The Baptist Women in Ministry Leadership Team is pleased to announce Meredith Stone as BWIM’s next Executive Director.
Stone will begin her tenure on August 24 as BWIM’s third Executive Director following Pam Durso who became Central Seminary’s 11th president on June 1.
“Across its 37-year history, BWIM has changed the landscape of women’s leadership and involvement in our Baptist world. But that work isn’t done and is needed even more today,” Stone said. “I am thrilled for the opportunity to lead BWIM in expanding its impact to more women, congregations, organizations, and partners, because when women are fully valued in the church, the work of God can be more fully realized in this world.”
Upon recommendation of the Search Committee as the result of their extensive process, the BWIM Leadership Team voted to call Stone on Monday during a virtual meeting called for this purpose.
“Meredith Stone is a strategic thinker who will invite us to dream new and even bigger dreams for the landscape of women in ministry across Baptist life,” said search committee chair, Courtney Allen Crump. “Meredith’s deep wisdom, theological prowess, and life-long passion for this work are exactly what we need to build upon our rich history and expand the reach of Baptist Women in Ministry in the years to come.”
A native Texan, Stone has most recently served as Associate Dean for Academics and Assistant Professor of Scripture and Ministry at Logsdon Seminary of Hardin-Simmons University. She has also previously served as Women in Ministry Specialist for Texas Baptists, and as an ordained minister in the roles of Teaching Pastor and Interim Pastor for Emerging Adults in Baptist congregations in Texas.
“Meredith Stone’s selection as the next Executive Director of Baptist Women in Ministry is indeed wonderful news,” said Paul Baxley, Executive Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. “Dr. Stone is a gifted preacher and teacher who has earned respect not only across our Fellowship but even throughout the Global Baptist community in her service in the Baptist World Alliance. Having come to know Meredith in the last year, I have come to respect her faith and have seen the difference she has made in the lives of students, colleagues and ministers across our Fellowship. I look forward to strengthening the partnership between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist Women in Ministry.”
Stone received the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Religion degrees from Hardin-Simmons University and Logsdon School of Theology, and earned the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biblical Interpretation from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University.
Dr. Bob Ellis, Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Logsdon Seminary said, “Dr. Meredith Stone is the ideal person to lead BWIM into the future. She combines remarkable gifts of scholarly insight with practical ministry instincts, compassion for individuals with visionary leadership, rich spirituality with strategic planning, and courageous advocacy with deep wisdom. Dr. Stone has been an invaluable colleague at Logsdon, and we will miss her very much. But we celebrate for BWIM and look forward to the bright future ahead for women in ministry through her leadership.”
In addition to her academic, peer-reviewed publication, Empire and Gender in LXX Esther (SBL Press, 2018), Stone has written extensively on women in ministry and related issues for BWIM, the Baptist Standard, and EthicsDaily.com (now Good Faith Media).
As a monthly supporter of BWIM for the past 10 years and a former Leadership Team member (2010-2015), Stone has been committed to BWIM’s ministry throughout her career.
Pam Durso, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas said, “I am delighted by and most grateful for the selection of Meredith Stone as the next executive director of Baptist Women in Ministry. She brings an abundance of experience and gifts to the organization, including five years of service on the Leadership Team and active involvement in the planning and implementation of many of BWIM’s signature programs. Her invitational and innovative leadership are exactly what BWIM needs as it moves into the next season of its ministry.”
Widely involved in Baptist life, Stone also currently serves as chair of the Steering Committee for Fellowship Southwest, and on the Board of Directors for the Baptist Joint Committee.
“The future of Baptist Women in Ministry just got brighter with the election of Meredith Stone—one of our finest leaders, whose vision and integrity are unparalleled, and whose capacity for modeling effective ministry is stellar,” Marv Knox, Field Coordinator of Fellowship Southwest said.
A member and Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church, Stone lives in Abilene, Texas with her husband James and their two daughters, Hallie and Kinsey.
Meredith Stone can be reached at meredithstone@bwim.info, and you can follow Baptist Women in Ministry on Facebook, @baptistwomen on Twitter, and @baptistwomen on Instagram.
More Endorsements of Meredith Stone:
“Meredith has helped pave the way for women in Texas. She laid the foundational work and inspired the birth of TXBWIM, she is a lifelong advocate, mentor, theological scholar, friend to Texas Baptists and a profound proclaimer of the Gospel. I am eager to see BWIM grow deeper and flourish wider under her leadership in such a time as this,”
-Anyra Cano, BWIM Search Committee and Leadership Team member and Texas BWIM Coordinator
“Meredith loves deeply and invests herself wholeheartedly in the lives of others – particularly women in ministry. I know she will challenge and inspire our BWIM staff and leadership team to dream God-sized dreams about what is next for our community. I couldn’t be more excited about this innovative, imaginative, and exceptionally gifted leader who I know will boldly broaden the horizon of women in ministry in Baptist life.”
-Mary Alice Birdwhistell, Pastor of Highland Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky
“Many things drew me to Meredith as I sat in her interviews. What stands out is her wisdom and desire to be a part of what God is doing and her fearlessness in tackling the obstacles that may be in the way of that work,”
–Ossie McKinney, BWIM Search Committee and Leadership Team member and Minister of Music at Providence Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia