“They are separate entities governmentally,” he says. “But we are connected in vision.”
He and his wife Leland moved to Birmingham in 2002. The couple has four children: Tate, Caley, Mimi, and June. Birmingham appealed because of a biblically-based residency at St. Vincent’s East. The Records soon joined Church of the Highlands.
As an undergraduate, he did mission work in East St. Louis, Illinois, where he realized ministry called for practical skills. “I wanted to bring something to the gumbo,” the Louisiana native says. “My flavor happened to be medicine.”
LSU School of Medicine offered him a scholarship. A Ninth Ward minister taught him that ministry of the poor means more than charity and mercy. It means development and justice, too. “We can say, ‘Feed a man a fish, you feed him for a day,’ and ‘Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime,’” Record says. “But justice says, ‘Now I’m also going to get you to the pond.’”
Transforming a neighborhood takes more than kind acts, Record says. “We have to look at the structures of our society that make people poor. Why is there generational poverty? It’s because we’ve built and developed systems that pretty much guarantee the poor are going to stay there. We as Christians have a responsibility to say we’re going to help change those systems.
In 2007 when the Jefferson County Health Department decided to “follow its demographics to Roebuck,” the Christ Health Center building became available. Record and two other doctors discussed buying it. “They were willing to mortgage their houses to buy the property,” says Record, who was on board, too. But he wanted to run the decision by Pastor Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands. The pastor asked, “How much?” Roberts said, “I’m not here for your money.” The pastor kept asking. Finally, Roberts blurted, “a half a million dollars!” Pastor Hodges said, “If you’ll come start the Dream Center with me, we’ll pay for the [Christ Health Center] building.’” The center now rents the building from the church for $1 a year.
Last year, the center provided medical, dental and pharmaceutical services during 14,000 patient visits with $1.3 million of expenses. “A solid 80 to 90 percent of our patients are either uninsured or under-insured,” he says. Patient care, paid on a sliding scale, accounted for $1.2 million. The rest came from unsolicited donations. The Birmingham medical community helps in the mission, too. “I’m a family doc,” Record says. “I don’t know diddly-squat about performing surgery.” So he often calls on Birmingham specialists, who donate their services.
The Dream Center expands the ministry beyond health care with volunteers in Woodlawn schools “tutoring, mentoring, and coaching sports teams,” he says. “We have people fixing people’s steps and planting gardens. We have people rebuilding the community one family at a time.”
The gospel of John, he says, refers to how Jesus became flesh and “dwelled among us.” The word “among” is crucial. “We don’t minister ‘to’ people,” he says. “But ministry among people is a beautiful thing.”
He says, “The truth is you see the character of God, the personality of God, and, every once and awhile, you see the very presence of God in one of the people you think you were called to serve.”
He cites an elderly, long-time patient who lives in a government subsidized senior living facility. “There probably aren’t five people in Birmingham with as much spunk as Ms. Naomi has,” Record says. “She rubs off on me and makes me a better follower of Christ because she has so much life, charisma, and exuberance. Naomi walks away with a Robert tattoo on her but I walk away with a Naomi tattoo on me, too, one that never goes away.”
