When alumnus Dr. Michael D. Moore graduated from Berea in 1977 with a degree in business administration, his career trajectory was practicing law. He returned to his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., and attended law school at Samford University. He married Kennetha Brown ’79 a year before she finished at Berea and thought his life was set. Then one day, while eating lunch in his car, Moore opened his Bible to Ezekiel 33 and there received his call into ministry. And everything changed. Filled with trepidation and obedience, they started a church.
“We started with four people: myself, my wife, my mother, a friend and the bible,” Moore recalls.
Now 40 years later, Rev. Moore is the pastor of Faith Chapel Christian Center in Birmingham—a nearly 62,000 square-foot dome church with approximately 3,000 members that ministers to the spiritual, physical and even social needs of its community.
In his 40 years of serving as pastor, Rev. Moore has answered God’s call to grow and expand his ministry in numerous ways. In 2013, he felt called to minister to Birmingham’s homeless population in a radical way. With much prayer and planning, the Faith Chapel Care Center was created and opened its doors to Birmingham’s people in transition in spring 2017. The facility allows Birmingham’s homeless have access to showers, computers, phones, laundry facilities, hygiene products and food, as well as legal and medical help.
“When we started with four people, we had no money, no support, no backing,” Rev. Moore said. “But we had vision and we had God’s word. When you go around and you look at the facility, don’t think Mike Moore, think of faith in God who can take any person, anywhere, and if you put your faith in him, there is truly nothing that he can’t do.”
