July 19, 2025
DALLAS — Georgia was well represented at the national Royal Ambassador Pinewood Derby held June 9, just before the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas. Among the participants was Mack Kenney, whose family are members at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta.
Mack and his family, including parents Kate and Edward and brother Jake, drove from Marietta to attend the event, which featured 11 participants from across the Southern Baptist Convention.
“We’ve got three boys and they’ve all been through RAs one way or another," Mack's dad Edward explained, "but Mack is now very involved here at the national championship derby car racing. Mack loves it because it’s more engaging than Sunday school, and he gets to do it with friends. He especially enjoys learning Bible verses.”
Kenney added that RA involvement has impacted their entire family. “It affects the family because he gets up in the morning, opens the Bible, reads it, and then asks me questions about it. And that's something that he or Jake, my middle child, have always done. And it's because of RAs — because of the values that these men have instilled in him.”
Though Mack didn't win—that honor belonged to Callen Breaux from Louisiana—that did nothing to diminish his mother's pride. "I'm so proud of him," Kate Kenney said. "He worked really hard on his car. And he raced it at our local RA Derby race and did really well. So we came here to race with kids from around the country.”
The Kenney family planned to visit Six Flags Over Texas and explore the SBC exhibit hall before heading home.
For boys like Mack, events like the Pinewood Derby provide both fun and a chance to grow in their faith.
