Nathan Daniels
Pastor
Pastor Nathan will begin his ministry at First Baptist Church of Ashville on September 11, 2023. He is coming from Bethany Baptist Church in Andalusia, Alabama. He has been at Bethany Baptist Since April 2017 and previously served as senior pastor at Westmont Baptist in Birmingham. He and his wife Jessica have been married for thirteen years and grew up together at First Baptist Church Pleasant Grove. Nathan and Jessica have three children. Micah (10), Luke (9), and Lily Grace (4). Nathan’s favorite activity is spending quality time with his family. His interests also include books, movies, sports, technology, and archery. The Daniels’ children love little league sports, music, and art. Nathan and Jessica thoroughly enjoy supporting and participating in those activities with their kids.
Pastor Nathan felt his call to lifelong ministry at the age of fifteen. He attended Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. at Samford, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and World Religions. He continued his education at Beeson Divinity School and graduated with a Master of Divinity in 2013.
Pastor Nathan has a heart for making disciples. He is committed to advancing God’s kingdom, both locally and globally. Pastor Nathan’s passion is to serve the Lord faithfully by building intentional relationships with people in the community and ultimately leading others closer to Christ.
Paula Brown
Church Administrator
Hers is the voice you usually hear when you call FBC, and the first face you see when you stop by during the week. Paula Brown strives to serve everyone who comes into the church office with a smile and a loving heart, and most folks who meet her would say she succeeds.
“I love ministering to my church family in any way that I can,” says Brown, who is FBC’s church administrator. “I want to be known as a trustworthy person.”
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, in 1960, Brown grew up in Collinsville, Mississippi. She asked Jesus into her heart when she was 8-years-old during a revival at her home church, Midway Baptist Church, in Meridian. She graduated from West Lauderdale High School in Collinsville, and attended Meridian Community College.
She has been married to her high school sweetheart, Glenn Brown, since 1979, and the couple has two children, Eric and Emily, and four grandchildren: Seeley Rae Brown, twins Hank and Darcy Brown, and Harvey Goodman.
“I began serving the Lord in ministry at Clearview Baptist Church as the receptionist and education secretary in May of 1990,” she says. “I was at Clearview for eight years and then on May 1, 1998, started my ministry at FBC Ashville. God opened the door for me to serve at Clearview and I fell in love with doing God’s work through helping and ministering to the church staff, church family and people in the community.”
She wants to be a faithful servant for God and to be used where God wants to use her, Brown says. “It thrills my heart to see young families with children be active and involved in church life. I want to see our church grow and disciple everyone who steps through our doors to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ.”
In her leisure time she enjoys walking and spending time with her family.
Calvin Bailey
Youth Minister
Calvin Bailey’s computer screensaver tells a lot about FBC’s Youth Minister. “God is the only reason I have made it this far,” it says. It’s not that he has had lots of bad times in his life. He just knows that he has to rely on God to meet all his needs.
“Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he says. “So, sharing Him with others is my philosophy. Anything outside of that, I’d just mess things up.”
Bailey was born in Steele, Alabama, in 1971, and grew up on Chandler Mountain. He holds an associate degree from Gadsden State Community College and a B.S. in Sociology from Jacksonville State University. He lives in his family’s old home place with his wife, Kathryn, and their three children: Brooklyn, 22, a registered, nurse; Caleb, 18, a student at Jefferson State Community College; and Emma, 16, a junior at Ashville High School. During the week, he is warehouse and logistics manager at Metals in Motion, a foundry supply distributor in Ashville. He has been with the company for 20 years.
Saved at the age of 12, Bailey taught Sunday School for several years before accepting the position of Youth Minister in 2004. “Having three kids of my own, I love being around them and their friends and students in general,” he says. “I have a platform to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that’s the coolest thing I could ever do for anyone!”
He tries to reveal Christ to the students using modern examples as analogies to biblical Scripture. “My favorite part about this ministry is seeing the students for the first time see Christ for who He is and believing in Him, and then seeing all of them grow in their faith,” he says. “From the time they enter our youth ministry in seventh grade to the time they graduate from high school, the maturity that takes place in their lives is so amazing!”
He really doesn’t have any hobbies, unless you’d call playing golf twice a year a hobby. “I dabble a little bit into everything,” he says.