Ministry in a County Jail

I did not start out intending to do jail ministry.  It started because of two brothers, connected to the church I pastored, had lost their way and were in jail at the same time. 

I went in and visited both together.  Their attitude was great.  They were part of a jail self-help program called Lifeline.  They urged me to get involved as a volunteer.  I did. 

I met with the director and visited the program.  It had its own section on the second level of the jail’s big room–what was called the Alpha Unit. 

I was impressed.  The prisoners were in classes, sitting down and quietly doing their assignments.  It reminded me of military discipline.  I was asked to come in and teach them Bible studies, giving spiritual/moral input to round out their other studies.  They were good listeners. 

Unfortunately, at some point the program lost its funding and was disbanded.  What would I do now?  Quit going to the jail? 

I decided to continue, if the warden would allow it, which he did.  We had agreed that I would have use of a little room on the lower level of the Alpha Unit.  I’d walk into the big room and yell, “Bible Study!” and see who showed up. 

This change seemed a little risky, but not because of safety reasons.  A county jail is not like a state prison.  The situation is considerably more low-key.  The prisoners (if memory serves me correctly) were not in there for major offenses like murder.  My impression is that it was mostly drug and alcohol related crimes.  And the longest they could serve was 364 days.  After that they had to be released or sent to another facility.  It was not a high-stress environment. 

The change seemed risky because I no longer had a built-in audience.  It would now be strictly voluntary, outside the structured environment of the Lifeline program.  Would anyone show up?  The prisoners would earn no brownie points if they attended and no negatives if they didn’t.

But they did show up.  Sometimes the room was full, sometimes not.  We’d pray and I’d teach a modified, shortened lesson from one I’d previously taught at church.  Here’s a sample: Jail study

Because of turnover and other factors, you could never predict the group. 

Through my interaction with the prisoners, it seemed that the common thread of their troubles came (not just from doing wrong–that goes without saying) from being around bad people.  They had ‘friends’ who led them into temptation.  Eventually I formulated some advice that I would say time and again to the ever-changing groups.  It went like this: “It is not enough for you guys to stay away from temptation, you have to stay away from the environment that leads to the temptation.”  No one ever disagreed.  This might mean serious and costly action–moving out of a house or moving away from family. 

Did they take the advice?  I don’t know. 

My intention was for the men to attend our church upon their release.  I hoped to be able to minister to them after they got out of jail.  I would tell them where we were located and the time of service. 

Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work–use outside ministry to route people into the church? 

But this did not produce any visits to our services.  Maybe because they got away from bad environments (which would be a good thing).  Or maybe they went to another church.  Or maybe they did not follow through with the spiritual interest they showed while in jail.  In any case, my hopes were not fulfilled in the way I intended. 

But one time, while walking on the street, a man greeted me saying, “You remember me?”  I had to say that I didn’t.  He told me he had attended my Bible studies in the jail.  I probably didn’t remember him probably because he was in regular clothes instead of prison uniform.  He thanked me for having those studies.  That made my day.

Another time, when I was in Wal Mart, a different man stopped me.  He also attended the studies in the jail and thanked me for doing them. 

Again, it made my day. 

I thought back about those two encounters–those two men would probably not have sought me out to say hi if they were still in bad lifestyles.  If they were still living sinful lives, I think they would have avoided me. 

Maybe some good was done among the men after all, maybe more than I knew, even though my desire to plug them into the church did not work out as planned.

When we do God’s work, the returns may seem meager.  The tide of evil seems so strong.  The discouragements are many and we wonder if we are doing any good.  But nothing done for God is wasted.  This brings to mind the scripture: “Who despises the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10). 

Our responsibility is to keep doing good, sowing the seed and leaving the results to God.  “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up,” (Galatians 6:9).