8:20 AM Looking around, it seems the prison ministry population is greying along with the prison population. Most workers seem to be in their late 40s and up. While this is a sign of the longevity of prison ministry workers (most have been involved for many years), it also raises questions about the next generation of prison workers. As the prison population grows, the need for workers grows as well. More than ever, we need to ask the Lord of harvest to send forth reapers.
8:36 AM Still waiting for the opening assembly to start...it appears it doesn’t matter what the activity: if it’s Church of Christ, it’s going to start late (and involve food, but that’s for another posting).
8:43 AM Finally starting...now comes my favorite part of any assembly: the singing. It’s worth coming to a workshop just to hear the singing. People who come to the workshops are workers in the trenches. We share the joys and sorrows of prison ministry, and it shows in the fervor of our singing, even without songbooks.
- When Morning Comes: “We will understand it better by and by.” Prison ministry is not for those looking for short term results. We are sowers and waterers. God brings the harvest in His time, in His way.
- Victory in Jesus: In prison, as well as everywhere else, victory comes through Jesus and Jesus alone. Every person who comes to Him is another victory, not for us, but for God.
9:03 AM The first speaker: Patrick Mead, who just woke us up by the loudest feedback squawk in recent memory. He believes Christians should not use Macs because “Heaven isn’t here yet and Christians should suffer along with the rest of the world.” He reminded us of Victor Frankl and the importance of choosing what we’re going to see and how we’ll respond to it.
“Why are you eating that Krispy Kreme doughnut? It will kill you.” “What’s the downside? If I eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut, I’ll see Jesus sooner. So if you’re drinking a V-8, are you trying to avoid Jesus?”
Prison ministry is about helping people make better decisions. People in prison, for the most part, are people who have made bad decisions and have been caught (unlike the rest of us, who make bad decisions and don’t get caught). They need help to break the cycle: that’s what we do. The only thing we truly have is the power to choose. Give them a reason to choose Jesus Christ.
As prison workers, we help inmates understand the God we’ve got, not the God we’d like to have. We help them understand that God will be with us, no matter where we are. The gift of God is initimacy: His abiding presence. God may not give us what we want, but He’ll be there for us. It doesn’t matter where we are: God has not forgotten us.
As prison workers, we help inmates understand they have a job to do, even in prison. God has put us where we are for a reason; He has work for us to do. Marshall Keeble: “God wouldn’t have given us an eternity of rest unless He figured we’re going to need it.” We do good regardless of the reaction of others. I do good because I’ve chosen to do good, because that’s what God wants me to do, not just the easy stuff, but the hard work.
Takeaway Thought: In Hebrews 11, every time there’s a “by faith,” there a verb. Faith leads to action. By faith, what am I supposed to do here? What’s my verb? The world’s verbs: lust, kill, steal... The Lord’s verbs: love, bless, serve...
9:53 AM Decisions, decisions: so many good classes, all at the same time. I’m in When You Mess Up, Fess Up, taught by Duvon Jones. It’s based on II Samuel 11-12 (David and Bathsheba). Duvon calls this a workshop and he’s not kidding. First, he’s rearranged the room so we all have to look at each other. Second, he’s got us standing and holding a Bible at arm’s length. Lesson: holding a lightweight Bible at arm’s length gets tiring very fast. So does guilt: it weighs us down. Messing up (sin) is cancerous and cantankerous. It stays with us, sticks to us and festers. We may try to ignore it or recategorize it (switch hands, pull the arm in), but it’s still there attacking us.
Confession is admitting our guilt, taking ownership of our own mess ups. It takes away the constraints of humiliation, embarrassment and fear. Confession is scary, but it’s liberating, releasing, relieving and relaxing. All sin is against God, so confession begins with Him. Confession doesn’t free us from the consequences of our mess ups, but it liberates us from the guilt and that allows us to relax: to do what we need to be doing.
To minimize (not eliminate) mess ups, our hearts need to be reprogrammed. What happens when you add a spoon of water to half a glass of Coke? Nothing. What happens when you add a spoon of Coke to half a glass of water? It changes color slightly: it’s tarnished. A little bit of sin tarnishes our lives. It takes a lot of water to change the color of a glass of Coke. It takes a lot of God’s word to reprogram a heart full of passions and desires. How long does it take? The rest of our lives, perhaps...as long as it takes.
Takeaway Thought: Psalm 1: What we delight in, we bite in. What keeps us rooted in God? A constant meditation (tuning in) on the word of God.
10:50 AM Good lessons, good fellowship, renewing old acquaintances: what more can one ask? Next class: The Spirit and Energy of Self-Improvement, taught by Clyde Mayberry. He’s stuck sitting, due to the exigencies of the recording process. “I feel like I’m at a press conference.” He’s a bereavement counselor, with a book (Final Countdown) due out later this year.
It takes more than wanting to do better to do better. It takes a change of mind. Job’s friends were focused on the doctrine of retaliation: if you’re good, God will bless you. If you do bad, God will punish you. Their reasoning was flawed. Change starts from within, but knowledge is not enough. There’s an energy, a will, that leads us to change, like the fuse lit at the beginning of every Mission: Impossible episode (the first time I’ve heard Mission: Impossible used as a church-related illustration).
Why don’t people change when we help them? Because, like the prodigal son, people are only willing to change when they’re tired of their current situation. If the desire is not there, there will be no change. To improve, we must be willing to change. There are three groups of people:
- those who make things happen (made mistakes and learned from them)
- those who watch things happen (afraid to engage, in a comfort zone, mediocre)
- those who ask, “What happened?” (not interested in changing, only in blaming)
From Albert Ellis to Job: an event takes place and we respond. However, there’s a step in between: our belief about what the event means. Our belief determines our response to an event, not the event itself. Our environment creates the events in our lives. Our beliefs determine our response to them. The event (“I live in a bad neighborhood.”) can be an excuse, but we have a choice. Excuses hinder us and cause us to be stuck in the past. Our challenge: help people work from the future (what we can be through Christ) to erase the past (what we’ve been) and establish the present (what we need to do to be where we want to be).
Takeaway Thought:If I understand I’m created in the image of God and that I can have access to Him and His power, that changes the game. Coming to Christ is a reconciliation. We started out in relationship with God. Sin broke that relationship. Christ reestablishes it. If my beliefs have changed, my responses will follow.
Lunch break I’ll post the afternoon sessions in another entry (I don’t want you to get carpal tunnel syndrome from clicking the scroll bar too much).
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