The Punches perform Sept. 18 during the 12th Annual Golden Age Conference held at Williams Baptist University. (Craig Jenkins/ABSC)
WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. – The 12th Annual Golden Age Conference was hosted Thursday, Sept. 18, at Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge.
Greene County Baptist Association Associational Missionary Dave White said they had 240 registered for this year’s event, which featured worship led by the Punches and God’s Word shared by Dr. Robert Smith Jr.
White said the purpose of the conference is to “bless and encourage our senior adults.”
“I think we live in a time when senior adults feel as if maybe they’re finished. They’re on the back shelf now in the church cycle,” he said. “We want to make sure that they get their diet of ministry as well as go ahead and let them know how important they are and to challenge them to understand that the older we get we are not to stop. We are to continue working and helping and being a part of the Kingdom of God.”
The speakers at the Golden Age Conference “challenge senior adults to keep on keeping on,” White said.
White also touted Williams Baptist University and their partnership since the beginning.
“Williams Works at Williams is such a wonderful program they’ve got going on. The faculty at Williams, they get to have all these senior adults come on campus and see what’s going on and what is happening,” White said. “There are just a multitude of reasons for why we [have this conference]. But mostly, it is because we want to bless and encourage our senior adults.”
In addition to Williams Baptist University, Greene County Baptist Association partners with multiple other associations, the Arkansas Baptist Foundation, and Arkansas Baptist State Convention to host the event.
“It is definitely a partnership among many entities,” he said. Over the years, White said the Golden Age Conference has become a time of good camaraderie and good spirit.
The 13th Annual Golden Age Conference is tentatively set for Sept. 17, 2026.