By MICHAEL J. BROOKS

Special to the Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – The congregation of North Shelby Baptist Church will celebrate its 25th birthday on Nov. 18.

“Our actual birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, which is appropriate, but we chose the Sunday before Thanksgiving to celebrate,” said special events co-chair Cindy Riggins. “We’re young, but we’d had many blessings from the Lord!”

The celebration will feature a historical video, special presentations and the recognition of charter members and guests, according to Minister of Education and Families Jon Jeffries.

“We’ll meet at 10:15 a.m., and our worship leaders for the day will be former pastor Allan Murphy, now pastor emeritus, and former music leader Randy Tingle,” Jeffries said. “Then we’ll enjoy a catered lunch with plenty of time of reminiscing and meeting new friends.”

Jeffries said he’d been at North Shelby for three and a half years, but his time is overshadowed by the tenure of Murphy, 23 years, and Tingle, 19 years.

According to the historical summary prepared for this month’s celebration, North Shelby began on Nov. 22, 1993, when some 40 people convened for an organizational meeting in the basement of a private home. The group rented space in the Valleydale Village Shopping Center, next door to a pizza parlor.

The congregation summoned retired minister Gene Nail to serve as their first pastor. At the time, the church was under the ministry umbrella of the Birmingham Baptist Association.

International missionary Allan Murphy became pastor in October 1994, though he spent the next several months fulfilling his missionary commitment before moving to the church the following March.

North Shelby decided to affiliate with the Shelby Baptist Association, which wanted a church on the U.S. 280 corridor. The church took possession of the former property of Shady Grove Baptist Church—the property now known as “the old site.”

The first service at the former Shady Grove property was on Christmas Eve, 1995.

New members were baptized in baptismal pools from other churches and in borrowed neighborhood swimming pools. As one member noted at the time, “You don’t join NSBC for its facilities; you joined for the love they had…and the family you gained.”

The church secured the current property in 1999 and began meeting there in December of the following year. An education building was constructed in 2004 and further additions made in 2005.

About 10 years ago North Shelby gave birth to a new church: North Shelby Vietnamese Baptist Church, where Jeremiah Doan is pastor. The new church is in a lend-lease agreement with the mother church and will own their facilities in about two years.

Former Dawson Memorial Baptist Church Gary Fenton now serves as North Shelby’s interim pastor.

The church is located at 4100 Belcher Drive in Birmingham. The website is NorthShelbyBaptist.org.