Shane Stidham said when his church — Fulton Bridge Baptist in Hamilton — decided to hold a monthly food distribution, he thought it was a great idea.
But he had no idea how it would affect his congregation.
“We assume everyone has food because we don’t go without,” said Stidham, who serves as pastor. “It was really convicting — the first one we did, we saw that a lot of our community did need food.”
The idea for the distribution came from Jason McCollum, a member of the community who approached Stidham through Facebook and offered to fund it if the church would facilitate it.
“God gave him a vision to start a food distribution in Hamilton,” Stidham said.
The church said yes, became an agency for the West Alabama Food Bank, and now each month they give out about 170 boxes of food — more than 10,000 pounds — to qualifying individuals. Sometimes people begin lining up three hours before they start.
‘Love God, love people’
“When you see it, when you do it, it really affects you,” Stidham said.
He said it’s also pulled his church into an even greater sense of unity as they serve. When Stidham became pastor of Fulton Bridge Baptist nearly three years ago, the church had about 60 people, and now they run between 250 and 300 on Sundays. The church will build a new sanctuary next summer.
“We kind of had an old Fulton Bridge and a new Fulton Bridge,” he said. “This is one of the ways we’ve broken that and really become one church; it’s brought everybody together.”
Stidham said his church has loved the opportunity that the food distribution has brought.
“They go after the community; they serve, love God, love people and make disciples,” he said.
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