This past week, Glen Newberry of Foster’s Home for Children joined Bobby Steed and Lane Lewis on a panel discussion about loving vulnerable children. They discussed the plight of many kids in this area and surrounding region. Some of the statistics that they shared were quite alarming. Lane mentioned that Tarrant County ranks as the number one county in Texas for the highest number of cases of child neglect. Glen shared that in the eight county region that includes Tarrant County and moves west, there are 6,000 children who have been removed by CPS from homes, but are without places to go. It is because of these facts that Foster’s Home has renewed their foster parent program over the past year and are licensing Christian parents to be foster parents. Lane Lewis and several others are leading the charge here at Southside to meet this crisis. This Sunday, July 9, Lane will be holding an informational meeting about foster care during Sunday morning Bible classes. I hope that you will think about attending, even just to encourage the effort.
During the panel discussion, the question was asked of Glen about how best to minister to children from vulnerable situations. I thought this was a very relevant question as we have children from our neighborhood who are often in these situations and we want to be a loving church to them. Glen made two good points. The first thing that a child needs to know is that they are safe. When their life is in upheaval, they need to know that there are adults who love and will take care of them. Second, he mentioned that in dealing with a child, it is better to ask the question, “What has happened?” rather than “What is wrong?” Too often when a vulnerable child misbehaves, the temptation is to lash out, chew out, and even berate the child. But when one asks what has happened to the child, it gives us compassion. It gives us perspective. It helps us understand why they are acting the way they are. And it gives us the courage to provide the loving help that this child needs to feel safe and valued. Often, if a child can have a consistent relationship with a loving, Christian adult, much good and healing can come from that. These are the opportunities that are before us at Southside. We can be a church that loves children who are hurting – and there are many around us in our neighborhood, county, and region. This is what it looks like to be a church that loves like Jesus.
