Plot

Food for the belly, and food for the soul. A delightful, tasty and charming look at a small town, rural Florida, African American "Church built on BBQ.

Down a two-lane road in a backwater Florida town, tiny New Hope Missionary Baptist Church stands as testament to faith, hope, hard work, and the best tasting barbecue for miles. In Faith, Hope and BBQ, from director Ernie Mosteller, you'll meet the Pastor / Preacher / Barbecue Man, the Sunday School Teacher who guards her collard green recipe, the congregation who pray, the customers who pay, plus the faith, food, work and joy that keep New Hope very much alive. Like many small churches in America today, New Hope has to work hard, just to survive. But hard work is nothing new to the close-knit 60-member congregation. Faced with eviction over 20 years ago, the church leaders of the time sold barbecue from a roadside stand to purchase land and build the church where it stands. Now the church needs renovation and modernization. But the economic realities of a small church in a small town in hard times call for something more than charity, or the Sunday offering plate. Undeterred, the members of New Hope, led by Pastor Scotty, son of one of the original New Hope barbecue pioneers, once again turn to faith, and the work they know - cooking and serving the best barbecue around.—Ernie Mosteller

Down a two-lane road in a backwater Florida town, tiny New Hope Missionary Baptist Church stands as testament to faith, hope, hard work - and the best tasting barbecue for miles. In Faith, Hope and BBQ, you'll find the Pastor-Preacher-Barbecue Man, the Sunday School Teacher who guards her collard green recipes, the congregation who pray, the customers who pay, and the choir ladies who 'amen' that fine slab of ribs. It's food for the belly, and food for the soul.