I was recently told I preached the best 3 minute sermon ever. I’ll title it “What makes us clean”. Let me set it up for you.

I was sitting at my desk, diligently working on something of vast import, I’m sure, when a co-worker introduced me to his visitor. “Nathan is our resident foster care expert and runs Spokane127, based on James 1:27, the verse that talks about taking care of orphans, and that second half of the verse no one ever talks about.”

“I talk about it,” I quickly corrected him. “I have lots of thoughts about it. Would you both like to hear them?” They affirmed they would, so I sat right there at my desk and shared this message with them.

So in the Old Testament, there are all these laws and regulations about ceremonial cleanliness: what makes one ceremonially unclean, mostly things like leprosy and diseases, blood, dead things, etc. Touching any of these things renders one unclean for a time and the priests and people were required to perform certain washings before they could enter or serve in the temple again.

I think this is why the priest and the Levite in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan passed by on the other side of the road. They didn’t want to disqualify themselves from whatever service they were heading towards. They had a task, a ‘higher calling from God’ to serve somewhere and needed to make sure they could keep that appointment.

Now compare this to Jesus. HE comes on the scene, is constantly interrupted, and often by ‘unclean people’ wanting to be healed. Jesus touches them, and they become clean. He doesn’t become unclean; rather, they become clean. He touches the leper and he becomes clean. Same with the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus makes them clean; they don’t make Him unclean.

So then, what makes us clean?

Look again at James 1:27

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

I think there is a temptation in the Church to read that second part like the priest/Levite in the Good Samaritan story might. “Stay away from the world, so as to not become stained, corrupted, unclean. We don’t want to disqualify ourselves from the work God is calling us to.” But that is not what makes us clean. Jesus makes us clean. And that is not our calling, to just ‘stay clean’. There is a reason those two things are together in that verse. Both are important. Let’s remember what (really WHO) makes us clean, so we can visit the orphan and the widow in their affliction. We can step into the chaos and mess of the vulnerable that God calls us to serve with confidence. We meet them where they are, bringing the light and life of Jesus with us, not only staying clean ourselves, but also inviting them to be cleansed as well.

We need this mindset in the ministry of foster care as much as (if not more than) any other ministry. The trauma, instability, desperate cries for connection in the form of poor behaviors, and all the other possible issues that come from the wounds in the world of foster care

Church, let’s step into the chaos of this world boldly, without fear, trusting and looking to Jesus to keep us clean as we bring His healing to the world.

I recently read in my time with God:

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Prov. 31:8-9).

So here I go; Foster Care in Spokane needs YOU! Maybe you’ve already heard. Maybe it’s news. Here’s the truth – Hundreds of kids in our city, through no fault of their own, currently live without stable, loving adult care. And God’s Church is uniquely positioned to provide that exact thing.

Yes. God’s CHURCH. Not that amazing couple sitting next to you on Sunday or the kind social worker you met at Retreat. I mean YOU (and the cool couple and the sweet social worker) and every other person in the Church. God calls His people to action. James 1:27 (Spokane127‘s namesake) boldly states “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

For now, let’s focus on the first half of this verse. (I promise to share some juicy nuggets on the second half in an upcoming post.) Religion our God accepts is to VISIT the orphan and widow. I wonder why this is “acceptable” to Him? Maybe it feels very familiar to Him? If I step back and compare, it looks VERY similar to what He did, visiting us in the incarnation. Us being orphans. Widows. Spiritually. Without much hope. He didn’t chose to stay distant. Sending care from afar. Throwing money at the situation. He entered into our chaos. Into the midst of it. In. To serve. Got WITH us.

THIS is what He asks of us. To serve. To visit. Not from a distance. WITH.

So, Church, it is time to visit the world of the orphan. It’s time to find your manger. Engage! “But, how?”, you ask?

How to VISIT Foster Care:

There are so, so many ways!

Maybe you say, “There is just no way to open up my home and foster a child right now.” That’s OK! The great news is God doesn’t call everyone to foster. (If He IS calling you to foster, we’re here for you! Give us a call!) He DOES, however, call us all to do SOMETHING. Spokane127 is here to help you FIND and DO your something.

There’s a T-shirt I often wear around town- “Adopt & Foster & Mentor & Support & Advocate & Volunteer & Pray.” I love it because it paints a the great picture. Just like the Body of Christ isn’t all eyes (see 1 Cor 12:17-20), the way we serve within foster care isn’t either. Here’s a tip-of-the-iceberg list:

-Advocate for the needs of kids in foster care in your local church. (Maybe start by wearing your own t-shirt at church. ;))

–Volunteer to drive for DCYF. They REALLY need the help!

-Personally cheer-lead a social worker who serves Spokane kids in care, through our Social-LIGHT program.

-The NUMBER 1 BIGGEST way to support foster care, the kids, the families, the whole system, is PRAYER. Pray for them every week. Commit to it. Make a calendar reminder with an alarm.

Here at Spokane127, we dedicate time weekly for foster care prayer. Host your own prayer meeting at church, small group, with your family, or solo. As you lift up the needs of these precious kids, their fragile families, and all those who support them, and who are affected by foster care you’ll begin to see God’s heart and your place in serving them.

Our site is a great source for ideas, prayer guides, and information. Start with prayer. End with prayer. And pray throughout the middle. THAT is the #1 way the Church can support Foster Care.

And look for me around town in my T-shirt. I’ll be looking for yours.

Everyone can do something to make a difference for children and families in foster care. The story of Sound of Hope tells the inspiring story of how one church mobilized to care for and adopt children in foster care who couldn’t safely return to their biological families. 

In Spokane, there are incredible churches, organizations, and advocates working to care for children and families before, during, and beyond foster care. Some of them are working to provide adoptive families for children who need them (like the children in Possum Trot). Some are working to keep biological families together so kids never enter foster care, or to rally around these families as they seek to reunite with their children. Others are stepping up to serve as foster families, providing kids with a safe, temporary home. And others are providing relational and practical support for all of these families—including foster, kinship, adoptive, and biological families—and for former foster youth. 

When the church is finding families for children, rallying around biological families, supporting child welfare professionals, meeting adoptive family’s needs as soon as they arise, and caring for youth who have aged out of foster care, it is living out its true character. And in every stage of foster care—before, during, and beyond—local churches can help lead and provide the relational and practical support vulnerable children and families need.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and based on the vision and unique makeup of your congregation, your church’s engagement in foster care will look different than a church down the street. 

And that is a good and beautiful thing. No single church can transform foster care on its own. 

It would be a privilege to walk alongside you and your church as you explore how your church is uniquely called and equipped to love our neighbors in foster care. We invite you to learn more, specifically about how you can be a light to social workers in Spokane, to support and encourage them as they serve kids and families like the ones you saw in Possum Trot. It would be a privilege to connect you to these hard-working, tenderhearted servants. Click here to sign-up and we’ll answer all your questions and help you get started.

On Trauma and Difficult Behaviors

Some of the children in the movie exhibit difficult and confusing behaviors—fear around bath time, sudden outbursts of anger, communicating as a cat, etc. While these may not “make sense” at first glance, these types of unexpected behaviors often occur when children have experienced trauma. 

Any child in foster care has experienced trauma in the form of having to be separated from their biological family. In addition, experiences that lead to foster care like neglect or abuse are often traumatizing. Trauma impacts the development of the brain and can create coping mechanisms and behaviors that may seem bewildering to outsiders. These patterns of behavior are actually natural responses to abnormal circumstances. It is important to be aware of this reality when considering fostering or adopting, and to be ready to learn new parenting strategies and skills that support the specific needs of children who have experienced trauma. Those of us walking alongside children and families in a supportive role also need to be ready and willing to learn how to navigate the effects of trauma.

But we shouldn’t let trauma have the last word or reduce a child’s identity to the hard things they have experienced. Local agencies and organizations are often connected to simple practices and specialized tools that can help you navigate and respond to trauma. Healing is possible, and as the people of God, we are called to wisely move toward people who are hurting—not away. Spokane127 has a Trauma Training that we offer to churches and their children’s ministry volunteers to help them better understand how they can care for kids coming from hard places. Contact us to find out more about how you can take advantage of this free resource for your children’s ministry team and volunteers.

On Biological Family

Foster care is designed to be temporary. Whenever possible, the goal is to provide foster families for children while their biological families make the changes needed to be able to safely reunify with their children.

In the case of Possum Trot, the community was facing an urgent shortage of families willing to care for and adopt children who couldn’t be reunited with their biological families. In particular, there was a shortage of families willing to adopt older children and teens who needed permanent families. 

As a result, this movie focuses on how a community came together to meet that specific need through adoption. It doesn’t tell the detailed stories of what happened in these children’s biological families, or why reunification wasn’t possible. Nor is it trying to reflect what foster care looks like at all times and in all communities, or what specific solutions will look like in every community. 

On Parenting

Some of the foster and adoptive parents in the movie were struggling, and they weren’t always at their best. If you are a parent, you’ve probably done and said things you’ve regretted when you aren’t at your best, too. And the strain and stress of being a foster and adoptive parent is uniquely intense. 

This is one of the reasons community support for foster and adoptive families, like the support we saw towards the end of the movie, is so important. This type of support keeps foster and adoptive parents in healthier places where they can respond effectively to the challenges parenting brings their way—just like support from your friends and community can make a difference when you’re in hard parenting seasons. 

Simultaneously, it’s important for foster parents and social workers to watch for the signs that families are reaching a point where they can’t effectively care for children, so families can take a break from fostering for a season or get additional support if they need it.

On the Child Welfare System

Child welfare professionals bear one of the most important responsibilities in our communities: the safety and well-being of our children. These social workers have a hard job. They help struggling families access services to help them stay together. They place children in foster care if they can’t safely stay with their families. They find and support foster families, all the while trying to connect biological families to the help they need to get back together. And if reunification isn’t possible, they work to place children in permanent adoptive families. 

In the community of Possum Trot, this last piece—the need for adoptive families for children who could not be reunited with their biological families—was particularly urgent, and this movie is the story of how the church rose up to meet that need. 

Right now, social workers in our community are walking with families and children on every stage of this journey—before foster care is needed, during foster care, and beyond foster care—and we have the opportunity to support them every step of the way. Click here to see how you can get involved through the Social-LIGHT program and start supporting the DCYF professionals in Spokane.

On Diversity of Roles

In the story of Possum Trot, God led many members of the community to become foster and adoptive parents. But those weren’t the only roles needed. In the most stressful moments for these families, people showing up to cook, do laundry and provide emotional support made all the difference. 

In the same way, not everyone in your church or community is called to foster and adopt. But everyone can do something to rally around vulnerable children and families. There are no greater or lesser roles in the body of Christ and in the world of foster care, and there is a meaningful place for whatever you and your church are called to offer. Spokane127 is a resource to you and your church as you start to navigate where you fit in and how you can start serving. Please reach out to find out more.

Here are 12 ways your church can help foster care. They are practical, helpful ideas that may not be the first thing you think of. But all of these things make a huge difference in the lives of kids in care, as well as the adults caring for them.

1. Offer a welcoming room in your facility for supervised parent visits.
2. Prepare a meal on the first night of a child’s placement.
3. Lend a hand to foster parents attending court dates by providing help with biological kids.
4. Collect new clothing/shoes for teen/pre-teen foster children (see Teen & Kid Closet or Mission Community Outreach Center).
5. Create a support group for foster parents in your area.
6. Host a Foster Parents Night Out to give foster parents a needed break.
7. Interview a foster parent in a Sunday morning service.
8. Begin a donation closet (pillows, beds, blankets, etc.) for the immediate needs of kids (you could partner with Embrace Washington on this one).
9. Invite DCYF to use space at your facility to conduct trainings for families, workers, and the community.
10. Plan a baby shower for a new infant placement.
11. Arrange for domestic help – cleaning or rides – before a “home” visit or new placement.
12. Throw a “THANK YOU” party for social workers in your area.

Some of the items on this list are already happening in Spokane and you can simply step into the already moving stream. A first step might be to find out if you already have foster parents in your church or network. And Spokane127 is here to help you get started with ideas, training, networking, and more. Feel free to reach out to start that conversation with us.

Romans 15:1-2 encourages us to use our strength on behalf of the weak. Let’s start to bring our resources as healthy adults with strong support networks to bear for those with less. We know God’s heart cares for the cause of vulnerable kids and fragile families (see James 1:27). Let EACH of us follow that heart, in small AND big ways, and transform all the “not enough”s into more than enough.

I was recently encouraged in my radical generosity by a blog taking a refreshing POV shift on the parable of the sower (from Matt 13). A quick and worthwhile read by Michael Mitchel of CAFO, it pivots from the typical “what kind of soil am I”, to analyzing the perspective of the sower – how radical, scandalous, maybe even ‘wasteful’ his choice to sow EVERYWHERE was. And asks shouldn’t WE all be like that?:

“What if we, too, walked with hands overflowing in eager generosity, reflecting God’s delighted heart to give everything away?”

Here at Spokane127, we call for radical hospitality:

-toward kids in foster care who need loving stable homes,

-toward social workers as they toil in their labor,

-toward foster families who need wrap around care as they provide for the kids who’ve been placed with them, and bio-families as they work to be re-united with their kids.

This is the kind of hospitality and generosity that Michael’s blog is talking about.

A few months into my family’s first foster placement, a pastor friend asked me how it was going, and if it looked like things were moving towards adoption. I told him we didn’t know. And then I said, “I’m realizing I just doesn’t matter. The only way to do this ‘right’ is to love him as if he WILL always be with us, even if he won’t; that to do anything less would be wrong. If we as foster parents hold anything back, it will effect this baby boy’s development, and not in a good way.”

We had to go all in or he wouldn’t learn and grow as he should. Was that approach a risk to us as parents. Yes. Was it radical? Yes. Was it “wise management” of our personal resources? Most people would  probably say no. Yet, this is the kind of loan God happily co-signs on, in light of His endless reserves. We trust in the God who, “squanders the treasures of heaven in wasteful generosity upon all creation without distinction because He has more than enough to go around.” –  Michael Mitchel

We cannot live with a scarcity mindset. We need to live out and give out love generously, trusting our God to replenish us when and where we need it.

So today, be led by The Spirit- where can you sow generously, not only considering the quality of those receiving it; not just considering the “return on investment”? As Michael says, “Our call is not to evaluate the quality of the soil. Our call is to follow in the footsteps of the one who scatters freely so that all might share in the riches and joy of God’s abundance.” Mmm… So good.

Join me in making 2024 a year of living lives of radical generosity!

Last night’s dinner service was a lot of a fun! Even though it was a rainy fall day, everyone’s heart was warm. Our team from North Church had a blast putting dinners together for our foster families, boxed up, hot and ready to serve as soon as our families got home. Complete with rotisserie chickens, hot potatoes with all the fixin’s, salad and homemade cookies for dessert, the dinners were a hit. Our team arrived early to get the meals pulled together. Once boxed up and labeled, they were ready for a quick pickup. So when the family arrived between 5 and 5:30 and gave us their name, we were able to send one person in to grab their box, while the other team member connected with them, got prayer requests and gave encouragement. All but one family were able to come to the church for pickup. The last family had transportation issues, so a couple from our team volunteered to drop it off for them. After we were done, we gathered over some pizza, shared stories and spent some time praying for all the requests we gathered. We’re hoping to stay connected with some of the families we served last night. And I’m sure everyone will be open to doing it again soon enough.

What: Hot and ready rotisserie chicken, baked potatoes and salad.  Just drive through, pick it up, take it home and serve it.

Where: North Church front door.  8303 N Division St. Spokane, WA 99208

When: Pickup on Tuesday, Oct 10^th from 5:00 to 5:30 PM