Earlier this year, our executive team and corporate staff began meeting virtually with our campus leadership staff as a part of the first fifteen minutes of their stand-up meetings. The reason for these meetings is to create better familiarity between our staff no matter where they work.
A few weeks ago, the question was asked of our administrators during one such meeting, “If you could be CEO for a day, what would you do?” The consensus was that all the administrators would tour each campus together to better see what the daily life of each of our campuses is like.
Well, it only took Dr. Harrison a millisecond to decide that we (he and I) were going to take our administrators on a tour of our campuses together. A title was dreamed up – “The Big Beautiful Campus Tour”—t-shirts were created, and the seven of us piled into two company vehicles and set out on the journey. While driving, we all listened to a book by Chad Hodges, “Pray First”, with the intention of reminding us that praying first and foremost is not just a novel idea, but an essential priority for our ministry.
We began at our Ashland campus for a tour, dinner together, and time to get to know one another better, with the men bunking at the ranch house on the Ashland campus and the ladies staying with Susan and Andy Braams at their home nearby. The next morning, the odyssey began. We set out early driving to the Shelbina campus for breakfast, a tour, and a time of prayer for the campus. Next was the commute to the Vandalia campus, where the same process occurred. That evening was completed with a longer drive to the Arcadia Valley
campus, with dinner hosted by the campus, a tour, and a worship service that evening led by Rev. John Canterberry, pastor of First Baptist Church, Iron Mountain, and Baptist Homes trustee. That night, we lodged at the Arcadia Valley campus, staying in rooms that have been used for over a century.
The next day, we finished the tour with the same itinerary at the Ozark and Adrian campuses, ending the day with dinner at the Harrisons’ home and a tour of the Smithville campus. We finished the tour with breakfast and a return trip to the Ashland campus.
You might be asking, what was the point of this three day, 15 hours in a car, 900-mile craziness? Well, in some ways that was the point—time together listening to a book on prayer and actually praying together for extended periods of time, visiting each other’s campuses and witnessing the blessings and the challenges unique to each campus and local culture, and creating a bond between our campus leaders. I had the privilege to listen to them laugh, joke, commiserate, and pray together. And I can honestly conclude, these leaders are serving Baptist Homes from a deep sense of calling. They are passionate in their leadership, committed to their tasks, and love their residents and staff deeply.
Sometimes you just need to do something off the cuff and a bit crazy to learn something new and understand the world around you better.
By Dr. Ron Mackey, Vice President, Community Engagement
