This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Baptist Home
By Spencer Hutson, Church Relations Specialist
Many of you are old enough to remember a General Motors nameplate for a line of mid-range automobiles called Oldsmobiles. That nameplate is long gone from the GM showrooms, but a marketing slogan lives on: “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” They were trying to say that this car is something new and stands out from the past. I’m not sure how successful that marketing campaign was, but there is a truth to what was said.
The Baptist Homes of today is not your grandfather’s Baptist Home, or more accurately, The Home for Aged Baptists. We have come a long way from who we were in the early 1900s to who we are today.
There was a time when the local train station in Ironton, Missouri would call up The Home and say, “We have an inmate here for you.” The term inmate was used for those we cared for back in 1913. Someone from The Home would then show up in a Model T and pick up the new resident and their trunk of belongings and head back to The Home. Back then, we relied on the generosity of our churches who brought carloads of canned goods, and our farming efforts and gardens, dairy, chickens, pigs, and cattle, and of course, the local conservation agent that would call when there had been a deer killed on the road.
Many came to us with nothing aside from a few personal belongings. They knew it was a place to call home—a little bit of heaven this side of our eternal home.
Today we have six Baptist Homes across the state. They can serve aged Baptists from all directions in Missouri. However, what has changed is that people now have options and they are taking advantage of those options. They can stay in their own home longer through in-home health services. They more than likely have a senior adult facility close to their home, and many choose that option.
What Baptist Homes has to offer that others might not have is Christlike care for the aging. We are a sanctity of life entity that is tied to the Missouri Baptist Convention and our churches. To many, that is still a value that outweighs proximity to home. As we have said before, we are home.
For the communities and regions of the state where one of our six homes are, many choose us for our location. Having said that, we now have residents—neighbors as we call them—that come to us from other faiths and sometimes no faith backgrounds. Today, the aging population is an evangelistic mission field.
No, Baptist Homes of today is not The Baptist Home that many of us grew up visiting with our church group. Today, Baptist Homes provides the best of quality in care in a wholesome atmosphere. It welcomes residents from the areas we serve, and we provide Christlike care that goes beyond the physical and ministers to the spiritual needs of our residents.
Our churches still visit. They provide worship leadership, Bible studies, and volunteer for activities with our neighbors. This partnership with our churches is part of our Soul Care initiative that seeks to “draw all men unto Him” (John 12:32).
For more information on Baptist Homes, becoming a resident, our campuses, or how to volunteer, you can contact us at 866-454-2709 or go to our website https://bhhm.org.
