Know Christ, Grow in Christ, Go for Christ
Set along Eastern Valley Road in McCalla, Alabama, Bellview Baptist Church is a multi-generational Southern Baptist congregation whose life is summed up in three short phrases: We exist to know Christ, grow in Christ, and go for Christ. The church describes its purpose in terms that move outward from personal faith to family formation to gospel mission, and the ministries and rhythms of the week follow that same progression. Whether someone has lived in the McCalla area for years or is driving in for the first time, the building is laid out so that a single Sunday visit can lead naturally into deeper connection.
Sunday Mornings on the Bellview Campus
The Sunday schedule is built around two anchors. At 9:45 a.m., small groups meet across the campus, with classes available for every age from babies through high school seniors, plus adult Bible study groups. At 11:00 a.m., the congregation gathers in the Sanctuary for worship. The service is described as a blend of modern praise and worship choruses along with traditional hymns, shaped intentionally to be multi-generational and to encourage active participation from the entire family. A seasonal choir adds to the music at Christmas and Easter. Preaching is expository in tone, straight from Scripture and the church describes it as biblically sound.
For first-time guests, parking is straightforward: visitors are welcome to park anywhere on campus, and dedicated guest parking sits directly in front of the Sanctuary steps. Dress is come-as-you-are. Members and visitors alike wear everything from casual to dressy, with most dressing comfortably. Children are covered on Sunday mornings through the 11:00 hour as well, with Children's Church available during the worship service in addition to their 9:45 small group time.
Wednesday Nights Together
Midweek programming at 6:30 p.m. is designed so the whole church can show up at the same hour and find a place to belong. Adults meet for Bible study in the Sanctuary. Preschoolers join Mission Friends, an age-appropriate program that introduces the youngest children to the idea that God loves them and that they can be part of His mission. Children and youth gather for K.I.C.K. in the Family Life Center. The shared start time means families are not splitting the evening between separate drop-offs and pick-ups.
A Blend for Every Generation
Worship at Bellview is intentionally intergenerational. The Worship Pastor leads the music team with a desire to create a space where the church encounters God's presence through the reading of Scripture, through prayer, and through singing together as a church family. The seasonal choir lifts that blend further by giving trained singers a place to serve in the larger Christmas and Easter services. The result is a service in which a grandparent and a middle-school student can both feel at home.
Bellview Kids: Buddies, Big Kids, and Students
The children's ministry at Bellview organizes its work around three age groups, each with a friendly nickname that signals the church's warmth toward families. Preschoolers are called Bellview Buddies. Grades 1 to 5 are Bellview Kids, where the goal is to partner with families to raise kids who love and trust Jesus. Grades 6 to 12 are the Student Ministry.
The Kids Ministry describes itself with three words: fun, safe, and biblical. The fun comes through play, games, crafts, stories, and worship each week. The safety comes from background checks for every volunteer who serves with children. The biblical foundation comes through Bible drills, Bible memorization, and Bible stories woven into the regular schedule, which meets Sunday School at 9:45 a.m., Children's Church at 11:00 a.m., and Wednesday night K.I.C.K. at 6:30 p.m. Vacation Bible School is offered seasonally.
The Student Ministry for grades 6 through 12 gathers Sunday mornings at 9:45 in small groups and Wednesday nights at 6:30. Its calendar typically includes a spring service project, a summer mission trip, and a longer summer trip, alongside local fellowship events. A College and Career ministry exists for young adults up to age 25 who want continued connection after high school.
Women's, Men's, and Senior Adults
Three more ministries round out the adult-discipleship picture. Women's Ministry, led by a coordinator and supported by a team, seeks to help women connect to God through Bible study, worship, and fellowship, and to connect them with others through ministry events and missions. Men's Ministry operates from the conviction that men are called to be leaders in the home, the church, and the community, and gathers men around that shared calling.
Senior Adults are affectionately known at Bellview as The Cream of the Crop, a nickname that speaks to the respect the church places on its older members and the role they play in the life of the congregation. Together, these three ministries cover the adult life stages from young adulthood through the senior years.
What Bellview Believes
Bellview's doctrinal statement follows the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the confession of faith used by the Southern Baptist Convention. The church affirms that the Holy Bible is God's revelation of Himself to man, written by men divinely inspired, totally true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. There is one living and true God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections, who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Human beings, made in the image of God, sinned by free choice and brought sin into the human race, so that all stand under condemnation apart from Christ. It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone that salvation comes, and that salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The church is described as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing two ordinances: baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper.
The statement also affirms the eternal security of the believer, the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, final judgment, heaven for the redeemed and hell for the unrighteous, and the duty of every follower of Christ to make disciples of all nations. Marriage is defined as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and children from the moment of conception are described as a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
The Plan of Salvation
Bellview lays out its understanding of how a person comes to faith in a four-step presentation. First, every person has sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Second, the wages of sin is death, both physical and eternal. Third, Jesus Christ paid the price for sin by His death on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Fourth, salvation is received by faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by religion or good works. The church offers a brief model prayer as a guide but emphasizes that there is no magic formula; what matters is that a person believes in the heart upon the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Learning Together: Bible Reading and Memory
Two long-running discipleship resources support the church's teaching. A yearly Bible reading plan moves the congregation through Scripture week by week, and short podcast episodes, the Bellview Growcast, walk through the same passages with members of the staff and ministry leaders. A scripture memory list gathers 52 verses from the New King James Version, organized so that special seasons like Easter and Christmas receive their own focused passages alongside the core memory work for the year.
Meeting the Staff
Senior Pastor Tim Hassler holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Samford University and a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been in full-time ministry since 2000 and returned to Bellview in 2011 after serving as Senior Pastor at Fairview Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama. He and his wife Danette have three children.
Chuck Blevins serves as Interim Associate Pastor, having moved from long service in lay ministry at Bellview into the associate pastor intern role. He completed his Master of Divinity at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
MJ McKinney is the Youth Pastor. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity from Southern Bible College and Seminary and has served in youth ministry for a decade. He and his wife Haley are foster parents and have adopted two sons.
Powers Tidmore joined Bellview as Worship Pastor in 2025. He and his wife Blakley have three children and share a love of the outdoors. Kim Carter has served preschoolers at Bellview for over twenty-five years as a volunteer and stepped into the part-time children's minister role in late 2022. Kayla Cornelius coordinates Women's Ministry, and Lee Pounds leads Men's Ministry. A church administrator and additional support staff round out the day-to-day operations.
Plan a Visit, or Watch from Anywhere
Sunday morning services and many special services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, with past services available to watch at any time. Visitors who want help planning their first Sunday can fill out the Plan My Visit form, which also answers the most common questions about worship style, dress, parking, and children's programming.
Giving can be done online through the Shelby Giving portal, by text message to a dedicated number, through a mobile giving app on iOS and Android, or through the church's own online banking by listing Bellview as the payee. A church directory is maintained online so members can keep in touch with one another throughout the week.
From its midweek Bible study to its seasonal choir to its memory-verse program, Bellview Baptist Church is built around a simple conviction: that a healthy church is one in which every generation is being taught the same Scripture, at the same time, in their own way.