PRISON FELLOWSHIP BLOG: Prison & Prisoners

At Prison Fellowship, we don’t want to do ministry to prisoners. We want to do ministry with prisoners. That one little word makes a big difference. Prisoners aren’t our projects – they are our partners. As you and I walk with them on the road to restoration, men and women behind bars become leaders of the Church behind the walls … sharing the Gospel and discipling those around them, serving their families, and preparing for a new life back in the community.

For the last 20 years, the Willow Creek Association has presented the Global Leadership Summit, a two-day event that brings together leaders from both the business and church spheres.  This year the event was broadcast via satellite to over 300 venues around the world – including three locations not often considered for their leadership potential.

After a life of drugs and violence, Luis came to know Christ while in prison. Now he's helping prisoners and ex-prisoners start a new life by ministering with his story of redemption and forgiveness.

Tom Douglas is a legendary country music songwriter who was recently inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.  His musical collaborators include country music stars like Miranda Lambert, John Michael Montgomery, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Collin Raye, and Lady Antebellum. 

The following post originally appeared on the Justice Fellowship website.

With the amount of talk about recidivism, there is very little focus on people who do not commit another offense after their release. It is assumed that everyone who committed an offense poses a high threat of committing another one.

By living out the core values he learned in prison, Michael is an inspiring example God's power to transform prisoners into mighty men of valor.

Kate Campbell is a summer intern with Prison Fellowship, working with Inside Journal. She is currently studying photojournalism at Boston University.

Recently, the Wisconsin State Journal published an article about a program called Reading Connections, which allows incarcerated fathers and mothers to record videos of themselves reading stories for their children.

On a recent trip to Minnesota, I visited with the ladies who are part of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) unit in Shakopee, the only women’s prison in the state. I asked them, “If you could tell the people who support this program anything, what would you say?”

A young woman I met recently was 22 years old. Her adult life had barely begun, but she had already done quite a bit of hard living. She was one of several children born to an overburdened mom. Her dad was not around to help.

Francis Chan, a nationally known author, speaker, and pastor, volunteered to speak at a Prison Fellowship yard event this past Easter weekend.

On Friday, June 13, auto mechanic Bryant Collins was driving down Highway 72 in Georgia when he saw something peculiar on the side of the road.

“I had seen something out of the corner of my eye, and I thought it was a baby,” Collins recounted.

Motherhood is already a full-time job. Imagine how difficult it is for those moms facing an extra obstacle: incarceration.

What is it like to be a mother while in prison? Directed by Jenifer McShane, the documentary “Mothers of Bedford” explores the effects of long-term incarceration on mothers’ relationships with their children through the eyes of several women at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York.

On a recent visit to a prison I met a man I’ll call “Tom.”

Tom’s past is typical of many stories I hear. He is a repeat, nonviolent drug offender. By day, on the outside, he was a truck driver, but he also sold drugs to supplement his income.

Last Easter, Prison Fellowship Ministries® President and CEO, Jim Liske, visited the Central Florida Reception, a large prison camp with different wings for prisoners who need hospice care or are too young to be housed with the general population.

In the chapel, Jim preached about Timothy, who grew up without a father, and told the young men, “No one is disqualified from God’s grace.”

A prisoner I’ll call Jared is getting ready to be one of the first graduates of a new Prison Fellowship pre-release unit. This is his third time behind bars. He has spent most of his life as a drug dealer and a petty thief, governed by that troublesome four-letter word: self.