Being Church Behind Prison Walls: Survival Theology, Prisoners, and Policymakers By: Karl Robinson Being Church Behind Prison Walls: Survival Theology, Prisoners, and Policymakers is a survivalist practical ministry manifesto for incarcerated Black men, their families, and religious social policymakers. The book probes the question of what love looks like in a disgusting prison setting and demonstrates how religious and social policymakers can improve rehabilitation initiatives. Readers will be inspired to think about prison reform in fresh ways using the Centered Prayer model, religious imagination and self-help initiatives rooted in historical memory.
Building Church Behind the Walls is written as a guidebook to developing churches inside prisons. This book lines out the steps to effectively lay foundations for a true church within the walls of a prison and leads the reader in a step-by-step process of partnering with Jesus in establishing kingdom centers behind the walls. Few individuals stop to consider the impact that prisoners could have on this world. These are men and women of passion and knowledge in the Word of God. Many have spent a long time growing in their faith, giving themselves to study of the Word, and service in the kingdom of God. In this book, you will learn the importance of developing a church behind the walls. You will learn how to lay proper foundations, step over obstacles that are unique to prisons, and ultimately, how to mine out the kingdom recourses in the recently released individuals that may come to your church. Because the foundational elements of a church are the same, whether in or out of prison, this book will serve as a great informative guide for any minister. Written in a simple conversational tone, Building Church Behind the Walls is an easy read that is packed with powerful information. As you read it, you will find creative ways to become intentional in the development of any ministry and ways to bring your leaders into greater acceleration in their calling.
Behind Prison Walls: Inmate Number 27773-016 is my expression and experience in prison. During my wilderness experience, I had to rely on God like never before. It was my breaking point; God was then able to speak to me where I wasn't able to run. I tried boxing with God, but I soon realized my arms where to short to box with God, so I begin to let go and let God.
My name is Bobby Jimmerson. My book is about my life and life on drugs. I was in love with rock cocaine that I use five hundred or more a day. I want the readers to know what the life on drugs will do to you. I need the world to know that drugs will only make you do things you would not have done. If it was not for the drugs I took from my wife and kids lied to get money to get more dope I even took from my own mother. I went to prison for two years, came home, went back to the drug--my lover rock cocaine--then in back up in prison for five years. So you see, my mind was not made up to be done with the cocaine, so I ended back up in prison with twenty-five years to life under the three-strike law for taking from people's homes. As you read the book, you will see where I once was, then you will see the changes get done in my life. The only thing I want to do now is to help others stay off drugs and out of gangs. This way, they will stay out of prison or out of the grave. If God changed my heart, he can do the same for you. I need my life to be a light now and the world to see there can be changed. We can't do it on our own. Try Jesus. He won't let you down. That's what the book is all about--the change that God has done in my life. God bless you, and I pray that you enjoy what you read. It's about change.
Drawing on work from inside some of America’s largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future. The authors’ expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs—to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.
It Was Supposed to be a Four-Day Visit It turned into a 445-day imprisonment. And if God had not intervened, he would have been there for the rest of his life. In December 2015, Petr Jasek traveled to Khartoum, Sudan, to evaluate how The Voice of the Martyrs—a ministry he had served with since 2002—could help and encourage persecuted Sudanese Christians. Pleased with his meetings with local pastors and other Christians, Petr checked in for his flight home to the Czech Republic. But before he could board the plane, he was summoned for questioning by Sudanese security agents. They wanted to know more about his activities in the country—activities that, if disclosed, could endanger the Christians with whom he had met. Petr soon realized he was facing much more than a routine security screening. The guards took his computer, phone, and camera before quickly discovering his second passport. Later, his interrogators showed him photos of each meeting he had arranged during his four days in Sudan; he had been under surveillance from the moment he arrived. Taken into custody, Petr knew he would not be returning to his family anytime soon. Charged with espionage, waging war against the state, and undermining the constitution, he was locked up with ISIS fighters, convicted after a lengthy trial, and sentenced to life in prison. Now Petr shares the harrowing but inspiring story of how God sustained his strength and courage while giving him a new purpose during his ordeal—and then opened the prison doors and set him free.
Charles Colson has been called, "one of the most important social reformers in a generation." Ten years ago in The Body, Colson turned his prophetic attention to the church and how it might break out of its cultural captivity and reassert its biblical identity. Today the book's classic truths have not changed. But the world we live in has. Christians in America have had their complacency shattered and their beliefs challenged. Around the world, the clash of world views has never been more strident. Before all of us, daily, are the realities of life and death, terror and hope, light and darkness, brokenness and healing. We cannot withdraw to the comfort of our sanctuaries...we must engage. For, if ever there was a time for Christians to be the Body of Christ in the world, it is now. In this new, revised and expanded edition of The Body, Charles Colson revisits the question, "What is the church and what is its relevance to contemporary culture at large?" Provocative and insightful, Being the Body inspires us to rise above a stunted "Jesus and me" faith to a nobler view of something bigger and grander than ourselves--the glorious, holy vision for which God created the church. Hardcover ISBN 0849917522
This book tells the story of Phillip Hicks who lived the life of the prodigal son that let him to a sentence of life plus 15 years and sent to a maximum security prison. He found Jesus during this time, told the truth at his trial and was miraculously released from prison. An incredible story that will show God's amazing grace and mercy. Filled with miracle after miracle, you will learn how the truth will set you free.
Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh knew they were putting their lives on the line. Islamic laws in Iran forbade them from sharing their Christian beliefs, but in three years, they’d covertly put New Testaments into the hands of twenty thousand of their countrymen and started two secret house churches. In 2009, they were finally arrested and held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, a place where inmates are routinely tortured and executions are commonplace. In the face of ruthless interrogations, persecution, and a death sentence, Maryam and Marziyeh chose to take the radical—and dangerous—step of sharing their faith inside the very walls of the government stronghold that was meant to silence them. In Captive in Iran, two courageous Iranian women recount how God used their 259 days in Evin Prison to shine His light into one of the world’s darkest places, giving hope to those who had lost everything and showing love to those in despair.
