Brentwood, Tennessee (Nov. 09, 2011) – Pastors, ministry leaders and concerned community members gathered at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home in Brentwood on Wednesday for a panel discussion on the role of the Church and children at risk. The event focused on answering the question: “Does it take a village to raise a child?”
Left to right: Scott Roley, Freddie Scott II, Rob Kendall and Kelly Campbell
The Rev. Scott Roley, the Executive Director of the Franklin Table and Rev. Freddie Scott II, Assistant Pastor at Word of Faith Christian Center in Nashville, as well as a national spokesman for All Pro Dad, were the main speakers at the event.
Rev. Roley addressed the question first: “Does it take a village? Absolutely. Does it take a family? Absolutely. But it also takes a body to take care of children, and to me that body is the body of Christ. “ Roley went on to note that,
“The Church is driven out of the glory of the gospel and the gospel has everything to do with children at risk.”
As the group discussed problems such as fatherlessness, teen pregnancy and negative generational cycles, Rev. Scott noted, “My lens has been focused on the family because that is the lens that God focuses on. If we can get the model of family to reflect what God created, it fixes all this other stuff.”
Rob Kendall, Executive Director of Against the Grain, a local ministry in Williamson County, and Kelly Campbell, Regional Vice President of the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, both presented their ministries as a few of the ways the Church is currently meeting the needs of children and families at risk in middle Tennessee.