On June 11, hundreds of women gathered at the 2024 SBC Pastors’ Wives Luncheon in Indianapolis.
INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Spiritual resilience is essential in the pastoral profession, and women can rely on God to give them that resilience, speaker Jackie King said June 11 at the Pastors’ Wives Luncheon at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.
Also at the packed luncheon, attended by more than 1,600 women, longtime pastor Diane Nix was presented with the Willie Turner Dawson Award.
King, whose husband, Josh King, is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lewisville, Texas, read from Ezra 3:12-13, noting that some of the Israelites who returned from exile “wept with a loud voice” when they saw the destruction of Jerusalem.
“As pastoral leaders and pastor’s wives, we can relate to this because we often have a front row seat to the effects that sin has on the world and on people,” King said.
Such impacts could be mothers with stillborn babies, widows who have lost best friends, people who have chosen a lesser God or simply discord within the church, she said. Pastors’ wives also need to weep for their own sins, such as sins of control and unforgiveness.
“Maybe like me, there have been times when you’ve been guilty of cynicism and lamented that it’s never going to be any better, that the pastor’s job is hard, it’s tough, and it’s never going to get better,” King said. “Can I gently say that’s a lie? I think the enemy is feeding many of us lies to get us down, to get us to sit back, fold our arms and say, ‘This is the way he does it.'”
In Ezra 3, King said, other Israelites sang songs of joy. They repeated what God had done for them in the past, proclaiming that God is good and that his faithful love endures forever.
“When we think about resilience, when we think about, ‘How are we going to get through this?’, it has nothing to do with picking yourself up by your bootstraps and gritting your teeth and getting through it,” she said.
“When we think about resilience, it’s not about having the right answers, or having a seminary education, or having a diploma on the wall, or having training. It’s literally, ‘God is good and his faithful love endures forever.’ That’s the answer.”
Such solid truths will sustain pastor’s wives as they experience the joy of watching their children be baptized and the sadness of having to sit with a woman whose husband has just left her, King said.
“There are no better words to teach, to model, to speak to or to say to women and those around us than, ‘God is good and his faithful love endures forever.'”
Pastors’ wives are loved with a love that follows them through success and failure, King said. Even though church members expect perfection, God doesn’t, she said.
King, author of “The Calling of Eve: The Influence of Biblical Women on Women in the Church,” began by reading a list of common hardships and asking women who had experienced them in the past five years to stand up. As the audience stood, King said, “You are a people of tenacity.”
“You made it because God is good and His faithful love endures forever,” King said.
The Willie Turner Dawson Award, presented annually at the luncheon, recognizes a pastor’s wife who has made a distinct contribution to the denomination beyond her local church and who has been an example of Christian character and service to others.
As a pastor’s wife for over 40 years, Nicks has served in Texas and Oklahoma with her husband, Preston Nicks. In 2007, she founded Contagious Joy for Him, a global network of pastor’s wives that encourages them and has hosted retreats that have impacted the lives of over 400 women.
Ann Iogue, wife of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) Chairman Jeff Iogue, presented the award and said, “When I think of women who have dedicated their lives to helping women, pastors’ wives, reach their full potential, Diane is certainly one of those women.”
The chair of the 2025 Dallas luncheon is Peggy Osborne. Her husband, Chris Osborne, served as pastor at Central Baptist Church in College Station, Texas, for 33 years before becoming a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Other officers include vice president Nicole Reno, treasurer Judith Cirincione and secretary Lori McDonald.
Next year’s luncheon speaker will be Sheila Walsh, a Christian speaker and author of books including “Holding On When You Want to Let Go.” The theme for the June 10 luncheon will be “Before the Lord,” based on Psalm 16:11.
Tickets for next year’s luncheon will go on sale in February, with information posted at sbcwives.com and on the SBC Wives Facebook page.
