Mobilizing in Montana: Promise686
Promise686 Montana, a branch of For Others’ longtime partner, started in 2020 when Aaron Scofield left a pastoral position to pursue a career in child and family well-being. He wanted to see more churches equipped to serve children and families in need.
“God just kept saying, ‘mobilize the church, mobilize the church’,” Aaron says.
That’s when he connected with Andy Cook, CEO of Promise686, who suggested Aaron start the organization’s Montana branch. Nationally, Promise686 works to fulfill God’s promise set out in Psalms 68:6—to “set the lonely in families.” The organization mobilizes local churches to be the tip of the spear in addressing the child welfare crisis. It was exactly what Aaron was looking for, and he started building the Montana program from the ground up. We sat with Aaron to hear more about Promise686 Montana and how they mobilize the church to surround local children and families in need.
A Tale of Two Nonprofits
Aaron recalls the early days of the Montana branch as challenging. He was essentially a one-man team gathering a board of directors, church connections, and volunteers. Only 25 churches expressed interest across 5 counties. In November 2020, Promise686 needed $25,000 secured before January 2021. It was a tall order made more complicated by the state of the world at the time.
“There’s a little, small pandemic thing going on,” Aaron jokes. “So nobody’s giving money. Nobody knew [about] any of this. Nobody knew me outside my county and the family connections I have.”
In other words, Aarons says there was no way to come up with $25,000 in two months during a global pandemic. His local community, as well as friends and family, gave what they could. But he knew God would be in the details, and Promise686 Montana kept moving forward.
Toward the end of December that year, Aaron had raised $900, a far cry from the $25,000 needed. Then, on December 28th, Aaron received a text from Andy with good news. Angel Armies—now known as For Others—committed $25,000 to fund Promise686 Montana as a matching gift opportunity. Through a connection between two organizations with the same heart for children, God provided financial empowerment. As a result, Aaron and his team received double the amount needed, setting them up for a breakout year.
How Promise686 Montana Works
Promise686 aims to prevent children from entering foster care, support foster and kinship families, and connect children to forever families. They understand the most important ingredient to a family’s success is a lasting relationship and steadfast community.
Family Advocacy Ministries (FAMs)
One service that sets Promise686 apart is their Family Advocacy Ministries, or FAMs. A FAM is a group of church members who create a wraparound team to serve vulnerable kids and families in their neighborhood, and Promise686 provides the training and tools to get started. The program supports children by serving foster, adoptive, and birth families; advocating for children and families in local communities; ministering and meeting physical and emotional needs; and supporting child welfare professionals. Most recently, Promise686 Montana began providing a nationally recognized parenting curriculum called Raising Highly Capable Kids. The course helps birth families improve their parenting skills to keep their children home or speed up reunification.
The best part of FAMs is how easy it is for churches to be involved. Coming from a pastoral background, Aaron knows how difficult it can be for church leadership to balance their responsibilities and the church’s finances. That’s why he loves the simple model of FAMs. Pastors only need to choose a point of contact for the church, and it’s also free. Promise686 invites churches to give to help continue the work, but it’s not a requirement. Aaron testifies that whether you give $10 or $10,000, you’ll be treated the same as the church who gives $10,000. Most importantly, they want the ministry empowered and the community served.
“It is church owned and church driven and church led,” Aaron says.
Pastors and churches can also rest assured that all requests coming from their community are legitimate. FAMs connects to agency partners who vet the needs. Any time a need comes through, there is accountability for the family or child receiving help.
Mobilizing the Church
Today, Promise686 Montana exists in 19 counties (and counting) across the state with 91 FAMs involved. They’ve served 1,200 children and delivered more than $493,000 in economic impact. Nationally, Promise686 serves 41 states, most recently launching in Utah. FAMs mobilizes the body of Christ. No matter a church’s denomination, each one comes together to transform children’s lives and strengthen families.
There are about 368,000 children in foster care and nearly 400,000 churches in our nation. Imagine the profound, sweeping change the body of Christ could help facilitate if each church chose one child to wrap around. At any given moment, there are about 7.5 million open child welfare cases. That number feels overwhelming until we do the math: only 19 kids per church. How many of those cases could be closed if children and their families got the support they need?
We can solve the child welfare crisis in our lifetime if we each do our part. Community empowerment, as the churches of Montana embody, means families don’t have to look too far for help. If you’re interested in getting your church involved, email us at info@forothers.com so we can help you get started. You can also donate today to help us and partners like Promise686 Montana serve even more kids. Thank you for caring for our nation’s most vulnerable!
