The Altar Fellowship in Johnson City, Tennessee, describes itself as “a refuge for the weary to come rest in God’s presence, and a training ground for the passionate to be sharpened and launched into the glory of their calling.” In partnership with a nonprofit organization to negotiate down medical debt, the church was able to pay off around $8 million worth of medical debt for those in their community.
“That’s my hope: that the church can be the hands, feet, and wallet of Jesus to the world around us,” Pastor Mattie Montgomery said in an interview with The Christian Post.
No one would have expected that a teenager, who attended the church on his own, would also have a chance to share the gospel with his father after The Altar Fellowship paid off nearly $8 million of medical debt from within the community.
A Tennessee Church Shares the Gospel One Medical Debt at a Time
Pastor Mattie Montgomery leads The Altar Fellowship in rural Tennessee—where, as he describes, many people struggle with addiction and live in poverty. He wanted to help those who had gone into deep debt due to medical expenses. Montgomery relied on his own family’s experiences, a dear friend with a dream, and an effective nonprofit to begin taking action.
David Morrison serves as missions pastor at The Altar Fellowship and told local news how the idea got started. The project was important to the senior pastor, Mattie Montgomery. When he was a child, Montgomery’s father suffered from cancer.
“He was losing his father to cancer at the young age of eight,” Morrison said. “While he was in hospice care at home, a businessman from their town bought Christmas gifts for their entire family. So that was an inspiration for him. For all of us.”
According to The Christian Post, Montgomery said a friend—a successful businessman who “loves the Lord”—called to share a dream he had. The friend wanted to pay off people’s medical debts and mentioned an organization, RIP Medical Debt (now Undue Medical Debt).
Undue Medical Debt, as Montgomery explained, works with collectors to negotiate and purchase the legal right or claim on a debt. The pastor said the church researched and found that within the six surrounding counties nearest to the church, the combined medical debt was about $8 million. Thanks to the negotiations of Undue Medical Debt, the church could purchase the debt for $50,000.
“And essentially, we became the collection agency for $8 million of medical debt,” Montgomery said. “And then instead of pursuing it any further, we just sent a letter to everyone whose debt we had taken, and we just said, ‘Hey, Jesus loves you, we love you. And it’s our privilege to cancel this debt entirely.'”
