The Phil Campbell Seventh-day Adventist Church was made an official church on Saturday afternoon, April 28, 1956 at New Hope Methodist Church, twelve miles Northeast of Phil Campbell, Alabama, on State Highway 81. Members of the Sheffield and Athens Alabama Seventh-day Adventist Churches (along with Elders Leroy J. Elliston who were officials of the Alabama-Mississippi Seventh-day Adventist Confer
ence) assisted Elder Maurice Abbott and associate pastor, Elder Joel Tompkins in organizing a local group of God's believers into a legal church. Elder Abbott, pastor of Sheffield and Athens Church, opened the proceedings promptly at 3:00 pm by introducing the conference officials from Meridian, Mississippi. Also, the visiting believers from the Sheffield and Athens churches were given a warm welcome and invited to become witnesses to the factual organization of the hereinafter-named group of believers into the Phil Campbell Seventh-day Adventist Church. "Born to be a torchbearer of God's truth in the vicinity of Phil Campbell, our new church has a rendezvous with destiny. May God's richest blessings ever dwell with it and with Elders Abbott and Tompkins for their untiring efforts that made its organization a success. We also pray that God may see fit to continue the wonderful work being done by Elders Leiske, Heinrich, and Elliston for a long time to come in order that more groups of believers may be organized into the Church of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen." (from the Record of Organization of Phil Campbell, AL Seventh-day Adventist Church)
