The Prison Fellowship TUMI program fulfills a key element of the PF mission and vision by focusing on building church leaders in prison who can both build the church behind the walls and become leaders in the church on the outside. As a long term program, it fulfills a need for deep discipleship and leadership development.
Above all else, the Prison Fellowship TUMI program in the prisons is established on this essential conviction: God is raising up a new generation of Christ-centered servant leaders from behind bars who are biblically equipped, spiritually vital, and technically competent to accomplish God’s work in the urban centers of America.
Program Approach
The PF TUMI program is fulfilled through a unique partnership with World Impact, a Christian missions organization committed to facilitating church-planting movements by evangelizing, equipping, and empowering the unchurched urban poor. TUMI is a subsidiary of World Impact that provides urban Christian leaders with quality biblical training at an affordable price and education that is relevant to urban ministry and mission.
The Prison Fellowship TUMI program is based on the Capstone Curriculum and is divided into 16 ten-week courses. The courses are facilitated by trained Prison Fellowship Certified volunteers. In addition to the standard in prison training, these volunteers are complete an online training on how to facilitate the TUMI program (e.g, class format, use of books, administration of tests)
Most of the material is delivered through DVD lessons and discussion interaction with the students. It can take up to 4 years to complete the curriculum depending on the prison.
As with students in other seminaries, the prisoners take tests, have rigorous homework assignments, and write papers demonstrating careful research and reflection. And these accomplishments are significant, considering that some of the prisoner participants previously didn’t even make it past the seventh grade. Some allowances are made for those with lower literacy levels: tests may be taken orally, and prisoners often study in groups to help one another with reading.
Upon completion of all 16 courses students receive a Certificate in Christian Leadership Studies.