What are your feelings about Prison Ministry?

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First of all let me praise God he called me to be A.M.E! I just got off the phone and I have to share this story with you. The phone call was from a minister who runs the local Christian Radio Station in my town. He was asking all the clergy in the area if they would help do prison ministry at our state prison. I immediately said "Yes." He was taken a back because no one else wanted to do prison ministry and many clergy said "the prisoners are just getting what they deserve" When the pastor asked me why I said yes, I told him I have done Prison Ministry in the past, I like it, and the mission statement of my denomination says we will go to the prisons. He was shocked to hear that going to prisons is one of our mandates.He said it would be rough because there were many white supremacists in the prison. I laughed,(he is new to the area)"I said they know who I am!" And I feel God is calling me and my church to show the face of Christ." What are your feeling about Prison Ministry? Is your church active in Prison Ministry?

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2001

Answers

Dear Rev. Rogers,

Your enthusiasm for God's work never ceases to amaze me. It is also very inspiring. I worked briefly with local jail and federal inmates. Although some inmates are sincere, please be careful. Please make sure that a correctional officer is nearby when you are talking to inmates. A correctional officer is a highly trained professional who knows a great deal more than most of us about all aspects of keeping an individual incarcerated. You will find them to be an invaluable resource. I am going to pray that you will have success with this ministry.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001


Jazzman what was your experience when you worked in the prison system. Did you find there were churches doing ministry. Also did you notice a lot of teachings about the Muslim faith. Though I addressed these questions to Jazzman, I am also interested in hearing from others about their observations. Thanks so much!

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001

Dear Rev. Rogers, I worked very briefly at a local jail and a state prison for one month each. I found that the experience was most enlightening about this microcosm of society. It was not an enjoyable experience but rather educational. The correctional officers taught me to very vigilant about what I said to inmates and to not trust anything that the inmates said. For example, if an inmate has an outside appointment with a dentist, etc. You don't tell him when the date and time is for the appointment. Otherwise, he may contact one of his friends on the outside to rendezvous with him at the dentist office for an escape. You certainly, don't want to give out any personal information about yourself because here again, he may contact one of his friends to visit your home while you are visiting him at the prison. You have to keep your contact strictly on a professional level. I would be very wary of requests to contact family members during crisis. These matters have to be verified via the higher eschelon of the correctional administration first. I did not notice any churches doing ministry and that's probably for security reasons. It is not a good thing to have a lot of civilian traffic in and out of prisons. One of the correctional officers told me that people have had articles from ilicit drugs to whole hams smuggled into the prison. I believe that there was a chaplin for regularly scheduled worship services. Unfortunately, I recall that an inmate punched a catholic priest in the face during one of his counseling sessions. For the most part, I did not stay very long because of the psychological effect of being searched everyday before going into the facility and having doors locked behind me once I entered the facility. I also noticed that after hearing lies for two months that I did not believe people on the outside when they were telling me the truth. Please be careful and ask God to protect you while you are visiting the inmates and also to give you the wisdom to know who is genuine about their requests for spiritual counseling.

JazzMan

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001


I will be careful, I have done prison ministry before. And will be going with another minister from my town. When I worked in the criminal court system in New York City, one of the things I noticed was that the Nation of Islam was very prevalent in the jail system, and very fundamentalist church groups were there. One of the reasons I have always been attracted to Prison Ministry, is that one day they are going to get out! And when they come out I want them to know about Jesus Christ!! Thank you jazzman, but don't worry! God has my back! One concern I have about Prison Ministry is this: We know for a fact that African-American men and women are incarcerated at a higher rate than any other portion of the population. It seems to me that we as the body of Christ have to look at Prison Ministry. And there are different ways we can help. I know in the New York City area, when I was there it was hard for family members to get transportation to the state prison. Mothers needed child care etc. There are many ways we can help. I just believe with all of my heart that while our brothers and sisters are in jail and prison. They need to have hope, if we do not do it the Nation of Islam will.

-- Anonymous, July 16, 2001

I'm active in the St. Paul (Columbus) Prison Ministry. We're 6 years old and I've been visiting prisons with the ministry for 5 of those years. We regularly minister in 3 area prisons and occasionally in 3 others.

Prison Ministry can be tremendous blessing. Believe it or not, there are faithful Christians in prison! I do not know if some of them were in the church before they came to prison or if they were converted in prison, but there is a depth of faith for some that is missing in the congregations..and we always leave feeling we have been ministerd to by the inmates.

One unusual situation that I will summarize. One of our former Prison Ministry member's (Ill call him Mike)had a daughter who had been murdered years before the ministry was started. Those who raped and murdered here were given life or long terms.

On one of our visits to an area prison who happened to be sitting near Mike, but one of the men who had murdered his daughter. Mike did not know that he was in this particular prison and I was not present at that particular service, but Mike and his family had long ago forgiven the guy. Yet, it was still what could have been a tense moment, but following the service, they shook hands and embraced.

Truly, God's spirit guided that encounter.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001



Larry thank you so much for sharing your POWERFUL story of forgiveness. Our God is indeed a God of transformation. And thank you for your commitment to prison ministry. And also your church's commitment. I am so proud that are denomination includes prison ministry in our mission statement. Would you mind sharing what you do when you visit, how long is the visit, is there bible study or preaching, etc. thanks. By the way since we both belong to church's called St. Paul, I think it would be hard for us not to do prison ministry, since Paul spent quite a bit of time in Prison;-)!

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

The earlier comments and experiences shared in prison ministry was timely for me. I am involved at this time witnessing to an individual male who is incarcerated. I met him during my involvement with our local "Meals on Wheels" volunteer program of feeding the shut-in. Non-violent prisoners are used at the center to help with duties. I felt for 3 straight months that God was calling me to talk to this certain individual. At the time, I knew that he was wanting to bring me to a higher level in doing "the Great Commission" and I was eager. After this time period, I got up the nerve to go over and ask the young man why he was incarcerated and if God was in his life. He said 'yes' and in the same breath, admitted that He practiced Muslim. Well, to make a long story short, thru my teaching to him plus major help from a Pastor that I introduced him to, the young man has left Muslim behind, is back to his original Christian faith, has read almost all of the New Testament, and is looking forward to getting out soon and feels God is calling him to preach to 'street people'. I see and have always seen something unique in him and believe the best is yet to come for him. He is very intelligent and bold and joyful. The experience has been glorifying to God, yet at the same time, uncomfortable for me at times because of the security issues. I have to pray and believe God everyday for wisdom and discernment. I have trusted him enough that he has my home number and makes collect calls to me. We use the time for Bible Study and he shares with me what he is teaching others there in the prison. They engage in 3 Bible Studies a day there and he is very bold for Christ. He reads poetry to me that he has written. I have mailed Christian material to him that he uses and shares with others. I have visited him once in prison as his wife allowed me to go with her and I thank God that my husband has been understanding, even while being apprehensive, in my wanting God to use me to be a blessing to this young man.

We can't not do what God puts on our hearts to do out of fear. We have to operate in faith. God protects his angels!

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2002


That's wonderful! Anytime I hear of a Muslim led to Christ it makes my day. God bless your ministry.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2002

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