Having grown up at First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Chattanooga, Shelby felt the Lord’s call to enter the ministry. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in trumpet performance, after which he graduated from Columbia Biblical Seminary in South Carolina. It was at Lexington Presbyterian Church in South Carolina that he met his wife Colleen, and they married in 2001.

Rev. Shelby Zahnd Moon, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Alamogordo, New Mexico, passed away on August 28, 2025. He had been battling leukemia since 2018 and had a bone marrow transplant over two years ago. The Lord answered prayers and granted Shelby more years and months. He even survived a deadly fungi infection in his brain in 2018, for which doctors at the time said there was nothing they could do. Shelby desired more years with his family, but like all of us, our brother’s days were in the Lord’s hands (Psalm 139:16).

Shelby Zahnd Moon was born on June 24, 1973, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to William Deaderick Moon, Jr. (1925–2022) and Martha Ann (Zahnd) Moon (1933–1999). Named after Isaac Shelby—the American military officer, first governor of Kentucky, and Presbyterian ruling elder—Shelby Moon came from strong Southern stock. His father William was a World War II veteran and an accomplished lawyer that was descended from five generations of lawyers on both his father’s and mother’s sides—including William’s grandfather, Tennessee Congressman John Austin Moon (d. 1921), and William’s great-grandfather, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice James William Deaderick (d. 1890). Shelby’s great-great-grandfather, Joseph Chappell Hutcheson (d. 1924), served under Stonewall Jackson and later served as a U. S. Congressman from Texas. Hutcheson’s daughter, Stella Hutcheson (sister of Shelby’s great-grandmother), married R. L. Dabney’s son (Judge Lewis Meriwether Dabney).[1]

Yet Shelby decided to go in a different direction than law. Having grown up at First Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Chattanooga, Shelby felt the Lord’s call to enter the ministry. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in trumpet performance, after which he graduated from Columbia Biblical Seminary in South Carolina. It was at Lexington Presbyterian Church in South Carolina that he met his wife Colleen, and they married in 2001. Shelby had served as the interim music director there and then spent five years as the youth director at King’s Tree Presbyterian Church (PCA) in South Carolina. In 2012, he was called as the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where he continued to minister while battling cancer for the past seven years.

He is survived by his wife Colleen and their 10 children: Isaac, Julia, Anderson, Elias, Silas, Charlotte, Joseph, Orianna, Penelope, and Oakley. He is also survived by his brothers John Deaderick Moon and Shannon Gamble Moon, while being pre-deceased by his parents and his sister, Mary Hutcheson Moon. (All three of Shelby’s siblings were children of William’s first wife.)

Shelby was a faithful husband, father, minister, and friend. Having trusted Christ to the end, Shelby continues to experience God’s fatherly compassion and eternal love:

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass… But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. (Psalm 103:13-17)

It is Shelby’s great joy to enter the presence of Christ, but he will be missed dearly by the ones he leaves behind. We do not understand the ways of the Lord—“devout men are taken away, while no one understands” (Isaiah 57:1). But we do know the Lord’s teaching that “pure and undefiled religion” in His sight is “to visit orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27).

Shelby Moon leaves behind a wife and 10 children, ranging from 8 to 22 in age. Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church (PCA) has established the Shelby Moon Memorial Fund, which will provide assistance to both Shelby’s family and church. All gifts are tax-deductible since the memorial fund is part of a 501(3)(c). If you would like to donate, please make checks out to “Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church” and write “Shelby Moon Memorial Fund” on the memo line. And mail the checks to: Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church, 333 Bryce Ave, White Rock, NM 87547.

If you would like to send flowers or notes to the family, you can send them to Shelby’s church, Westminster Presbyterian Church (2201 15th Street, Alamogordo, NM 88310). Shelby’s body will be buried in Chattanooga, Tennessee, alongside his ancestors, while a memorial service will be held at Bethel Baptist Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico (1316 N Scenic Dr) at 10:30 am on Saturday, September 6, 2025.

Zachary Garris serves as pastor of Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church (PCA) in White Rock, New Mexico.

[1] Shelby Moon was son of William Deaderick Moon, Jr., son of Elizabeth Love (Chapin) Moon, daughter of Elizabeth (Hutcheson) Chapin, whose sister was Stella (Hutcheson) Dabney (1872–1946).