EMPOWER

There is a common misconception that foster families are easy to “spot” or pick out within church. The idea that all foster or adoptive families can be easily identified is simply not true.

Educating the church about the real and very alarming statistics of foster care in your community is the first step. Finding ways to educate your church can be a game changer when it comes to engaging foster and adoptive families. It sounds simple, but before we can engage them, we have to know they are there.

Resources like the Children’s Bureau website provide state-by-state foster care and adoption statistics. The Child Welfare Outcomes Report Data Site is an annual report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which includes state performance data and allows users to generate customized reports.

Fostering Hope offers free resources to empower the Church to support different parties in foster care—from foster families and children in care to their birth families and even the child welfare staff. This program provides resources for churches to use in order to educate themselves on how to get involved and become places of hope for all parties. All of these resources can be found with a simple internet search.

Foster care and adoption should be a regular topic of discussion from the pulpit. It should not be reduced to a single Sunday a year or a single event. Share information about National Foster Care Month, National Adoption Month, and Orphan Sunday in your church, through your social media or bulletins.

Recognize those in your church who are fostering or in the process of adoption. Ask if it is okay to publicize their specific needs, the needs of the birth family, or the children. The need is more evident than before with over 391,000 kids currently living in foster care in the United States.

EQUIP

We must educate and then equip our church to engage these families in a way that will make them feel welcomed, supported, and valued.

Equipping the church isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Swapping out “parent”-specific language for “family”-specific language is one of the easiest and most welcoming things we can do. Simple training on how to greet families as they enter the church—such as learning which questions are appropriate or not to ask—and offering these families the opportunity to share what they need from the church can make a big difference.

My own family walked the road of foster care for a year and a half. It was a challenging, exhausting, and emotionally draining time. One of the best ways our family was loved was through people in our church stepping up to become respite providers for our kids—simply because they loved us and wanted to walk the road with us.

Only certified babysitters or “respite providers” can keep foster children overnight or for an extended period of time. When foster families have to travel or are in need of rest, respite care providers are required by law. These can be difficult to find and are almost always too few for the number of families in a community.

Equipping those interested in your church—or dare I even say paying for those interested—to take respite training courses is a much-needed way to engage these families. Providing a list of qualified respite providers along with contact information would be a prime way to love these families in the way Scripture commands.

For more practical ideas, check out the book Everyone Can Do Something: A Field Guide for Strategically Rallying Your Church Around the Orphaned and Vulnerable by Jason Johnson. It’s written specifically for church leaders just getting ready to launch and lead orphan ministries.

EDUCATE

Not all churches are called to have a foster care or adoptive ministry, but all churches will be called to minister to foster and adoptive families.

Empowering or commissioning those within your church to do something to love these families well multiplies your efforts and reach. Becoming or supporting foster care and adoptive parents is essential if we are going to rise to the challenge of James 1:27 and blow these families away with the love of Christ.