1 of 2

Photo by Erin Nelson.
Paige Marshlar, a phlebotomy technician with the Red Cross, prepares to remove the needle from Mike Bagby’s arm during a blood drive held at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church on Sept. 2.
2 of 2

Photo courtesy of Butch Williams.
VHUMC’s Family Ministries Administrator, Alice Bell Baker, and Assistant Director of Student Ministries, Kenzie Butler, help deliver meals to teachers at Pizitz Middle School.
When volunteers with Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church showed up earlier this spring at Brookwood Baptist Hospital and said they wanted to feed all employees of the hospital, the hospital’s marketing director, Natalie Fleming, said she didn’t think they knew what they were getting into.
Typically, some employees get left out, she said. But over an eight-week period, the church delivered more than 1,300 meals to the hospital, with “pretty much everybody” on staff receiving a meal, Fleming said.
“Absolutely a godsend,” Fleming said of the church’s efforts. “For someone like a church ... to feed that many people, it was amazing.”
The church delivered thousands of meals to various organizations all over the area and carried out various ministries to help the Vestavia Hills and greater Birmingham community during the pandemic.
Don Lupo with the city of Birmingham helped coordinate the church bringing meals for the many homeless people in the city, and said it isn’t new for the church, which has done that for years.
“We couldn’t do it without the faith-based community,” Lupo said. “We couldn’t do it without Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church.”
Lupo emphasized the role the church, and all churches, have played during the pandemic, as they have stepped up to help people all over the area during this unprecedented time.
Pizitz Middle School Principal Chris Pennington said the church’s student ministry delivering meals to all 130 teachers at the school was a “big morale boost.”
“It makes them feel appreciated,” Pennington said.
Bill Brunson, senior pastor at VHUMC, said he told his staff that early Christians in the Roman Empire were known for caring for the church and others “without concern.”
“They took people in that no one else would take in,” Brunson said.
When the pandemic first began, church staff members had just gotten back from a pilgrimage to Israel, while others had gone to Costa Rica. They came back and began preparing for in-person Holy Week services that ended up being moved online.
“It still all seemed overwhelming and we felt completely disconnected from our congregation,” Brunson said. “We didn’t know what ministry looked like.”
The church held diaper drives, took food to various organizations, sent funding to Costa Rica to help churches there stay viable, created fidget mats: a sensory mat to aid those with cognitive issues, as well as continued their car ministry.
But one of the largest ministries the church started was a help line, with signs lining roads all across the city. The premise was simple: if someone called and was in need, and the church could meet that need, they would.
Brunson said if they couldn’t help, they found someone who could. The church received about 100 calls along the way, many of which were people with needs related to food. Elderly residents were “terrified to leave the house,” Brunson said.
The church also continued to collect items for their food pantry, which benefits those in the community.
That work, Brunson said, allowed the church to connect with new partners in ministry. The number of new ministry partnerships has tripled with the pandemic, Brunson said.
To help keep the community safe, the church also provided t-shirts to be transformed into masks, while other members sewed masks for the community. The church also held a blood drive to benefit the American Red Cross.
The church, like many others, had to shift to online services, and had to learn to do online Bible study as well, Brunson said.
“We would love to be doing in-person [services] right now,” Brunson said. “It opened a door for us to be able to connect with our community in a different way.”
Brunson said going through the pandemic and having to work remotely has reinforced a well-known truth.
“The church is not about the building,” Brunson said. “It’s about the people...connecting people to Christ.”
Through all of the church’s ministries, many of which are still ongoing, Brunson said it wasn’t anything out of character for the church. Ministries like the help line allowed them to be who they are, he said.
“I felt like it was the church being who we are supposed to be as the church,” Brunson said. “It’s just an honor.”