Raymond Martin
Bunker Hill (W. Va.) BIC Church
“Insurance,” declares Raymond Martin, pastor of Bunker Hill (W. Va.) BIC Church, “is something that is very needful for our brothers and sisters in ministry.”
That’s why Raymond and his wife Sarah were “devastated” when the BIC Church closed their denominationally sponsored healthcare program in 2006. “I really felt like we were left high and dry,” the pastor candidly admits.
Given the loss, the couple began to seek a new insurer while at the same time dealing with some rather significant medical issues—a fact that complicated their search. “When we sent our application in to Mountain State Blue Cross/Blue Shield, they sent us a nice letter back saying that they would accept us, simply because the law said they had to,” recalls Raymond. “But they also said they could set their premiums as high as they wanted to.” Because of the Martins’s health conditions, Mountain State was unable to insure them for less than $5,000 a month.
The church's small budget would have been unable to bear that cost, attests Raymond. So he and his wife kept searching, eventually settling with a state-run program that specialized in insuring high-risk couples.
Their monthly premium—$2,500—consumed fully one-third of Bunker Hill’s yearly budget.
“Needless to say, our church wasn’t happy,” Raymond admits. “As a result, the board said, ‘You’re going to be covered one way or another—even if that means we quit paying into Cooperative Ministries.’
“We started to run into some tightness with our church budget,” says Raymond. “I just have to say, it got pretty bad. One night at a church board meeting, one of our deacon brothers rose up and said, ‘I believe one of the reasons why we’re having problems meeting our budget is we’re robbing God by not paying into Cooperative Ministries.’ So the decision was made that night that we were going to begin paying into Cooperative Ministries. And that topic wasn’t even on the agenda!”
Raymond contends that the board’s decision “was the beginning of God opening up blessings upon us.”
Among those blessings, asserts the pastor, was the decision made by the 2008 General Conference to authorize a new BIC health plan.
“When we found out about the new plan, I said, ‘Thank God, praise God—the church is coming back to help their pastors,’” recalls Raymond. “After all, that’s what stewardship is all about, as far as I’m concerned: we work together as brothers and sisters, carrying one another’s burdens and loads.”
Even though the Martins will discontinue their involvement with the plan in 2010 as they become eligible for federal Medicare benefits, they continue to laud the BIC plan.
“This health insurance has been a real blessing to us,” he says. “But more than that, it’s the right thing to do.” Raymond points to the BIC Church’s historic emphasis on “brotherhood”—mutual support within the community of faith—as a precedent for today’s health plan: “Brotherhood is sharing and caring and working together to make each one’s load lighter. And the more we have participating in the health plan, the lighter the load becomes, because the lower the premiums are. So I would encourage everyone to participate!”
