“A Decade of Dreams”

A Decade of Dreams

A  report delivered to the Board of Trustees, CM Staff, and South Carolina Baptist Convention
November 2020

The first shovel of dirt was scattered across the ground…

As we quietly celebrated the launching of our strategic plan entitled,

“A Decade of Dreams.” 

Our Executive Council gathered around the Prayer Garden across from Connie Maxwell Baptist Church on a beautiful October morning to bury a Dream Box which held within it each of our personally written vision statements to become more like Jesus and our “holy” ambitious plans for Connie Maxwell in promoting a deeper level of healing and ministry in the next ten years.

Right beside the Dream Box, we planted a beautiful Japanese Maple Tree to mark the spot that our journey towards excellence began.

This strategic plan is more than a lifeless document of words and metrics.

It is a living, breathing testimony of God’s faithfulness.

Our strategic plan is a testimony.

This plan presents our VISION statement as follows:

TO BECOME A NATIONAL LEADER IN HEALING AND MINISTRY FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES.

Of course, Coronavirus has interrupted our ability to unveil this plan without distraction. So we will patiently wait to share this plan with all our constituencies when we can best and most effectively communicate its context and content.

At this appointed time we will unfold our plan and a new branding initiative that features our new name and logo which better represents who we are today as a ministry and who we prayerfully aspire to be in the future. We are currently preparing to present this change to the Convention’s Executive Board for approval in December and have already received full approval from our Board of Trustees, staff, and alumni.

We are beyond excited and feel confident that this has been a “God Led” process which began with a campus-wide “Forgiveness Initiative” that emerged as a first step towards bringing unity to our Connie Maxwell family.

The completion of our strategic plan will guide, direct, and lead us to:

The creation of a Healing Center that will focus on a better understanding of trauma and the brokenness of children and families by establishing partnerships, conducting research, initiating a broad scope of educational activities, and applying best practices of healing and ministry to our Connie Maxwell children and families.

We envision the transformation of Maxwell Farms into a higher level therapeutic ministry tool and serve as an Alternative  Revenue Source featuring a chapel, villages, renovation of our amphitheater, an events venue, renovated barns and petting zoo, enhanced Leadership Adventure Course, and a walking/running trail that will surround the circumference of the Farm property.

Our plans for the next ten years will seek to double the Endowment, nearly triple our annual fund for operations, and enhance revenues by developing Maxwell Farms. This three-prong approach to increasing revenues is aimed at one singular goal:

To strengthen and increase our budget and enhance opportunities to minister to more children and families in Jesus’ name. 

It is important to note that Connie Maxwell is benevolent and has no other way to increase revenues except for fundraising and alternative revenue sources. We do not have an option to increase tuition… because we don’t have one. We depend solely on the much appreciated and valued support of the SC Baptist Convention, churches, individuals, businesses, and friends.

We will also seek to expand our ministry geographically by building a Connie Maxwell site in Charleston.

Renovate many of the cottages and facilities on the Greenwood campus and off-campus sites.

These dreams are just a few of the initiatives we will seek to fund in our upcoming campaign…

In the meantime, as we have been diligently planning for the future, we have also been hard at work serving the needs of children and families.

During this year, we served:

260 children and families in Residential Care

Family Care provided services to 6 families, which consisted of 13 single parents and their children

Foster Care Services has 22 homes licensed and has served 23 children this past year. In light of our partnership with the SCBC, Columbia Metro Association, and support from many ministry partners across the state, we currently have 40 homes in the process of being licensed Foster families.

Also, this year, with the creation of Connie Maxwell’s first Human Resources Department, we completed several strategic leadership hires to include a new Senior Pastor, Minister of Music/ Worship and Discipleship, and a Vice President for Strategic Initiatives. Additionally, 22 new employees have been hired to strengthen our efforts.

In God’s eyes, every single child matters…

Every single child…

During my comments this morning…

You have seen the names of countless children scrolling down the screen behind me…You may have asked, “Who are these names?

These are just a few of the names of over 18,000 children who have walked the hallowed grounds of Connie Maxwell for nearly 130 years. Each name represents a child that has been given a home, loved and nurtured, and most of all taught about the love of Jesus.

There is a moment in time when the door opens and lets the future in….

Connie Maxwell’s moment is now….

Pray with us as we walk into a bright and promising future…

“A Decade of Dreams.”

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

Father,

Lost and abandoned children sit at your feet and lift their arms in need of healing, crying out as they have been broken and scattered across a lost and lonely world.

Each and every child is precious to You.

Oh God help us to be the hands that wipe away their tears.

Let us hold them in our arms.

Safely tuck them into bed at night.

Read them the holy scriptures and sing with them the familiar hymns that our mothers sang to us.

Pray with them until sleep comes and gives them hope for a brand new day.

Thank you for the privilege of saturating and transforming their lives with the gospel and strengthen us now as we advance the Kingdom of God in the lives of children who need us most.

In Jesus name and For the Dreams of Children,

Amen.