Prison Ministry Workshop: Thursday PM

Starting pretty much on time after lunch: not bad (and lunch at Max & Erma’s was pretty good, too...but that’s for another post). We had a great conversation with Buck Griffith and John Henry Pruitt on some our challenges at Butner. One of the pleasures of the workshops is the chance to talk with others in the trenches and get encouragement and insights. And now, on with the Workshop...

1:33 PM First up: Buck Griffith talking about New Life Behavior. NLB is a curriculum based program with the aim of helping people change their lives. It’s not an evangelistic tool. NLB tries to change the way people live, not their relationship to Christ. A lot of people want to show up at prisons on Sunday and baptize all the inmates, but not many want to show up on Monday, Tuesday, etc. to help them become better people.

An interesting insight: NLB no longer has a national workshop. Instead, people from NLB attend state level NLB workshops. The reason is, for a given state, the number of people attending the state workshop matches the total number of people attending the national workshop.

Even more interesting: NLB is staffed entirely by volunteers. They don’t spend money on staff or facilities (hosted by a congregation in Corpus Christi), but focus monetary resources on developing training materials, distributing them and training people to teach them. The materials are offered with a perpetual license for a very low fee. Missionaries pay nothing for the materials.

Takeaway Thought (my own, not Buck’s): Christian outreach is about more than evangelism. We serve people in many ways and in many areas. Jesus helped people because they needed help, not so they would become disciples. What is our motive for helping people?

2:36 PM Next up: James Burrus on Be Transformed. The focus is the story of the prodigal son. Without a transformation of heart, inmates will tend to return to crime after their incarceration. That is true for all of us: without transformation, we’ll continue to follow the same bad ways. Transformation must involve the entire church. Men and women (and their families) whose lives have been transformed by the power of God will need the support of the church during and after their incarcerations. Just as the father welcomed the prodigal with open arms, we have to welcome our returning brothers and sisters.

The presentation included many people offering their insights on integrating ex-offenders within the church, including a small debate on whether ex-offenders should let the congregation know their status. While Burrus urges ex-offenders to stand up and tell people the story of their transformation, others feel it better not to publicize it for fear of people in the congregation shunning them. How should we, as the elder brother in the story, respond to the returning prodigal?

Interesting insight: We believe “the prayer of a righteous man avails much.” If so, why aren’t we doing much more praying, especially in the assembly, for those who need our help?

One of the things I like about prison ministry workshops is that it consists of folks in the trenches who care deeply about offenders and ex-offenders and don’t mind talking about that concern. The lively discussion taking place in this class is a prime example of this: people aren’t arguing, but are sharing their viewpoints, listening to each other and learning from each other. We’re not talking theology here: we’re talking people’s souls. It’s serious stuff, and people take it seriously. It’s also pragmatic stuff: how do we deal right here, right now, with people who are trying to transform their lives?

Accountability is key in helping ex-offenders integrate into society and the church. That is a key element of transformation: a Christian who wants to live a transformed life needs limits and boundaries. We need to make clear that, for certain behaviors, there is no choice.

Takeaway Thought: Prisoners want the transformed lives we have. We’re called to make sure they see that transformation in our lives.

3:34 PM The final event of the day is a panel discussion on dealing with sex offenders. Panelists are: Paula Ramsey (attorney), Curtis Skinner (law enforcement), Willie Washington (elder) and Ken Johnson (clinical psychologist). Some of the items discussed:

What are sex offenses? Touching another’s private parts without their consent (including rape), touching the private parts of someone significantly younger, two minors engaging in such activity where one is not consenting or is unable to give consent, exposing oneself to another without consent, exposing oneself to a minor, voyeurism, creating or owning child pornography.

Sex offenders have a much higher recidivism rate than other offenders. Hence, it’s important for the community to know when a sex offender is in the neighborhood. Sex offenders need treatment, both in prison and when they’re released. Follow through is important.

A sex offender has to take a hard look at himself/herself. But, then, each one of us needs to do that daily: who am I today? what’s motivating me? why do I do things I don’t want to do? Treatment should have as an end result knowing why offenders do what they do and how to change that behavior. If we can change how a person thinks, we can change that person’s behavior. What’s important, then, is changing how we think, not focusing on changing behavior.

How to help the families? Counseling and other programs are available for psychological help, but it’s up to the church to help with the spiritual healing. In addition, the church should make families aware of programs and help them take advantage of them.

How prepared are churches to deal with ex-offenders? In general, not at all. Leaders in the church don’t understand the seriousness of the challenges. It’s hard to share with a congregation that a sex offender is a member because that person can become a pariah. The leadership needs to know if a registered offender is part of the congregation and needs to talk to him/her to let them know the congregation’s expectations. The key thing to know is if the offender has been clinically diagnosed and if the offender is in therapy. Most important: how can the congregation help the offender?

The questions and comments show that dealing with sex offfenders is a growing challenge in the church as the number of offenders and ex-offenders grow. What’s especially disturbing to me is the growing number of female sex offenders and the extra challenges that presents. What’s heartening is that people are concerned about helping ex-offenders and making sure they’re not rejected by their congregations, while still keeping everyone in the congregation safe. “Sin is sin.”

Takeaway Thought: We’re talking about people, not “offenders.” More importantly, we’re talking about souls.