In his years of pastoral work, Ron Madison said he’s learned “pastors must lead relationally, not positionally.”
Madison, who has served as pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, since 2004, will retire at the end of 2016.
He first sensed God’s call on his life as a young teenager, he told The Alabama Baptist, and later began leading worship at a rural church. During his freshman year of college he realized his call to pastoral ministry.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, before earning his master’s degree and doctorate from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Madison has served in several roles at various churches including pastor of First Baptist Church, Decatur, and later First Baptist Church, Opelika. He also served as minister of music and youth at churches in Arkansas. He was pastor of a church in Mississippi and in New Jersey before serving as president of the Baptist Convention of New York in 1978. He also was pastor of a church in Texas prior to moving to Alabama in 1983 and served as director of the office of associational and cooperative missions at the State Board of Missions (SBOM) for more than four years prior to serving at Mount Zion Baptist.
Madison also served as chair of the board of directors for the Center for Counseling of Union Baptist Association in Houston, Texas; Samford University Study Committee chairman; and SBOM executive director search committee chairman. He currently is serving his second term as a trustee on the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Madison said he hopes a “lasting legacy … will be seen in the missions support and involvement” of Mount Zion Baptist, noting that it has been listed in the top 40 of all SBC churches in gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for several years.
He and his wife, Charlotte, have three children and four grandchildren.
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