What Does a BCH Houseparent Actually Do? A Look Inside the Role
- bchfamily
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
If you have ever read a story about children at Baptist Children's Homes and thought, quietly, could we do that? this page is for you.
Houseparenting is one of the least understood roles in Christian ministry. People picture a dormitory, or a shift job, or something closer to a summer camp counselor. It is none of those. Here is what the role actually is, in plain terms.
What is a houseparent at Baptist Children's Homes?
Houseparents are a husband and wife who live full-time in a BCH cottage and raise the children placed there as a family. Not a facility. A home, with a kitchen table, chores, homework, bedtimes, church on Sunday, and a beach trip in the summer.
The children in that cottage are in the custody of North Carolina's foster care system. Some arrive with siblings. Some arrive with almost nothing. The houseparents are the consistent adults in their day.
Where the children in the cottage come from
Before a child ever walks through a cottage door, a decision has already been made about them by someone they have never met.
When a county Department of Social Services takes a child into custody, DSS decides where that child will live. Some children go to a licensed foster family. Others come to a BCH home, where houseparents raise a household of children together — sometimes because siblings need to stay together, sometimes because a child has been moved so many times that what they need most is a place that will not move again.
Both pathways lead in the same direction: home. Reunification when it is safe, permanence with kin, adoption, or a young adult prepared to stand on their own two feet. And along both, children hear and see the gospel.
Which is where houseparents come in. The pathway gets a child to the door. What happens after that is breakfast, homework, bedtime, and years of showing up.
What does a houseparent actually do all day?
Most of it is ordinary, which is the point. Breakfast and the bus. Laundry that never ends. Homework at the table. Practices and games. Dinner together. Devotions. Someone needs a ride, someone needs a talk, someone needs to be told for the hundredth time that they are safe here.
The extraordinary part hides inside the ordinary. Sian Saunders, who has served with her husband Adam at Broyhill Home in Clyde for 34 years, puts it this way:
Sometimes the kids come to BCH, and they don't know how to play.
Teaching a six-year-old how to fly a kite is not a small thing when nobody ever taught her how to be a child.
Where do houseparents live?
In the cottage, with the children. BCH provides the home. Houseparents serve on locations across North Carolina, including Mills Home in Thomasville, Kennedy Home in Kinston, Broyhill Home in Clyde, Truett Home in Hayesville, Laura's Home in Shelby, and Odum Home in Pembroke.
Can we do this if we have our own children?
Yes. Many houseparent couples raise their own children alongside the children in their care.
What qualifications do I need?
The core requirements are less about credentials than you might expect:
A husband and wife who share the calling. This is a role you do together, not one spouse's job.
An active Christian faith and a home church.
Stability in your own life and marriage. The children arrive from instability. You are the antidote to it.
Willingness to be trained. BCH provides trauma-informed training prior to beginning in the cottage and ongoing throughout your service as a houseparent.
The process involves an application, interviews, references, training, and time to be certain of God's calling together.
You do not need a social work degree. You do not need to have fostered before.
Is this a job or a calling?
Both, and the order matters. It is a paid, benefited position with real time off, and it is also a life you move into rather than clock into.
Every houseparent we have talked to tells a similar story: You give up the life you imagined, and gain something even more meaningful than you expected.
What is the hardest part?
Loving children who may leave. Reunification with their biological family is always the goal when it is safe, and that is the right goal. It also means houseparents pour years into a child and then help them pack.
Adam Saunders has served 34 years and says this about it:
Regardless of the storms the kids and their families have faced, we get to point them to hope in Jesus. As houseparents, we walk alongside them whether it's in the cottages where we live or through a summer getaway.
What is the best part?
Ask a houseparent and you will not get a policy answer. You will get a moment.
Lisa Huskey, who serves with her husband Chris at Truett Home, was asked what she was taking away from a week at the beach with the children in her care. Her answer was about a face.
My favorite is just seeing the kids' faces. The smile of the youngest, who just turned seven, has this smile, this little, toothless smile.
How do I take a first step?
Start a conversation. Nobody is going to hand you a set of keys on the first phone call. The process involves an application, interviews, references, training, and time to be sure together.
Want to understand the cottage model first? Learn more about residential care at BCH.
Quotes in this article are from "Houseparents embrace summer as a time for making memories," Charity & Children, August 2026. For their privacy, the names of children in foster care are changed.
