Steve Browning to be nominated for second term as Georgia Baptist Convention president

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Chris Renfro, lead pastor of Hope Church Union Hill in Alpharetta, will nominate GBC president Steve Browning for a second term at the annual meeting scheduled for Nov. 9-11 at First Baptist Atlanta. Renfro described Browning as a faithful pastor who leads First Baptist Church Alpharetta “with excellence.”

Renfro noted the church baptized more people this year than at any other point in its 120-year history, launched a second campus in Hickory Flat, and modeled multiplication through church planting. Renfro said Browning has become “a genuine friend who continually encourages pastors across our community,” always pointing them back to the mission of reaching people with the gospel.

That mission, Browning said, will remain the hallmark of a second term if messengers choose to re-elect him. “My prayer every day is that God would move in mighty power to motivate Georgia Baptists to get the gospel to everyone everywhere. Our churches are the leading edge of the mission in Georgia. May the Lord use Georgia Baptists to see the 7 million lost people in Georgia reduced daily through the hope of the gospel!”

Browning highlighted stories from every corner of the state as encouraging signs of progress: a Powder Springs congregation seeing a 20-year high in baptisms; a Canton church experiencing a surge of young people hungry for the gospel; a Valdosta church expanding its campus to make room for growth; and a Clermont ministry welcoming “dozens and dozens” of students into its college outreach.

The challenge for Georgia Baptist churches, Browning explained, “is embracing a sustained strategy to reach their community.” Short-term or event-based outreaches like VBS or high-attendance Sundays are “wonderful tools,” he added, “but the only way we will ever see long-term fruitfulness in making disciples is when churches embed evangelism in their DNA, when it becomes foundational to every facet of the church.”

Browning pointed to the launch of Send Network Georgia, a partnership between the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the North American Mission Board, which “has opened the door for church planting to spread across every corner and community in our state. Already, we are seeing more local churches raise up and send out planters to start Bible-preaching, gospel-proclaiming local churches. My hope is that we see this movement of church multiplication multiply so that we can have churches everywhere for everyone across the state.”

“Steve is deeply passionate about what God is doing across our state and among Georgia Baptist churches,” Renfro said. “He celebrates churches of every size and background that are engaging in church planting through Send Network Georgia, and rejoices to see more and more people placing their faith in Jesus Christ and living for His glory!”

A key tool in continuing to reach the lost in Georgia, Browning said, is the Evangelism Initiative developed by GBMB Executive Director Thomas Hammond and the mission board team over the last year. “More than a program,” Browning said, “this will be a collection of resources pastors can actually use to build sustained outreach,” he said, encouraging every congregation to “look for ways to implement it in their ministry.”

Asked how he stays grounded while juggling pastoral responsibilities and convention leadership, Browning points to two anchors—Scripture and his family. “My daily time with the Lord is paramount to every area of my life,” he said, citing John 15:5: ‘Apart from me you can do nothing.’ He is currently working through a chronological Bible reading plan and journaling prayers each day. “Without the Lord speaking into my life, I have nothing to offer my family, my church, or this convention.”

Browning also guards time with his wife, Beth, and their four children. “Our convention will have another president one day. Our church will have another pastor,” he said. “I am the only husband and father my family will ever know. It’s staying true to this calling that enables all the rest.”

Spiritually, the Lord has been impressing on him a familiar command: do not be anxious. “I’m always looking toward the horizon, and it’s easy for me to get troubled about future difficulties,” Browning shared, quoting Matthew 6:34. “I’m learning more each day to trust God’s faithfulness for tomorrow. He is the one who holds our future and everyone in it.”