Gina Jacobs-Strain has been named general secretary of the American Baptist Churches USA for a three-year term beginning Feb. 1, 2024.
She will follow C. Jeff Woods, who has been serving as intentional interim general secretary since 2019.
The general secretary is the top coordinating staff member of the 1.3-million-member denomination.
Jacobs-Strain was the unanimous choice of the search committee, according to ABCUSA President Jim Wolfe.
Gina Jacobs-Strain
She currently serves as executive director for American Baptist Women’s Ministries and is a member of the National Executive Council for American Baptist Churches USA. She has held various pastoral roles, including transitional pastor at First Baptist Church of New Market in Piscataway, N.J.; interim pastor at St. Paul Baptist Church in Atlantic Highlands, N.J.; associate regional pastor for women in ministry for American Baptist Churches of New Jersey; and associate minister of Christian education at St. Paul Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J.
Jacobs-Strain earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rutgers University and a master of divinity degree from Drew University’s Theological School. In May 2020, she completed a doctor of ministry degree from Duke University.
She is married to Clifton Strain, and together they have three sons. They currently reside in Morristown, N.J.
In a 2019 interview published by Baptist Women in Ministry, Jacobs-Strain said she could not remember a time when God and church were not central in her life. She began her faith journey in the Pentecostal church, although family members were involved in Baptist churches and African Methodist Episcopal churches.
“I experienced varied styles of worship but the same Christian expressions of love, compassion, hope and justice,” she said. “I grew up with an understanding that the Holy Spirit was present wherever people loved God; and I loved being in those environments.”
She has served the local church and denomination in nearly every capacity possible, from baking cakes and cookies for social events to being ordained as a deacon, teaching Sunday school, leading retreats and preaching.
Through American Baptist Women’s Ministries, she has worked to encourage and empower women, young women and girls “to serve God and to be leaders in their churches, communities and beyond,” she said. “American Baptist women are a catalyst, championing issues and concerns that need to be addressed by our denomination. For over 100 years they have surfaced issues of equity, leadership, poverty and justice that are significant for women and all people.”
More recently, the group has been engaged in advocacy on immigration, cross-cultural relationships, intergenerational mentoring, economic empowerment, domestic violence, sex trafficking, building beloved community, and science, technology, engineering, art and math education in schools.
Although ABCUSA is far more supportive of women in ministry than the Southern Baptist Convention, Jacobs-Strain still has faced unique challenges, she said. “My corporate experiences did help to prepare me for these situations. I also had to recognize the patterns and obstacles that tried to derail progress in the secular world were similar in my ministry journey. However, God’s vision for all gifts to be used for God’s purposes cannot be thwarted.”
ABCUSA springs from the same historical root as the SBC, but the two groups parted ways in 1845 over the issue of slavery. Originally known as the Northern Baptist Convention, ABCUSA today is one of the most diverse Christian denominations in America, with about 5,000 congregations across the United States and Puerto Rico.