ATLANTA, GA — December 15, 2025 — Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) is honored to announce Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton of Birmingham, Alabama, as the 2025 recipient of the Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award, celebrating her decades of courageous pastoral leadership and her extraordinary commitment to empowering women in ministry.
Shelton, Pastor Emeritus of the Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Alabama, served as the congregation’s first female senior pastor for 17 years and has spent more than 40 years shaping and strengthening the ministries of women across Baptist life. In retirement, her work as a mentor through Samford University’s Center for Congregational Resources and the Center for Healthy Churches has impacted dozens of female clergy, helping them navigate the joys and challenges of pastoral leadership.
The award, established in 2013, honors leaders who nurture the giftedness of Baptist women in ministry through personal investment, advocacy, integrity, and decades of faithful service. Shelton’s ministry embodies every aspect of this legacy.
Rev. Erica Cooper is Sarah’s pastor and followed her at Baptist Church of the Covenant. She said, “Having Sarah as a mentor and dear friend has been a great gift for my ministry at Baptist Church of the Covenant. She has left big shoes to fill since her retirement here in 2019, but she has supported me and cheered me along as I have worked to find my own footing. Sarah’s legacy of advocating for and standing alongside Baptist women in ministry has paved a way for me and so many others to discover our own unique identities as ministers. As her pastor, witnessing Sarah discover her own new calling into this remarkable work has been an inspiration and a delight.”
Mentees consistently describe Shelton as a grounding presence whose wisdom, compassion, and tenacity open the way for women to flourish. One nominator wrote:
“Mentor, spiritual mother/sister, role model, confidant, advocate, safe haven… Sarah Jackson Shelton has been all these to me since I first met her as an Acteen in the early 1980s.”
One mentee, Ashley Robinson, said of her, “Sarah Shelton has all of the gifts that make an amazing pastor—deep listening, care, great humor, and a wealth of spiritual knowledge and practice. One could become a better pastor just by watching her move through the world. What makes her an amazing mentor, though, is her rare gift of carrying the stories of others with care, loving every part of us as she does it. To be able to share the beautiful and terrible moments of ministry with someone who you know will hold your stories with humor and deep love is lifesaving, especially in the early years of ministry.”
Rev. Natalie Webb, a mentee through the BWIM Mentoring Program, described their regular conversations as transformative:
“These calls are one of the highlights of my month where I know I can get practical advice on day-to-day concerns of ministry, unload about my burnout and self-doubt, laugh and/or cry about the absurdity of life, and always feel seen, called, and empowered.”
Webb continued, “Every month, Sarah sends a snail-mail card about a week after our call, with a quote that’s relevant to our conversation, or an exhortation to rest, or a reminder of my gifts that she sees in me. I can’t tell you how meaningful these little cards are. I keep them in a stack in my kitchen and look back at them any time I need a boost.”
Shelton’s guidance is marked not only by care but by a prophetic clarity rooted in justice. Her mentees highlighted her courage in advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion, confronting racism, naming patriarchal harms, and guiding women through pastoral crises and discernment. One nomination letter noted that she has “stood up for the trans community, been a huge voice for women in pastoral ministry, and taken a stand against racism and patriarchy.”
Rev. Dee Ford reflected on Shelton’s depth of presence: “She has poured into us with precisely the right questions, deep listening, and words of wisdom and insights from her own experience. No one has cared for me, and by extension, my family and my church, in the same way as Sarah, and I will be forever grateful for her.” 
Other nominators emphasized the profound impact of Shelton’s pastoral wisdom. As one wrote: “Sarah’s gentle disposition, her keen ear, & her pastoral heart help her to listen fully with her head & her heart to bring out the answers which lie within each woman she serves.”
Shelton’s leadership is multigenerational. The same nominator who first met Sarah as a young Acteen wrote of the joy in seeing Sarah now mentor her daughter, newly ordained and beginning her ministry journey:
“It brings me so much joy to know Sarah is mentoring and nurturing my daughter in pastoral ministry… To know she’s giving this blessing to young women ministers, including my daughter, assures me that they, too, will know deep in their beings their belovedness, which will sustain them through the most trying days of ministry.”
Reverend Dr. Meredith Stone, Executive Director of BWIM, remarks, “Rev. Sarah Jackson Shelton embodies every ideal of this award. I have personally benefited from her wisdom and care over the last several years and have seen firsthand the difference she has made in the lives of dozens of pastors. She is wisdom, compassion, humility, and courage personified, and Baptist Women in Ministry is thrilled to honor her with this award.”
Shelton will be celebrated at her home church, Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Alabama, on December 21, 2025, where she will be presented with the award named for Frankie Huff Granger, a pioneering minister whose mentorship empowered women in ministry across the 1970s and 1980s.
For more information, reach out to nikkihardeman@bwim.info.
About the Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award: Each year, Baptist Women in Ministry honors a mentor who has supported and empowered women called to ministry to use their gifts in service of the church with the Frankie Huff Granger Distinguished Mentor Award. Established in 2013, the award honors the legacy and ministry of Frankie Huff Granger who served at First Baptist Church, Berea, South Carolina for over 20 years. Her greatest gift was serving as a mentor to young women who were discerning their callings from God, and as an example and role model when few female ministers to fill that role could be found.
About Baptist Women in Ministry: Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) is a national nonprofit organization committed to supporting Baptist women who pursue ministry and advocating for their full affirmation in ministry and leadership in Baptist life. BWIM envisions a future where women thrive as they minister and lead in Baptist communities. Learn more at www.bwim.info.