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The First Baptist Church of Columbiana hosted and area churches event at the Columbiana Sports Complex so that kids from different churches could connect in their faith. (Contributed)

(Contributed)

(Contributed)

(Contributed)

(Contributed)

By MEG HERNDON | Staff Reporter

COLUMBIANA – Five different youth groups from the Columbiana area churches gathered at the Columbiana Sports Complex on Wednesday, Dec. 1 for a night of games, food and worship.

Andy Shelton, the youth pastor at The First Baptist Church of Columbiana, set in motion the community-wide youth event when he reached out to local churches and invited them to bring their youth groups out with the intention of letting kids from different churches connect in their faith.

“We want kids to realize it’s more than just where they go to their church with their friends, that there are other kids out there who are trying to grow in their Christian faith,” said Shelton.

Around 153 kids played games on the fields for an hour and a half and then ate dinner. The group then had worship, which consisted of a combined youth worship group made up of the different churches who attended.

The event also featured Jeremy Towns as a guest speaker. Towns played football at Samford University and spent some time playing in the NFL before attending medical school at the University of South Alabama. Towns graduated in 2020 as a Doctor of Medicine and then began his residency at the UAB Hospital in Emergency Medicine.

Shelton explained that his favorite part of these types of events are “the conversations the weeks after where they talk about maybe making a new friend that goes to another church that they didn’t realize were involved. Just letting them connect in their faith.”

This was not the first time the First Baptist Church has done something like this, and Shelton hopes it’s not the last.

Shelton would like to hold an event like this a few times a year and get more churches in the area involved.

If other churches would like to be involved in the next event, contact Andy Shelton through the FBC of Columbiana office.

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