wisdom guide you along the way, rather than feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel.
Living out your church’s vision in the world of foster care
Ultimately, your church’s engagement in caring for vulnerable children and families is a way to work out your calling to love God and love your neighbors – living out the pure religion James describes that is both holy and helpful.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and based on the vision and unique makeup of your congregation, your church foster care ministry will look different than a church foster care ministry down the street.
And that is a good and beautiful thing. No single church can transform foster care on its own.
Children and families in your community need congregations leading and helping to fill the gaps before, during, and beyond foster care. And they need churches that are ready and eager to work with one another and partners across their community, each playing their unique role in moving from not enough to more than enough for children and families in foster care.
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For more resources to help you work with others in your community to provide more than enough for children and families in foster care, explore your next steps with CAFO’s More Than Enough initiative. And for resources specifically designed for local churches, explore the Pure Religion Project.
