The pastor of a church in Carrollton, Texas gave the phrase “man of the cloth” a whole new meaning.

According to Christian Today, Pastor Pete Briscoe of Bent Tree Church led a used-clothing drive for his congregants. On January 4th, Briscoe urged his members to donate their unused clothing as part of a wider effort to let go of the “unnecessary things in their lives.”

“Excess isn’t success. Excess is supply,” Briscoe said. “Those things sitting forgotten in a closet could change the life of someone who has little. The excess that we may use one day could be donated and used in our community now.”

He claims that he was inspired to organize the pledge drive after finding 20 pairs of unused sunglasses in a drawer. Finding the sunglasses languishing in a drawer motivated him to give more and to live by the principle “less is better.” During a sermon on January 4th, he instructed his congregation to also abandon their excess goods and donate them to those who truly need them.

The sermon worked. By January 18th, the church’s website said, the congregation had raised and donated a total of 74,750 pounds of clothing, or more than 34 tons. These “truckloads” of clothing were donated to, and will be distributed by, the charitable group Christian Community Action (CCA).

“We’ve started with just our closets, and we’ve found this much we can give to those in need,” the pastor said. “Imagine what we can do as we begin cleaning out our whole houses.”

Charles Wahlstedt, the Director of Logistics at the CCA, expressed his awe and gratitude toward the clothing drive.

“This is the largest donation we have ever received at CCA, and there isn’t even a close second,” he said. “I hope the people in your congregation still have some clothes to wear on Sunday!”

Carrollton, roughly 20 miles north of Dallas, isn’t the only city to have organized clothing drives for the unfortunate. There are many such efforts throughout the country. One of them, [BQ], explains the need for clothing pledges.