PRISON FELLOWSHIP: Transformation

On a recent trip to Michigan, I approached a man that I thought was our local Prison Fellowship field director. I hugged him and thanked him for all he was doing.

When I asked how he was, he said, “I’ve been out for three months, and I am an associate pastor!”

In my decades as a pastor, I saw a lot of things in church, but this was a first.

In the middle of the church auditorium, surrounded by their families and other worshipers, were about 100 prisoners in orange jumpsuits. They are part of a partnership between a county jail and a local congregation.

I was running on a bike path along a country road. With corn fields on either side, there was an abundance of grasshoppers on the path. As I ran along I noticed that the grasshoppers rapidly jumped into the high grass on either side in order to avoid getting crushed by my feet.

This resource provides the biblical foundation to guide you in the development of a reentry ministry in your church and community. We pray that the Lord will use His living and active Word to build your vision for this important ministry.

Daniel is enrolled in the Prisoners to Pastors program (also known as The Urban Ministry Institute) at his prison. That means he is a committed, engaged follower of Jesus. He spends hours every week in the classroom, going through rigorous, seminary-level classes.

“It seems like all the happy people are the ones inside the prison,” observed a member of our board on a recent trip to Michigan correctional facilities, where we attended seminary-level classes with inmate students and later shared a meal in their cafeteria.