‘Your Debt Is Forgiven’

Pathway Church in Wichita redirected some funds and worked with a nonprofit to pay off the medical debt of 1,600 Kansas families as an Easter gesture demonstrating how Jesus Christ forgave our debts.

“We decided to take some of the money that we would normally give to people who are in financial need,” lead pastor Todd Carter told the church on Easter, “and we took some of the money we would normally use to be able to promote our Easter services” via advertisements and direct mail. “We wanted to send out a different kind of mail this year.”

Letters to the beneficiaries stated, “We’re Pathway Church. We may never meet you, but as an act of kindness in the name of Jesus Christ, your debt has been forgiven.”

The church worked with RIP Medical Debt, which purchases—that is, retires—medical debt for “a penny to the dollar,” Carter said. The church provided the nonprofit with $22,000 and “we were able to liquidate $2.2 million of debt.”

“Because of your generosity,” Carter told the church, “all 1,600 families in the state of Kansas who fell into this category of hardship medical debt, including 500 families that are here in the Wichita area, got a letter in the mail last week.”

Carter asked the church to imagine the celebrations in those households when “all of a sudden they realize that . . . this debt that has been hanging over their head has been forgiven,” and how those folks immediately shared the good news with others.

“That’s exactly what God in the person of Jesus Christ wants you to feel each and every day . . . that your debt has been forgiven.”