By Chrystelle Thames
Director of Communications
Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries
“The survival and usefulness of any service agency is dependent, in large measure, upon its capacity and willingness to change.”
These are the words of former Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries Executive Director that now Executive Director Sean Milner shared with pastors at the recent Mississippi Baptist Pastors Conference. Milner explained that the ministry was originally chartered in 1894 as the Baptist Orphanage. The name accurately depicted the services of the ministry at that time. In the early 1960s the name was changed to The Baptist Children’s Village to more accurately represent the changing ministry to children.
Today the ministry serves children and families through both residential and non-residential programs. The statewide ministry includes:
- The traditional Residential Child Caring Program located on five campuses. This ministry, staffed by Houseparent Missionaries, cares for children ages 1-20.
- A Residential Family Program for mothers and their children to find safety and encouragement to work towards independently caring for their family.
- An Independent Living Program for young adults who also need mentoring to help them reach a point of self-sufficiency.
- The In-Home Family Support Program available in all 82 Mississippi counties where Interventionists work with at-risk families to identify problems in the home and work with them to try to keep the family together in a safe, loving environment.
- The Youth Detention Intervention Program works with youth detention facility administrators and judges and with churches to enlist volunteers who share the gospel with detained teenagers.
- Sometimes families reach out for help, but their needs are beyond the scope of what this ministry can provide. In those times, we are, however, able to leverage our vast resources to connect them with the help they need and offer hope in their moment of hopelessness.
These programs, all a part of Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries Continuum of Care, necessitate yet another name change. Thus, The Baptist Children’s Village is now Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries, again representing the entirety of the services offered by Mississippi Baptists through the agency.
Not only does the ministry have a new name, but also a new logo. In the diagram you can see the development of the icon as Leadership Team discussed with the graphic designer the priorities to consider in the design. The end result is a logo that depicts the ministry’s connection to our Mississippi Baptist heritage and represents the breadth of ministry to children and families seen in the continuum of care.
It has been 128 years since the BCV&FM took our first child into care in 1897. The culture and our ministry looks very different today, but the foundation remains the same. We exist, as part of the Mississippi Southern Baptist Church, to take the good news of Jesus Christ to at-risk children and families. Because of the generous partnership of churches, businesses and individuals there are more opportunities to provide that hope and a strong foundation for the futures of hundreds of hurting Mississippi children and families.
A fresh new look and exciting hope-filled programs at Baptist Children’s Village and Family Ministries for 2026 and beyond.
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