Farm & Faith: Karah Skinner Shares Love for Alabama through Food

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Skinner family

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When Karah Skinner first created a social media page, she wasn’t trying to become an influencer. She simply wanted to sell farm products. What began as a practical way to let friends and neighbors know what meat was available from her family’s farm has since grown into a thriving online community where thousands of followers gather for recipes, stories from the farm, encouragement for family life, and a glimpse into the everyday joys of rural living. Today, Karah and her husband, Kaleb, operate Rock House Farms while raising their children, homeschooling, serving in their church, and sharing their faith through the ordinary moments of life. Along the way, Karah has become a respected voice for agriculture, serving as a 2026 Sweet Grown Alabama Ambassador and helping connect consumers with the farmers who produce their food. She also serves as president of the Cleburne County Farmers Federation and participates in leadership opportunities through the Alabama Farmers Federation. She will be one of the chefs on the Alfa Farmers Celebrity Chef Stage at Birmingham Christian Family’s Celebrate the Family Expo on September 12, 2026 at Hoover Met Complex’s Finley Center. In the midst of such appearances along with her growing audience, she and her husband remain focused on the same priorities that guided them from the beginning: faith, family, and faithful stewardship.

Karah Skinner in kitchen
Karah Skinner shares delicious recipes on her social media pages and blog. Find her cheesecake squares recipe here. See her on the Alfa Farmers Celebrity Chef Stage at the Celebrate the Family Expo on September 12, 2026.

Early Farm Dreams. Karah met Kaleb when she was just 17 years old while still in high school; he lived in Heflin, Ala. and she lived in nearby rural Ga. They married five years later and have now shared nearly two decades of marriage, building both a family and a business together. Their farm and home today are in Fruithurst, Ala., not far from where they both grew up. In those early years, life looked much different than it does today. Karah worked as a hairstylist while Kaleb worked in construction. In 2015, they began building poultry houses, then slowly added a few cows and hogs to provide meat for their own family. As friends began asking to purchase meat themselves, the Skinners stepped into direct-to-consumer sales. Eventually, they opened a farm store, giving local families access to quality farm-raised products. “It just grew naturally,” Karah said. Today, their operation is primarily made up of South Poll cattle, a breed developed in Alabama by Teddy Gentry of the country music group Alabama. The Skinners were early believers in the breed and have expanded their herd over the years. “It’s a different breed,” Karah explained. “We bought directly from Teddy and got a South Poll bull years ago. Then we bought others from Missouri and kept growing.” Kaleb still works an off-farm job, making their evenings and weekends especially busy. “He does the heavy lifting,” Karah said. “We also have a farm hand, but we really work on it together.” Karah oversees marketing, customer communication, photography, recipes, and social media. 

Kaleb and Karah Skinner
Kaleb and Karah Skinner married in 2009 and live in Northeast Alabama on Rock House Farms. Photo courtesy Moments with Mags Photography

Ironically, the turning point in Karah’s online journey had little to do with farming, and everything to do with cooking. As customers purchased from Rock House Farms, they repeatedly asked the same question: “How do you cook this?” Karah began sharing recipes online and they soon became one of the most popular parts of her page. Over time, her audience grew beyond local customers to include people from across the country—and even around the world. Her audience often finds humor in regional traditions. “A lot of my followers are from California or other places,” she said. “They’ll ask, ‘What are cheese grits?’ And then they’ll ask, ‘How do you stay fit if you eat like this?’” Her answer? “It’s really about portion control and eating real, minimally processed foods.” She also believes home cooking doesn’t have to be intimidating. “I try to be realistic,” she said. “Sure, it would be nice if everything came from your own garden, but sometimes it’s okay to use a few convenience items to make a quick meal.” That practical approach has resonated with families who simply want meals they can realistically prepare after busy days.  Raising her own large family in the country requires creative planning and cooking; grocery trips aren’t quick, so meal planning and keeping a well-stocked pantry and freezer are simply part of family life. “We live out in the country and so if I need something, I have to drive to the closest town,” she said. “If we get down to a gallon of milk or a few sticks of butter, I’ll need to make a grocery store run. It’s really about prioritizing healthy choices, and also being realistic,” she said. “We don’t keep a lot of junk food around, but we also understand that sometimes you need quick meals.” She loves sharing her tips and tricks–and favorite recipes like peanut butter pie or an Alabama peach-inspired dessert–with her followers, hoping that they leave her pages encouraged rather than overwhelmed.

Sweet Home Alabama. As her audience has grown, so have the opportunities to promote Alabama agriculture beyond her own farm. Through social media, she helps bridge the gap between producers and consumers while encouraging other farmers to tell their own stories online. She said that things like produce stands, home bakers, and other farm- and home-prepared products are finding popularity and presence through social media outlets, and she’s excited to highlight them in Alabama. Her own online community has been growing steadily since 2015—not because of viral moments, but because of years of showing up faithfully. “If it grows too fast,” she said, “it may not be the audience you really want.” She encourages other creators to stay consistent and intentional. Posting regularly, especially through Instagram stories, has become one of the habits that has helped her remain connected with followers. Karah can be found on her blog at rockhousefarmsllc.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @rockhousefarmsllc. 

Skinner family
Kaleb and Karah Skinner have five children plus one in heaven. Left to right: Charlotte (5), Kaleb, Dusty (14), Addie (14), Maddie (12), Karah, and Stetson (7). Photo courtesy Moments with Mags Photography

Faith & Family. While farming and social media occupy much of her workday, Karah is quick to point to her family as her highest priority. She and Kaleb are raising a large family that includes both biological and adopted children. Homeschooling is woven into the rhythm of everyday life, filling much of the school year while continuing even through parts of the summer. Their five children range in age from 5 to 14. “Once we had kids, we made faith and church a priority,” Karah said. “I feel like we’re able to implement our faith because we homeschool. We can teach both the world view and the Biblical view.” The couple leaned heavily on their faith when their four-year-old daughter Lexie tragically died in a tractor accident in 2019. “If not for my faith and relationship with God I would have never made it through the following months of grief. He was with me and was my only source of comfort in those very dark days when nothing on this side of heaven could help,” Karah reflects.  The family attends Bremen Church of Christ in nearby Georgia and it has helped shape both their family life and their parenting. Many of their children’s closest friendships have come through church and the homeschool community. Karah’s own family upbringing has had an influence on both her faith and her priorities. Both her mother and grandmother maintained gardens, and many family meals featured fresh vegetables picked just hours before dinner. Those memories continue to influence how she feeds her own family today. “My mother and my grandmother always had a garden,” she remembered. “Every time we visited, we were eating corn, green beans—everything came from the garden.” They usually ate those meals around the table together and believes that’s something that has been lost in today’s busy culture. “I actually read some statistics not long ago,” she said. “Families aren’t sitting around the dinner table together like they used to.” Eating together provides families the opportunity to communicate and share openly about their lives.

In everything she and her husband do– from farm work to social media posting to eating together as a family– the Skinners hope to live out their faith in relatable ways. They see their entire lives as an opportunity to honor God and know Him better. “It’s a wonderful life, out in the country,” she said, “and I realize how big of a blessing it is to raise kids here.”

-Cheryl Wray

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Blind Boys of Alabama in blue suits

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The Blind Boys of Alabama–one of the country’s most treasured musical groups–will be part of the “Sweet Home 250” event on July 3-4, 2026 at American Village in Montevallo. For more than 85 years, the legendary Gospel group has inspired audiences around the world with songs of hope and perseverance. They have performed for presidents, won Grammy Awards, toured internationally, and been inducted into multiple halls of fame. Yet ask Ricky McKinnie—the group’s leader, manager, and one of its longest-serving members—what matters most, and he’ll tell you it isn’t the awards. “Our music reaches from the heart, and we sing straight from the soul,” McKinnie said. “If you can feel it, then we’ve done our job.” That simple mission has carried the Blind Boys of Alabama from a school campus in Talladega, Ala. to stages across the globe, and the group will be a special treat at this year’s Independence Day celebration.

Blind Boys of Alabama
The longest running musical group in America, The Blind Boys of Alabama, will perform at American Village on July 4, 2026 at 7 p.m. Photo courtesy Cole Weber

Roots Deep in Alabama. The Blind Boys of Alabama began in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in Talladega. Originally, they called themselves the Happyland Jubilee Singers and sang Gospel music in churches and local venues. “The group started in Talladega, where some voices were picked out of the school chorus because they wanted to form a quartet,” McKinnie said. The name that would make them famous came later. A promoter in New Jersey organized a contest between the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Blind Boys of Mississippi. The Alabama group kept the name, and music history was made. Over the decades, founding members including Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter led the group through eras of enormous cultural change. They toured the segregated south, recorded classic Gospel songs, and became pioneers in blending traditional Gospel with blues, soul, and roots music. Today, the Blind Boys are the longest-running musical group in America. Their achievements are impressive: six Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, inductions into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and collaborations with artists ranging from Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt to Tom Waits and Lou Reed. Yet McKinnie said none of that was part of the plan. “When I joined the Blind Boys, I didn’t come in with the pretense that we were going to win Grammys or be in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame,” he said. “We just wanted to sing.”

Ricky McKinnie singing
Ricky McKinnie credits The Blind Boys of Alabama’s faith as the reason the group has endured since its founding in 1939. Photo courtesy Jessica Wyld

A Family Tradition. McKinnie’s connection to the group stretches back nearly his entire life. “I started working with the Blind Boys in the early 1970s because I met Clarence Fountain when I was four years old,” he said. “I had the opportunity to get to know them and work with them over the years.” He officially joined the group in 1989 as a drummer, and then, when the group’s manager died in 1997, McKinnie stepped in to help oversee operations. Over the years, he continued as co-manager while also performing. Following the deaths of longtime members, including Clarence Fountain and Bishop Billy Bowers, McKinnie gradually moved to the front of the stage. Today, he serves as leader, narrator, singer, and manager. Alongside his work with the Blind Boys, he also performs with his mother in his own group, Ricky McKinnie Singers. He sees himself today as carrying forward a legacy entrusted to him by men who became like family. He once had a conversation with founding member Johnny Fields that especially stressed that point. “He looked at me and said, ‘Would it bother you if I recognized you as my son? And I told him that it would be an honor to even have him think like that.'” The Blind Boys, he said, helped raise him—not just as a musician, but as a man.

Blind Boys of Alabama in blue suits
Over the years, The Blind Boys of Alabama have performed for presidents, won Grammy Awards, toured internationally, and been inducted into multiple halls of fame. Photo courtesy Cole Weber

Unwavering Faith. The Blind Boys of Alabama have always been more than entertainers; they also are ministers through music. And for McKinnie, faith is the reason the group has endured. Their testimony that anyone can overcome obstacles has been intrinsically tied into that faith. “We show people that a disability doesn’t have to be a handicap,” McKinnie said. “It’s not about what you can’t do. It’s about what you can do to make a difference.” Then he offers a line that beautifully summarizes the Blind Boys’ legacy: “The men in this group may not have had their sight, but they never lost their vision.” For generations, audiences have connected with that message. McKinnie tells stories of people waiting for eye surgeries who requested that they sing “Amazing Grace.” Others have approached him after concerts and confessed that they weren’t Christians, but that they felt something stirring in them after experiencing the Blind Boys of Alabama’s music. “Those are the kinds of things that keep us out here,” he said. Every performance, the group sings one of its signature songs, “It’s Praying Time” and while their concerts aren’t sermons, McKinnie said that the group sees them as an opportunity to spread the Gospel message. “We don’t preach it,” McKinnie said. “But we’re gonna sing it.”

Freedom & Faith. As the Blind Boys prepare to perform at American Village, McKinnie said that Independence Day is an opportunity to remember not only America’s freedoms but also the struggles and faith that helped secure them. The group itself is part of that story. Formed in the Jim Crow South, the Blind Boys overcame barriers of race and disability while remaining rooted in faith. Their music became part of the soundtrack of both the Civil Rights era and modern America. “My mama always told me that people need people and people working together,” he said. For McKinnie, gratitude and unity are central to faith–and to America’s past and future.

Ricky McKinnie 2023 album recording
Ricky McKinnie is seen here in the recording studio.

Looking Toward the Future. At an age when many groups have long since retired, the Blind Boys of Alabama are still on the road. In their early years, they performed about 150 shows annually. “Since the pandemic, we probably do between 80 and 100 shows a year,” McKinnie said. “We’re still traveling all over the world.” Europe remains a favorite destination, and Hawaii is on the horizon. The group also continues to create new music. Their recent album, Echoes of the South, earned a Grammy Award and pays tribute to the Birmingham radio program that introduced generations of listeners to Gospel music. In 2024, the group also released a memoir chronicling its remarkable journey. “If you really want an inspiring book,” McKinnie said, “it tells what it takes to be not just a singing group, but an organization.” The story is one of perseverance, friendship, faith, and joy. And despite all they’ve accomplished, McKinnie insists the Blind Boys are still doing what they set out to do decades ago. “We just wanted to sing,” he said. For those attending the American Village celebration or any of the group’s performances, McKinnie makes it clear what an audience will experience. “If you want to have a good time, and you’re feeling bad or sad, the place to be is with the Blind Boys. We’ll sign autographs, take pictures, but we’ll also have a revival,” he said.

-Cheryl Wray

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Minda and Riley Campbell DC

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At first glance, Riley Campbell may seem like any other recent high school graduate; she’s thinking about college, spending time with friends, and dreaming about the future. But beneath that typical image is a story steeped in resilience, faith, and a determination to make a difference.

Diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA) in late 2024, Riley has already turned her personal journey into a platform for advocacy. As a 2025 ambassador for the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), she is using her voice to raise awareness, connect with others, and push for progress in a space that often goes unseen. Through it all, she remains grounded not only in her goals, but also in her identity as a teenager navigating life with courage and purpose. Her faith and family are integral in helping her do that.

Minda and Riley Campbell in meetings in DC
Despite the physical challenges of doing it, Campbell chooses to travel to Washington, D.C. to share her story with government officials and rally for research support.

Diagnosis & Making a Difference. Friedreich’s Ataxia is a rare, inherited, progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the nervous system, including the spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and cerebellum. It often appears in childhood or adolescence, bringing symptoms such as balance issues, fatigue, and difficulty with coordination. While there is currently no cure, treatments focus on managing symptoms and maintaining quality of life. For Riley, the diagnosis didn’t come overnight. “I was diagnosed with scoliosis in fifth grade,” she explained. “They thought surgery would help my walking. I had my first spinal fusion in sixth grade, and then later another one… But things just kept getting worse.” For years, Riley and her family searched for answers by visiting specialists, exploring possibilities, and trying to understand what was happening. It wasn’t until November of her junior year that the Campbell family finally received clarity and a diagnosis. Her mother, Minda Riley Campbell had seen the signs long before the diagnosis. “She could never figure out how to jog in a straight line or ride a bike,” Minda recalled. “Anything that required balance was a challenge. What we didn’t realize at the time was that the scoliosis was actually a side effect of FA.”

Minda and Riley Campbell DC
Riley Campbell is seen here with her mother Minda on one of her recent trips to Washington, D.C., to advocate for those with FA and other rare diseases.

For many people a diagnosis like FA might lead to isolation and fear. For Riley, though, it became a turning point. “When I was diagnosed, I realized very quickly that there was almost no awareness about FA,” she said. “I knew I could either stay quiet and let fear take over, or use my story to help other people.” She became active as an advocate for the disease. Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, former Alabama Governor Bob Riley, she saw how those in government could make a difference. She chose to start sharing her experience with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., stressing the importance of research funding and support for rare diseases. “The whole experience was surreal,” she said. “At first, it was really intimidating walking into the Capitol. But they listened to my story, asked questions, and genuinely cared.” During her visit, Riley had the opportunity to meet with government leaders including U.S. Representatives Mike Rogers, Barry Moore, Dale Strong, and Robert Aderholt, as well as Senator Katie Britt. “Because it’s a rare disease, it doesn’t always get the attention or funding that more common conditions do,” explains mom Minda about how important Riley’s advocacy work is. “But government grants and research support are so important, not just for FA, but for all rare diseases.” “Funding is the big thing,” Riley said. “We’ve made progress, but we can always do more. My goal is to keep pushing for that.”

Riley Campbell Alabama
This fall Riley Campbell will join her older brother Bobby as a fellow student at the University of Alabama. Photo courtesy Caroline Bobbit

Moving Forward. Despite her advocacy work, Riley is still very much a teenager. She enjoys spending time with friends, going to the beach, working out, and singing. Her daily routine includes physical therapy and gym sessions—both essential for managing her symptoms. “When I wake up, I’m pretty unstable,” she said. “But going to the gym and doing physical therapy really helps.” After her diagnosis, Riley made the difficult decision to transition to online school to focus on her health. “It was a really hard time,” she said. “I had just transferred schools, and then a few months later, I got diagnosed. But going online has helped me focus on both my mental and physical health.” Even with those challenges, Riley has continued to excel academically. She recently earned a 4.0 GPA and was recognized as Student of the Month in a statewide program involving tens of thousands of students. “She’s been able to balance everything, including school, therapy, and volunteering,” Minda said. “It’s incredible to watch.”

Looking ahead, Riley is preparing for college. She will attend the University of Alabama where she hopes to study marketing and be involved in a sorority. “I’m really excited about finding friendships and independence,” she said. “I’ve even met another girl with FA who’s going there.” Making connections while fighting FA can be difficult, Riley added, but longtime friends have remained loyal and important. She has also made new friends with people who also have FA. “One of the first things I did was connect with other people,” Riley said. “Social media helped me find a community. That made a huge difference.”

Faith Focused. Throughout Riley’s journey, faith has been a constant source of strength. “Faith has been the foundation for everything,” she said. “There are days when I feel overwhelmed, but I believe that God gives me peace when I feel uncertain and strength when I feel weak.” Minda adds that faith has been an anchor for her entire family, including her husband Rob (an attorney for an international law firm) and son Bobby (who is 20 and attends the University of Alabama). “I would love to say I had a rock-solid faith right after the diagnosis,” Minda said. “But there were times when it was hard to pray. I didn’t even know what to pray for.” In those moments, she leaned on the support of others. “One of the greatest blessings has been our community,” she said. “When we couldn’t pray, we knew others were praying for us.” Minda often reflects on a comparison someone once shared with her about Riley. “A friend told me Riley reminds her of Esther,” she recalled. “A young woman given the opportunity to go before powerful people and advocate for her people. That’s exactly what Riley has done. Maybe she was made for ‘such a time as this’.”

Riley Campbell in meeting
Riley Campbell plans to continue to advocate for those with FA in Washington D.C. while she attends the University of Alabama.

When Riley speaks publicly about Friedreich’s Ataxia, her message extends beyond awareness. “Just be kind,” she said. “Not just to people with FA, but to anyone with a disability. You never know what someone is going through.” She also offers encouragement to those newly diagnosed. “It’s a crazy experience getting diagnosed,” she said. “But FA doesn’t define who you are. It doesn’t control your life or your relationships.”

For parents navigating a similar diagnosis, Minda offers similar honesty and hope. “Give yourself grace,” she stressed. “You’re not going to wake up every day feeling like you’ve got this. There are going to be hard mornings and nights.” She emphasized the importance of advocating for your child. “Doctors know medicine, but you know your child. Don’t be afraid to speak up, ask questions, and fight for what they need,” she said. She also encourages families to live fully in the present. “It’s easy to let fear take over,” she said. “But we’ve chosen to enjoy life—take the trips, make the memories, not worry about the small things.” Above all, she points back to Riley. “We’re supposed to be strong for her,” Minda said. “But honestly, she’s everyone’s inspiration. We gain strength from her.”

As Riley prepares for the next chapter—college, independence, and continued advocacy—her mission remains clear. “I’ll definitely keep going back to D.C.,” she said. “I want to stay focused on this and keep helping people.” Her journey is still unfolding, but one thing is certain: Riley Campbell is not defined by her diagnosis.  Instead, she’s defined by how she’s chosen to respond to it with determination and faith.

-Cheryl Wray

Author, Freelance Writer, Speaker

Riley Campbell shares more about her journey with Friedreich’s Axatia, her hopes for the future, and more in the video interview below.

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AJ in Stallions Hat

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AJ McCarron is a familiar face in Alabama and holds a special place in the hearts of Crimson Tide football fans for his role as quarterback for the team’s 2011 and 2012 BCS National Championship seasons. Now he’s returned to the sport in a new role as the head coach of the United Football League’s (UFL) Birmingham Stallions and is drawing both on his Crimson Tide background and his strong family support to find success. 

AJ McCarron and Nick Saban on field
AJ McCarron played under the leadership of Coach Nick Saban from 2009-2013. During his time at Alabama, the team won three national championships. Photo Courtesy: Kent Gidley/University of Alabama

Learning from the Best. McCarron attended and won a state football championship for St. Paul’s Episcopal High School in Mobile, Ala., then joined Coach Nick Saban at the University of Alabama. He played from 2009-2013, winning three national titles (including two as starting quarterback) and finished his career with 77 touchdowns and only 15 interceptions. He continued his career with the Cincinnati Bengals after being drafted in the fifth round of the NFL draft and also played for the Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans, and Atlanta Falcons; his last playing position was with the UFL’s St. Louis Battlehawks. McCarron’s also been active in the football world since then in podcasting and analysis, most recently with former Alabama running back Trent Richardson and “Voice of the Crimson Tide” Chris Stewart on “The Dynasty” podcast. Through all the steps along his sports journey, McCarron said that he had excellent role models and leaders who taught him the importance of coaching. “I’ve learned from a lot of coaches throughout my playing career,” he said, including time under Saban, widely considered the greatest college football coach of all time. “I think about how different coaches handled certain situations, and how that affects how I coach myself.”

AJ talking to player
Stallions Head Coach AJ McCarron suffered a near-fatal jet ski accident when he was just 5-years-old, and credits that brush with death as a reminder that God rescued him so that he could live out the purpose he had for his life. The story of his injury and miraculous recovery was often shared in broadcasts of Alabama football games. Photos courtesy United Football League

Fans often recall the strong relationship they saw between Saban and McCarron on the football field and on the sidelines. McCarron’s success came during the heyday of Saban’s career, which ultimately resulted in six national titles during his 17-season tenure in Tuscaloosa. McCarron said that he ultimately wants to be a coach who has his players’ best interests at heart. “I want my players to have trust in me and allow them to have a voice. If we can do something better in practice, scheduling, or whatever, I want to hear constructive criticism,” he said. “But it’s also about taking care of the guys and understanding how a season takes its toll on you.” While the Stallions job is his first professional coaching position, McCarron has helped at high schools and has been offered high school head coaching jobs, college offensive coordinator positions, and has helped as part of an NFL staff. While he never imagined working as a head coach in the UFL, he said that the Stallions position made it hard to say no. “This opportunity came along, and it was just something I couldn’t pass up,” McCarron said. He now looks to the opportunity at the Stallions as an exciting one; while expectations for the team to win are always high (the team won UFL championships in 2022, 2023, and 2024), McCarron said that pressure is something he feels comfortable with. “I played at Alabama, and there’s nobody under more pressure than the quarterback at the University of Alabama. So, I like it. I love it. I think I thrive in that,” he said. “I’ve always played my best in the biggest games. It’s part of growing up in Alabama—we’re crazy about football, and the expectations are high. That’s what I love about it.”

McCarron family at baseball field
AJ and Katherine McCarron spend many hours at the baseball field with their sons. Left to right: Tripp, Cash, and Gunnar. Photo courtesy: McCarron family

Family Ties. The decision to lead the Birmingham Stallions came in part because of the way the job complements his family life. “I’ve just really enjoyed being retired, playing golf, coaching my kids, being there to pick them up from school, and all of those things that come with being a parent,” he said. “This works out great for me because I still get to go back home and watch my kids play.” McCarron and his wife, Katherine Webb-McCarron, married in 2014 after he was drafted into the NFL. Their wedding in Orange Beach made entertainment headlines, and Katherine’s own career as a model and former Miss Alabama USA made her famous in her own right. The McCarrons have three sons–Tripp (9), Cash (7), and Gunnar Cruz (4)–and make their home in Mobile. The McCarrons have always stressed that faith is an important part of their marriage and family, and AJ points to his grandfather’s influence when he was young as a vital part of his faith story. During the Stallions season, McCarron travels with the team and lives temporarily in the Birmingham area. They own McCarron Real Estate in Mobile, which Kathleen helps run, and have just opened a division in Tuscaloosa. McCarron credits his wife for keeping the family running–whether it’s managing the business or getting sons to sports practices and games while her husband’s out of town. “The boys are very active, and Katherine keeps everything running smoothly,” he said. “Tripp and Cash are currently playing baseball, and they also play football and basketball. I’ve coached them every year in flag football, and this is the first season that I’ve ever missed a game.” He adds, “Gunnar Cruz [who has level one autism].  is getting better all the time, and he’s starting to talk and has his own language,” he said. “I give credit to Katherine, who does everything while I’m gone.” In a recent interview with the New York Post, Katherine credited her husband for his coaching acumen.  “I’ve always called him a mini Nick Saban with the way he coaches and the way he is,” she said. “He’s always pushing people around him to be better and be the best that they can be.” That attitude–whether in coaching his own sons or coaching professional players-comes from a true heart for the athletes.

AJ running out on field
AJ McCarron was announced as the new head coach for the UFL Birmingham Stallions in December. He strives to coach the team with their best interests at top of mind.

Bringing Families Together. McCarron pointed to the Birmingham Stallions’ family-like focus as one reason he’s excited to be part of the organization. He said that the team is run like a family, and that it offers something special for the families of Birmingham. “To have the kind of success that this team has had, you have to work together like a family,” he said. “It’s not just the players, and it’s not just the coaches. It’s everyone who has a hand in it—from the training staff to the video crew to the fans. It’s about having a mindset of family unity, coming together to create an atmosphere that’s unlike anything else.” He said that the Birmingham market and the football fans in it have embraced the Stallions and that, as a result, the team strives to provide a quality product and entertainment for those fans. “When you come together, and the city and state believe in you, and you build that unity together, you can create something special and an atmosphere that’s unmatched,” he said. “It’s what we say to the guys and to the community: it takes all of us together as a family.”

-Cheryl Wray

 

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Kathleen on stage 2023

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The Magnolia Festival is one of the Birmingham area’s most anticipated Spring events, and coordinator Kathleen Phillips leads it with a passion for families and her community of Gardendale.  “We fully put our faith into the event,” she said. “It takes a lot of work from so many people in the community, and a lot of prayer.”

Kathleen in kitchen
Kathleen shares traditional Southern cooking recipes on her website, www.gritsandgouda.com and in BCF. Find one of her recipes here. Photo Tina Cornett Photography.

Celebrating 25 Years. The Magnolia Festival, which this year is slated for April 17-18, 2026, celebrates its 25th year as a multifaceted, must-visit event. The festival’s mission is to “provide visitors with an economical, family-friendly experience while promoting local businesses, tourism, local arts and culture, and volunteerism in the greater Gardendale area.” Phillips said that vendors and activities this year lean into the festival’s anniversary and also the 250th anniversary of the United States. “This year is more of a reunion, and we’re going to do what we do best,” Phillips said. “We’re bringing back some favorites we’ve had over our last 25 years and celebrating the past.” Some of those features include a “Hometown Reunion” area with entertainment, a special quilting section called “The Airing of the Quilts,” artisan demonstrations, an always-popular car show.

Kathleen on Merry Go Round
This year’s Magnolia Festival is a wonderful time for families to reconnect, and perhaps reminisce over past festivals from its 25 years of history.

The festival is divided up into activities on Friday and Saturday with a tribute concert to the band “Alabama” happening on Friday. On Saturday, a full slate of activities is available including food, vendors, pooch parade, midway carnival, petting zoo, pony rides, art classes, car show, kids zone, and musical performances on two different stages. The design of the festival, according to Phillips, is to create a family-friendly experience which has garnered the festival recognition as one of the best 25 festivals in the South and twice recognized as one of the top 10 in Birmingham. “We call ourselves a ‘total family experience,’ and we’ve kept it that way. We don’t have alcohol, and all of our entertainment on stage is clean,” Phillips said. “We have families that come every year, even generations that participate together. Sometimes it’s the only time they get together over the year.” The family-centric design extends to the involvement of the Phillips family from the festival’s very beginning.

Coordinators 2023
Kathleen says that prayer is integral each year at the Magnolia Festival. The event team starts with a prayer during its opening ceremony led by various area churches.

The Phillips family attended the event when their children were young and considered it one of their favorite family activities. When Kathleen became the coordinator 21 years ago, it became even more central for husband Scott and children Grayson and Corinne. “My kids grew up walking to the festival, and then helping with the festival,” Phillips said. “And now our daughter Corinne brings her daughters from Daphne to ride the ponies and enjoy everything. It’s a really neat full-circle thing.” Kathleen first became involved with the Magnolia Festival during its first year when she and her husband Scott were Gardendale Chamber members who decided to volunteer to help.  “We came on seven weeks before the festival was supposed to happen, and everyone was in survival mode. We helped that year, and it became part of our lives…We had no idea it would become this big,” she recalled, “and we didn’t know how much we would fall in love with it.”

The amount of work necessary to hold the festival each year is massive, and Phillips credits the work of multiple volunteers in different areas. It’s a full-time job for her from January through April, and workers include a vendor coordinator, volunteer coordinator, Pooch Parade coordinator, entertainment coordinator, and more. The City of Gardendale also volunteers employees from such departments as parks and rec, and two chambers of commerce help. She also points to the involvement of Gardendale churches as integral to the festival’s success, with different denominations working together in multiple ways. First Baptist Church works with the carnival, car show, and stage entertainment; the Church of Christ organizes the art show and classes for the kids, while the Methodist church has donated its parking lot for fireworks over the years. “Other churches have booths and spread the Gospel through them,” Phillips said. “They pour into the people and the community. It’s a full-time job for me, but it would be impossible without all the volunteers and work from so many people,” she said. “It’s just phenomenal.”

Phillips Family at Cooking Show
Scott, Corinne, Kathleen, and Grayson at a recent Holiday Cooking Show. The annual show raises funds for the Outdoor Ability Foundation they established in 2014. Learn more at www.outdoorabilityfoundation.com.

Family & Faith. The Phillips family is ingrained in the Gardendale community, although Kathleen first came to Alabama from Arkansas to work with Oxmoor House (the publisher of Southern Living and other publications) in 1989. She worked in the test kitchens there, then transitioned into creating her own website called Grits and Gouda (which features traditional Southern recipes made with shortcuts). She regularly publishes recipes in magazines including Birmingham Christian Family and provides demonstrations on local television stations. She also hosts an annual Holiday Cooking Show in November at the Gardendale Civic Center that benefits the Outdoor Ability Foundation established by the family. Daughter Corinne, (who is married and lives in Daphne with her husband and two daughters) and son Grayson (who lives in nearby Morris and works as a welder), were born in Ala., and they all remain extremely close. Husband Scott works as a mortgage lender and is an outdoorsman who started the Outdoor Ability Foundation with Grayson to refurbish and purchase adaptive equipment for young disabled outdoorsmen.

Scott and Grayson with chair recipient
Scott and Grayson Phillips are seen here with one of the many recipients of their adaptive wheelchairs that can be used in all sorts of outdoor situations.

The idea came from Grayson’s experiences in hunting and enjoying the outdoors when he was young. Grayson, who was born with spina bifida and is now 26, was an Eagle Scout and also often hunted, fished, and spent time outdoors with his father. They both realized how difficult it was for disabled youngsters to comfortably get into the woods. “When Scott took him turkey hunting as a kid, he came back researching ways to do it better,” Kathleen said. “We realized how hard it is for kids to navigate the outdoors in wheelchairs.” The foundation today provides grants to purchase adaptive equipment like crossbows, portable hunting blinds, fishing equipment, shooting sticks, and skiing equipment while also creating adaptive wheelchairs for families, individuals, and groups needing this equipment to host outdoor experiences for the disabled. The foundation has provided equipment in 14 different states and has helped countless families. “It’s been such a God thing, and His hand has been on all of it,” Phillips said. “Scott and Grayson really make things happen for kids. They go to shows and tell kids about what they offer. And they’ve made dreams come true for boys and girls.” Phillips said they hear heartwarming stories from families about a child finally being able to navigate mud puddles in the woods or getting to hunt and fish with a grandparent for the first time. The experience, she said, has been incredibly rewarding for all of them–and has reminded them of how God has directed their paths in so many ways. 

Through the foundation, the creativity of cooking and the work of the Magnolia Festival, the Phillips family sees God’s direction and understands the importance of bringing a community together. “When you see families sitting in lawn chairs or on quilts we spread across the field, it reminds me of how special the festival is,” Phillips said. “It’s a way for all of us to come together.”

-Cheryl Wray 

 

 

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Lysa Terkeurst with husband Adam

Cover Story

Best-selling Christian author Lysa TerKeurst is bringing her message of faith-led living to Samford University as part of its “Distinguished Author Series” on March 3, 2026. The appearance is one of many ways TerKeurst reaches out to Christians to encourage them through challenges and inspire them to lean into their purpose. She serves as the president and “chief visionary officer” of Proverbs 31 Ministries, a New York Times bestselling author of nonfiction books, and a sought-after speaker and retreat leader. Her books and ministry explore themes of resilience, forgiveness, and emotional well-being through a Biblically grounded framework. Those themes, TerKeurst says, have been explored in her own life and have helped form meaningful marriage, family, and relational experiences.

Lysa TerKeurst speaking
TerKeurst will speak at Samford University’s Tom and Marla Corts Distinguished Author Series on March 3, 2026 beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.

Her Birmingham Visit. TerKeurst’s appearance at Samford is sponsored by the University’s Orlean Beeson School of Education and is designed to connect audiences with stories that encourage reflection. The Distinguished Author Series is held in honor of Tom and Marla Corts and features authors of inspirational works; past speakers have included former First Lady Laura Bush, Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, and editor-in-chief of the Gospel Coalition Collin Hansen. One of the main goals of the author series is to cultivate meaningful dialogue among Christians and also to provide intellectual and spiritual formation. According to TerKeurst, she strives to foster such dialogues and conversations and looks forward to making attendees think deeply about such issues as peace, loneliness, failure, boundaries, forgiveness, and much more. “I love to talk about things such as boundaries, which I wrote about in my book Good Boundaries and Goodbyes. I like to challenge the way we tend to think about things,” she said. “We often think that having boundaries isn’t Christ-like, but boundaries are actually God’s idea. I like to talk about why boundaries are important and how to set boundaries in loving and kind ways. We don’t want to betray our desire to help people, but we also know that if we commit to too many things, we’re going to be stressed out,” she said. “The best of us, then, can’t be front and center. But there are practical ways to instigate boundaries in our lives.”

Have Place Retreat
Lysa regularly hosts gatherings at her retreat called “Haven Place.” The retreats are specifically for women who’ve had to deal with difficult things in their lives.

Inspiring Background & Ministry. TerKeurst’s Proverbs 31 Ministries began as a small newsletter in 1994. She became president of the ministry in 1995 and helped grow it into an organization that reaches millions of women daily with Biblical truth and wisdom. Her books–which include the New York Times bestsellers It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way, Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions, Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely (which was on the list for 31 weeks), Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands, and Surviving an Unwanted Divorce: A Biblical, Practical Guide to Letting Go and Moving Forward–are popular ones with readers around the world. According to TerKeurst, her love for writing began at a young age. “While others were cartwheeling and dancing, I was sitting on our hearth and reading poems,” she said, “and I’ve always been interested in writing.” Particularly meaningful, she said, is being able to take complicated ideas and “make them make sense” to readers or Bible class or retreat attendees. “As a Bible teacher, I really have a passion for taking Biblical truths and applying them to everyday life circumstances,” she said. She published her first book, Living Life on Purpose: Discovering God’s Best for Your Life, in 2000, and her upcoming release, called Making Peace with What I Can’t Control, is scheduled for release this fall. “My books all relate to how we think about things. It’s often not just the event or hardship we experience, but it’s the story we tell ourselves based on the things we’ve been through,” she explained. “We experience healing by developing a perspective that aligns more with God’s way of thinking.” She extends her writing and ministry work into retreats for women at her own home in N.C. Hosted at “Haven Place,” the retreats take place 8 to 10 times each year and are led by TerKeurst and two other speakers providing “amazing theological teaching and Biblical answers to relationship problems.” The gatherings are designed specifically for women who’ve had to deal with difficult things in their lives. TerKeurst said the retreats host a maximum of 50 women, and it helps her lean into her love of hospitality. “We have a retreat center on the property and small groups inside my home,” she said. “I love hospitality, and people feel welcome and safe. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Lysa TerKeurst cover image
TerKeurst’s books explore themes of resilience, forgiveness, and emotional well-being through a Biblically lense.

Family & Faith. TerKeurst lives outside Charlotte, N.C., with her husband Chaz Adams; her five grown children and eight grandchildren all live in the Charlotte area, and TerKeurst said they enjoy “spending lots of time together at home or on the beach enjoying some solace away from the pace of everyday life when we can.” On her website, she describes her family like this: “We are messy, crazy, sometimes dysfunctional, but always for each other. Fun is the name of the game. Loud is the way we roll. Real is what you’ll get. Love is what we give. And we’re so thankful to just be together.” TerKeurst and Adams married in 2024 after meeting on a dating app following her divorce from her first husband, Art TerKeurst, three years earlier. She’s open about her past marital struggles and her relationship with her new husband and large family, and they often appear on podcasts and events discussing the challenges and joys of life together. 

TerKeurst authored the book Surviving an Unwanted Divorce: A Biblical, Practical Guide to Letting Go and Moving Forward, co-authored with Dr. Joel Muddamalle and Jim Cress, in 2025 to offer guidance after her painful divorce. “The book is deeply personal and grew out of my own heartbreak and healing journey. I never thought I would write a book like this. But I also never thought I would face the death of my almost-30-year marriage,” she said. “Experiencing an unwanted divorce is so deeply complex, confusing, and heart-wrenching. And because I lived through the pain, the questions, and the late-night Google searching, I couldn’t stand the thought of others not having access to the Biblical wisdom and therapeutic insights they need to navigate everything they’re facing, both emotionally and spiritually.”

Lysa Terkeurst with husband Adam
Lysa TerKeurst married her husband Chaz Adams in 2024. He is a group broker and owner of CMA Insurance based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

At the heart of TerKeurst and Adams’ relationship is a mutual dependence on faith. They both became Christians later in life–she in her 20s and her husband just over a decade ago–and today they are involved in both church and ministry work. They are both supportive of the work of The Church of Eleven22, a multi-campus church based in Jacksonville, Fla. This church helped lead Adams to Christ. Adams often accompanies his wife to her speaking engagements. With such a busy life, the couple dedicates as much time as possible to family life–and TerKeurst is always eager to share what she’s learned in her decades as a mother and now a grandmother. She stresses that parenting is not for the weak; in fact, she admits that she’s still learning. “I’m sure I did plenty of things wrong as a parent, but one thing I did right was to keep them talking,” she recalled. “As long as the conversation between us continued, I knew that I would always have influence in their lives.” She believes in the powers of conversation and listening, and that parents should create a safe space for communicating with one another. “You need to listen, then pause before reacting,” TerKeurst said. “I told my children that I wanted to be a source of help for them in life. As long as they came to me in truth, those conversations stayed open.”

Today, she says she’s “incredibly grateful for family”- especially in their ability to stay together despite divorce and upheavals. “I was so worried after the divorce that some of the significant relationships of the family would diminish or become hard or strained,” she said. “While we walked through hardship, we made it through, and we’ve thrived.” Looking to her grown children, and now her grandchildren, TerKeurst reflected that mothering never stops. She’s grateful that she gets to spend time with her growing family on an almost daily basis. “No matter how grown your kids get, you’ll always want to protect them, cheer them on, and challenge their perspectives,” she said. “You want to teach them and also learn from them and kneel down to pray for them. Doing all of this together with them makes my life both challenging and sweet each and every day.” Such perspectives are what make TerKeurst so inspiring and encouraging to so many women.

-Cheryl Wray

 

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Ann Blair and Lulu

Cover Story

Birmingham’s Ann Blair Gribbin epitomizes a mother’s love in the way she’s cared for and advocated for her daughter Lulu after a terrifying shark attack in 2024 that left Lulu fighting for her life. Since the attack that made international news in June of 2024, the Gribbins have become fearless examples of resiliency and faith-in-action. Lulu was recently named Southern Living’s 2025 “Southerner of the Year” and was vital in the passing of Lulu’s Law, which provides a new shark attack alert system that is similar to an Amber Alert. She speaks regularly to groups of all ages, leads a foundation to advance lifesaving transformations for amputees, and is currently planning to compete in the 2028 Paralympic Games. Through the entire journey, Lulu’s mother Ann Blair says that faith has guided her Mountain Brook family and made it possible for her daughter to become a role model for so many.

Ellie and Lulu Gribbin
Lulu’s twin sister, Ellie, was at her side during the accident and heard someone yell, “Shark!” She was then the first person to tell their mother that Lulu had been attacked.

The Life-Changing Shark Attack. Lulu was one of three people injured on the afternoon of June 7, 2024, when a bull shark attacked her on a Walton County beach on the Florida Gulf Coast. She’d been enjoying time in the ocean with her twin sister, Ellie, and other friends who’d all come on a mother-daughter beach trip. Ann Blair was walking back from lunch at a nearby restaurant when she discovered Lulu in distress on the beach. While hunting for sand dollars in waist-deep waters, a shark bit Lulu’s hand and leg. She was rescued from the water by two individuals nearby and pulled to shore, where they quickly created a tourniquet and dressed her wounds. First responders arrived on the scene, and she was flown to a Pensacola hospital. When she first saw her daughter on the beach, Ann Blair began screaming. “She was lifeless, her eyes closed, mouth white and pale,” Gribbin wrote in an account on Lulu’s CaringBridge website at the time of her hospitalization. “The wound on her leg, or all that was left of her leg, was something out of a movie.” Ann Blair knows that God saved her daughter for a reason–and she credits those on the beach for saving her life. “God put people there on the beach to save her, and we are so grateful for that. Medically, she shouldn’t be alive.” Doctors in Pensacola made the quick decision to amputate Lulu’s right leg halfway up (from the knee to her hip). Lulu also lost a hand and two-thirds of the blood in her body. She had many lifesaving surgeries, and when she woke up, her first words were “I made it.” Once stabilized, Lulu relocated to Charlotte, N.C., where she gained access to cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) therapy and other rehabilitation treatments that allowed her to walk out of the hospital after only 77 days—a milestone that typically takes amputees a year or more to achieve—and returned home to Birmingham with a prosthetic arm and leg. In all, Lulu underwent nine different medical procedures. 

Gribbin Family
The entire Gribbin family is active at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Mountain Brook. As working parents, Ann Blair Gribbin provides employee benefit consulting and Dad Joe owns a medical billing company. Back row (left to right): Ann Blair and Joe Gribbin. Front row (left to right): Lulu, Maggie, Tripp, and Ellie.

Through it all, Ann Blair was by her daughter’s side. “We were in Pensacola for five days, and then in Charlotte, where we had hand doctors, specialists in surgery, etcetera, and were there for three months,” she remembers. “I’d stay in the hospital with her, and my husband Joe would come and bring the other kids.” Lulu herself had a hard time comprehending what she’d lost in the attack and subsequent surgeries. She described the sensation of her lost limbs in an interview with Southern Living by saying, “It’s like your arm is squeezing you and stinging you and poking you.” Looking back on the day of the initial attack, and all of the days of recovery afterwards, Ann Blair reflects in a way that’s both honest and inspiring. “Obviously, it was a terrible accident and nothing you want your kids to go through,” she says. “Of course, we [Ann Blair and husband Joe] cried together, but we didn’t want her to see that. We kept that away from her and tried to be positive.” Her message to her daughter has always been one of positivity. “I tell her, having one arm and one leg doesn’t define you,” Ann Blair says. “She looks different, but her mind is still there. And she has a really good attitude. She’s just trying to get better, and she knows she shouldn’t be here. She’s very thankful.” Lulu’s currently receiving physical therapy at Children’s Hospital while also staying in contact with her doctors in Charlotte. They’re also slowly adjusting to a “normal” life in Mountain Brook, where the Gribbin family attends St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and where Lulu and Ellie are juniors at Mountain Brook High School. Younger sister Maggie is in the 7th grade at Mountain Brook Junior High, and brother Tripp is in the 5th grade at Mountain Brook Elementary. 

Lulu Gribbin
In her presentations about her journey, Lulu Gribbin focuses on such attitudes as thankfulness, resilience, and optimism and stresses that those traits relate to everyone’s lives.

Making a Difference. Lulu’s new normal is filled with a mixture of everyday teenage experiences and activities to help make a difference in the lives of others. She returned to school four months after the attack (with a combination of in-person and online studies) while also navigating recovery. She’s also exploring athletic opportunities. “She’s learning how to run again, and she has some lofty goals of being in the Paralympics in 2028,” explains Ann Blair. “She and her twin sister are both very athletic, and Lulu’s always been the most competitive. She has a competitive spirit, and she’s determined to succeed. I’m not surprised by that at all.” She’s also begun speaking to groups about her experience. “She recently did a speech at the local middle school, and everyone says she’s so inspiring. It was her first time really talking to her peers,” she says.Lulu and the Gribbin family have also been strongly involved in the formation of Lulu Strong, an organization that fights for research, awareness, and various issues related to the needs of people with prosthetics. Their experience in Charlotte built an appreciation for the work in prosthetics and the future possibilities in the community. “In Charlotte, they were working on virtual reality technology to help with phantom limb pain in legs,” Ann Blair says. “The body still thinks your legs are there, and our first goal for the foundation is to raise money for VR technology for legs.” Ann Blair says that Lulu’s experience was an anomaly; she was fitted for prosthetics immediately, but many people have to wait for six months to a year. “We’re trying to make life for amputees more easily accessible, and funds are needed for that,” she says. You can find more information on the foundation’s work at www.lulustrong.com.

Lulu and Ann Blair Gribbin
Ann Blair shares that her daughter is busy making plans for the future. She’s discovered a love for public speaking and is exploring various Paralympic sports at the Lakeshore Foundation, which is just five miles from her home. “The facility is so cool, and it will help her determine which sport fits her best.” Lulu already has experience in school and travel volleyball and knows she wants to compete on the parathletic golf circuit.

The family was also involved in making Lulu’s Law a reality. The law, which is already in effect in Ala., has passed in the U.S. Senate and is being considered in the House. The law creates a system of communication that lowers the amount of time that sheriffs put up warning flags (which may have prevented Lulu’s attack if the family had been notified that another beachgoer had been attacked an hour earlier in the same area). With the law, notifications go to phones located in the “danger zone.”

Hope for the Future. Looking back over their two year journey, Ann Blair knows that God can take a difficult situation and create blessings from it. While the attack was a nightmare no mother wants for their child, Ann Blair credits her daughter’s strength–and God’s faithfulness–for creating an opportunity for the tragedy to make a difference in other people’s lives. “I think Lulu’s leaned a lot on her faith and she’s been trying to lean into her purpose,” Ann Blair says, adding, “She’s seen so many people who were worse…people with brain injuries and more serious injuries. It’s given her a special perspective. God saved her for a reason, and we know that.”

-Cheryl Wray

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Jamie Warren with son Joel

Cover Story

Jamie Warren has made a career getting and keeping people in shape on their health and fitness journeys. The CEO of Birmingham’s Iron Tribe Fitness runs a business that has a model that treats those customers like important individuals and close friends. Ultimately, that philosophy–and Iron Tribe’s success–stems from Warren’s Christian faith. “As Christians, we are called to steward our bodies and that’s what we do in our business. But, more than that, we’re loving on people,” Warren said. “We speak the love of Christ, whatever their background is. And we’re always cheering them on.”

Jamie Warren
Warren considers his job a ministry. He says the fitness industry gives him the opportunity to help people be known and seen as well as create relationships that make people feel valued. Photo: Lauren Reid

God’s Guiding Hand. According to Warren, God’s fingerprints have been “all over” his journey. Things that some people might call coincidences led Warren to his career with Iron Tribe. He first met the founder and former CEO of Iron Tribe Fitness in a small group Bible study at The Church at Brook Hills in the late 1990s. Forrest Walden and his wife Mendy became friends with the Warrens through church and a shared interest in fitness. “Forrest was my fitness friend. He was in great shape, and I looked up to him,” Warren said. “We had them over for dinner, and he wandered into my office and noticed the books on my shelf. We discovered that we read the same things, and that was sort of the start of a deeper connection.” Warren became a client at Fitness Together (an early one-on-one training concept developed by Walden). Warren and Walden continued to attend church together, built a friendship, and then saw Walden go through what he called a “crisis of belief” stemming from a sermon from their pastor at the time, David Platt. “David asked us, ‘Are we really going to make our lives count?’ We had this idea that we needed to connect Kingdom work with what we were doing with our vocations,” Warren recalled.

Jamie Warren and Forrest Walden
Jamie Warren with founder and former CEO of Iron Tribe, Forrest Walden. Both reside in Birmingham and have been fitness friends for more than 25 years.

One of the results of that eye-opening revelation was for Walden to bring “Never Thirst” (a clean water ministry alongside the Gospel) to unreached parts of the world. Walden invited Warren to take part in a Never Thirst trip to India as a still photographer. It was there that Warren first fell in love with the Iron Tribe concept. “I saw Forrest working out at the end of the hotel hall. He was running up and down stairs, doing burpees, and I worked out with him. I got destroyed,” he laughed. “But I joined a group of 12 people who worked out together in Homewood. It was eye-opening.” Walden brought the idea of Iron Tribe–a gym that has a limited membership per location, and focused on individualized attention–to their workout group, and Warren, who had already made a silent investment in a gym in Nashville, convinced investors in that deal to switch to an Iron Tribe franchise. Warren sold his prior business (a boutique marketing agency) in 2014 and worked full-time as a franchise owner in Nashville with four Iron Tribe locations. When Walden was ready to retire, Warren purchased the business, and he now owns the brand, the franchise company, and four individual gyms in Birmingham.

Jamie Warren with son Joel
Jamie Warren is seen here working out with son Joel at one of Iron Tribe’s Birmingham locations. Warren shares, “Fitness is certainly a family affair!” Photo: Mandy Cox

Today, the Iron Tribe name remains synonymous with a personal touch–something that Warren said is extremely important and yet rare in the fitness world. He said that the typical image of a gym is one with thousands of members and a sea of machines–but it’s a place where many members don’t even show up to work out. “We never have more than 300 members, because we want everyone to show up all the time,” Warren said. “At Iron Tribe, you have a personal relationship with your coach, and you get to know everyone who is in your classes. Because of those relationships, you show up three or four times a week, and you’re excited to be there. You’re doing things you never thought possible, getting stronger, and having fun,” he said, adding, “When you do that, there’s a bond. People in the gym become fast friends.”

Jamie Warren with team working out
Jamie Warren compares his job as Iron Tribe CEO as similar to a college football coach. “My job is to create the environment where we can be supportive to get the best team possible so we can win championships, which means having success, meeting goals, and changing lives.” Photo: Dave Clarke

A Business & Family Built on Faith. Faith drives all of the decisions made in both Warren’s personal and professional life. He often turns to Psalm 67:1-2 for direction. “That verse asks God to bless us, to make His face shine upon so, so that His name shall be known among nations,” he said. “Our philosophy is that a faith foundation changes everything. Because we want to be open to and help as many people as possible in our business, it attracts a certain kind of people.” Iron Tribe, he said, is focused on people and operates by the core values of compassion, teamwork, integrity, and service. “That creates a gym experience that’s going to be different than so many others,” he said. “They stay with us because they get results, but also because they feel loved and seen. If we can show the love of Christ to people and treat them in a certain way, they’ll get fitness results but will also have their lives changed because of how they’re treated.” Warren’s personal and family life is built on a similar faith-filled foundation. He and his wife, Julie, were both raised in the church by Christian parents, and while attending college together, they began to grow in their faith. They soon learned that being a Christian was more than just adhering to a religion; it was about having a real relationship with Christ. Then, when they married and began their family journey, they experienced challenges that taught them even more about their faith. As parents of a special-needs child and as career-driven individuals with plenty of professional challenges, the road wasn’t always easy–but it has, Warren said, always been guided by grace. “Our marriage hasn’t always been easy, but we are walking pictures of God’s grace and faithfulness,” Warren said. “Having a child with special needs and also being an entrepreneur for 20 years and all the chaos that comes with that…it can be challenging.” Warren said that he and Julie have always had as their goals to raise their sons in a Christ-like environment and to live all aspects of their lives as God would desire them to. “Our marriage is centered in Christ, and we have always tried to raise our children into Godly men. That’s the whole goal,” he said. “I want to run and lead a business and home that honors God.”

Warren Family
Warren said he never truly understood grace until he became a husband and a father, and then a business owner. He had to learn to trust God with big decisions and believe what God says. He and his wife Julie have three sons: Jackson (22), Jonathan (20), and Joel (16). Photo: Betsy Bender Photography

A Love for Birmingham. Warren was born in Montgomery but moved to Birmingham when he was just 4 years old (when his father moved out of work with the Air Force National Guard and took a job in the Magic City). He was raised in Vestavia, graduated from Vestavia High School, met his wife at Furman University, and then moved back to Birmingham in 1997. They’ve been here ever since, raising their family and building his career. “I’m still up in Nashville multiple times a month and visiting gyms,” he said. “In Birmingham, I move around a lot and work out in a different gym in town every day. We have a fantastic team in Birmingham.” He and Julie have been married for 28 years, and they have three sons: Jackson, 22; Jonathan, 20; and Joel, 16, a student at Homewood High School. After being members at The Church at Brook Hills for many years, they moved in 2017 to Haven Field (a church plant of Dawson Baptist Church). They’re involved in a variety of ministries and call the church “the kind of place we needed to be for our family.” As for the future? Warren said he plans to continue to act in obedience to God’s call on his life and in his business. He encourages individuals to do the same in 2026–whether in their family life, spiritual life, or fitness life. “At the beginning of the year, a lot of people are thinking about setting goals and making changes,” he said. “One thing I learned from Forrest is that the most important thing when you’re doing that is to think and pray about it. Don’t make changes for superficial reasons. Ask yourself: what’s the real reason I want to do this? It’s important to have a compelling reason to change or set goals. Then, you can stick with it.” Acting in obedience to God’s call will ultimately make things happen. That’s where Warren believes his success has come from. “Iron Tribe is here because of an obedience to look at it as God’s business,” he said. “Out of obedience came a special brand that God has uniquely prepared for me over the decades. I own the business now, but it’s a stewardship model. We’re here only because God has given us the opportunity.”

-Cheryl Wray

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Anna and Tyler in kitchen

Cover Story

Christmastime is the busiest social season of the year, filled with family gatherings and work and social get-togethers. While the social obligations during December are some of the most exciting parts of the holiday season, they also provide Christians with the unique opportunity to model Christ’s love and care for others. Birmingham’s Tyler and Anna Nash want to encourage Christians to be more hospitable this holiday season and all year long. As former owners of a popular area coffee shop and the authors of a brand new book on hospitality, the Nashes are uniquely qualified to inspire families to welcome people with a warm holiday spirit.

Anna and Tyler in kitchen holding coffee cups
Customers at Innova Coffee treasured the way Anna and Tyler included a special treat with each cup of coffee. They’d receive a small, delicious shortbread cookie on each saucer; those cookies are still beloved in the Nash family, and the recipe for them is included in Refreshing Hospitality. Find a sweet recipe from the book here.

A Christ-Like Example of Hospitality. Tyler and Anna are the former owners of Innova Coffee, a shop and cafe in the 4700 Colonnade apartment complex that operated until 2023, and the authors of the newly released Refreshing Hospitality: The Art of Welcoming. Their role as coffee shop owners, along with years of hosting people in business situations and at home, has inspired them to discuss hospitality beginning with the origin of the word. “Hospitality” comes from the root word that also led to such terms as “hospital,” “hospice,” and “hostel.” “These are places where someone receives care,” Anna said, adding, “In this time and season, the word has become about entertaining, but its original meaning was about how you personally take care of someone. It’s about offering and extending care and making someone feel seen and connected.” In their vision of hospitality, it’s about a place or a situation where “someone belongs no matter who they are.” According to Anna, this is something modeled by Jesus during his earthly life. “It’s so interesting to see how many times Jesus loved, encouraged, welcomed, and accepted people around the table,” she said. “Whether it was feeding the 5000 or sitting at the Last Supper, there are countless stories of His own hospitality. Jesus made everyone feel welcome, and then attended to their needs in social and relational ways–and, as a result, fulfilled a spiritual need.” She said that she and her husband have been struck by that message on a personal level, as they realized that Christ welcomed them unconditionally and offered rest and freedom. “He invites all of us to come on in just as we are, and rest and unload. And then He invites us to be free. That’s what He does on a spiritual level,” she explained. “He’s done that for us, so that’s the model for healing and connection that we follow.” When they first opened Innova, in fact, they named the coffee shop after a Latin word that meant “renewal and refreshment.” They wanted to welcome people in a way that fed their souls and modeled the rest you can find in Christ. According to Tyler, that’s the goal of showing hospitality inside your home as well. “It may involve work to have someone over, but it’s not a burden,” he said. ‘If they come here and are refreshed, then I am refreshed as well.” Anna adds, “It’s just like it says in Proverbs 11:25- those who refresh others will be refreshed themselves.”

Nash family old Christmas photo
One of the family’s favorite traditions when the children were young was eating out on Christmas Eve and gifting their server with a crisp $100 bill. Another tradition was driving around town while listening to Christmas music and viewing Christmas lights in order to hand deliver gifts to people in their lives. “We’d load up a laundry basket full of gifts and take them to people, instead of waiting for them to come to us,” Anna said.

Hospitable Backgrounds. Tyler and Anna both grew up in Birmingham, attended Briarwood Christian School, married soon after high school and raised four children in the Birmingham area. They live in Anna’s childhood home in Vestavia Hills. Her home was one where everyone was welcomed; her mother always had the back door open for unexpected visitors and always had sandwiches or cookies available. Tyler grew up with parents who often held cocktail parties and church gatherings, and then he began a lucrative career in sales. His professional life often took him to fancy restaurants, resorts, and private clubs. Both Tyler and Anna understood hospitality–even if they looked a bit different. “His background was an appreciation of things done exquisitely well, while mine was more of a ‘oh my goodness, here comes someone and let’s see what we have in the refrigerator.’ But we both understood its importance,” she said. Tyler fully understood his passion for caring for others after losing his industrial sales job and resorting to a job at a coffee shop alongside teenagers. “When I went to work there, I was so ashamed. I was 50 and working hourly at a coffee shop,” he said. “I had my pride, and I had to pull off my mask and become vulnerable. It ended up being a gift from God.” In that situation, he discovered that he loved taking care of people. He thrived in the actions of preparing comfortable spaces for customers and realized that his actions could show others that they were important. And in doing for others, he became more comfortable in himself. “God took away a lot of my insecurities and fear, as well as my desire to impress people,” he said. “God took a lot of that away during that time. And it made me free to want to help people.” Tyler and Anna eventually opened their own coffee shop, where they continued that philosophy.

Nash family current photo
The Nash’s oldest son and his wife are missionaries in Bangkok, and come back home to the States every other holiday season. When they do, Tyler and Anna say that their home–with four children, spouses, and 10 grandchildren (with one on the way)–is filled with energy and love.

Release of Refreshing Hospitality. After closing Innova, they often heard from former customers about recipes for some of their signature items, including Conecuh sausage biscuits and shortbread cookies. Anna felt called to share some of those recipes, as well as their insights about hospitality, in a book. The project evolved into a personal collection of stories, reflections, and advice. “It went from just being recipes to being 60 short stories around our perspectives on hospitality,” she said. “The stories came from the shop, our home and family, and just where we’ve been out and about in the world and have experienced hospitality.” Each story in the book is paired with recipes, tips and tricks, creative ideas, and reflective questions about hospitality. Anna said that she prayed along the way for guidance and was pleasantly surprised when she began receiving what she calls “divine downloads.” She’d think of stories, take notes whenever she was inspired, and they resulted in Refreshing Hospitality.  The book is a beautiful coffee-table style book with both Tyler and Anna’s perspectives, and they are debuting it through special events at local restaurants and stores, and special gatherings and “experiences” in their home. Check out the book’s website, www.refreshinghospitality.com, for more information.

Anna and Tyler on patio
Tyler and Anna wanted to present a realistic view of hospitality in their book. They said that their house isn’t perfect, their countertops are from the 1980s, and there are kids toys in the background of photos.

Practicing Hospitality. The Nashes encourage fellow Christians to use the Christmas season as an opportunity to welcome others, realizing that their hospitality may be the only light those others experience. They often held Christmas parties at their coffee shop, recognizing that some customers might not have other places to celebrate. They like to remind people, however, that you don’t have to be a perfect hostess to show hospitality at Christmastime. Don’t let the fear of inadequacy keep you from hosting during the holidays. Ultimately, the Nashes say that the holidays are a time to make others’ lives less stressful, more restful, and more meaningful. “During this busy season, ask yourself: how can we bring a night of respite to people? Even in your own family, how can you take the burden of holiday planning away from a spouse or children, or even friends?” Tyler said. “How can we provide a gathering that’s as stress-free as possible?” In all their endeavors, the Nashes want to remind Christians that hospitality is a very real way to live out their faith. “Jesus showed hospitality in his own life,” Anna said. “He made people feel seen and welcomed.”

-Cheryl Wray

Hear from author Anna Nash about collaborating with her husband on her latest book Refreshing Hospitality plus a look at the passion behind her other writings that include a children’s book, a Christmas devotional and Bible studies.

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Sheldon Haygood Cover Image Hgher Res Sideline Solo IMG 9473 (2)

Cover Story

The enthusiastic shout of “Sideline!” is one that so many of us equate with WBRC-TV’s Sheldon Haygood, co-anchor and sideline reporter of the longstanding and ever popular “Sideline” Friday night high school football show. Behind all that enthusiasm, Haygood struggled with major health issues that attempted to sideline his 30 plus sports and news career at WBRC. As a prostate cancer survivor and someone who lives with Crohn’s Disease, Haygood proudly shares how his faith has given him strength and wants others to know God can and will help you through difficult days. “During it all, I knew that God would take care of me,” he said.

Sheldon Haygood and JehJeh Pruitt at anchor desk
You’ll find Sheldon Haygood at the anchor desk with Jeh Jeh Pruitt and on the sidelines as part of WBRC-TV’s longstanding high school football show “Sideline.”
Sheldon Haygood on sideline with cheerleaders
He has been a part of “Sideline” since joining the station over 30 years ago.

A Beloved Birmingham Fixture. Haygood has been with WBRC since 1994. He began as a sports reporter and later transitioned into his role of sports weekend anchor at the station. In 2019, he moved to the news side of things appearing on the “Good Day Alabama” show, serving as anchor for WBRC 6 “News at Noon,” and working as co-host of Friday night’s “Sideline.” His early interest in sports came in Texas, where he played high school football and then majored in journalism at Southwest Texas State University. He first tried radio, but soon interned at a television station in San Antonio, landed a sports reporter position in Midland and became sports director at a station in Lubbock. His move to Alabama first took him to WHOA (now WNCF-TV) in Montgomery, and then to Birmingham, where he’s been ever since. Growing up in a military family that moved often, Haygood said that the stability of working in the same marketplace for many years has been especially important to him. “It’s quite rare that you find someone who’s worked in the same market for as many years as I have,” he said. “I consider myself very lucky in that situation.” He and his wife, Shelby, have raised all their children in the Birmingham area and love calling it home. 

Health Battles & Triumphs. Haygood’s life and career shifted gears in 2019, when two medical diagnoses drastically changed things. “Right before Covid, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and had also recently been diagnosed with Crohn’s,” he recalls. “I lost 50 pounds in two weeks, and it took me about six to nine months to get that weight back. Today, my cancer is gone, and Crohn’s continues to be difficult.” His Crohn’s diagnosis came first, when he first felt that something was wrong the day before Thanksgiving. “I was supposed to travel out of town but needed to rest. I didn’t have an appetite that night and then had an ulcer in my mouth. I couldn’t get anything to eat down,” Haygood said. “Eventually they got me in to see a gastroenterologist and he immediately told me, ‘You’re going into the hospital right now.’” His health struggles with Crohn’s (a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that affects all parts of the gastrointestinal tract and causes inflammation, ulcers, and other symptoms and complications) resulted in changes at the station, where he began moving from the sports side to the news side of work.

Sheldon in hospital bed
Sheldon’s health battles began right before the Covid pandemic hit, and he considers himself blessed to have been able to have surgery two weeks before the country shut down. “Thank goodness I was able to get in and out,” he said.

Haygood’s prostate cancer diagnosis came after he went for his yearly exam; the doctors told him that his numbers were elevated, and they sent him to a specialist who screened him but found nothing positive. “They told me to come back in six months, which I wasn’t too excited about, so I avoided it and skipped it for a year,” he said. “I didn’t want to deal with that.” He was convicted to go back for a checkup after an experience interviewing Hatton Smith, the CEO Emeritus of Birmingham’s Royal Cup Coffee and a prostate cancer survivor. “As I was making the transition to news and doing longer stories for our website, I worked on a project for Cancer Awareness Month,” he said. “I was writing a story on Hatton, and he literally got in my face and said, ‘You need to do this.’ So, I went back and my numbers were elevated even more. They took samples and told me I had prostate cancer.” His experience has led Haygood to promote prostate cancer screening. “I want people to know that they need to get screened,” he said. Haygood looked to his faith throughout both journeys–and said that he went straight to God when he heard the cancer news. “I gave the cancer to God, and I knew he would take care of it,” he said. He continues to struggle with the issues caused by Crohn’s, and said it’s “harder to handle than the cancer.” According to Haygood, there are good days and bad days. He said that one of the greatest blessings throughout his health struggles was the way WBRC supported him. He was out of work for two different six-week periods, but the company was extremely understanding. His bosses even found a way to change his work schedule to make it more conducive to his lifestyle. “When I came back, I stopped doing sports. [Covid shutdowns also affected sports coverage.] They found a new place for me,” he said. “I would never have thought that a TV station would be like this, but everyone from the general manager to colleagues were spectacular. They put me in this position, and it’s been fantastic.” The work change was an unexpected blessing, as Haygood also considered his age and future. “If I’d been in my 30s, I would have found it harder. But in my 50s, this lets me sustain my career. And at my age, I have more maturity in covering news,” he said, adding “the Sideline show allows me to stay in sports some of the time.” He also has the added advantage of spending more time with his family. “For the main part of my career, I worked every weekend in sports,” he said. “Now I’m off on Saturdays and Sundays, and my wife is stuck with me,” he chuckles.

Haygood family
Sheldon Haygood and his wife Shelby have four biological children and two adopted children. Their two adopted children joined the family through the foster system 13 years ago, and Shelby continues to support the foster system as co-chair of Hope Community Church’s Kid Camp program, a free summer program for children ages 6-11 in the foster system.

Importance of Church & Community. Haygood and his family are active members of Hope Community Church (formerly Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church) in Gardendale; Shelby has taught kindergarten at the church’s school for decades, and all of their children were baptized and grew up in the church. According to Haygood, though, he finally fully understood his church’s compassion and the importance of a faith community when it showed up for him during his health battles. “God showed up so many times, but especially through our church family,” he said. “When I wasn’t working, our church family rallied behind us both financially and biblically. I knew before that I really ‘liked’ the church and enjoyed everyone there, but I learned to really love our church during this time.” The family’s faith evolved from Shelby’s insistence that they find a church home after they married in 1993. She’d grown up in church and had a relationship with the Lord, but Sheldon didn’t attend church regularly when they met. “She said to me, ‘If you’re going to have a relationship with me, you’re going to have a relationship with God.’ She took me to church and her family loved on me,” he recalled. They started looking for a church as soon as they moved to the Fultondale/Gardendale area and were struck by the friendliness of the members at Mt. Vernon. Shelby ended up teaching kindergarten at the church’s school, and he said that her influence has been immeasurable–both to their own children, and to the hundreds she’s taught over the years. “Everywhere we go, it’s ‘Miss Shelby this, and Miss Shelby that.’ In Gardendale, I’m her husband and she’s the star,” Haygood said. “To see how people react to her, and to know that now she’s teaching the kids of students she had years ago. She’s had a wonderful impact on so many people.”

She and Sheldon are parents of six children of their own–four biological adult children (Hannah, Harper, Harrison, and Hayes) and two sons adopted through the foster system (Austin and Steven, who are in 10th and 8th grade). Looking back, Haygood credits his wife for her conviction that foster parenting was something they should do. “We wanted to help and foster so many children, and when we found out that the system was thinking of separating Austin and Steven, it made us stop and take steps to adopt them,” Haygood said. “Shelby believed so deeply in fostering, and we believed that it’s what the Word asked us to do.”

What’s Next. Haygood said that he plans on staying at his job “as long as they want me,” but he also looks forward to the day when he can spend more time with his wife. “I really want to devote my time to her. She’s been through everything with me, and she’s been my strength in so many ways,” he said. In the meantime, he plans on continuing to encourage others who are going through hard times. “Being on TV isn’t what makes you special. I’m just a guy who’s gone through things and happens to work on TV,” Haygood said. “What makes you special is how you persevere, and I’m inspired by all the people who persevere every day.”

-Cheryl Wray

Watch the video below to hear more from Sheldon about his faith, passion for fostering children, and all things Sideline!

 

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