Chaplaincy Academic Project

A Theology and Practice of Foster Family Chaplaincy

Foster Hope Ministries · Scott Tuttle · 2026

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Begin Here — Required First Step

Pre-Session Reflection: Who Is the Foster Child?

Three-level reflection establishing your baseline before the academic frameworks arrive. This is the foundation everything else builds on.

○ Not yet written

Doctoral Pathway Note

This study is doctoral in shape. The 15 sessions, the reading, the reflection writing, the theological wrestling — that process is what transforms a well-structured draft into a document carrying the weight of genuine formation. Foster Hope Ministries is your laboratory. This study is your research process. The document is your culminating project.

Pre-Session Reflection

This is your first piece of writing for the study. It establishes your baseline — what you know before the academic frameworks arrive — so you can see how your thinking develops. Write honestly, not impressively.

Level 3 is the most important. The three children who are permanently yours — what they carry, how they show up, what they've needed from you that no training prepared you for — that is the most irreplaceable knowledge in this entire study.

Level 1

The Pastor / Ministry Leader

What did you observe about foster children through your years of church-based foster care ministry? What did the congregation see? What did they miss?

Level 2

The Foster Parent

What did you learn about foster children that you could only have learned by opening your home? What surprised you? What broke you?

Level 3

The Adoptive Parent

What do you now know about three specific children who came through the system and into your family permanently? What does that intimate, long-term knowledge teach you about what foster children carry and need?