Shenandoah Baptist Church sits on a wooded stretch of Williamson Road in the Hollins area of Roanoke, Virginia, where it has served the Roanoke Valley since 1971. The congregation describes itself as a people-oriented, Biblically and theologically conservative church, and the rhythm of life here centers on three commitments: making gospel-centered disciples, sending them out, and multiplying churches for every people group. A campus that includes a school, a childcare wing, and the launch point for Camp Eagle in nearby Botetourt County reflects that vision in bricks and mortar.
Making, Sending, and Multiplying Disciples
The mission statement that opens every page of the church’s printed and online material runs in full: “We glorify God by making, sending, and multiplying gospel-centered disciples of Jesus Christ who take the gospel to every person and establish a church for every people.” That sentence is not just a slogan. Shenandoah is structured around it. The pastoral staff is divided into specialties that mirror the verbs: worship and music, equipping and local mission, student ministry, world missions and executive leadership, camp ministries, and school ministries.
The church holds to expository preaching in which “the point of the text is the point of the sermon,” and the preaching team rotates through extended series that walk whole books of the Bible verse by verse. Recent and current series have worked through Job, Romans, selected Psalms, the Gospel of Luke, and the Pastoral Epistles, with occasional series on family discipleship, American history, and the church’s Statement of Faith.
A Church Born in 1971, Built Around a Campus
Shenandoah Baptist Church was established in 1971 under the leadership of its founding pastor, Robert L. Alderman, whose verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture and passion for world missions shaped the congregation from its earliest days. Pastor Alderman later helped launch two ministries that continue to share the church’s address: Roanoke Valley Christian Schools on the same Williamson Road campus, and Camp Eagle on 167 acres in Botetourt County about twenty miles away. He stepped away from the pulpit in June 2004 and served as Minister-at-Large until his homegoing on September 5, 2025, at the age of 88.
Senior Pastor Dr. Michael Wilburn now leads the staff. Wilburn, his wife Sarah, and their three children joined Shenandoah after he had served in pastoral ministry for two decades. He holds degrees in biblical studies, theology, and higher education, and a Ph.D. in leadership, and writes about church-based theological education. He serves as a Trustee at Virginia Beach Theological Seminary and on the Elected Council of Baptist Mid-Missions.
The congregation is overseen by a body of Elders who carry final interpretive authority on biblical meaning and application for the church. The current chair is Pastor Wilburn; Nathanael Gay serves as vice chair and Gerald Atkins as secretary, with Thomas Anglin, John Law, Haven Price, Shawn Smith, and Michael Wright rounding out the bench. A team of deacons, including Keith Asbury, Josh Fish, Mark Jervis, Jonathan Atkins, Zac Hellkamp, Jay Johnston, Clark BeCraft, Scott Highberger, and Brandon Jones, supports the pastoral ministry.
Sunday at Shenandoah
The Sunday schedule is built for the whole family. LifeGroups for every age begin at 9:30 a.m. Children and students split off into their own graded groups, while adults gather for Bible study, prayer, and fellowship in classrooms across the campus. At 10:45 a.m., the congregation moves into the Worship Center for the morning service.
The worship style is described by the church as “simple, participatory, and Christ-exalting.” Music is mostly contemporary, with hymns and other styles woven in to serve the message. The worship choir, vocal team, and a band-driven orchestra lead from the platform. Prayer, giving, and a Gospel-centered sermon sit at the center of the gathering. Children in kindergarten through third grade attend Beginner’s Church during the sermon and rejoin their parents afterward; fourth and fifth graders remain in the main service.
Evenings on Sunday carry a smaller schedule of HomeGroups that meet twice a month on Sunday afternoons or evenings, year-round, to discuss the morning sermon and build deeper friendships.
Visitors are welcomed by a campus guide team. Security personnel keep watch over the children’s areas, and a check-in process keeps families connected. Dress is described as “a variety of ways,” so newcomers can wear what helps them worship. Bibles are provided to anyone who needs one, and offerings are collected as an act of worship for members, with guests never expected to give.
Wednesday Nights for Every Age
Wednesday is the second pillar of the weekly rhythm. At 10:00 a.m., adults gather for a midday Bible study and prayer time. Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. the campus comes alive with five parallel tracks: Adult Worship Choir rehearsal, adult Bible studies and EquipU classes, the Awana Clubs for children, a prayer gathering, and Shenandoah Students for grades six through twelve.
The Awana program runs Puggles for two-year-olds, Cubbies for three- and four-year-olds, Sparks for grades K5 through 2, and T&T for grades 3 through 5. Parent books and calendars outline the year, and registration is handled through the church’s Church Center portal. Summer brings the Summer Victory Sports Academy, a high-energy program of music, Bible lessons, Scripture memory, and sports for kids.
Shenandoah Students meets in the Cafeteria during the cooler months and outside at the Youth House when the weather cooperates. Students gather for teaching, fellowship, and music led by Pastor Tim Ragan and a team of adult advisors. LifeGroups for middle school and high school students run separately on Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. in the Youth House.
Music that Blends the Old and the New
Worship ministry is led by Associate Pastor Darin Allen and his wife Amy, both of whom trained at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Allens lead a worship choir, a vocal team, and an orchestra built around a rhythm band, weaving contemporary songs with hymns so that “the breadth and depth of God’s creative power and redemptive purpose” can be put on display.
The Worship Choir motto is “Wednesday we prepare, Sunday we preach, every day we pray.” Rehearsals run from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Rehearsal Hall, with childcare provided, and any singer sixteen or older is welcome to join without audition at any point in the year. Instrumentalists gather at 8:45 a.m. on Sundays for orchestra rehearsal. A tech team handles sound, lighting, video, and visual media and serves behind the scenes one or two Sundays a month. The children’s choir meets as the opening segment of Beginner’s Church and sings in the main service several times each year.
Children, Students, and a Gospel-Centered Upbringing
The Children’s Ministry team is led by Children’s Ministry Director Meagan DeLong and Nursery Director Laura Steryous. Nurseries are open for children from birth through age four during both Sunday hours and the Wednesday evening programming. Beyond Sunday morning, Awana carries the bulk of discipleship for kids from age two through fifth grade, with a clearly leveled curriculum and awards program.
Student ministry is led by Associate Pastor Tim Ragan, a 2008 graduate of Roanoke Valley Christian Schools who earned a B.S. in Religion from Liberty University. Ragan teaches Wednesday nights and oversees a team of advisors who walk with middle and high school students in small groups. LifeGroups for students run on Sunday mornings and are divided by gender and grade band: sixth through eighth, ninth through tenth, and upperclassmen.
Equipping Adults Through LifeGroups, HomeGroups, and EquipU
Discipleship for adults is structured on three layers. LifeGroups meet during the Sunday school hour and serve as the primary care unit for every adult in the church, with a stated mission to attend to the spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational needs of each member and to bring them through a process of discipleship. HomeGroups meet twice a month in homes on Sunday afternoons or evenings and center on the previous Sunday’s sermon.
EquipU is the church’s Bible Institute, offering three semesters a year of eight-week courses on Wednesday nights. Recent offerings have included “From Heaven to Humanity: The Story of the Bible,” “Complementarianism: Biblical Roles for the Home and Church,” and “Spiritual Formations: A Catalyst to Personal Ministry.” Classes are taught by SBC pastors and friends of the ministry who specialize in particular subjects.
Additional adult equipping comes through a Bible Reading Plans resource page that links to plans such as Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s classic schedule, the Discipleship Journal plan, the Blueletter Bible reading tracks, a 260 Essential Passages plan, and a 90 Day Kids Devotional.
A Missionary Heart That Started in 1975
World missions is woven into the identity of Shenandoah Baptist Church. Since 1975 the congregation has given more than $20 million to missionaries through the annual Faith Promise Offering. The missions family is treated as part of the church’s staff on international assignment, supported through prayer, encouragement, and financial partnership.
The Five Goals of a World Christian frame the ministry: Knowing the Biblical basis for world missions, praying regularly through the monthly “Intercessor” prayer guide, giving through Faith Promise, going on short-term and long-term assignments, and caring for the missionaries the church has sent. Sending Teams of church members connect with missionaries by maintaining regular communication, meeting to pray, facilitating urgent care during crises, hosting them when they are in the area, and sending holiday and birthday encouragement.
Short-term mission opportunities are organized year-round. Recent and ongoing work has included a Slovakia trip and a sustained partnership in Kabinburi, Thailand, where the Hope Home for Girls (opened in 2015) provides care to eleven girls ages five through eighteen in partnership with the Compassionate Hope Foundation. The team in Thailand is being expanded toward a “Village of Hope” that includes a Hope Home, a school, a supporting business, and a church plant. A week-long Global Missions Advance on the island of Malta is held periodically to bring missionaries and members together for relationship building and renewed commitment.
Roanoke Valley Christian Schools and Camp Eagle
The church campus is also home to Roanoke Valley Christian Schools, which offers Christian education from K2 through twelfth grade. The Lower School Building houses the main school administrative office, and classrooms are filled Monday through Friday with students from across the Roanoke Valley. RVCS emphasizes the development of Christian character, self-discipline, and high academic and moral standards. The school is led by Head of School Dr. Ben Frenchak, who joined the staff with his wife Candace and their three sons after a career that has included high school band directing, soccer coaching, youth pastoring, and middle school principalship.
About twenty miles away in Botetourt County sits Camp Eagle, a 167-acre year-round retreat for all ages. Camp Eagle is the responsibility of Associate Pastor Jeremy Varner, who came to Shenandoah in 2025 after sixteen years as a lead pastor in North Carolina. The camp is described as a place where “people of all ages can separate from the worries of the world and saturate themselves in God’s creation and God’s Word.”
What Shenandoah Believes
Shenandoah’s Statement of Faith begins with the full inspiration and inerrancy of the Old and New Testaments. The church affirms belief in one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the deity, virgin birth, blood atonement, sinless life, bodily resurrection, and present heavenly intercession of Jesus Christ; and the personal, premillennial, imminent return of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is confessed as a person of the Godhead who convicts, regenerates, seals, indwells, guides, teaches, anoints, and intercedes for believers, baptizing them into the body of Christ.
The statement teaches that human beings are spiritually lost apart from Christ and incapable of self-salvation; that salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus; that all true believers possess eternal life and may have full assurance of salvation; and that there will be a bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust, with everlasting blessedness for the saved and everlasting conscious punishment for the lost.
Baptism by immersion is held to be a symbol of the believer’s union with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection, and the Lord’s Supper is observed as a memorial of the Lamb of God and a reminder of His promised return. Marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman, and sexual intimacy is reserved for that union. Believers are called to a life of obedience and separation from evil, empowered by the indwelling Spirit. The Elders hold final interpretive authority on biblical meaning and application across the church’s faith, doctrine, policy, practice, and discipline.
Preaching in the main service is from the English Standard Version, though members use a variety of translations and visitors are welcome to use their preferred version. The Sunday morning service is livestreamed and archived, and recordings of recent sermons are available on the church’s YouTube channel and through the Church Center app.