You might have heard the saying that the Church is God’s plan A for continuing Christ’s redeeming work in the world—and there is no plan B. As the outgoing leader of Prison Fellowship, I can attest to the truth of that statement, and it’s a lesson we had to relearn during my tenure with the ministry. As I shared last month, the Prison Fellowship team and I took on four major initiatives during our transition from being a founder-led to a mission-led organization under my leadership:
Growing the footprint of the Prison Fellowship Academy,
Ensuring that all our programs are operating at peak efficiency and meeting their primary goals,
Rebuilding the network of churches engaged in serving the incarcerated and their families, and
Improving the culture of the organization.
Today I want to share about our continuing efforts to rebuild the network of churches that faithfully serve the incarcerated and their families.
When I arrived at Prison Fellowship in 2016, I discovered that our church outreach centered on the annual retention and recruitment that took place leading up to Christmas for Prison Fellowship Angel Tree. Since 1982, we have relied on thousands of churches nationwide to help provide a gift and the Gospelto hundreds
of thousands of kids with an incarcerated parent. While this program is crucial for engaging churches with our ministry work, over the years it had become one of the only avenues for church involvement. Most other ministry was carried out by staff or highly involved, individual volunteers.
When Heather Rice-Minus, my soon-to-be successor, approached me about building a church mobilization team, I immediately knew the Lord’s hand was in it. However, it wasn’t until recently that Heather discovered just how much of a Spirit-led decision that was. In preparation for her new leadership role, Heather took the time to review some of the original writings of our founder, Chuck Colson,
that laid out his vision for the ministry. In those writings, he described his belief that the Church would be central to implementing the ministry’s mission. In fact, he predicted that it would only take a few years for the Church to catch his vision and make Prison Fellowship obsolete. We would be the match, but the Church would keep the flame burning.
While we’ve discovered that Prison Fellowship has an ongoing role to play, we’re committed to ensuring that Chuck’s original vision—of the Church as our indispensable partner—is central to our long-term plans.
In the next few months, you’ll hear more from Heather about her vision for continuing to grow our church relationships, but you can rest assured that the work she and her team have done already is bearing fruit across the ministry.
We also recently spoke with Pastor Darron Edwards from United Believers Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He shared about the work he and his congregation do to serve kids in their community who have an incarcerated parent. By partnering with Prison Fellowship Angel Tree at Christmas, they reach 300 boys and girls with the Good News and provide additional services to their families year-round.
There are so many more stories of ways that churches are engaging in the work to restore those affected by crime and incarceration. From hosting Outrageous Justice small groups that unpack the issues around incarceration, to volunteering as facilitators for a Prison Fellowship Academy class, to hosting a Second Chance Sundayto celebrate
Second Chance Month, churches are answering the call in Matthew 25:36 to engage the prisoner. And I’m confident that as Heather takes the helm, the ministry’s commitment to partnering with local churches to bless and be blessed will only continue to grow.
Would you join us in praying that the Lord would continue to move the Church to love mercy and restore hope in prison, joining hands with us as volunteers and
supporters of the work to which we’ve been called? I’m profoundly grateful that you are on this journey with us, and I look forward to sharing one final message with you in a couple of weeks.
Praising Him,
JAMES J. ACKERMAN President and Chief Executive Officer
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