Mainstream Alabama Baptists announced new officers and were encouraged during a breakfast meeting held in connection with the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
Meeting at First Baptist Church, Huntsville, the group reported that Gary Burton, pastor of Pintlala Baptist Church in Hope Hull had been elected as president. Also chosen as officers were Mark Ray, vice president, minister of education and single adults at First Baptist Church, Hartselle; Frances Jones, treasurer, a member of First Baptist Church, Huntsville’ and Elizabeth Deason, secretary, a member of Carson Road Baptist Church, Birmingham.
David Currie, the executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, the forerunner of Mainstream Baptist organizations in 14 states, encouraged members of the group.
“You’re in the initial stages of something very important that needs to be done,” Currie told members.
He told the group that what divides Baptists today is whether Jesus is condemner or Redeemer.
Curries stressed to his audience that the role of Mainstream Baptists is to emphasize Jesus as someone who came into the world as Redeemer.
“Jesus was the Redeemer, not the condemner,” he said.
In other business, a financial report indicated the organization had received $55,000 in contributions since its inception in September 2000, with a balance of $37,953 as of Oct. 30 of this year.
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