The congregation of Abundant Life Ministries, 701 W. King St., plans to open a health clinic, employment agency and day care program. (Erin James photo)

While the neighborhood around it struggles with blight and crime, the church with the bright red doors sits mostly empty, most of the time.

That's going to change very soon if Pastor Anthony Sease has anything to do with it.

The 18,000-square-foot building at the corner of West King Street and South Belvidere Avenue serves about 100 congregants of Abundant Life Ministries, but only about a third of the building is used for worship services.

So Sease and his congregation have come up with a plan. And it extends way beyond Sundays.

"We have grown, but we're just not utilizing the building to its capacity throughout the week," Sease said. "We want to be a part of the revitalization of the west-end community."

The church and its partners won conditional approval from city officials last month to follow through with plans for the rest of the red-brick building at 701 W. King St.

"The idea is to turn it into a real community center with a church inside the community center," Sease said.

Health clinic: The cornerstone of the proposal is a faith-based health clinic that would serve the uninsured and the under-insured.

Katallasso Family Health Center is a project of other York County churches that have collaborated to address a need in York City's west end, said Brian Kreeger, the center's executive director.

The general-practice clinic will offer affordable -- free, if necessary -- medical care to anyone who walks through the door, Kreeger said. Except for a few administrative positions, the staff will be all volunteers, he said.

"We're looking for donors. We're looking for docs. We're

looking for gifts-in-kind for various trades," he said.

The clinic's big-picture goal of sharing Christianity will take a back seat to providing patients with quality care, Kreeger said, but "they're going to know what we stand for."

Other aid: Plans for the building also include an employment agency designed specifically for job seekers whose criminal backgrounds make jobs especially hard to come by. The agency would be run by Abundant Life Ministries, Sease said.

Long-term plans could also include day care and after-school programs, he said.

At first, the health clinic will be staffed 15 to 20 hours a week, Kreeger said. He hopes to open in the fall.

"We want to beat the cold and flu season," he said.

Sease said he sees the congregation's project as another way to capitalize on momentum in the Salem Square neighborhood, where about 15 homes were recently built and renovated through a partnership of city and housing groups.

Still, the homes have proven difficult to sell.

"Part of that could be that the services that are needed to attract people to a neighborhood aren't there," he said. "We feel compelled to do what we can to revitalize the community."

-- Reach Erin James at 505-5439 or ejames@yorkdispatch.com or on Twitter @ydcity.