Leading Women Conference

April 26-28, 2017

Leading Women Conference

First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee

April 26-28, 2017

On April 26-28, 2017, 120 women gathered at First Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee to celebrate the influence and voices of women from across Baptist life.

Attendees participated in worship, leadership development discussions, networking opportunities, and conversations.

Leading Women began on Wednesday afternoon with three LEAD Talks (think TED Talks with a Baptist woman twist) presented by Kasey Jones, Molly T. Marshall, and Suzii Paynter. In addition, attendees selected from eighteen other LEAD Talk on Thursday with topics ranging from advocacy, financial well-being, life-long learning, leadership, and mentoring. The gathering also featured three worship services led by Carol McEntyre, Ossie McKinney, and Meredith Stone. The Friday morning session opened with a conversation with Raquel Contreras and concluded with a powerful worship service that included testimonies from Ashton Wells and Linda McKinnish Bridges.

Following the gathering, Pam Durso wrote in a BWIM blog post: “There were so many special moments.”

I watched as two friends from seminary days stood together in the pulpit-–now both are seminary presidents! (Molly T. Marshall and Linda McKinnish Bridges) I cried as a retired missionary sat next to her Chilean Baptist pastor friend (Joyce Wyatt and Raquel Contreras). I marveled at the new friends that blossomed quickly. I laughed (and took selfies) with some of my students–both present students and those who have graduated and are now busy bringing change to our world. There are too many stories to tell. Too many beautiful stories. For last week, a group of Baptist women made space for beauty. They listened to one another. They learned from each other. They cried together–and laughed. And they were inspired and renewed, and so was I. Leading Women was an unexpected gift, one for which I will be forever grateful!”

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  • Two weeks ago Baptist women gathered in the lovely sanctuary of First Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee. Our theme for the three-day Leading Women event was CELEBRATING BEAUTY. At the first session of that gathering, I spoke these words: “In each and every moment of our lives, we find beauty. In the gains and in the losses, we find beauty. In the successes and in the failures, we find beauty. In the joyous laughter and in the grieving tears, we find beauty. For God’s spirit works in and with and through us in each moment, making all things beautiful, redeeming every heartache and pain, every happiness and joy.” We then proceeded to celebrate the beauty of those women who walked before us, paving the way, blazing the trail. We celebrated the women who have stepped into places of leadership and service, sharing their beautiful gifts with us all in these present days, and we celebrated the beauty that is to come as God calls and gifts more women as pastors, counselors, preachers, teachers, leaders, chaplains, encouragers, and mentors. That celebration of beauty continued for me well past the conclusion of Leading Women. On Sunday evening, May 7, I sat in another lovely church sanctuary. This one in Nacogdoches, Texas: Austin Heights Baptist Church. The sanctuary was filled with faithful Baptists and friends of Baptists, and all those gathered shared in celebrating the beauty that is our friend and leader, Suzii Paynter. We named her giftedness. We affirmed her calling as a minister, and we laid our hands on her. We recognized the minister she has long been, the minister she is now, and the minister she is yet to be. And it was beautiful. For the beauty of her ordination service, for the beauty of Suzii’s long-held calling, for the beauty of her strength and courage, and for the beauty of her faithfulness, thanks be to God.   Pam Durso is the executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry, Atlanta, Georgia.

  • If you have ever planned worship or conferences or meetings, you will understand. I rarely, almost never, enjoy, receive inspiration, or feel renewed when I attend an event that I have planned. It is hard to be in the moment, when you are watching the clock, keeping track of what’s next. It is hard to be inspired when you are texting your co-leader, checking on your flight-delayed preacher. It is hard to listen, to sing, to absorb when you are directing traffic from the front row. It is just hard. But many times last week in the midst of our Leading Women gathering, I found myself sitting on the front row NOT watching the time, NOT signaling the next speaker. I found myself swept into the moment–it was a wonderful, unexpected feeling! At the very beginning of our time together last week, Molly T. Marshall, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and founding mother of Baptist Women in Ministry, stood and declared that Leading Women was “as historic, perhaps, as that first organizing meeting of Baptist Women in Ministry in 1983.” I knew then that I needed to pay attention, to soak this gathering in, and so I did. There were so many special moments. I watched as two friends of seminary days stood together in the pulpit–now both are seminary presidents! (Molly T. Marshall and Linda McKinnish Bridges) I cried as a retired missionary sat next to her Chilean Baptist pastor friend (Joyce Wyatt and Raquel Contreras). I marveled at the new friends that blossomed quickly. I laughed (and took selfies) with some of my students–both present students and those who have graduated and are now busy bringing change to our world. There are too many stories to tell. Too many beautiful stories. For last week, a group of Baptist women made space for beauty. They listened to one another. They learned from each other. They cried together–and laughed. And they were inspired and renewed, and so was I. Leading Women was an unexpected gift. One I will be forever grateful for!   Pam Durso is executive director, Baptist Women in Ministry, Atlanta, Georgia. 

  • There are really no words for what happened yesterday in Knoxville as women gathered for worship, conversation, laughter, and beautiful music. What a day. From LEAD Talks by our favorite leading women: Kasey Jones, Molly T. Marshall, and Suzii Paynter to a powerful service of praise and worship led by Ossie McKinney and Meredith Stone. There are no words . . . but there are lots of pictures. Selfies. We began our time by making new friends, celebrating old friends, and taking selfies! And we used the hashtag #leadingwomen2017. Among my favorite selfies from the day are these:  

  • Today. Finally. After a year of dreaming and planning and preparing, Leading Women begins today. And I am ready! For those of you who weren’t able to make it to Knoxville, follow our gathering on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Facebook Live, or follow us on twitter and Facebook at #leadingwomen2017. Among the leading women who will be with us in Knoxville are Raquel Contreras, Kasey Jones, Molly T. Marshall, Carol McEntyre, Ossie McKinney, Suzii Paynter, and Meredith Stone. THIS IS WHAT LEADING WOMEN LOOK LIKE!                 Pam Durso is executive director, Baptist Women in Ministry, Atlanta, Georgia. 

In her blog post, “Mothering Like God,” Kelly Moreland Jones wrote of the conversation with Raquel Contreras: “I was moved to hear her journey from pastor’s wife and stay-at-home mom to widow and single parent during her mid-forties. She told us about being excused from a business meeting expecting the people to be gathering a widow’s offering behind closed doors, following the death of her husband. Instead, she returned to the meeting, only to learn that the church wanted to call her as their senior pastor.”

Raquel also shared about the time she found herself in a sea of bickering men. Finally, those men turned to prayer and “sought Almighty God’s will for the leader who would help heal wounds and propel them into the future.” The prayer time resulted in every male candidate for the presidency of the Chilean Baptist Union stepping forward to remove his name from the ballot so that the group could nominate a godly woman. The Union then elected Raquel as their president by acclimation. Kelly concluded her blog, “Raquel Contreras’s story is nothing short of a miracle. It is evidence of a living, loving God walking among us.”

Leading Women was a powerful, much-needed gathering to celebrate the beauty of leading Baptist women. If you missed the gathering, the large group sessions and the worship services videos are available below.

Leadership Conversations and Worship Services