Church-neighborhood partnership creates lasting health impact in Georgia

Belle-Terrace Presbyterian Church pioneered community health clinic

January 12, 2017

Wonderful things can happen when the church listens to its neighbors. That, accordingly to the Rev. Dr. Melvin Lowry, was the genesis of what has become Medical Associates Plus in Augusta, Georgia.

 Lowry became pastor of Belle-Terrace Presbyterian Church in 1996. At that time the congregation came to a crossroads with its mission—it needed to decide how it would better serve the needs of the community with the resources it had available: land and people. Through a partnership with Richmond County and its health outreach, the church dedicated land in 1998 that would become a free and low-cost clinic serving the needs of its neighbors.

“One of the things I looked for when I arrived was how the church could be more involved in the community,” said Lowry, now COO of Medical Associates Plus. “The church has had the persona of community ministry—of being out there—and advocating for a number of different issues.”

Belle-Terrace Presbyterian Church, formed in 1969, initially gathered as a Sunday school that quickly grew into a chartered worshiping community. Lowry says the congregation was always focused on the people around it, looking beyond its walls, and able to “take on the flavor of the community.”

According to Lowry, health care was one of the most pressing issues mentioned by community leaders in the late 1990s. “It was determined we would accept the invitation of University Hospital to start a clinic in our area,” he said. The Neighborhood Improvement Project, Inc. was established to manage the clinic and forged the partnership among the church, the hospital, county agencies and other groups.

“When we started, the flagship program was healthcare,” said Lowry. “But because the neighborhood had a significant number of seniors, we had a senior ministry. We had a number of young parents, so we had an after-school program. We worked with behavioral health. The neighborhood was declining, so we had an economic development program as well.”

These five pillars of the program became more focused after the clinic became a federally qualified community health center, concentrating primarily on health and adding partnerships for other services with its community outreach ministry, which helps with voter registration and provides Affordable Care Act counselors.

Lowry describes the initial years of the daily clinic as a “labor of love” owing to the lack of resources and the extensive reach of the ministry. He said that what was most important was that “people came in and they felt as if they were cared for … The best type of advertisement was word of mouth. Word spread and we grew.”

Medical Associates Plus has now expanded to five locations including the original facility, two rural clinics, an infectious disease clinic in downtown Augusta primarily addressing HIV/AIDS, and a mobile dental bus with a medical component. The clinic has partnered with the Richmond County schools to provide primary dental and health care to students.

Far from its humble beginnings in 1999, the clinic system saw 13,000 patients over 21,000 visits in 2015. That number was exceeded in 2016. Lowry believes the clinic will continue to expand and meet the needs of aging persons in the community, who moved from the city to Augusta in the 1960s as predominantly young, professional or government workers and primarily African-American.

J.R. Richards, Medical Associates Plus’ new CEO, has expressed a vision for the program that positions it as the community health center of choice for individuals living in the Central Savannah River Area and as the premier federally qualified health center in the state of Georgia.

“To me that’s a lofty vision, something that will not happen overnight,” said Lowry. “But as someone who began with it as a trailer ministry, it is something that I can certainly aspire to.”

Gregg Brekke, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Presbyterian Women Northeast Georgia Presbytery Coordinating Team

Let us join in prayer for:

Belle-Terrace Presbyterian Church (U. S. A.)

Elder Charles Grant, clerk of session

Presbyterian Women Northeast Georgia Presbytery Coordinating Team

Sandra Rouse, moderator
Ada Thomas, secretary
Phyllis Wright, chair, Search Committee
Vivian Pennamon, Greater Augusta Mission Community leader

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Jason Peterson, PILP
Sherri Pettway, PMA

Let us pray

Living God, we thank you for the opportunity you have given us, the means you have provided for us, and the desire you have created in us to use our God-given skills to provide for and encourage those less fortunate. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Daily Readings

Morning Psalms 97; 147:12-20
First Reading Isaiah 41:17-29
Second Reading Ephesians 2:11-22
Gospel Reading Mark 2:1-12
Evening Psalms 16; 62