Nebraska Church Wipes Out Medical Debt for 500 Families: 'Love Has to Be Expressed in Actions'

A Lincoln, Nebraska church's 13-month campaign helped raise more than $500,000 to pay off the medical bills of local residents.

The First-Plymouth Congregational Church's effort started at $8,000 with a desire to help a few neighbors in need, according to The Lincoln Journal Star. Thirteen months later, it had raised more than $520,000 in donations, freed 500 households from burdensome medical bills, and gained national attention.

"I had no idea it would go so viral," Rev. Jim Keck, the church's senior pastor told the outlet. "You wouldn't think a pastor would do this; I underestimated people's generosity."

By Easter Sunday when the fundraising campaign officially ended, contributions for the church's project came in from an estimated 10,000 people, some from outside Nebraska, although a majority were from Lincoln, the Journal Star reported. 

In his sermon Sunday, Keck spoke about love, and the many definitions and expressions the word "love" has. He also announced the results of the church's campaign to pay off families' medical debt, which was love in action. 

"Sometimes love has to be expressed in actions. We have had an initiative all year that is just love on the move," the senior pastor explained. "The church decided that there were too many homes right in our neighborhood that were saddled with medical debt, like shackles when you have a debt you just can't get on top of."

"And so the church decided that every dime that went into the collection plate all year long, and that ends today – we'll pass the plate one more time today – that every dime would go to forgive the medical debt of homes right here in central Lincoln," he continued. 

Keck told the audience the debt collector agreed to give the anonymized profiles to keep people's privacy and would be homes located around the church with no street address. 

"It would say like, 'a single mother with two kids owes $1,000 is paying $50 a month and isn't ever going to get on top of it,'" he continued.

"So each month, you put money in the plate and then each month we bought as many of those as possible," Keck said. "It now culminates this year. We have retired the debt of over 500 homes right here in the neighborhood."
 
"This is you," he told the congregation. "As of this morning, we will hit somewhere around $550,000. So this is just love, really. Jesus said, 'Love your neighbor.' This is like the Lord's Prayer in action. 'Forgive us our debts' and the type of liberation and love that people are feeling." 

First Plymouth's "Just Neighbors Helping Neighbors with Medical Debt" website said the church's campaign to raise funds to pay off people's medical debts began in March of 2022.  

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Keck told the Journal Star there was no screening process for the people who benefited from the church's efforts. 

Keck said, "It was an act of pure inclusion, which is such a central ethic here."

As of Sunday, the church's "Just Neighbors" website reads in bold letters: 

The good news from First-Plymouth: "Paid in full."

As CBN News has reported, over the last several years, churches all over the country are helping their congregations and their neighbors eliminate their medical debt. 

Last December, Access Church in Lakeland, Florida helped their community reach financial freedom by paying off more than $1.6 million in medical debt. 

Pastor Jason Burns told CBN News that 1,315 families received letters in the mail saying their medical debt had been paid.

Access Church partnered with an organization that buys the debt in bulk, then dissolves it. 

The recipients were people whose household income is less than half of the federal poverty line - leaving them crippled by medical debt. 

Burns explained that the church doesn't know who the recipients are, but hopes that the effort will bring them closer to Jesus.

As CBN News reported in February of 2022, the United Church of Christ (UCC) gave peace of mind to people across the country by paying off more than $100 million in medical debt. 

The Cleveland, Ohio-based denomination announced it had canceled $33 million of patient medical debt in the Buckeye State, bringing the total of debt canceled by the church in a two-year period to $104 million.  

As a Valentine's Day expression of love, 10,757 households in 70 Ohio counties received letters telling them their medical debt had been eliminated.

The letters said, "The funds that abolished this debt were generously provided by the United Church of Christ. No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome in our churches. You are beloved by God and your debt has been forgiven."