Skip to main content

Engaging the Church in Foster Care Ministry

By October 11, 2024Coaching, Leadership

Reaching our Churches

Foster care ministry involves more than just serving agencies and families; it’s also about mobilizing the church to answer God’s call to care for the vulnerable. However, while fostering relationships with agencies gives us insight into immediate needs, engaging the church can sometimes feel like a slower, more challenging process. It’s often easier to meet needs ourselves than to bring others into the fold. Yet, as followers of Christ, we must not walk this road alone.

Reaching our churches requires purposeful invitations rooted in prayer, humility, and perseverance. Let’s explore how we can cultivate pathways that invite the larger church to walk alongside us in serving the foster care community.

When we engage in foster care ministry, our reasons are rarely due to a single conversation. Perhaps a scripture resonated with us, or a personal encounter moved us to action. This ongoing process of invitation and involvement is how we must think about engaging the church—it won’t happen overnight. We have the opportunity to continually inform and invite others, helping them understand the need and the calling.

In your role, you have given your time, one of the most valuable resources, to help others see the needs of the vulnerable. However, it’s not enough to simply be aware of the need; we must create pathways for our churches to become engaged.

Four guiding principles as we seek to engage the Church: 

Purpose: Understanding Our Role and the Church’s Role

As advocates for the foster care community, we are called to intercede on their behalf before the church. It’s crucial to remember that we are not the Holy Spirit. God has not asked us to fix or solve every problem. Instead, our purpose is to connect the needs we see with the church, God’s Ekklesia, “called-out assembly.”

In the busyness of ministry, it’s easy to get distracted by tasks we were never meant to handle. Jesus, our example, never lost sight of His purpose. He didn’t try to “fix” everything, but instead spent time with those who needed Him most, as seen in Mark 2:17: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

As we engage the church, our purpose is not to take over their work but to act as a bridge between the foster care community and the church. The church is called by God to love their neighbors, and we can help them fulfill that calling by showing them how to get involved. Whether it’s impacting one child or supporting many families, our purpose is to ensure that the church has the opportunity to be part of God’s work.

Posture: Humility in Service

How we engage the church matters just as much as what we do. Our posture is not about physical stance, but about the attitude we carry. Humility is key. When we approach churches, we must guard against thinking too highly of ourselves and too little of God’s purpose for the church.

When we try to do everything ourselves, we may unintentionally convey that we don’t trust the church to engage effectively. Yet, God’s plan includes the church as His instrument for ministry. As we invite the church to engage, we must approach them with humility and grace, seeking to understand their mission and vision before presenting our own agenda.

By taking a posture of humility, we align with the church’s mission and show mercy, as instructed in Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” Our conversations should be seasoned with grace (Colossians 4:5), and we must listen first (James 1:19), understanding the church’s perspective before asking them to join us.

Prayer: Dependence on God

Our efforts to engage the church must be steeped in prayer. We cannot do this work in our own strength. As advocates, we need God’s help to guide us, open doors, and soften hearts. Here are some prayer points to keep in mind:

  • Pray before word and deed to reflect the heart of Jesus with kindness and humility.
  • Pray scripture over yourself, your church, and the foster care community. A fitting verse is 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”
  • Pray for the people in your church who may be slow to engage, and for your own heart when you feel frustrated.
  • Invite the church to pray with you for the foster care community. Sometimes, prayer is the most powerful form of engagement.
  • And continually ask God through prayer, for perseverance.

Through prayer, we can invite God to lead us and sustain us in this work.

Perseverance: Continuing When It’s Hard

Engaging the church isn’t a quick process, and it often takes perseverance. Galatians 6:9 reminds us: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Perseverance isn’t about forcing things to happen but continuing faithfully even when progress seems slow.

There will be times when it’s easier to meet a need on your own than to involve the church, but we must resist that temptation. When we do everything ourselves, we rob the church of the joy and privilege of being part of God’s work. It may mean saying no when the church isn’t in a position to meet a need, but this creates space for them to grow and engage at the right time.

Perseverance in ministry requires us to trust God with the outcomes, knowing that He is at work even when we don’t see immediate results.

Walking Together in Purpose, Posture, Prayer, and Perseverance

As advocates for the foster care community, our role is to help the church fulfill its calling to serve the vulnerable. This journey requires purpose, humility in posture, dependence on prayer, and perseverance. We are not called to do this work alone. The church is God’s chosen home, and we are His instruments to invite them into this important ministry.

Colossians 3:12-14 encourages us: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience… And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

May we walk in love and unity as we reach our churches and invite them to care for the foster care community.

Liz Archambault

Liz’s foster care journey began before she was born as her mom was a social worker for fostering families at a child welfare agency. When she was 11, she decided she wanted to be a social worker too. She lives just south of Boston on the coast and is married to her best friend, Josh. Together, they are biological, adoptive, and foster parents. Liz joined the TFI family as an Advocate in 2017, and it is a joy for her to serve God by combining her love of the foster care community with her background in social work as a coach for TFI Advocates.