2025 SBC Annual Meeting recap slides and video available to church
By BP Staff
NASHVILLE (BP) – Messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas have returned home with stories and news from the 167th annual meeting. Baptist Press and the SBC Executive Committee have created a pack of slides and a video to help share the highlights with the local church.
“We are grateful for the partnership of Southern Baptist churches and we want them to be informed about the business and decisions made by messengers in Dallas,” said Brandon Porter, SBC Executive Committee vice president for communications.
The slides include key points shared by several SBC entities in their presentations. In addition, Porter and Jonathan Howe, SBC EC vice president for convention administration, have created a three-minute video recapping some of the highlights of the annual meeting.
The slides are available for download at sbcannualmeeting.net and the video is available at the Baptist Press YouTube channel.
Ketner recognized for ‘unwavering commitment to the Great Commission’
By Mary Alford/Arkansas Baptist News
DALLAS – Julia Ketner, retired executive director for Arkansas Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), was recently recognized for her “unwavering commitment to the Great Commission” as she became the 25th recipient of the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development.
Ketner received the award during the WMU Missions Celebration on June 8 at the Omni Dallas Hotel amid the gathering of the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting.
According to the WMU Foundation website, “The prestigious leadership award recognizes Baptist women who demonstrate the ability to foster leadership in women, display the potential to be leaders in their community and world, and excel in missions discipleship.” Dellanna O’Brien served as executive director of WMU from 1989 until 1999 and passed away in 2008. Upon her retirement, she was honored with the establishment of the Dellanna West O’Brien Award for Women’s Leadership Development.
In her presentation of the award to Ketner, WMU Foundation President Peggy Darby said the “award was created to recognize Baptist women who model strong leadership and empower others to lead in their communities and beyond just as Dr. O’Brien did during her lifetime.”
“Today, we celebrate the 25th recipient of this prestigious award — a woman whose life has been a testimony to servant leadership, mentorship and missional living: Julia Ketner,” Darby said.
For more than 50 years, Ketner, Darby said, has inspired and equipped women to live on mission. Her legacy includes three decades of service as executive director of Arkansas WMU, countless mission trips, tireless support of disaster relief efforts, and the development of mission leaders who now serve across the country and the world. At her current church, Hebron Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ketner has planted seeds of missions that have grown into a vibrant ministry – from encouraging her church to give sacrificially to the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings to leading the congregation of just 65 to pack over 1,300 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child this past year.
“But Julia’s influence cannot be measured in numbers alone. It is seen in the lives of women she’s mentored — women like Willene Pierce, Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Carolyn Porterfield, Vickie Lloyd, Diane Parker, Kristyn Ross and Debbie Moore — and in the countless others that she has trained to give, pray, and go,” Darby said.
Honored and humbled by the recognition, Ketner said she was surprised when she learned she would be this year’s recipient of the award. “It was the last thing on my mind,” she said. “If there is anything I have accomplished, all glory and honor goes to the Father because He was the one that called me, and He is the one that has equipped me, and the one who has sustained me. Whatever I do, He has been the one that I try to put forth and acknowledge. He is the author of all things.”
Ketner grew up in a small rural church in central Florida. She credits WMU’s Girls in Action (GA) with planting the seed and helping grow her love for missions.
“If it hadn’t been for some pastors’ wives that would come to our little church to have and lead GAs, I have no idea where I would have been,” she said. “It opened up a new world to me.” It was the beginning of learning that she had a responsibility to be on mission. A key mentor for Ketner over the years was Ruth Bagwell, former Florida Acteens director, who inspired Ketner during her summers at GA/Acteens Camps at Lake Yale, Florida, and encouraged her to consider WMU as a profession.
Union honors Shaddix with Dodd Award during SBC meeting
By Union Staff
JACKSON, Tenn. – Union University presented longtime Baptist pastor and preaching mentor Jim Shaddix with its M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award during a June 10 alumni dinner at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.
Shaddix died Feb. 1 at age 64 after a battle with cancer. His son Shane, a 2010 Union graduate, accepted the award on behalf of his father.
The Dodd Award is the highest denominational service award Union gives. It is named for the man who was a 1904 Union graduate, served as president of the SBC and who was the father of today’s Cooperative Program, the method by which Southern Baptists pool their resources to fund their mission efforts.
The award, voted on by Union trustees, is given to a leader within the SBC who displays excellence and leadership in Southern Baptist life, as well as friendship and commitment to Union University. Past recipients include such leaders as Jimmy Draper, Adrian Rogers, R. Albert Mohler Jr., Steve Gaines, Paul Chitwood, Ben Mandrell, David S. Dockery and others.
“Dr. Shaddix’s legacy is one of unwavering devotion to the Word of God and to the people he served,” said Ray Van Neste, Union’s vice president for university ministries. “His passion for expository preaching and his commitment to mentoring the next generation of church leaders have left an indelible mark on Southern Baptists and on Union University. We are grateful for his example of faithfulness and humility, which will continue to inspire us for years to come.”
Shaddix served as professor of preaching at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., occupying the W. A. Criswell Chair of Expository Preaching. He also served as a senior fellow for the Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership, which exists to resource pastors in local churches.
He previously served as pastor of churches in Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and served as dean of the chapel and professor of preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Shaddix was the author of “The Passion Driven Sermon” and “Decisional Preaching,” among other books. Alongside his wife, Debra, Shaddix focused much of his ministry on discipling and mentoring young leaders and their spouses.
He was the plenary speaker for Union’s Ryan Center Bible Conference in 2019 and one of five preachers for Union’s REF500 Festival of Preaching in 2017.
Shaddix graduated from Jacksonville State University with a degree in religion and philosophy and completed his Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned his Doctor of Ministry and Doctor of Philosophy from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
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