How do You Engage Members?

We recently asked some of our foster care ministry leaders how they helped their church members understand the need for foster care and encourage them to attend an Encounter. Here’s what they said:

“At Celebration, I did a lot of one on one with people interested in foster care support. As a church, we have a monthly Encounter scheduled on the second Sunday of each month so that people know we are there talking about foster care. It’s also in our weekly bulletin two out of four weeks every month and on our  website for exposure.”

Lindsey Martin, Celebration Church

“We did/do a number of things to help our members understand the need. We created a video with foster parents talking about fostering. We speak to our congregation on a regular basis. We wear our Called to Care t-shirts. We write blogs, and we set up a table outside of church to answer questions about foster care ministry.”

Stephanie Watts, Mount Bethel United Methodist Church

“My husband and I began fostering last August, so by the time we began our partnership as a church our church family had seen our foster boys. We had also shared the huge need for foster families, respite families and volunteers and how they are all vital to caring for foster children and supporting foster families and bio families! Our foster brothers had to spend their first 16 nights of being in care in a hotel room because there were no families who could care for them; how heartbreaking!

“We also shared foster care facts and statistics on our personal Facebook pages as well as our church’s social media pages. In addition, we had information about FaithBridge at our missions table in our sanctuary, had information in our church bulletin, and showed videos during services leading up to the Encounter sessions.”

Courtney Thomas, Church at the Ridge