“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.”  

Colossians 1:28 (NIV)  

Prison ministry, like all ministries, is not a single event but a process. The Church is called to make disciples, not simply converts.

One of the most endearing stories Chuck Colson shared is found in his book Loving God. He wrote of Myrtie Howell—a 91 year-old woman he met in an “old folks’ home” in Georgia.

Myrtie was born poor, had only one year of schooling, and was married at age 17.

Twenty-five percent of the prisoners confined to the Goose Creek Corrections Center near Wasilla, come from the “bush country”—the primitive and roadless area on Alaska’s west coast. The area is largely unchurched, and high rates of suicide, alcohol, and drug abuse are plaguing the remote communities.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.  – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Increasingly, the great concern of legislators and departments of correction has been finding better ways to reduce recidivism—that tendency of former prisoners to relapse into criminal behavior.