Pastor Doc and June Shell
Doc Shell has frequently been described as "a pastor's pastor" because of his love and compassion for them. He has been a pastor since 1967. After serving in the United Methodist church for twelve years, he and his family moved to Florence, Alabama, and founded Christ Chapel in 1979 where he has served as Senior Pastor.
Encouraging and helping other pastors has been a significant, though not visible, part of Pastor Shell's ministry for the past several years. With his wife, June, Pastor Shell has traveled abroad to Kenya, East Africa and Sierra Leone, West Africa, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Ireland where he taught and ministered in pastors' conferences, and to the churches. He has also ministered in Mexico and the Cayman Islands. Pastor Shell is a frequent guest minister at churches all over the Southeast.
Pastor Shell's ministry is characterized by love, compassion, and sensitivity: Love for the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for His people; sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to the needs of those to whom God allows him to minister. LifeLine, the radio and television ministry of Christ Chapel, features the teaching ministry of Pastor Shell on stations throughout North Alabama and Southern Tennessee.
About Christ Chapel
Christ Chapel is a church where families come together to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. To build stronger relationships, we meet together in small "cell" groups where we find our job in the beehive of service to God and one another. With the integrity of the Word of God as the foundation of our faith, we have a safe environment to grow in the Lord and reach out to the world around us.
Since the time of the conception of Christ Chapel, worship has been at the center of our service to God. In recent years, God has taken us to a new freedom in worship which we incorporate with flags, dance, drama, and music. God is releasing the prophetic in our congregation. He has also led us to stand for justice where injustice has occurred.
At the Chapel, opportunities to serve are abundant. Just some of the possibilities are our healing teams, intercessory prayer groups, dance ministry, children's ministry, youth ministry, college and career ministry, ladies ministry, men's ministry, senior adult ministry, counseling ministry, hispanic ministry, outreach to the poor, and counseling ministry.
The Elders
Leonard Durham
Jimmy Hayes
Mike Lee
Dr. Wayne Stanley
Mark Sewell
The Staff
Gary & Susie Cosby
Leigh Cummings
Ruben & Sarah DeLeon
Caleen Faulkner
Monica Salgado
Dudley & Martha Harris
Corinne Hayes
Doris Kazmierczak
Dr. David Keyser
Bill & Eileen Siegel
Gary & Christie Sparks
Two words can describe Pastor Jimmy Hayes: humor and wisdom. These two words seem like a rare combination, but they are a “match made in heaven”… by God. Through mixing wisdom with humor, Pastor Jimmy is often able to deliver what God is saying in a way people can easily receive.
Pastor Jimmy has served in ministry since 1981 when he became the pastor of a small Methodist church at the age of 19. He has been a part of Christ Chapel since 1982 where his call was recognized and he was ordained in 1987. He briefly served at the Chapel as Youth Pastor before moving to Meridian, Mississippi in 1988. In Meridian, Jimmy served as Resident Pastoral Counselor at a local rescue mission until he planted and served as pastor of Faith Fellowship Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1991. Jimmy continued as pastor in Philadelphia until 2001 when he returned to Christ Chapel to serve as Missions and Counseling Pastor.
Jimmy completed two years at the University of North Alabama in social work and received a degree in Pastoral Ministry from Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. He is also certified in Clinical Pastoral Counseling from Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling.
Pastor Jimmy and his wife, Corinne, can often be found on a winding country road riding their motorcycle. He is the proud father of four children.
David has served since 1967 as a teacher, a pastor, an international theology teacher and trainer, and as a college professor.
His earned degrees include a B.S., an M.S., an M.Div., a Th.M., and a Ph.D in Theology from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
His special interests include the humanity of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and biblical based fiction.
Dudley was born in 1959. He met his mom shortly after that. Her life was never the same.
He was born again in 1969. (Thank you, Mr. Collins, for your faithfulness to teach a 9 & 10 year old boys Sunday School class.) His life was never the same.
Dudley met his wife in 1978, married her in 1979, and now have three wonderful children who love God and, believe it or not, love each other. Trust him on this: there are a whole bunch of lives that have not been the same.
The Shorter Catechism states “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” In February 1996, after attending a Jack Hayford conference on worship, he came to the realization that God had not only created him to worship Him, but had called him into worship ministry. That experience began a process that took him from a career as a software consultant to becoming the worship leader at Christ Chapel.
He moved to Florence in 1998, along with his family, to begin full-time Christian ministry. He never wants his life to be the same.
Martha grew up in a small community in northern Alabama listening to her aunts and uncles share their childhood stories. She was always criticized for listening and not talking. She was not aware of it then but God had a plan for that listening ability. (You know, you can learn more by listening than by talking.) After giving her life to the Lord and later going on to attend Bible School, the Lord started drawing Martha into the area that her listening skills would be put to work in the Kingdom of God. Martha has now been serving as a counselor in our Counseling Ministry for about 7 years. She also serves as Counseling Administrator keeping all of our counselors trained and busy.
In addition to her church activities Martha also finds time to be a full time mom to three wonderful children and a full time wife to her husband, Pastor Dudley since 1979.
Caleen was saved at Christ Chapel in the summer of 1979 during a service on Tuscaloosa Street. Little did she know then that she would spend so many years of her life serving that same church. She spent two months in 1982 working in Haiti with a mission organization known as SIFAT. In the fall of 1982 she attended Rhema Bible Training Center. Graduating in 1984, she was sure that God was going to call her to the foreign mission field. He had other ideas.
In September of 1984, Caleen began working with the ministry at Christ Chapel just making herself available to do whatever needed to be done. She drove the school van, worked with the financial books for the church, school, and Bible college, and even taught a PE class. September of 1985, Caleen began working as the church secretary which eventually evolved into Financial Secretary.
Caleen once told Pastor Doc, “I am like Smith Wiggleworth's wife. You might get irritated and want to throw me out, but I'll be at the back door when you open in the morning - and here I am!”
Little did Corinne know when she completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a master's degree in physics with computational science, that she would one day serve the Kingdom of God as a pastor to children. After more than twenty years helping with children, Corinne joined the Christ Chapel staff as children's pastor in October 2004. Corinne has a unique style of teaching designed to lead children into personal relationship with Jesus through worship, prayer, and teaching of scripture with “science parables”.
Corinne completed the one-year training program at Rhema Bible Training Center in 1982. In 1984, Corinne and her husband, Jimmy, returned to Florence and served as youth ministers at Christ Chapel. The family moved to Meridian, Mississippi in 1988 and waited for direction from God on what do next. During the next three years, Corinne and Jimmy served the local church and outreach mission. Finally in 1991, they began serving as pastors at Faith Fellowship Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. They continued there as pastors until Jimmy answered the need for a counseling and missions pastor at Christ Chapel in 2001.
Corinne is the proud mother of four children and is also happily married to Jimmy Hayes.
Ruben was born March 21, 1952 in San Antonio, Texas where he was raised in a catholic home with five brothers and one sister. Ruben married Sara Franco on February 25, 1972 in Rocksprings, Texas. At the age of 19 he received Jesus Christ as his savior in June of 1972.
In 1974, Ruben answered the call to the ministry while in Garland, Texas. He attended Mexican Baptist Bible School from 1976 to 1980 in San Antonio, Texas. After being ordained as a minister in 1980, he began pastoring Misión Bautista (Mission Baptist) in Anson, Texas and after that Buena Nuevas (Good News) Baptist Church in Laredo, Texas.
In 1985, Ruben and Sara both received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and founded and pastored Iglesia En La Roca (Church of the Rock) in Laredo, Texas. Later, Ruben became the Associate Pastor at Primera ASemblea De Dios (First Assembly of God in New Braunfels, Texas where he was also an evangelist.
In 1988 Pastor Ruben added to his pastoring, travel with Christ Chapel on missionary trips as an interpretor /evangelist to Mexico, Peru, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Africa. In June of 2004, he became part of the Christ Chapel Pastoral staff as Hispanic Pastor.
Pastor Ruben and Sara desire to reach the Hispanic community with the gospel. They are planting Hispanic churches in Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
Ruben and Sara have three daughters and one son - Rachel (husband: Danny), Rebecca, Rosie, and Jonathan (wife: Emily). They also have two grandaughters and one grandson - Alexis, Audrey, and Dominick. God is Good!
