By Lauren Heartsill Dowdle/For the Reporter

MONTEVALLO – Members of Montevallo First Baptist Church (MFBC) are spreading God’s word around the county, one Bible at a time. Every Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m., a group of three church members heads out into the community to give out New Testament Bibles and pamphlets about MFBC.

Unlike other ministries, these alternating groups simply hand out the Bible and information and invite the residents to church, instead of sharing their beliefs and possibly intruding. The church hope this approach provides the community members with a point of contact if they ever have a need, without prying too much, said Dr. Terry Sutton, pastor of MFBC.

“They don’t want someone to come knocking on their door unannounced,” Sutton said. “I thought we would do something that was a less-intrusive outreach. We don’t try to get into any theological or Biblical conversations, unless they ask questions.”

If there’s no one at home, the group leaves the Bible and pamphlet in a bag hanging on the door.

“It’s a revised kind of outreach to accommodate the people of our community where we aren’t overly pushy and respect everyone’s position and religious beliefs,” he said.

They ask the group members to visit houses in their subdivisions where they might already know some of the neighbors. After the members stop by eight houses, they come back to the church to report on the visits and share any prayer requests.

The church has given out about 1,000 Bibles in two years, and they hope to give away thousands more, Sutton says.

“The majority of people in Shelby County are unchurched,” he said. “There are a lot of folks who need a Bible or have never even used one. We want to put a Bible in people’s hands.”

Some of the community members who received the Bibles have since visited the church.

“Many of them seem to be looking and searching,” Sutton said. “There’s so many unchurched people in our area who need a point of contact.”