October 1, 2026
BUFORD, Ga. — Stephen Fountain, lead pastor of First Baptist Church Buford, will be nominated to serve as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention at the convention’s annual meeting in November.
Jim Perdue, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins, announced his intention to nominate Fountain, a longtime friend whom he described as a faithful pastor with a deep commitment to the local church, evangelism, and cooperation among Georgia Baptists.
“Stephen and I have been friends for more than 20 years,” Perdue said. “I have had the privilege of watching his life and ministry up close through many different seasons. I know him not simply as a pastor or a leader in our convention, but as a faithful friend.”
Perdue said he has seen firsthand Fountain’s “heart for the Lord, his love for his family, and his passion to reach people with the gospel.”
Fountain has served at First Baptist Buford since 2011 and as lead pastor since 2014. He has also served Georgia Baptists through the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee, including as chairman.
“He has demonstrated that he understands our convention and believes deeply in what we can accomplish when our churches work together,” Perdue said. “He is genuine, humble, steady, and deeply committed to the Lord. He loves pastors, loves the local church, and loves Georgia Baptists. He has the ability to lead without making leadership about himself.”
Fountain and his wife, Erin, have been married for 19 years and have two children, Emma, 16, and Drake, 12. Ministry has long been part of Fountain’s family life. His father, Tommy Fountain Sr., is senior pastor of 1025 Church in Monroe, and his brother, Tommy Fountain Jr., serves as Baptist campus minister at the University of Georgia.
Fountain said he heard the gospel from birth and watched his father model ministry as a way of life.
“At the really young age of 6, I vividly remember recognizing for the first time the extent of what Christ did for me on the cross,” Fountain said. “It was then that I talked to my parents and, the best a 6-year-old knows how to, surrendered my life to Jesus.”
His father, Fountain said, intentionally brought him and his brother alongside him as he ministered to people.
“He taught us early on how to love people out of our love for Jesus,” Fountain said. “He also demonstrated for us that ministry isn’t the ‘programming.’ It was every day. It was actually most effective outside of the programming of church life.”
Fountain remembers visiting hospitals, spending time with pastors, building relationships with lost and broken people, ministering to grieving families, and spending time in the projects of Columbus.
“It was never a ‘job’ to my dad, and it rarely took him ‘away’ from us,” he said. “It was always a lifestyle, and he just naturally brought us alongside.”
At 15, Fountain said, he sensed the call to preach and responded “obediently, though imperfectly,” to serve the Lord as he had watched his father serve.
Fountain has served in Georgia churches for the past 24 years, beginning when he was 18. Those ministries have included churches ranging in size from about 50 to 5,000 and have taken him into rural, suburban, and urban settings.
That experience in a variety of settings, Fountain said, has shaped how he views differences among Georgia Baptist churches and pastors.
“Many of our differences in Georgia Baptist life are more contextual than they are personal,” he said. “Every context is different; therefore, each pastor’s view on how to most effectively carry out the ministry of the gospel is different.
“There are some constants among all faithful Georgia Baptists, none more important than the desire to see our communities transformed by the life-changing hope of the gospel,” he said.
Fountain said that emphasis on people over programs applies both to local churches and to Georgia Baptist life. “The best way we can serve Georgia Baptists is by loving our pastors as people who have been uniquely called by God to reach their specific context and encouraging them to view their ministries the same way — as ministries that honor Jesus and are ‘people first.’”
First Baptist Buford also gave 8% of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program in 2025.
“Georgia Baptists are better positioned now than we have been in a long time to impact the lostness of our state,” he said. “We have faithful leaders, more resources, and limitless opportunity.”
“Georgia Baptist churches engaging and loving our communities and simply teaching the whole truth of God’s Word can be as effective today as ever because it’s more rare today than it’s ever been,” Fountain said.
Fountain said some of the greatest challenges facing Georgia Baptists come from within.
“The greatest challenge for Georgia Baptists will always be Georgia Baptists,” he said. “The world desperately needs the hope we have to offer. It is not our enemy. Our own ego is always our greatest enemy.”
Fountain said Georgia Baptists should continue to “love and pull for one another,” rather than compare ministries or seek credit for themselves. “We are not all the same, but we wouldn’t be able to reach our state if we were,” he said.
“I don’t have a vision for Georgia Baptists,” Fountain said. “I’m not the pastor of Georgia Baptists. I have a prayer and a desire that Georgia Baptist pastors feel equipped, encouraged, and resourced to reach their communities with the gospel. My prayer is that each pastor will have a vision to love and reach the people God has called them to. That’s it. All we can do is fan the flame of that vision.”
Fountain said Georgia Baptists can follow Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director Thomas Hammond’s lead in evangelism while pastors encourage one another and celebrate each other’s ministries.
Fountain said he feels a “great debt of gratitude” to Georgia Baptists. “Georgia Baptist pastors and churches raised me, and I’m forever grateful for the great impact this community of churches has had on my life.”
“This is a strategic time for advancing the gospel in our state,” Perdue said. “God is at work, and we need leaders who keep us headed in the right direction — someone who will keep us focused on the gospel and our shared mission of reaching Georgia and the nations for Christ.”
“I believe Stephen Fountain is that kind of leader,” he said.
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Georgia Baptists are encouraged to announce nominations for convention officers in advance of the annual meeting. Early nominations help ensure candidates can be prayerfully considered by messengers before ballots are cast. Nominations may be announced publicly prior to the meeting (email editor@christianindex.org) or made in accordance with convention procedures.
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