Eddie Brackett, associate pastor of Old Town Church in Winston-Salem, will ask messengers to the 1997 Baptist State Convention to approve his recommendation. Carlton McDaniel Sr., pastor of Highland Church in Raleigh, is scheduled to second Brackett's motion.

Brackett plans to make his motion during the first miscellaneous business meeting on Nov. 11 at 11:05 a.m. The recommendation will ask "that the General Board study the feasibility of the establishment of a network of Christian Group Homes in North Carolina for the Developmentally Disabled and report back to the Convention its findings and recommendations as soon as possible."

Since May of this year, a group known as N.C. Baptists for the Establishment of Christian Group Homes has been trying to get out information about group homes and generally advocating for the developmentally disabled, according to a statement released by Brackett.

According to the 1990 census, 3 percent of the adult population is mentally handicapped, Brackett said. In North Carolina, this figure translates to more than 218,000 mentally handicapped persons.

Brackett said 90 percent of all disabled people are either unsaved or unchurched. About 95 percent of all handicapped still live at home, he said. There is an 80 percent divorce rate in marriages that have a handicapped child born into it, according to Brackett. For every handicapped or disabled person, there are two to four other family members affected, he said.

Brackett said some people have asked "Why do we need Christian group homes?"

"(We need them) for the same reason that we have Baptist hospitals, Baptist retirement homes and Baptist children's homes," he said. "Distinctive to the Christian group home is the total or holistic approach to services. All individuals are encouraged, assisted and trained to grow to their highest level of achievement in all areas of their lives. This includes physical, emotional, social and spiritual growth."

Brackett attended a meeting put on by the Home Mission Board in Atlanta, Ga., in April that focused on how to establish group homes.

"N.C. Baptists are not being asked to reinvent the wheel but rather to get on board with other states like Georgia (13 group homes), Tennessee (four group homes), and Virginia (four group homes) in providing this ministry," Brackett's statement said.

Brackett's church, Old Town Church, has a program for the developmentally disabled. During the month of October, an average of more than 60 people attended a Sunday School class for the developmentally disabled. The church has elected David Thornton, who is handicapped due to an automobile accident, as a deacon to the special population.