S.C. Baptists go on the record for aiding displaced children

Connie Maxwell president Danny Nicholson and his wife, Debra, with some students.

Butch Blume

Whether supporting adoption and foster care, or by partnering with Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, South Carolina Baptists have historically given public voice to the biblical imperative to care for children of broken families, and they have done so yet again in recent times.

South Carolina Baptist Convention messengers adopted a resolution advancing adoption in 2012 and another, in 2015, that addressed the need for greater involvement by Christian families in the state’s foster care system.

The adoption resolution described South Carolina Baptists’ desire to “foster an environment of transcultural adoption in our churches by encouraging moral, emotional, physical, spiritual, and financial support for those who undertake this Gospel work [of adoption].” The resolution also called on government agencies to streamline the adoption process.

The resolution on foster care noted that if each of the state convention’s more than 2,100 churches had at least one family caring for a foster child, “it would eliminate the need for group homes or institutions in our state.” The resolution called on churches to promote foster care awareness and asked families to “earnestly seek the Lord in opening their homes to foster care or supporting a foster family.”

Both resolutions stressed the importance of placing children in homes where they might be exposed to the gospel of Christ, and both cited James 1:27 and other Scriptures instructing God’s people to care for displaced children.

South Carolina Baptists have also contributed financially to Connie Maxwell Children’s Home since its founding in 1892. The 2015 SCBC resolution on foster care noted Connie Maxwell’s critical role in providing “gospel-centered residential [care] for children who are not able to be placed with a family.”

Danny Nicholson, who became president of Connie Maxwell in July 2017, said societal and legal changes in recent years have “altered the landscape” of child care and have led the children’s home to enhance its services.

In addition to residential programs at its main campus in Greenwood and at smaller campuses and homes in other parts of the state, Connie Maxwell’s list of services today includes crisis care, family care and foster care, Nicholson said. “We currently have 25 Christian foster care families, grounded on a biblical perspective, who are serving as foster parents to children in need,” he said.

Nicholson, who himself was adopted as an infant by parents who gave him a “place to grow, dream and, most importantly, learn about Jesus,” said Connie Maxwell is seeking to “grow support” for its Christ-focused adoption and foster care parent programs.

“My adoptive parents rescued me from a meaningless existence and gave me every provision for a successful life,” he said. “I often think about how many children just like me are waiting for someone to give them their dreams of peace, security and love.”

Connie Maxwell is a fully accredited licensing agency for families interested in foster care. For more information, contact Paula Reed, foster care coordinator, at preed@conniemaxwell.com or 864-942-1493.