Brentwood campus continues to minister to 'orphans'

By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
When the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home moved to Brentwood 100 years ago, there wasn’t a Brentwood yet, since the city was founded 58 years later. It was actually called the Franklin campus because it was located between Nashville and Franklin, and it had been a working farm of Maj. A.J. Cheek from the family that owned Cheekwood.

Then...

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And the circumstances have changed over those 100 years for the reasons children needed food, clothing, shelter and love, but that need continues to be served by the organization that continues celebrating its centennial Tuesday night with a dinner. A multi-year Centennial Campaign will also kick off at the event at Brentwood Baptist Church, to help build up the TBCH’s endowment to help children in the future.

“When we started, we took care of orphans in the traditional understanding of that word – the children's parents were deceased, the vast majority of them,” said Bryant Millsaps, current president and treasurer of TBCH. “Over the years, a lot of children that we have are orphaned not by the death of their parents but by the way their parents have chosen to live.

“There also will be families in crisis – and that is particularly true today – and they need help. It's not necessarily that the parents are bad parents, but they're struggling. As long as we have a bed and there's a child and a family with a need, we take those people in.”

Land surveyor Mike Wilson of Franklin and Franklin Police Officer Patrick Tippit were among the children who found a home there and had their lives dramatically changed for the better. Another past resident was former Spring Hill Mayor Danny Leverette.

Wilson, his brother and his sister came to the campus in 1995 when he was 13, from an abusive and neglective family and a life in poverty, he said. His mom served time in prison twice and his dad was heavily involved in drugs in Ohio, and their grandparents in the Smyrna area called on TBHC.

“Basically I wouldn't be here where I'm at today,” Wilson said. “I learned even family values there. I'm now married and have a 6-month-old son, and I bought my first house last year.

“I overcame what I was born into. The thing that stuck out with me was Psalms 27:10: ‘When my mother and father forsake me, then the Lord would pick me up.’ And the Lord I think provided the Children's Home to do that.”

Wilson and Tippit both were allowed to stay on while they attended college, and Wilson said he learned his work ethic from helping his houseparent Don Gallimore work on cars at the mechanic shop and working in maintenance with Dean Cole, who died recently.  Tippit also served in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming a police officer 5 years ago.

 “Just rather simply I was born into an abusive home,” said Tippit, now married and a father of three. “I had a tumultuous time in childhood. I felt like I was all alone. The house parents that were assigned to me brought me in and made me feel like a member of their family.

“At the Children's Home I felt like I had found my place. I lived there six years, and they weren't in any hurry to get me out of there … The whole time they were instilling values in me.”

From the Delaware Hotel to Brentwood

The ministry began in 1891, by some members of First Baptist Nashville and in particular Georgia Eastman, out of concern over a growing homeless orphan population in Nashville, Millsaps said. Eastman had access to a former hotel property, the Delaware Hotel at 42^nd and Delaware streets (four blocks away from today’s Bost Harley-Davidson), and some deacons of First Baptist and 6-7 churches of Nashville started the Baptist Orphanage.

The old building had structural needs and the coal-fired heat and soot were causing significant respiratory problems for the children, Millsaps said. So the board began searching for a new location, and someone knew Maj. Cheek, who sold one of his four working farms for $12,000 “lock, stock and barrel” for 200 acres, buildings, equipment and animals.

“The thing that was attractive was at this particular location, there was a Nashville to Columbia rail line spur that came out,” Millsaps said. “One of the first things that was built was a platform where conductors would take children off the train and somebody from the ministry would meet the train.”

The deal was done in late 1910, but the Tennessee Children’s Baptist Home officially started at the location on April 15, 1911.

 “In 120 years, 100 of them right here, we've been through wars, Depression, all sorts of economics upheavals and turmoil in the country, especially in the South,” Millsaps said. “And, in those 120 years, we have never accepted a penny of government money. We are strictly, always have been, and believe we always will be, a totally faith-based ministry.”

Not only is the Children’s Home supported by cooperating Baptist churches of Tennessee and people in those churches, but it also gets support from people in lots of denominations, the president said. There also are donors from about 40 of the 50 states, often people with a connection to the Children’s Home – a mother, father or grandparent lived there, Millsaps said.

“They've just grown up knowing that when no other adults were around, Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home took that grandparent or parent in when they were just a child and raised them,” he said.

Millsaps said the Children’s Home doesn’t consider “government money tainted” but is following instruction from Jesus Christ.

“He told his disciples if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom, be the least and servant of all,” Millsaps said. “Being the greatest teacher, he used an object lesson – he had them bring a child to the disciples and put his arms around the boy, and said when you minister to this child, you minister to me, and you minister not only to me but to the one who sent me. Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home has taken that admonition from Christ for over 120 years.”

Changing lives in the community

Much of the land has been sold off, although the Tennessee Baptist Convention headquarters sits on the footprint of the home’s old school – and Brentwood Baptist actually started in the basement of that state office.  

With about 65 acres, the Brentwood location currently has seven cottages including relief cottages for missionary workers. The administrative office sits on the crest of the knoll looking down on Franklin Road, and the homes sit behind like a neighborhood.

There are six total locations with 28 homes combined: the Brentwood location, a single cottage in Kingsport, a community in Morgan County, campuses in Chattanooga and Bartlett (near Memphis), and a 240-acre Boys Ranch in Millington.

Photos submitted by TBCH

Children usually are placed in the homes by juvenile courts, child services, a custodial parent or a guardian such as grandparent, uncle or aunt. There is a not religious requirement, but there is understanding that the cottage family will participate in a local Southern Baptist church.

“Part of the ministry is to help show those children what a Christian parent and what a Christ-centered family looks like,” Millsaps said. “Some of them along the way will decide they want a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; some don't. We're not putting notches in our belt – we’re trying to meet the child’s educational, physical, emotional needs.”

The children now attend Lipscomb Elementary, Brentwood Middle and Brentwood High, although some may go to Centennial or Page for a particular educational need.

“Those folks have worked very hard over the years – guidance counselors, faculty, administration have just been superb in helping our children feel a part of the school,” Millsaps said. “Our kids participate in athletics, drama, cheerleading, band, service organizations. They are fully engaged and fully incorporated into the life of the community.”

Millsaps said people would be astounded at how many people from different churches, both evangelical and mainstream, in Brentwood are involved in the children’s lives.

The houseparents, meanwhile, “are the champions of this ministry,” he said. “They leave their homes and they can have up to two of their own children live with them and they devote their lives to raising these children.”

“We don't have a football team, we don't usually graduate National Merit scholars (but) we have had children in service academies, we've had a lot of successful business people, a lot of people who have become very productive citizens,” Millsaps added.

He said he has been blessed in his work career by being a commissioned salesman, university administrator, classroom teacher, chief clerk of the state House of Representatives, Secretary of State, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, and vice president of an educational consulting firm.

“But in all those wonderful opportunities that God has given me, I never expected at 50 years of age that I would surrender my life to full-time Christian service.  I’ve met wonderful people and I've been witness to lot of history in this state, but never in my life have I had a greater sense of fulfillment than being associated with the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home. … It's a privilege for all of us to step up and help these kids.”

Officer Tippit said he had an aunt and uncle would pick him up once a month or on special days. But he said members of the Brentwood community would go to “great lengths” such as having Christmas parties, being a visiting family to other children and even bringing them into their family.

He said people in Brentwood not only have big wallets “but also even bigger hearts.”

 “One hundred years – that’s lots of lives affected by an organization,” Tippit said. “It's impressive to think that the fundamentals and values that this organization was founded on, haven't changed. Every child still is equipped with the same value, the same tools. They always tell us, all the kids that live at that campus, that they get a toolbox. In essence, they give you all the tools to be successful, to be a contributing citizen of society and it’s up to you whether you open up the toolbox and use the tools.

“I feel like without the opportunities and values I received as a resident at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, I don't feel like I would be where I am today.”

For more information, visit www.tbch4kids.org.