All of us need good men in our lives and especially men who, at one point in their lives, have lost their way. Our prison ministry was born out of a deep desire to see men in prison know Jesus and be discipled. It grew out of a ministry from a large area church that developed a multi-campus strategy to deliver Sunday services in prisons across Alabama. As a complement to the Sunday services, our team works with local community volunteers to provide weekly discipleship through small groups.
The foundational truths we teach incarcerated men are from the book The True Measure of a Man - Prison Edition, by our own Richard E. Simmons III. The prison edition of the book is tailored to help men behind bars understand that their identity and worth in Christ transcends their crime, their cell and their inmate number. And we coach them on understanding that God can and will do mighty things through their lives exactly where they are. We have also been diligently focusing on equipping men in the prison system to be discipleship leaders to the men around them.
The ministry has grown significantly in recent years, spreading into Georgia, as well as Alabama, as other corrections leaders in the Southeast have also become interested in the ministry.
Young men desperately need a healthy direction for their lives, and without it, they are much more likely to end up off-course. Youth@Risk is a program where we train and equip adult men in surrounding communities to mentor younger men weekly — especially those that are fatherless and/or have been abandoned — in an effort to keep them on track, out of trouble and focused on making intentional decisions that will have positive and rewarding outcomes.
