More than 1,000 women from across Arkansas gathered Sept. 26 at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock for the Arkansas Baptist Women’s Conference, a one-day gathering focused on what it means to be “rooted and built up” in Christ. 

The conference theme, “Rooted,” was drawn from Colossians 2:6-7: “So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.” 

The conference was designed to encourage women to deepen their faith, strengthen their walk with God and make space for gospel-centered community - leaving them firmly rooted in Christ, who never changes. 

Morgan Fulcher, Arkansas Baptists Children and Women’s Ministry strategist, welcomed women to the conference and encouraged them to rest in God’s presence and Word. 

“What we want to see God bring about with this conference is a deep strength in Him, because we rest in His presence and rest in His Word. He gives us this inner strength that only comes from His Spirit,” Fulcher said. “Ladies, I hope that you are refreshed, that you’re encouraged, and that your faith is strengthened.”  

Along with multiple impactful Connection Groups, the conference featured powerful worship and biblical teaching.  Worship was led by Katelin Cotton and Nathan Liouh of Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro. 

Courtney Doctor, an author and Bible teacher, served as the keynote speaker. During Session One, Doctor turned to Romans 11:33-36, where Paul responds to the truths he has laid out about the gospel with praise and worship. 

“Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33) 

“For 11 chapters, Paul has been giving his comprehensive account of the gospel,” Doctor said. “Step by step, he has shown how God has revealed His way of putting sinners right with Himself. How Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. How we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. How the Christian life is lived not under the law but in the Spirit.” 

“Paul’s horizons are vast,” she said. “He takes in time and eternity, history and eschatology, justification, sanctification and glorification. Now he stops out of breath, and he falls down before God and worships.” 

Doctor said the first 11 chapters of Romans show that “knowing God and knowing what He has done matters, but knowledge is not the end game. We are meant to worship as a result of what we know.” 

She focused on Paul’s words, “Oh, the depths,” describing them as “an unexpected intake of air with everything he’s just seen. It’s a response.” 

Doctor pointed to the depth of God’s riches, wisdom and knowledge, emphasizing that God is “rich in mercy” and “rich in kindness and in forgiveness and love and salvation.” 

“Deep mercy, deep forgiveness, deep salvation,” she said. 

She also emphasized that God’s knowledge and wisdom have no end. He knows “your greatest hope,” “what has caused you the greatest pain,” and “your anger and your fear and your sadness and your joy.” 

“He knows all of you,” Doctor said. “And you know what? He didn’t turn away. He drew near.” 

Ultimately, she said, God’s love is as deep as His knowledge. 

“No matter how low you sink, no matter how deeply you fall,” Doctor said, “the depth of God’s love is infinitely deeper than those things.” 

Doctor then pointed to the final verse: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36) 

Paul’s response to the great truths of God, she said, was worship. 

“Great truth should lead us to great worship,” Doctor said. 

She asked the women, “Where in your life do you burst forth in praise?” 

“The worship of God will root you so deeply. As you are rooted deeply, it will result in praise,” she said. 

Doctor closed by returning to the depth of God’s love and calling women to “sink the roots of your life deeply into the soil of these truths,” trusting that God would produce “the glorious fruit” of worship, adoration and grace. 

WMU Missions Celebration 

Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director of the National Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), also challenged women to remain rooted in Christ and His mission during the WMU Missions Celebration, one of several Connection Groups offered during the conference. 

Wisdom-Martin shared six stories from her years of ministry, connecting each to a challenge for women seeking to remain “rooted” in Christ and His mission. 

Her first challenge was to “reflect Jesus.” 

Wisdom-Martin recalled purchasing a seven-foot teddy bear for her daughter after the family moved to Alabama. The bear barely fit inside her husband’s small Fiat, pressed against nearly every window. 

The story became a picture of what she believes the Christian life should look like: Christ so evident in believers’ lives that He is visible to those around them. 

“We want everything we say and do to point to Christ, the Redeemer who dwells in us,” Wisdom-Martin said. “May Christ be all they can see.” 

Her remaining challenges were: “own your assignment,” “overcome obstacles,” “trust more and fear less,” “endure to the end” and “do what God asks, and leave the results to Him.” 

Wisdom-Martin illustrated those challenges with stories from decades of ministry, including a church’s response to poverty in Arkansas, her own experiences with hardship and loss, a missionary’s witness to a woman who came to faith in Christ and an elderly woman who died while serving on a mission trip. 

Throughout the stories, Wisdom-Martin returned to the importance of remaining rooted when circumstances are difficult and when results are not immediately visible. 

Also featured at the WMU Missions Celebration were Lydia Steelman, a Send Relief missionary serving in Kenya, and the youth choir from Iglesia Bautista Nueva Jerusalen in Little Rock, the home church of Diana Rodriguez, Arkansas WMU’s Hispanic consultant. 

The WMU Missions Celebration gave women an opportunity to hear stories of God’s work through acts of faithfulness and to consider their own place in His mission. 

Plans are already under way for the 2027 Arkansas Baptist Women’s Conference. More information is available at absc.org/ABWC.