What would you do if...

Let's say you agree with prison reform and with the concept of helping those released from prison reenter society successfully. Maybe you decide to get your church involved in a prison ministry, going into the prisons to work with offenders, perhaps to do Bible study, maybe to teach life skills classes in the hope that you can make a difference in a life gone wrong. Are you thinking, "Good for me!" "Good for my church!" Probably so. And prison ministry is good for you and for your church, but not in the way you may think.

Prison ministry is not just a "feel good" exercise, as my own church quickly learned. Those guys in kakhi outfits are going to be released one day, and when they've served their time, paid their debt, how will my church and yours respond? After all, it's one thing to go into the prisons to visit and quite another to have one of those released inmates walk into your pretty neighborhood sanctuary. I mean, Jesus didn't say, "bring those prisoners into the temple," he said, "visit those in prison." Right? I wonder what that reasoning would have meant for Paul? Not only did Paul continue to preach, write, and teach after he was released from prison, Jesus kept him on as a disciple. Wow! And what about all those sinners that Jesus ran around with? Seems to me that Christ meant for us not to abandon our neighbors, any of our neighbors.

This week, I hope my church can find the courage and the faith to be the face of Christ to one of these newly released felons. As a church we won't go into this blindly, or naively. We understand that 5-years inside has changed Michael, and the world outside has also changed. We realize that he went to jail because, for whatever reason, he didn't consider the ramifications of his actions. The fact that he was stoned when he committed his crime doesn't absolve him of his responsibility for that act. The question I want to ask is, what were the circumstances that created his underlying drug adiction to begin with?

Now that he's been drug free for 5-years and completed a substance abuse course, how will he be able to stay clean on the outside? Who will be his mentors? What support systems will he find if not the church? He's going to be out on the streets regardless. So we, the church, have 2 choices as I see it. We can help Michael be accountable for his actions by inviting him into our hearts and our congregation, or we can turn our faces away and pretend not to see him.