Jason Johnson - An Honest Conversation Around Church and Foster Care

This week, Jason Johnson from Christian Alliance for Orphans returns to the show. Jason is a writer and speaker who encourages families and equips church and organizational leaders on their foster care and adoption journeys. In this episode, Jason names and shares many of the struggles and challenges that foster and adoptive parents go through. He encourages us to find safe spaces and communities where we can process our emotions and have open and honest conversations. Podcast Sponsor Faith to Action Initiative is hosting an upcoming webinar on Jun 8, 2023! Sign up today! Beyond Selfie Missions: How Missions Became All About ‘Me’ and What to do About It. You will learn practical ways to negate “selfie missions”, realign your missions efforts with the heart of God, and participate in transformational and reconciling missions work around the world. Resources and Links from the show Jason's Blog Reframing Foster Care Everyone Can Do Something Episode 167: Jason Johnson Everyone Can Do Something Episode 216: Poverty and Family Separation in US Child Welfare with Sarah Winograd Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Quit by Annie Duke Stolen Focus by Johann Hari Biola Missions Conference on YouTube Show Notes Jason catches us up on what he’s been doing (5:00) The differences in how men and women approach fostering (8:10) Leading and following (11:00) Naming the struggles and grief involved in foster care(15:50) Giving ourselves the permission to think and feel (18:30) Being able to lean into the community around us (21:30) Improving how we do church engagement (25:00) Helping churches know how to care (28:00) Making the church our audience (31:00) Engagement as partnership (33:00) Urgency can breed scarcity (34:00) Focusing on family preservation and preventative measures (43:00) Living within the tensions and the need for foster care (45:00) Reckoning with the reality (46:00) Gaps and the spirit of scarcity (53:00) Gaps in the prevention space (56:00) Strategic benevolence and investing in the lives of at-risk families (58:50) Jason’s recommendations (1:00:00)