April 1 &045;&045; Palm Sunday &045;&045; will mark a special day for George Hicks and his family.

He, his wife, his three children, his 10 brothers and sisters in Christ and several of their children will celebrate the grand opening of Mountain Valley Baptist Church, a new church plant in Montevallo.

&8220;We&8217;ve taken the past two months to look at the vision for what God would have us to be,&8221; Hicks said. &8220;Every church is different. Every church has a different fingerprint. Our vision is to be a people who love God, who love others and who love the world.&8221;

Hicks and his family had attended Westwood for six years but he felt personally called to ministry three years ago, when he began working as a

lay pastor for Westwood.

Eventually Hicks said he felt God was calling him to do more by creating a new church in Montevallo.

&8220;I felt it was a great opportunity to reach not only people currently in Montevallo but the people who will be coming in the future,&8221; Hicks said. &8220;They [Shelby Baptist Association] had done a new church probe and decided

the area between Montevallo and Alabaster was growing so much that a new church was needed. So the timing was perfect.&8221;

The association found that at least 1600 homes were being built or were slated to be built in the next year, and that means a lot of potential new members.

Mountain Valley Baptist currently meets at Parnell Memorial Library in Montevallo, which Hicks said was a huge blessing for the upstart congregation.

He said it was amazing the doors God had opened up for the church to materialize.

The church has set out to fulfill certain missions and values which include teaching the Bible as truth, excelling in ministry work for all ages, living authentic Christian lives so the church will have credibility, focusing on prayer, being committed to Christ and showing compassion through helping other churches to begin and spread the Gospel.

Worship Schedule

Sunday Morning

Fellowship – 9:45

a.m.

Worship – 10:00 a.m.

Sunday Night

Small Group – 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday prayer – 6:30 p.m.

Contact Information

845 Valley Street

Montevallo, Ala.

35115

Phone: 665-4533

mountainvalleychurch.ne