New Prison Ministry

Next week I'm starting a new ministry in a local prison on Monday nights. I'm involved in a parachurch ministry on Tuesday nights at a maximum-security prison about seventy miles from home. I'm very thankful that the organization provided me the platform to get back involved in prison ministry after about a decade off (mainly to get my academic career established).

After almost three years of work with them (which is continuing), I wanted to try to write a more distinctly "Lutheran" curriculum, something a little less law-based and nested in the overall theme of Christ's forgiveness. So I'm writing the material now, a couple of weeks of introductory stuff, then a twelve-week program I've titled, "A New Man."

Actually, I'm not all that big on what the men will learn (from me, at least). Rather, my idea is that the study provides the opportunity to visit the men. I talk about Jesus and the Scriptures all the time with my personal friends anyway, so it's not a stretch to fellowship over Christ in a prison setting.

Still, it's the first time I'll be "leading" an effort of this sort, and my organizational capabilities are sizable only in comparison to other academics. So please pray for me, the men, and the other volunteer.