Church Administrator – Jen Meadows

God closed several doors, opened others to get Jen Meadows to First Baptist-Ashville

A pastor’s daughter and a pastor’s wife. A mom and a preschool teacher.  A shampoo technician (i.e., hair washer) in a beauty salon.

Jennifer Meadows brings all of these experiences together as administrative and ministry assistant at FBC Ashville, a position she has held since January 5, 2026. “I love it here, love what I’m doing,” she says. “The staff is fantastic!”

Jen, as she likes to be called, grew up in Center Point, graduating from Erwin High School in 1996. She received a degree in early childhood education from Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa Falls, Georgia. “I felt called to missions,” she says. “I thought I would minor in missions and teach at a missionary kids’ school in a foreign country, maybe Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in Africa.”

During her sophomore year in college she went to Africa, including the countries of Mali and Burkina Faso. She also visited a school in C’ote d’Ivoire. “The Lord firmly closed that door, and I began thinking of other places to serve,” she says.

She came home from that trip, finished her degree, and started teaching in Eastanollee Elementary School in Toccoa, GA. She also began working on accreditation with the Christian Missionary Alliance organization. But God redirected her life when she met her husband, Josh. 

“We were friends for a year before we dated,” she says. “We got married in 2003 and moved to Atlanta, where he served his first church as a youth pastor. His degree is in pastoral ministries.”

From there they moved to Dudley Baptist Church in Dudley, GA, where he was youth pastor and she taught at a Christian school in nearby Dublin for six years. 

“Then we started having children,” she says. “Four of them. I was 34 when the first was born, and chose to stay home with them. We have two boys and two girls, now ages 14 (Joshua), 13 (Josiah), 12 (Jubilee) and 10 (Janna).”

While still at Dudley Baptist, Josh felt called to plant a church, and did. It was The Journey Church in Dublin, GA. “We were there five years, then the Lord moved us on,” she says. “We spent a brief period of waiting on the Lord, and during that time Josh worked with his dad in the insulation business in Macon for a few months.”

Then in 2017Josh accepted a call as family life pastor at Spring Valley Baptist Church in Springville, AL. He has since moved on and is now the student ministry strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. 

When the family moved to Springville, Jen became a stay-at-home mom again for a while. “When Janna was old enough to come with me I started teaching in a pre-school at First Baptist Springville,” she says. “I still teach in children’s church and in the youth group at Spring Valley. We live in the Legacy Springs subdivision and our kids go to school in Springville.”

Jen has cut hair for friends and family for years, so a neighbor suggested a job in that field. “I washed hair for four and a half years at Hair Suite in Argo,” she says. “But my husband felt I had more to offer.” Jennifer Brown, daughter-in-law to outgoing church administrator Paula Brown, goes to church with her and told her about the  position at FBC Ashville. “I had felt strongly to interview, but the church hired someone else,” she says. When that person didn’t work out, the church offered Jen the position, and she accepted.

Her salvation experience goes back to the age of four. “My dad was a pastor, but I was saved at VBS in another church when I was four-years-old,” she explains. “My teacher talked about the wages of sin being death, and I understood that meant me. I never doubted, but my parents wanted me to wait until I understood more. At the age of 10 Dad baptized me, my older sister and our mom, who had been baptized as a child but felt like she wasn’t saved then.”

Jen’s likes to read, particularly fiction, historic romance, fantasy and sci-fi. She also enjoys watching her kids play sports. “All four of them play soccer, and three play basketball,” she says. “One is musical and plays guitar in a praise and worship band at church, and plays drums in his school’s 7th grade band.”

She adapted quickly to her position at FBC. “Paula trained me so well,” she says. “I try to do the job the way she did.”