Fostering Jesus: Answering the Call to Foster Care in the Home and Church

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Bob Griffith.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-9947-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9949-8 (hc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023909447

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/13/2023

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART 1: SAYING YES TO FOSTER CARE: FIVE STORIES

Chapter 1 Bob and Wendy

Chapter 2 Scott and Kristie

Chapter 3 Michael and Jen

Chapter 4 John and Alicia

Chapter 5 Gary and Patty

PART 2: THE BIBLICAL MANDATE

Chapter 6 Compassion for Orphans

Chapter 7 Empowerment to Care for Orphans

Chapter 8 Equity for the Poor

Chapter 9 The Spirit of Adoption

PART 3: GAINING A GREATER PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 10 Historical Status of Orphans

Chapter 11 Current Status of Foster Care

PART 4: GETTING INVOLVED

Chapter 12 Foster Family Support

Chapter 13 Local Church Pilot Program:

Chapter 14 Local Church Pilot: Evaluation

Conclusion

Appendix A

Select Resources

Endnotes

DEDICATION

I dedicate this project to my wife, Wendy,

for having the vision to care for foster children when I did not.

She is a leader with vision for the potential our family has

to impact the world and how the church can do the same.

She dreams big about what is possible and desires to

see God glorified through those dreams. She makes

me a better husband, father, pastor, and friend.

Ministry is about teamwork, and God gave me the best teammate

I could ever hope for in this journey of faith.

FOREWORD

In 2008, just three months after I birthed our first child, our first foster child joined our family. He was a charming eight-year-old … and we were his seventh home in three years. I worked in social services, and my husband worked in an underserved school where many kids were foster children. We felt equipped and capable of being a Christ-centered, loving home for kiddos who needed one.

Six foster children and another birth child later, we realized how ill-equipped we were! As the first foster family in our church, we lacked community. But as our friends watched us take in kids, they also began to! Soon, our church had to adjust to the needs of foster families—stretching beyond comfort zones and into faith walks. So many churches still lack support and community for families like ours. It’s essential for the body of Christ to welcome these social orphans and learn to love them as God so radically loves His own grafted-in children.

Little did we realize how much this journey of caring for orphans and widows would transform our lives. We thought we were giving the kids a gift, but God was giving us gifts, too. These gifts came through trial and fire but resulted in knowing God as an adoptive Daddy who loves His children unconditionally. I now better understand the tremendous gift of my own adoption into the family of God in a humbling and profoundly grateful way.

I cannot even begin to imagine fostering and adopting without Jesus. He’s our model, He’s our ever-present help, and He’s our anchor. He plans to prosper us and our children, to give us a hope and a future. He is trustworthy. Yet so many believers stay in the safety of the comfortable, never getting to experience the adrenaline and transformation of living His miracles.

That’s why I love this book. Fostering Jesus: Answering the Call to Foster Care in the Home and Church is a call to action. It’s an invitation to participate with God’s beating heart for these children, to live the heart of the gospel. We’ve let the government fail at raising these kids for too long. Yep, it’s hard. So hard. But in the hard, we experience God’s strength in our weakness, His miracles in the messes, and His presence in pain. We get to trade mourning for dancing and sorrow for joy. We get to model what it is to need Jesus to our precious children.

Dr. Bob Griffith and Rev. Wendy Griffith bravely hold up the reality of our nation … homes are broken, and kids need loving homes—Spirit-filled homes.

Don’t read this book if you like living a comfortable, safe, risk-free faith.

Through their own firsthand story and numerous interviews and studies, the Griffiths provide real systems, scholarly research, and solutions used over a decade to help churches be lights in their community through foster care ministry. They offer a positive message about foster care, encouraging pastors, church leaders, and Christians who want to be part of the solution. They answer the tough questions about why God wants us to help children in foster care, why foster care should be a ministry in the church and how to do it successfully, how foster care can help grow the church, and what you can do to help—even if you can’t bring a child into your home.

I know God is calling His people to join His mission. I’m so grateful for the chorus of voices, like the Griffiths, rising to bring attention to this issue. I am inspired by their work, not simply to speak the truth but also to personally live it. Don’t read this book if you like living a comfortable, safe, risk-free faith. These words will call you into the actual heart of God, and you won’t be the same. Let’s link arms and care for these orphans together.

—Marcy Pusey, CRC, CTRP-C

Best Selling Author:

Reclaiming Hope: Overcoming the Challenges

of Parenting Foster and Adopted Children,

Parenting Children of Trauma: The Foster-Adoption Guide

to Understanding Attachment Disorder,

Speranzcya’s Sweater: A Child’s Journey through

Foster Care and Adoption

(Two-Time) TEDx Speaker

Foster-Adoptive Mama

PREFACE

The story of this book begins in our home and tells the story of our lived experience of walking out what the Apostle James calls true religion (Jas 1:27). My wife, Wendy, and I have six children. Four of our children, we adopted; of those, three were in foster care. Our story is one of loss, redemption, and miraculous conformation to what God wanted to take place through us.

Beyond our story, though, this book has emerged from our desire to encourage others to join us in this journey of helping vulnerable children today and not waiting for tomorrow. Foster care aligns with the mission of God as seen in Isaiah 1:17, Acts 6, Romans 8, and James 1:27. The New Testament Church has a history of leading the way with innovative solutions to rescue orphans.

When I asked local county officials in the judicial, legal, and social services sector how the church could help with foster care, they agreed that recruiting and supporting foster parents were the two largest needs. In response to this, and as the heart of my doctoral research, I established and evaluated ¹ a foster family support program at Journey Church, a large church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I served at the time as an executive pastor. As a result, we saw families in our church step out in faith to foster children, which fed into a movement within this congregation and city. The results were exciting to see! After starting a foster family support system in our church, 30 percent of all the foster families in the county, attended the church.

This book tells this story. It provides real systems, scholarly research, and solutions used over ten years to help churches be heroes in their community through foster care ministry. It is for all Christ-followers (from congregants to church leaders) who want to help vulnerable children in their neighborhoods. To access the full research project, see the following link: https://firescholars.seu.edu/dmin/4/

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank Dr. Kent Ingle, the President of Southeastern University, for always believing in me. He is someone who sees the best in others and connects them with what they need to succeed in accomplishing their divine design. He is a great leader and a true friend.

In addition, I want to thank Pastor Rick DuBose, the Assistant Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, for his leadership and for allowing me to serve in the historic process of creating a National Foster Care Network (www.agfostercare.network) that seeks to advance the principles in this book throughout our entire county. His heart, leadership, and vision have inspired me and bring me hope that together, the churches of America can serve the vulnerable and participate in revival.

I would also like to thank Ray Knight, President of 1HOPE TOGETHER, a 501C(3) organization (www.1hope.community). I founded this organization in 2018 in partnership with Pastor Kevin Taylor of Journey Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Under the leadership of Ray Knight, it has continued to grow! Today, 1HOPE TOGETHER is now supporting more foster families than ever before as they partner with churches in their city from various denominations to answer the call of caring for the vulnerable.

INTRODUCTION

A Crisis and the Answer

America has a crisis in foster care, and the Christian community is the answer. Serving foster children is at the very heart of the gospel. Those who do serve foster children display God’s glory and are recognized by the community as true heroes. As Judge Jason A. Rossell of Kenosha County Circuit Court affirms, Other than recruiting more foster families, the greatest way churches can help is to support the foster parent. District Attorney Michael Gravely in Kenosha, Wisconsin echoes this support for foster care: Foster parents are heroes. What they do is heroic every day. The number one way that churches can help is to support foster parents as they care for the most vulnerable children in our city.

A Unique Approach

This book presents a unique approach to America’s foster care crisis. Given that of Wendy and my six children, four are adopted (three of whom were in foster care), we are living this out with real world stories—our own stories and those of others.

We also uniquely present in this book a positive message about foster care—not a behind the scenes look at all of what is hard with fostering children, but rather, we provide encouragement to those Christians on the fence who say they want to foster but are still waiting to decide. Thirty-eight percent of Christians surveyed say they want to foster, but only 1 percent of those do. Therefore, this book speaks to the 37 percent in that gap. The message of James 1:27, to care for the orphans … in their distress is a command for 100 percent of Christians. This book spotlights the ‘orphans’—called foster children—in every community. Though not everyone is called to bring a child into their home, everyone can do something. Thus, this book speaks to all 100 percent.

Third, this book provides a unique approach to biblical church growth in that it answers the how question for pastors and church leaders who want to do something big in their community to change their city in the name of Christ but don’t know where to start. Many churches need to change their reputation in the community and break negative stereotypes after years of inward ministry and church decline. This approach spotlights a top need in every community that is close to the heart of God and that is easy to get off the ground. Surveys show that 47 percent of pastors would put foster care in the top three of their church vision goals if they only knew how.

Forty-seven percent of pastors would put foster care in the top three of their church vision goals if they only knew how.

The exciting news is that more and more Christians are answering the call to help vulnerable children. For example: the Assemblies of God (AG) has gotten behind this mission and has committed to living out the heart of the gospel through foster care. The AG national office has declared foster care a target issue to address in the coming years through