Stand Up
Standing for vulnerable adults against abuse and exploitation
REGISTER
Tickets are $20 in advance with lunch and $10 in advance with no lunch.
Tickets are $20 at the door, with no lunch
In the United States, more than 1 in 4 adults have a disability of some kind.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, people with disabilities are over 3 times more likely to be abused than people without disabilities.
As Christians, we view all human beings as precious, wonderfully made, and created in the image of God. Tragically, abusers often target the vulnerable including children and people with disabilities. Some disabilities may be obvious, such as those that necessitate a wheelchair or seeing eye dog. Others may be less obvious, such as difficulty hearing, learning, or processing information. Some people are born with special needs, while others develop them later in life due to injury, illness, or age.
While Jesus ministered here on earth, he worked wondrous miracles – many of which were centered around people with special needs. Jesus cares deeply about persons with disabilities. As Christians, we long to be like Jesus and to align our are hearts and priorities with Gods. One way to do this is to care for people with unique needs and challenges, proactively protecting, ministering to, and loving them well.
Join us for lunch in Orlando during the SBC annual meeting to learn more about how you can follow Christ’s example to Stand Up for persons with unique and special abilities.
Title Sponsor
Tom Stolle
Tom Stolle is the executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware. Stolle began serving the BCM/D as comptroller in 2004 and has held the positions of chief operating officer, director of human resources, associate executive director, chief financial officer and interim executive director. He met his wife Shelley through mutual friends, and they were married in 1990. They have three adult sons, Jordan Thomas (J.T.), Jake and Jimmy. As Stolle prepared to work with the BCM/D as Chief Financial Officer, he and Shelley discovered their young son, Jimmy, had severe, life-altering, family-changing intellectual disabilities. Over the years, Stolle openly shared his and Shelley’s struggles as they loved and cared for Jimmy, often with tears and emotional and physical scars. His candid openness touched many hearts. He became passionate about assisting churches in starting and strengthening their disability ministries, and that passion became a catalyst for BCM/D’s current emphasis on disability ministry.
Julie Lowe
Julie Lowe is a former faculty member at the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF). She holds an MA in counseling from Biblical Theological Seminary. She is a licensed professional counselor with over twenty-two years of counseling experience. She has extensive experience with marriage, women’s issues, sexual abuse, body image issues, parenting, and child maltreatment issues, and regularly speaks on these topics. Julie is a registered play therapist and has developed a play therapy office and resources to serve families and youth. She is trained in leading mandated reporter trainings and provides numerous trainings on child sexual abuse. Julie has a registered therapy dog that she works with both professionally and on a volunteer basis.
She has authored several books: Childproof: Parenting By Faith Not Formula, Building Bridges: Biblical Counseling Activities for Children and Teens, Helping Your Anxious Child: What to Do When Your Worries are Big, and Teens and Suicide: Recognizing the Signs and Sharing the Hope.
Kathy Kovalchuk
With over 14 years of ministry experience, Kathy currently serves as the Special Needs Minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas, Texas area. She is deeply passionate about serving and ministering to individuals and families impacted by disability, working to create environments where everyone feels welcomed, included, and empowered to grow in their faith.
Kathy earned my degree in Occupational Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University, and that foundation continues to shape her ministry approach — blending practical support with a heart for spiritual growth and community. Her passion is to help individuals of all abilities discover their place in the body of Christ and live fully into their God-given purpose.
Kathy believes that the Gospel is for everyone!
Daniel Ritchie
Daniel is a sought after motivational speaker in both the corporate and religious worlds, speaking to over 200,000 people annually. He uses his unique story of being born without arms to be a springboard into talks on overcoming obstacles, embracing joy or disability awareness.
God has given Daniel the opportunity and call to speak to more than 200,000 people every year – sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as what he has learned being born visibly different. God has shaped his perspective to pursue a full life because he is defined by Him, and His grace rather than seeing himself as the sum of two empty sleeves or finding his value in the eyes of the critical opinions of the world.
Sandra Peoples
Sandra Peoples is the disability ministry consultant for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and an adjunct professor for Liberty University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families. Sandra’s commitment to disability inclusion is primarily shaped by personal experience—she grew up with a sister with Down syndrome and is the mother of a son with level 3 autism.
Kris Buckman
Kris Buckman serves as the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware’s children’s & youth ministry consultant. She was a member of the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) and is a founding member of BCM/D’s sexual abuse task force, formed in January 2022. She has walked alongside churches to help them develop and enhance their child protection policies and procedures, volunteer and staff screening processes, abuse awareness and prevention training, and victim centered response plans. She has served in children’s ministry for 20 years and has a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Baltimore, and a Master’s degree in children’s and family ministry from Bethel Seminary in Minnesota.
Shawn Thornton
Shawn Thornton brings decades of pastoral and leadership experience to his role as President of Joni and Friends. During his nearly thirty years of ministry, Shawn has served as an assistant pastor in the Philadelphia area, taught Bible and New Testament Greek at the undergraduate level, and for over ten years led Bible Center Church in Charleston, West Virginia, which is a prominent church in the state’s capital, as its Senior Pastor. Before coming to Joni and Friends, Shawn served for nearly seventeen years as Senior Pastor of Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, California (one exit away on the 101 freeway from Joni and Friends).
Sponsorship Opportunities
Support Our Mission to Stand for the Vulnerable
Title Sponsor
$ 1200
--- Prominent logo/link placement on event site
- Rotating logo slide before and after event.
- Stage mention
- Literature distributed to all attendees (provided by sponsor)
- Exhibit table
Sponsor
$ 550
--- Logo and link on event page.
- Rotating logo slide before and after event.
- Exhibit table
Advertising Only
$ 300
For a single event- Logo and link listed on event page.
- Rotating slide before and after event
