Churches could become more relevant by helping more children in KY | Opinion

I sat in church on a recent Sunday and felt an unusual tension building in my chest. I’m used to settling into the service, breathing deep and by the time the sermon is complete achieving a sense of calm I can’t find anywhere else in a busy week.

Not this Sunday. The minister told the congregation that every check we wrote, however small, every heart cut out of construction paper or lunch packed for the hungry, every time we simply showed-up, mattered and was important. He noted our collective inability to solve all the world’s problems, explaining that we can do little to achieve peace in Gaza for example but could do our part to speak out. I found myself feeling restless and then … angry.

Is that really enough? I couldn’t help but wonder if we are letting ourselves off the hook a bit. Sure, we can’t solve global conflicts from our pews in Lexington, but what came to mind were the multiple yard signs soliciting foster parents that I passed on the way to church that morning.

As a parent of three children adopted from the Kentucky foster system, those signs are not easy for me to ignore. My children are beautiful, talented and the loves of my husband’s and my life. Every time I pass one of those signs, I know it represents hundreds of beautiful children (just like yours and mine) who deserve loving forever homes. And that without a forever home, I also know these children, by no fault of their own face harsh statistics: by 17, more than 50% of foster children will have an encounter with the juvenile legal system. More than 65% of adults who were in the foster system have incomes below the poverty line.

It is impossible for me to imagine my children facing these statistics. They won’t have to because they have the very basic gift that a forever home provides; love. The kind of love that every child deserves. The kind of love that can only be explained by the look on the faces of the parents in the pews around me as their children walk to the front of the sanctuary for the “Children’s Message.” You know that adoring look I am talking about. Every child deserves to be looked at this way. When I see those yard signs, I am reminded of all the children that do not have parents’ eyes following them like this.

In Fayette County, there are approximately 580 children in the foster system. There are approximately 250 Christian churches in Fayette County (and more than 600 religious institutions including mosques, synagogues and others). What if every Christian congregation took the responsibility to have just two families become homes for our children in need? The Church could support these families, providing babysitters, drivers, donations for therapists and other supports. If such a commitment were made, Christians in Fayette County could solve one of our most critical and morally imperative societal ills.

Regular church attendance in the US has declined from more than 75% in 1937 to just 20% in 2025. Young people find the church less and less relevant to their lives. Perhaps that is because the church is not doing anything material to solve problems we encounter daily, with often intense visual reminders. Back in the 1930s, the church played a pivotal role in supporting children without parents. As the government took more responsibility, the church stepped back. Having spent a lot of time engaging with the government in this caretaking role, I can attest that it is not good at it. I believe there is an opportunity for Christians to do better and for the church to become a relevant institution in today’s complicated world by stepping up and caring for our children in need.

The way I see it, as Christians we have a choice to either take care of our children now, or be prepared to make a lot more lunches for hungry adults in the future.

Jesus said, “Whoever receives one child in my name, receives me” (Mark 9:37). He said this to his disciples as they debated over who was the greatest among them as an explanation that true greatness was not about status or power, but about service to the least among us, especially children.

Kathryn C. Kaufman is a Lexington-based real estate developer and founder of Card Development, previously serving as a Member of the Investment Committee and Managing Director at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and Managing Director China, Taiwan at the U.S. Department of Defense.