[1]RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP) – Pam Mitchell, wife of National African American Fellowship (NAAF) Executive Director Dennis Mitchell, has a global vision in leading the NAAF First Ladies Network she founded in 2023 as a support group for the wives of senior pastors.
“When the Holy Spirit placed it in me to form this kind of an organization, it was to be holistic where we look at emotional health, your financial health, your spiritual health, your mental health,” she told Baptist Press. “And it’s so that you know you’re not just a first lady, you’re a whole person.”
Burnout, feelings of neglect, loneliness, dealing with difficult people and childcare amid ministry are among concerns first ladies may face. New first ladies and those who have served for decades are network members.
The group is focused on first building a firm foundation nationally, Mitchell said, with an eye towards helping first ladies globally, beginning with connections established through NAAF partners including World Vision.
“My hopes are for us to be able to reach out to other first ladies around the world and see how we can work together to make impact and maybe empower those who don’t feel that they have any power at all,” Mitchell said, “to let them know (they) have fellow first ladies in other countries who are there to lift (them) up, even if it’s just through prayer or … a (joint) mission project.”
About 100 NAAF pastors’ wives currently resource the group, Mitchell said, with about 30-40 of those variously attending events held in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in June, Lifeway Christian Resources’ Black Church Leadership and Family Conference (BCLFC) in July and regional NAAF meetings held quarterly.
First ladies participated in a week of special events at BCLFC July 21-25 at Ridgecrest Conference Center, culminating with a morning of packing gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child, a global ministry of new network partner Samaritan’s Purse. Ladies packed Christmas boxes and gathered resources to engage their church memberships in the ministry, Mitchell said.
Spiritual enrichment, training in using online media in ministry and mental health exercises were among activities the network offered first ladies at BCLFC.
At the SBC 2025 meeting in Dallas, first ladies hosted a luncheon and heard keynote speaker Elizabeth Luter, first lady of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.
In partnership with World Vision, first ladies joined NAAF members in the World Vision Global 6K, a fundraiser that allows teams to walk and run wherever they live to raise money for clean water for those in need.
The network promotes itself as a safe space for first ladies to share concerns, gain spiritual enrichment and support, grow resilience and learn their potential impact.
“And I think it also allows them to grow just as a person,” Mitchell said. “And just knowing that God made me special. I’m His. I’m wonderfully made. He has a plan for me. And if part of that plan is being a first lady, so be that. But I also have a place where I can go and get refueled.”
In addition to Mitchell, the network is supported by co-leader Robin Burns, an author, retired teacher and wife of Anthony Burns, senior pastor of Jericho Church Without Walls in Milwaukee, Wis.; treasurer Peggy Alexander, a retired banker and wife of retired California pastor Lyman Alexander; creative director Shayna Mitchell-Ross and secretary Andrea Lee.
The group is open to wives of pastors within NAAF, a fellowship of pastors of about 4,000 Southern Baptist churches. Connect with the network at naaftogether.org [2].
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