From a Seed to a Church

When Rick Russell, treasurer and vice president for finance at the Carolina Conference, agreed to preach an evangelistic series in 2004, he had no idea that his “yes” would plant a seed that would blossom into a church two decades later.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Russell recalls. “It was my first time preaching a full public campaign. But I was persuaded by my colleagues, and thankfully, we had the Holy Spirit with us.”

The series took place in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Russell remembers the challenge of standing in front of a few hundred people, calling for decisions, and making appeals. “It was a little intimidating,” he admits. “We were preaching the gospel, but we didn’t know how people were responding on the inside.”

In the pews sat a young man named Zachary McFadden, attending with his mother. At the time, they were visiting several churches, including the Fayetteville Adventist Church. When they heard about the prophecy seminar, they were curious.

“The Bible just started making sense,” McFadden remembers. “It was practical, it was relevant, and it spoke to what I was experiencing in life. I fell in love with Jesus all over again.” McFadden was baptized at the conclusion of the series, though Russell never knew the impact his preaching had made.

Sitting elsewhere in the audience that same year was Marilyn Nader. Though she didn’t make a decision at the time, the messages planted a spiritual longing in her heart. “That prophecy seminar was the beginning for me,” she says. “That’s when everything started to make sense.”

Several years later, Nader reconnected with McFadden and his mother, Cathy. She had no idea they had all attended the same 2004 series. McFadden offered to study the Bible with her, and through that process, Nader began to see the love of Christ through their lives. “They embraced me with so much love,” she says. “It changed everything.”

In 2014, Nader was baptized, nearly a decade after attending that original prophecy seminar. Her new life in Christ quickly translated into service, and she eventually became the director of evangelism for the Shannon church group.

Fast forward to February 2025.

Russell was scheduled to visit Shannon, North Carolina, to formally organize a growing Spanish-speaking group into a full-fledged church. When he arrived, he saw a familiar face—Zachary McFadden. Then, he saw Nader, now recognized as the spiritual matriarch of the group.What he didn’t yet know was the full-circle moment God had orchestrated.

McFadden had long prayed for the opportunity to thank Pastor Russell, the man whose preaching had led to his baptism all those years ago. “There were three things I had been praying for consistently,” McFadden shared. “One of them was to be able to see Pastor Russell again and thank him in person.”

That moment came unexpectedly. As they sat down at a table together, McFadden said, “Do you remember that evangelistic series you preached in Fayetteville in 2004?”

“I’ll never forget it,” Russell replied. “It was my first one.”

With emotion, McFadden shared how that series led him to Christ, then to Bible studies with Nader, and ultimately helped lay the foundation for a church plant that had now grown to more than 60 members.

Russell was overwhelmed. “It was a struggle in my heart to decide whether I should share what I was feeling,” he said. “But God impressed me strongly. I needed to hear this. And I needed to share how humbled I was.”

For McFadden, the moment was confirmation of God’s leading. For Russell, it was a revelation of how the Holy Spirit had been working behind the scenes for twenty years. “I never knew,” Russell said. “To find out, two decades later, that your first hesitant sermon helped plant a church...it’s almost too much to take in.”

The Shannon church now stands as a living testimony of God’s providence. What began with one simple step of obedience grew through years of quiet discipleship and personal investment.

“We had no idea what God was doing,” Nader reflects. “There were so many moving parts. But now we see it. It was the Holy Spirit all along.”

For Russell, McFadden, Nader, and the members of the Shannon church, this story is more than a memory...it’s a miracle. “Only the Lord could write a story like this,” Russell says. “It’s humbling to see what God can do when we simply say ‘yes.’”