There are about 16,000 children in need of hope and a home in North Carolina’s foster care system. We believe the local church is the answer.
There are about 16,000 children in need of hope and a home in North Carolina’s foster care system. We believe the local church is the answer.
Churches and families can get involved in foster care and adoption through several ways: praying, giving, learning more about adoption and foster care needs, or directly pursuing foster care or adoption.
Your church can also take practical steps to build a foster care and adoption ministry to support these efforts and the families involved. Here are some helpful resources to get you started.
- Commit to regularly pray for different people involved in the foster care process, including children, birth families, child welfare professionals, counselors, lawyers and judges.
- Learn about the foundational principles of foster care and adoption ministry. Jason Johnson’s “Everyone Can Do Something” is written to rally your church around caring for children in sustainable ways. This book can help you take the best strategic steps for your church and ministry.
- Listen to others’ stories and experiences. Send Relief’s “The Adopting and Fostering Home” podcast provides resources to help address specific challenges that come up in this ministry.
- Help prepare foster and adoptive parents’ hearts as they consider serving in this way. A Bible study can guide families in evaluating motives and expectations and understanding the call to foster care and adoption through the lens of Scripture.
- Provide basic, immediate needs. A duffel bag ministry can supply children with new clothes, toiletries and items of comfort, bringing a sense of safety during a challenging and often traumatic time.
- Build a support ministry for families involved in foster care. Church members can walk alongside adoptive and foster parents by providing transportation, childcare, respite care, meals and gift cards.
Representatives from Baptist Children’s Homes of North Carolina (BCH) are ready and willing to share more about foster and adoption ministries at your worship service, Sunday school or interest meeting.
Visit every-child.org/contact to connect with BCH staff. To hear more about the state convention’s partnership with BCH to care for children in North Carolina’s foster care system, listen to a recent conversation between BCH’s Michael Blackwell and Keith Henry and Baptist State Convention of North Carolina’s executive director-treasurer Todd Unzicker.
by NC Baptist Communications
