The Greatest Rural Church in America

Jackie Shelton served for 24 years as the pastor of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Moulton, Alabama, the "Greatest Rural Church in America." Starting with around 150 people in attendance and an annual offering of $60,000 in 1980, the church grew, under Bro. Jackie's leadership, to a weekly attendance of nearly 1,000 and total receipts of $925,766 in 2004. During two of those 24 years, annual baptisms at Pleasant Grove were in excess of 100 people. This is his story...