Prison Fellowship

  • DONATE
    • One-Time
    • Monthly
    • Angel Tree
    • Other Ways to Give
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Volunteer
    • Subscribe
    • Angel Tree Christmas
    • Start a Fundraiser
    • Pray With Us
    • Justice Action Center
    • Share on Social
  • STORIES
    • Stories
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • The Restoration Series [Videos]
  • WHAT WE DO
    • Why Help Prisoners?
    • What We Do
    • In-Prison
      • Prison Fellowship Academy
      • In-Prison Programs
      • Hope Events
      • Inside Journal
      • Women’s Ministry
      • Create: New Beginnings
    • Angel Tree
      • Register your church or group for Angel Tree
      • Prison Fellowship Angel Tree
      • Angel Tree Christmas
      • Angel Tree Camping
      • Angel Tree Sports Camps
    • Justice Reform
      • Justice Reform
      • Second Chance Month
      • News & Updates
      • Sign the Justice Declaration
      • Get a Copy of Outrageous Justice
    • Warden Exchange
    • Church Partners
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Preparing Prisoners for Reentry
  • RESOURCES
    • Subscribe to Our Email
    • Support for Friends and Family of Prisoners
      • Resources for Friends and Family of Prisoners
      • Coping with Incarceration
      • Resources for Prisoners
      • Resources for Children of Prisoners
      • Supporting Successful Prisoner Reentry
    • Resources for Churches and Volunteers
      • Resources for Churches and Volunteers
      • In-Prison Ministry
      • Reentry Ministry
      • Family Ministry
      • Justice Reform
      • Mentoring Ministry
    • Resources for Angel Tree Coordinators
    • Resources for Chaplains
    • Resources for D.O.C.
    • Justice Reform Resources
    • Share on Social
    • For Media Outlets
  • ABOUT US
    • Leadership
    • Chuck Colson
      • About Chuck Colson
      • The Charles Colson Hope Awards
    • Our Beliefs
    • Financials
      • Financials
      • 2022 Annual Report
    • Employment
    • Contact Us
    • In The News

An Enduring Vision

April 22, 2016 by Mark Hubbell

In celebration of Prison Fellowship’s 40 years of ministering to prisoners and their families, we will be taking a look back at the early days of the ministry and remembering the people and the stories that have helped to make Prison Fellowship the nation’s largest prison outreach.  In the following reflection, Mark Hubbell, Prison Fellowship’s area director for the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, shares his memories of the beginning years of the ministry and working with Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson.

Prior to coming on staff at Prison Fellowship, I served as a volunteer beginning in 1977 after reading Chuck Colson’s first book, Born Again. How could I not get involved?

Mark Hubbell square image

Mark Hubbell

In his book, Chuck spoke of the spiritual poverty he witnessed in prison—men being warehoused, lacking purpose, and without hope. As a new believer who had just experienced the miracle of the new birth, I wanted to be a part of an effort to bring new new life to society’s outcasts.

In the ensuing years, Chuck continued to write and speak, sharing a vision of a churches across the nation working with Prison Fellowship entering jails and prisons, introducing prisoners to Jesus Christ, and then actively discipling them.

Chuck’s vision quickly became a reality.

Prison Fellowship began putting on in-prison seminars in prisons across the nation facilitated by volunteers from local churches. Weekly Bible studies were soon added, along with a wide variety of classes on Christian living, discipleship, marriage, and other topics. Later, courses on preparing for release and reentry have become a part of the ministry’s offerings.

In the community, the Angel Tree program connects prisoners’ spouses and children with local church congregations, providing Christmas gifts on behalf of their incarcerated family member and sharing hope and encouragement.

Today, four years after Chuck’s passing, the ministry of Prison Fellowship continues to grow and strengthen.

I believe this is because the vision that God gave to Chuck was so enduring.

God has always emphasized the importance of caring for the outcast, the widow, and the orphan. Who is more of an outcast than a prisoner? Isn’t the spouse of a prisoner, who must carry on without her imprisoned mate, effectively a widow? And the children of prisoners, who grow up without a parent, similar to orphans?

The people Prison Fellowship serves are close to the heart of God.

And the means of serving them is precisely what God prescribed: the Church. As the Apostle Paul reminded us in his second letter to the Corinthians, “all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

God has called His Church to the ministry of reconciliation. We are His ambassadors.

The vision given to Chuck Colson forty years ago challenges the Church to live up to its calling. We must embrace God’s compassion for the broken men, women, and children around us and introduce them to Christ. We must walk with them and help them grow into His likeness.

The vision given to Chuck gives the Church an opportunity to live out the Gospel in a tangible way. And as the Church responds, God is glorified.

Filed Under: Angel Tree, Prison & Prisoners, Prison Fellowship News & Updates, Reentry Tagged With: Angel Tree, In Prison, Mark Hubbell, Reentry

SELECT A TOPIC

  • Advocacy & Reentry
  • Angel Tree
  • Families of Prisoners
  • Feature Stories
  • From the CEO
  • Hope Events
  • Inside Journal
  • Press Releases
  • Prison & Prisoners
  • Prison Fellowship Academy
  • Prison Fellowship International
  • Prison Fellowship News & Updates
  • Reentry
  • Second Chance Month
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Warden Exchange

MOST POPULAR

Prison Fellowship Statement on Tyre Nichols

January 28, 2023

Prison Fellowship Responds to Inaction on Crack Cocaine Sentencing at Close of the 117th Congress

December 20, 2022

Criminal Justice Reform Achievements

December 16, 2022

LATEST VIDEOS

WATCH ALL VIDEOS

JOIN OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

FACEBOOK
TWITTER
INSTAGRAM
YOUTUBE
LINKEDIN
PF®
PFM®

RECOMMENDED LINKS

  • Ways to Donate
  • Inspirational Stories
  • Angel Tree Program
  • Prison Fellowship Academy
  • Justice Reform

RESOURCES

  • For Families & Friends of Prisoners
  • For Churches & Angel Tree Volunteers
  • For Media Outlets
  • Warden Exchange

JOIN RESTORATION PARTNERS AND WITNESS GOD RESTORE LIVES

Restoration Partners give monthly to bring life-changing prison ministry programs to incarcerated men and women across the country.

 

JOIN NOW
  • CONTACT US
  • EMPLOYMENT
  • PRIVACY
  • FINANCIALS
© 2023 PRISON FELLOWSHIP®

Angel Tree®, Angel Tree Camping®, Angel Tree Sports ClinicTM, Angel Tree Sports CampsTM, and Warden Exchange® are programs of Prison Fellowship®.