Barbecue Baptist Church Delivers Meals, A Message and a Little Levity amid Pandemic

(RNS) — Before the barbecue trailer, there was the toilet paper popemobile.

With toilet paper hard to come by as stay-at-home orders took effect in many states earlier this year to flatten the curve of the coronavirus, Chad McMillan put the pastor of First Baptist Church of Navasota, Texas, on a trailer surrounded by plexiglass, “like the popemobile,” he said. He handed the pastor a T-shirt gun loaded with toilet paper, each roll wrapped with a Bible verse.

“And I said, ‘I want you to shoot toilet paper rolls to bless the community,’” said McMillan, the church’s pastor of students, evangelism and missions.

The toilet paper distribution went so well, he added a pulpit, sound system and piano so he could hold pop-up worship services while flinging the TP.

McMillan joked about adding a barbecue pit, too.

Then he did — and Barbecue Baptist Church was born.

Barbecue Baptist Church, an outreach of First Baptist, aims to bring a warm meal, a little levity and a reminder that people care to its community and beyond.

The church borrowed a catering trailer from a member and made an announcement on the local news in April: “Anybody who invites us to come, we will come to your house, and we will do a short worship service and give you a free barbecue meal,” McMillan said.

“People were staying in their homes, churches weren’t meeting and it was a real need people had,”…