Health care sharing fits into the Gospel: Jared Wilson

Jared Wilson keeps the Gospel at the center of his preaching and writing.

Health care sharing fits right into that paradigm.

“It’s a group of sinners who, having been united in Christ, are united together, bearing one another’s burdens, meeting each other’s needs, outdoing each other showing honor,” says the Vermont pastor and author. “We have that sense of family because we have Christ in common.”

So when Jared and his wife, Becky, needed to look for a health care solution a couple years ago, Samaritan Ministries came to mind. The cost of health insurance had become too much for the Wilsons. He needed something different, and was familiar with Samaritan.

“It was the first place we looked,” Jared says.

The lower cost of being in a health care sharing ministry was one reason the Wilsons signed up with Samaritan, but the “testimony or endorsement of people that I knew” played another major role, he says.

Several members of his congregation, Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont, were already members, and Jared had signed their pastor verification forms for years. In addition, the church’s retired pastor and his wife are members. Jared also knows Samaritan member and musician Shaun Groves, who had talked to him about Samaritan.

The Wilsons joined on the strength of the endorsements, but “then it became appealing to us to be a part of a group of brothers and sisters who aren’t just looking for health care but are wanting to be able to support each other,” he says. “There’s something God-glorifying in that, something really spiritually helpful in that.”

Jared has so far had to submit only one need, for a kidney stone last year.

“It worked out really well,” he says. “It involves trying to get your bill holders to be patient while you’re accumulating everything. It is not only a great way to pay the bill, but also to have all these brothers and sisters in Christ saying they were praying for me.”