The Gospel and Foster Care

Project 1.27 helps churches and families in Colorado serve children through faith-based family preservation, ​kinship care, foster care & adoption since 2004. The church is called to preach the Gospel and make disciples. As a pastor, I had to ask myself, “How do those two things go together?”  As a FamiliesCare Manager, I regularly meet with pastors, and this is often a question that comes up in our conversations. So, how does serving families and children make disciples and spread the good news of Jesus Christ?  

First, when we serve families and children, we demonstrate the Gospel to the people we serve and those around us. The Gospel that Jesus preached while on earth is “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1.15). In God’s kingdom, the least is the greatest, the last is the first, and the leader is the servant. It is backward compared to what the world offers.  

When the disciples tried to keep the children away Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). So if the Gospel is the kingdom of God is near and that kingdom belongs to children, the question we have to ask, as the church, is “are the things we are doing, the things we are investing time, energy and money into, are they helping or hindering the children experience the kingdom of God?”`  Serving children who are at risk of being removed from their home or children who have experienced removal gives a glimpse into the kingdom where Jesus will ultimately restore all things.  

Serving children and families is a great way to make disciples. “A disciple is someone who is learning to live with Jesus and love others like Jesus.”  (The Discipleship Gospel Workbook) Jesus demonstrated one of the ways to love people is by serving them. One pastor recently told me, “We want to get out and make a difference in our community; we just don’t know where to start.”  Now, this pastor and a group from their church are trained to walk alongside families with children at risk of out-of-home placement.

​Along with learning the how-to’s of serving as a FamiliesCare team, in their training, they learned about the innate value that all humans have because they are created in God’s image. They knew that past trauma, theirs and the people they serve, does not have to determine their future. God wants to restore and heal our wounds. They learned practical skills in sharing what Jesus has done in their lives within the context of a relationship.  

Serving families and children is not something we do in addition to preaching and discipling. It is not in conflict with preaching the Gospel and making disciples. It is actually a great place to start.

By Brandon Alverson, FamiliesCare Manager Weld County