Is Your Church a Place Where Kids in Foster Care Truly Belong?
In this episode of the Ministry Architects podcast, hosts Renee Wilson and Brandon Collins are joined by Keith Cureton, CEO of Bethany Christian Services. They explore the urgent need for foster care and how churches and individuals can transform children’s lives.
The Startling, Solvable Need:
- The Core Question: Keith asks listeners to consider how many in their immediate circle are involved in foster care or adoption, highlighting a potential awareness gap.
- The Numbers: Around 360,000 children are in U.S. foster care.
- The Church’s Potential: With about 350,000 churches in the U.S., if just one family per church stepped up, “they would literally provide potentially life-changing support for nearly all those children.” Keith emphasizes this is a “very solvable” problem.
Ways Your Church Can Engage:
There’s a spectrum of involvement, from supportive roles to becoming foster parents:
- First Steps: Pray as a family and “reach out to a foster care program in your area.” Remember, “Kids don’t want perfection. They just want to know that they’re not alone.”
- Support Beyond Full-Time Fostering:
- Offer respite care for foster parents.
- Provide practical help like meals.
- Become a relational support for families.
- Family Strengthening: Support preventative programs that help families before a crisis, as “the best place for a child to be raised is in their biological home if it’s possible.”
Faith & The Call to Action:
- Biblical Mandate: We have a clear call in James 1:27 to care for orphans.
- Embrace Disruption: Keith states, “If we’re really truly trying to follow Jesus, our life will be a disrupted one.” This disruption invites us into God’s work and gives us a story.
- Sacrificial Love: Foster care mirrors God’s sacrificial love for us.
Churches Making an Impact:
- The “Sound of Hope” Story: Keith highlights the movie Sound of Hope, which tells the true story of a small Texas church that adopted 72 children from foster care, demonstrating the immense power of a church community. Check out the movie here.
- Community is Key: “When a community of people come around you, especially in church…it’s powerful and it creates truly creates change in the lives of families and kids.”
Important Considerations & Mindset:
- Focus: “Bethany’s priority is always going to be to find families for children, not the other way around.” This avoids a self-serving approach.
- Goal: Reunification: “The first goal of foster care is to always reunite with the biological parents.” This requires a unique commitment from foster families.
The Urgency – If We Don’t Act:
- Aging Out: Annually, 18,000 youth age out of foster care, needing support to start their adult lives.
- Critical Needs: The greatest demand is for homes for older children and sibling groups (85% of kids in care have siblings in care).
- Consequences of Inaction: A shortage of homes leads to more group homes and multiple disruptive placements for children, adding to their trauma. Michigan, for example, has 8,900 kids in care but only 5,100 licensed foster homes.
Actionable Tips for Your Church:
- Ask Questions: Challenge your church leadership: “Why aren’t we involved?”
- Raise Awareness: Share the statistics and the urgency. Share this episode!
- Lead the Charge: If your heart is stirred, perhaps you are the one to “lead that movement.”
- Research Local Needs: Identify services and gaps in your community.
- Partner Up: Connect with organizations like Bethany Christian Services.
- Educate: Use resources like the film Sound of Hope.
- Clarify Roles: Help your congregation understand the distinct goals of foster care (reunification) versus adoption.