Austin Ludwig’s story has long been intertwined with the foster care system. At an early age, he experienced abuse, neglect and despair. After entering foster care, he moved through multiple foster family placements. Instability and uncertainty marked much of his childhood.
But God met him in the form of a couple from a local church who built a relationship with him that would change the trajectory of his life.
“My life was completely transformed, literally, by the gospel. I experienced James 1:27 before I even knew that was a verse that existed. I literally had someone reach out to me in my foster home and visit me in my time of need,” shared Ludwig.
After being placed in a Christ-centered foster home through that same church, Ludwig went to college, connected with a local church and followed a call to pastoral ministry. He now works for Winshape Homes, a foster care ministry that aims to provide loving, Christ-centered homes for other foster youth and equips churches to walk alongside children and families.
Ludwig’s passion for the local church runs deep. “The local church is such an important part of my story … I often say that I saw the hand of God before I saw His face … because I saw the Body — the Church, the Ecclesia — reaching out to me and lifting that veil so I could see the face of God more clearly.”
That act of reaching out to people experiencing deep brokenness doesn’t come without a cost. But Ludwig thinks a deeper reality transforms the cost: Jesus bore it first.
“I think about Jesus hanging on the cross, and it’s the most painful moment of suffering, but somehow parallel to that, it’s the greatest moment of purpose … when churches are embodying pure religion, when they experience suffering or difficult things because they’re engaging the vulnerable, they’ll feel also somehow, in a paradoxical way, maximum sense of purpose.”
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The Pure Religion Project, CAFO’s church ministry initiative, aims to inspire and equip God’s people to live out the “pure religion” described in the book of James and invited throughout Scripture through resources, supportive community and ongoing connection and coaching.
