Our Story
Shades Valley Community Church’s story has been over thirty years in the making and is filled with accounts of God’s faithfulness in spite of our foibles! We have been blessed to see just how much the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, as his grace continues to take root, grow, and abound among us!
SVCC was birthed in September of 1991 out of a small group of people led by Mark Wadley (founding pastor) in Homewood. There was an early explosion in attendance as Shades was still trying to find its own identity.
In 1993, Mike Garrigan became the pastor of this nomadic congregation as it met in several locations around the city. Slowly and steadily, an identity began to emerge in which an authentic community, centered on Christ through the Word, worshipping simply as a family became the core of SVCC. Ministry became very organic, growing out of people’s passions and callings, and mission became a way of everyday life to live, not an event to attend.
Our body is made up of people from all across the greater Birmingham area. This was made possible through the Lord’s provision of a facility in the centrally located suburb of West Homewood. In November of 2006 the body was able to purchase and renovate the old Alpine Ice Lodge. From this location Shades is able to continue the mission of glorifying God by loving him, loving others and making disciples among all peoples.
After 18 years of faithful service, Mike Garrigan retired. In February of 2012, Shades called Jonathan Haefs as their new senior pastor. Brad Brown, associate pastor, joined the staff in October of 2012 and has worn countless hats throughout the years. John-Mark Dorough, worship and communications pastor, was hired in August of 2013. Together, the pastoral staff and the elders have sought to help SVCC remain true to its identity and calling as it has experienced growth over the years. The focus remains being a messy-authentic community, uniting three-streams of Christian tradition, worshipping in Spirit-led simplicity and embodying member-led ministry
Our affiliation with the EFCA
We are affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America which is an association of some 1,321 churches (and 177 church plants) united by a mutual commitment to serve our Lord Jesus Christ with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Word of God. As such we are committed to cooperating with one another in ministry and fellowship as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission which Christ gave to His Church. The growing ministry of the EFCA currently extends to over 59 countries of the world through 649 missionaries. More info may be found at www.efca.org
The term Evangelical refers to our commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel, the need for personal faith in Christ, and to our affirmation of the Bible as God’s inspired, inerrant Word which is the only sufficient guide to our faith and practice.
The term Free refers to our belief that the Global church should be free from state control, and local congregations should have autonomy and be free to govern themselves.
Beliefs
As a faith family, we are committed to the ancient and orthodox beliefs of the Christian faith as expressed in the Apostles Creed (140 A.D) as well as the Nicene Creed (325 A.D.) and as part of the Evangelical Free Church of America we subscribe to the EFCA Statement of Faith put forth by our denomination.
The EFCA Statement of Faith
God – We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.
The Bible – We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
The Human Condition – We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
Jesus Christ – We believe that Jesus is God incarnate, fully God & fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus-Israel’s promised Messiah-was conceived through the Holy Spirit & born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven & sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest & Advocate.
The Work of Christ – We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
The Holy Spirit – We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
The Church – We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
Christian Living – We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
Christ’s Return – We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
Response and Eternal Destiny – We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.
EFCA Distinctives
Shades Valley Community Church is a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America. You can also view our distinctive values here.
EFCA Ethics
In our current cultural climate, people often have many questions concerning what Shades Valley Community Church believes concerning various ethical issues such as abortion, sexuality, marriage, etc. The EFCA has provided many helpful position papers that serve aim to show the Biblical foundation of truth and compassion that we stand upon when concerning these matters. Those papers may be found here.
Purpose / Ministry / Culture
Purpose
Glorifying God by loving him, loving others, and making disciples among all peoples.
Ministry
We pursue our purpose through four areas of ministry: Worship, Serving, Community and Mission. In each of these, we aim to grow in our love of God, love of others, and making disciples.
Cultural Convictions
In all our purpose and ministry, we operate with the following convictions concerning the culture we value and aim to foster at SVCC.
Messy Authenticity – We want to be open and honest about who we are in our brokenness so that we may have real, deep community with one another. Such community tends to grow slow and be messy. It grows slow because it takes time for real relationships like this to develop. We do not want to be a large crowd of disconnected people, but a real community. Such community can also be messy as we are sure to hurt one another along the way, but this gives us the opportunity to not be easily offended and withdraw, but actually, learn what it looks like to give and receive grace and forgiveness. It gives us the opportunity to live in step with the Gospel.
Spirit Simplicity – Our gatherings do not feature flashy production but feel more like family gathered in a living room. Our calendars are not cluttered with church programs, as we don’t schedule much more than Sunday worship and community groups. All of this simplicity is rooted in our desire to not rely upon our own creative programming but on the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe it is in the normal practices of our worship and our lives that the Spirit works his power. So, we worship simply, and we keep a simple schedule to free up our people for Gospel-impact in their jobs, schools, neighborhoods, and communities. We embrace the miraculous in the mundane through Spirit simplicity.
Three Stream Unity – Our body is made up of three diverse streams of Christian tradition: Evangelical, Liturgical, and Charismatic. We believe this diversity is a good thing and we would actually be “less” without one another. For, such diversity keeps us humbling ourselves before one another as we learn from each other and point one another to Christ, who is our unity. Christ-centered unity is the goal, not me-centered, comfortable uniformity.
Member-Led Ministry – God has so designed the body of Christ that each of us is a meaningful part of it and gifted to serve it. We believe he brings us the members we need, and our ministries should naturally flow from their giftings. Thus, members are the ones who create SVCC’s ministries, and each one is sustained as long as God provides members gifted to lead it. The body of Christ is at its healthiest when pastors are equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry, and the saints are doing precisely that as they are led by the Lord.
The Gospel
The story of redemption is the story of a just and loving God calling lost and rebellious creatures back to Himself. He has been writing this grand and glorious narrative of His goodness and grace since before time began. We urge you to explore this story further.
In the beginning, God created this world good and peaceful and offered us the opportunity of unbroken fellowship with Himself – for His glory. However, as Genesis 3 tells us, things went wrong. Through one man’s disobedience, we fell from this joyful state of fellowship. Sin entered our hearts, and the world became twisted and fractured. The harmony and peace that creation once enjoyed were damaged by sin and broken in disrepair.
Since that time, God has patiently and purposefully continued the story of redemption. God sent His only Son, Jesus, Who came and lived a perfect, sinless life and offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sin on the cross.
Jesus endured God’s wrath on behalf of sin. It was a dark and horrendous moment of suffering and death, yet peace, beauty and hope burst forth as Christ rose three days later from the grave. That which was broken God restored through his Son.
Through Christ, we are offered restoration and reconciliation. God takes what is broken and makes it new. He invites His children into relationship with Himself and into the newness of life found in Christ.
What God starts, He will bring to completion, and we pray that you would be woven into the narrative. If you feel Christ inviting you into this story – into restored relationship with Him – turn to Him in repentance. Put your trust in Him and the work He accomplished on the cross to redeem and save you. This is the gospel…the good news!
If you’d like to learn more about what God has done in Jesus, the Bible is a great place to start. Look into one of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They will help you come to know Jesus better. You are also welcome to join us at SVCC for a Sunday worship gathering. Everything we do is about Jesus and designed to help us know him more and more. For information about visiting us click here.