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LCMS Guide to Supporting Foster Families

The “LCMS Guide to Supporting Foster Families” is intended to provide Lutheran couples with a basic overview of the foster care system and the process of becoming foster parents, so they can prayerfully consider taking on the joys and challenges of caring for these children in need.

Christian families are especially poised to care for children in need, and the local congregation (and larger church) can provide a healthy framework of love and support for foster children and their foster family. Sadly, the number of children in the foster system is increasing, and the number of families willing to provide a temporary home for these children is decreasing. Lutheran parents are needed to fill this gap and provide love and care to children and their biological parents.

Are you a foster family or a congregation looking to support a foster family? The “Foster Family Support Planner” is a form that foster families can use to list their needs (whether that be meals, transportation, or items) for their foster child(ren). Once filled out, the form can be printed off and circulated amongst congregation members so that they can provide creative yet personalized support for families who are fostering in their midst.

More Family Resources

Surrogate Motherhood: A Clerical Case

Surrogate Motherhood: A Clerical Case

The whole point of marriage as a paradigm of God’s relationship with His people is to illustrate the oneness of what we are given in marriage and in the gift of a child as its outcome. Careless sentimentality in reproductive ethics erases this message of God to us.
Marriage, Life and Family: Reflecting the Holy Trinity

Marriage, Life and Family: Reflecting the Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) created and gave gifts reflecting Himself, especially the gifts of marriage, life, and family. As the Holy Trinity is the unity of three, so also marriage, life, and family form a unity of three that echoes the reality of God. This is our starting point.
Make Yours a Stock Market Marriage

Make Yours a Stock Market Marriage

Like the stock market, marriages have their ups and downs. Knowing that and staying the course increases your chance of success in either.
Living Together Before Marriage

Living Together Before Marriage

There is something in the issue of “living together” that is uniquely disturbing, especially on the part of Christians, simply because it mimics, but does not honor, marriage. Indeed, the arrangement violates the very meaning, substance, and institution of marriage.
Getting Closer As A Couple

Getting Closer As A Couple

Married couples, for various reasons, may drift apart. The vitality and sparkle that used to characterize their relationship is gone. They didn’t plan it. It just happened — subtly, slowly, silently. However, there is good news. Christian couples can break through emotional distance to revive their relationships
Confronting Cohabitation

Confronting Cohabitation

In a time when so many people make the mistake of cohabitation, the church has the opportunity to proclaim the hope and promise that are ours through faith in Jesus Christ. The power that raised Christ back to life is the power that brings new life and new possibilities.
Important Steps to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

Important Steps to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse

Important Steps to Help Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures

Policies and Procedures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Download PDF
Suffer the Children: Developing Effective Church Policies on Child Maltreatment

Suffer the Children: Developing Effective Church Policies on Child Maltreatment

Suffer the Children: Developing Effective Church Policies on Child Maltreatment
Loving the Abused

Loving the Abused

Your congregation can help victims and perpetrators of abuse by reaching out to those in your community with ...
A Lutheran Approach to Ministering to Victims and Perpetrators of Child Abuse: What Does this Mean?

A Lutheran Approach to Ministering to Victims and Perpetrators of Child Abuse: What Does this Mean?

"A Lutheran Approach to Ministering to Victims and Perpetrators of Child Abuse: What Does this Mean?"
Christian Commentary for Caregivers – Sexual Abuse

Christian Commentary for Caregivers – Sexual Abuse

Children often piece together lessons from life, and it is hard for parents or caregivers to know what “lessons” ...