This week on The Ministry Growth Show, we’re joined by Jon Evans, President of Good News Jail & Prison Ministry. In this episode, Jon shares his thoughts, insights, and expertise on mass incarceration, recidivism, and disciple-making among an ever-growing population. Throughout scripture, we are called to care for and serve the prisoner, and yet this is an incredibly underserved population. Good News Jail & Prison Ministry is answering that call, and they are doing it globally.
Relevant Resources:
Good News Jail and Prison Ministry
Transcription:
SPEAKERS: Zachary Leighton and Jonathan Evans
Intro: You’re listening to the ministry grow show brought to you by reliant creative, the creative agency for gospel centered ministries. Find out more at Reliant creative.org.
Transcription:
Zachary Leighton 00:09
Welcome to the ministry grow show, a podcast dedicated to helping churches and ministries grow and make more effective impacts for the kingdom of God, and an ever changing digital world. Whether you’re building and growing a gospel centered ministry or leading a church, if you want insight into the strategies, struggles, challenges and successes of other ministry leaders, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome back to the ministry growth Show. Today on the show, I’m going to be talking with John Evans. He’s the president of good news, prison and jail ministry. John, thanks for being on the show. Well, thanks, Zack. Glad to be with you. Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about the ministry? Maybe Why does good news jails and prisons ministry exist? And what do you guys do? Sure. Founded in 1961.
jonathan 01:02
Our ministry focuses on placing chaplains in jails in the United States and then in jails and prisons around the world in order to minister to the spiritual needs of inmates and staff, particularly sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them.
Zachary Leighton 01:17
Okay, so So there’s an emphasis on chaplaincy.
jonathan 01:22
That’s correct. So the chaplains are our staff members, and they go into government spaces at invitation. And they have the opportunity to share the gospel lead Bible studies pray with people. In the US all of our chaplains serve as the chaplain of record inside of the facilities where they serve.
Zachary Leighton 01:41
Okay. And from the, from your website. It looks like you guys are an international organization, what does that look like on an international scale?
jonathan 01:53
So the Lord’s opened up doors primarily in the last 20 years all around the globe where people involved in prison ministry reached out to us and hey, can you come help us? Can you equip us? Can you train us? Can you guide us? Can you resource us and so we’ve come alongside pre existing ministries in most of these countries, and provide a training equipping strategy resources to to help them to be more effective. Overseas, some of our chaplains overseas are full time. But many of them are working from the community, mobilizing churches, and then bringing people inside the African continent, for example, for instance, many of the countries actually have chaplains, people who are assigned to be religious program leaders. But our folks bring the gospel, they bring Community Bible studies, they bring other programs in on a weekly basis in order to disciple and evangelize and then work with the church community to be aware of the needs of inmates and then also to equip the church to send volunteers in. So a little bit of a hybrid role overseas a little bit different than what we do in the US.
Zachary Leighton 03:05
Okay, so there’s there’s just depends like, sometimes it’s volunteers, sometimes it’s local national partners, and sometimes it’s staff.
jonathan 03:14
Correct? Correct. In the US, it’s all staff oversees it. There’s a whole variety of ways that we come alongside the church and try to impact the community behind bars.
Zachary Leighton 03:26
Interesting, do you? I’m sure you guys run into, depending on the country that you’re working within different barriers to entry with every country? Yeah.
jonathan 03:37
Oh, there are absolutely. And when you’re in a war zone, we have chaplains in the Ukraine. We have a couple of teams who serve in Russia. We have chaplains in Pakistan, we have chaplains of Venezuela. So the economics, the political climate, all of it has some impact on when we can go how we go, where we can go and the extent of the ministry. So yeah, there’s a large variance overseas.
Zachary Leighton 04:05
Interesting. Yeah. And so you’re, I’m sure you guys are leaning heavily on those national partners to provide guidance in those in those areas that are the uniqueness within each country that that arises. Yeah.
jonathan 04:20
Yeah. And our function overseas has always been to train up nationals. So we have no Americans overseas, everybody overseas is ministering inside of their own culture and context. So we’re coming alongside of them, to help them Minister more effectively with a community that they’re much more familiar with than we are.
Zachary Leighton 04:41
Okay. And then within the states, what was what’s the thought process behind only working with staff chaplains versus partnering with other chaplaincies organizations that might already exist in any given region?
jonathan 05:00
Well, in the jails space, we have over 3000 jails in the United States. So that’s separate from the state prisons where there’s about 1000 of those. And then the federal system where there’s a couple 100. Every county basically has a jail in the United States, or every town. And so it’s a space where there are very few organizations that have any more than one chaplain in one county. There’s a couple that are statewide. But we’re the only organization that we know of that crosses county lines and crosses state lines. We have chaplains in 22 states. So we have the largest chaplaincy force about 75 in the US ministering in the in the community jail in the county jail space. So there’s just not a lot of people to join with. There’s a lot of landscape there plenty of places to be. Yeah, we’re only touching about 100 of those 3000 facilities. So there’s a lot of a lot of independence, because there’s just not a lot of people who are who are working in the same spaces.
Zachary Leighton 06:04
Interesting. All right, cool. So as we start a conversation today, can you share some of your background with us and give us some context for maybe some of the topics that we’ll discuss today? How did you get into this ministry? How’d you get started working with good news, jail and prison ministry?
jonathan 06:23
Sure. I. So I was a Bible college and seminary grad. And the Lord launched me into business. So I spent 16 years in the defense industry, working as a contractor ended up as chief operating officer of a division of one of the largest contractors in the US. But I began going to jail in the year 2000, and never been to jail, didn’t know anybody had been to jail, I went in with a friend of mine to lead a Bible study. And that was my first exposure to jail population. It was my first time sharing the gospel with the jail population and rubbing shoulders with people that maybe I’d seen people on the street, but I didn’t know that they’d been to jail because nobody knows about these things. And so got involved with the chaplains who are responsible for bringing the volunteers in, and then got involved with the organization as a member of the board of directors. And then when the position opened in 2012, my predecessor retired Lord led me out of the business world and then back into the to the ministry space. So that’s how I got involved. So I joined the staff, nine and a half years ago. Okay, so that’s how I went from volunteer to now seeking to serve and support 300 chaplains here and around the world.
Zachary Leighton 07:46
Interesting. That’s cool journey. I mean, we could have a whole nother podcast on your defense contractor, businessman side of things that would be really interesting to learn about.
jonathan 07:58
Well, it’s interesting, you know, the Lord prepares us all in unique ways. And in that role, I prepared for remote operations prepared for working with teams that are scattered. The last several years, we had a couple of divisions of ours that were overseas, I’ve got exposure to rules and regulations of working overseas. So while it wouldn’t seem to line up, it was pretty interesting how the Lord takes all of that and prepares me to sit in this seat. So it was kind of Yeah, a wonderful journey journey.
Zachary Leighton 08:33
That’s cool. That’s cool. Yeah, it’s always one of the cool things about this podcast is is meeting leaders of organizations who have either been in ministry and entered into the business world, or vice versa. And to see as they share their stories, to see how God like was clearly working in and through their career path, to set them up for what they’ve been doing in ministry maybe later in life. And, and all the skills, knowledge, experience, insights that they gained early in that career, to set them up for oftentimes, maybe the second half of their career in ministry, in really, really unique and cool ways. So it’s, it’s, that’s one of the fun parts about the show is getting to see those stories and how God is always just orchestrating and really creative ways to set his people up for serving in investing in the kingdom. So your story is just like a lot of leaders that I’ve talked to you it’s been it’s been cool to see. Now, you met, we mentioned this, this. You’re in state work that you guys are in country work that you guys do and then your international work. What are some of the main factors content contributing to the high rate of incarceration in the United States compared to other countries? What are some of those nuances that you notice between the two?
jonathan 09:57
Right in the US, we call it mass incarceration. because we have the largest number of people behind bars and the largest per capita count. So no matter how you measure it, we’re the best at it. And that’s unfortunate. The growth and incarceration United States actually dates back into the 70s, as both sides of the political aisle began to become tough on crime, the war on drugs, all of these are buzzwords that you heard, these are the things that began to increase the jail population, three strikes and you’re out. mandatory minimums. All of these were movements that had public safety in mind, in terms of protecting the public and punishing offenders. But the unforeseen, perhaps, or the unintended consequence, is the reality of placing all of these people behind bars today, there’s over 1.8 million Americans who are behind bars on a daily basis. And so good intentions, have led to an increase in the jail and the prison population significantly. The challenge that we face across the board, and you can ask any corrections official on the planet, most would agree with me, the problem is, is that incarceration doesn’t work as a concept, take a bunch of people that have done something, lock them up with a bunch of other people who’ve done something else, hold them for a period of time, then release them and expect them to behave differently. Little to no chance that that’s going to have any redeeming effect upon the individual. And yet, no one’s really come up with a better system dates all the way back to the book of Genesis, you know, Book of Genesis, prisons existed, so prisons seemingly have existed so long as civilization, and cities, towns, countries have have been on the planet. So the challenge will be of all these people who are behind bars in the US, we have a concept that in and of itself does not reform the individual. So that contributes significantly to the biggest problem, which is recidivism, people being released, and then ultimately returning typically, in short order. And so it’s a perpetual problem that the government continues to, to work on. But we know as believers that the true problem is the heart of man. And so that’s really where our opportunity is, is that we believe that when the hardest change, then behavior change, then you have a chance for an individual to walk in a new path, then you have an opportunity for the family to be restored, then you have an opportunity for communities to be restored. But there has to be a change inside of that individual in that. And that only comes through faith in Christ. So that’s our message. That’s our method. And so that’s, that’s what we’re, we’re shooting for here.
Zachary Leighton 13:11
And so within that, that method, you’ve mentioned evangelism, you’ve mentioned discipleship, what are some of the the disciplemaking models that you guys are using within within your strategies?
jonathan 13:24
So one of the biggest challenges in the jail was that the typical stay the average day is about 30 days. And that includes all of the people that are there for 24 hours and and the length of stay in a state facility or in a county facility is typically less than two years, 18 months max in terms of sentence. So that doesn’t give the chaplains always a lot of time to work on. We’ll say a long standing discipleship program, we have a couple of chaplains that serve inside of the Colorado State system. Two of them are at Lyman Correctional Facility. Well, Lyman is for the worst of the worst, mostly lifers. So they got a lifetime of ministry opportunities with the same population who isn’t going anywhere. So in the jail is a little bit different. One of the tools that we use that we’ve been producing for years is we have a Bible Correspondence program. So it’s a self paced program, whereby the individual is working through as many as 400 different Bible lessons starts with the book of John and they work their way through that. So they’re constantly looking at the Scripture. The studies do not direct them to what do you think about this, direct them to what does the Scripture actually say? So that they’re repeating it over and over, because in a jail and like in a prison, there’s very little movement of free freedom of movement. And so individuals are confined to their cell or their pod significantly. And so they can’t go in most facilities to go find the chaplain or reach out to resources, the resources kind of have to go to them so particular during COVID
Zachary Leighton 14:57
meetings, either less than two minutes.
jonathan 15:01
Yeah. So Bible studies, as small groups, Bible lessons on a self paced level, those are two of the key components that we utilize.
Zachary Leighton 15:12
Okay. So really allowing the, the Holy Spirit to work through the Word.
jonathan 15:19
Correct. And so it’s the word of God that we want to drive them to, not to not a book that tells them about the Bible, but actually to the word itself.
Zachary Leighton 15:27
Interesting. Okay, cool. And as you guys have grown and developed the ministry, what are some of the challenges and struggles you faced? Obviously, that being one of them, but what are some of the other things that are their struggle? Do you find that there’s a lot of misconception on the donor side with with prisons and jails and what’s going on with the incarcerated in both our country and otherwise, there are a lot of education that needs to take place to help them understand what’s really going on and, and how broken the system is.
jonathan 16:02
We don’t focus on the system so much as the individual, because the system is what the system is, and that by virtue of our role inside of a jail, particularly, we’re kind of the neutral third party. We are not pro administration or anti administration. We’re not pro inmate, anti inmate, we’re not pro police, anti police. I mean, we’re, we’re pro the truth, right? We’re pro God’s goodness, and God’s love to whomever is is willing, we believe in peace. We believe in justice, we believe in all of those things. But we’re not for or against any element of it, recognizing the system is flawed. But the United States we have the most fair, most wonderful justice system on the planet. inherently flawed, though, because it’s people, right. So, so there is that the biggest challenges as a ministry are number one, recruiting people. Our founder, made the statement in 1962. He says, no one ever went to school to become a jail chaplain. And it still holds true that virtually none of our chap went to school with that intention, probably other than one or two of them. We have a couple of guys who were formerly incarcerated, and they came out of their incarceration and said, I want to minister as a chaplain went to school just for that. But for the vast majority of our of our chaplains, that isn’t how God moved. So getting people to think about this as a as a ministry opportunity is a significant challenge. In the United States, I would say by and large, the church is sympathetic toward the plight of the incarcerated, probably because it is such a, an economic problem, a social problem, because of the size of it, right? Mass incarceration, incarceration has not spoken of in positive terms, right. So most everybody looks at the individuals and has a measure of sympathy, empathy, what have you, toward the people who are behind bars, even ones that have done, you know, committed horrific things overseas, though, it’s dramatically different. Partly because overseas, the people who are being incarcerated, and jailed or placed in prison for a long time have done pretty significant things. They don’t arrest people for all the same petty things that we arrested before in the US. And so for many, the church overseas is more of a lock them up and throw away the key. So there’s a whole education process about remembering what the Great Commission is remembering about the Forgotten peoples that Christ spoke of in Matthew 25. When he reminds people oh, by the way, yes, the sick, the hungry, the thirsty, but there’s the prisoner as well, that I want you to remember. And that will be a reflection of your faith, how you treat them. So there’s an education in that regard. I think the education that we do in the US is more toward what we do specifically and what the opportunity is. And the reality that if your local jail has a daily headcount of 400, there’s four or 5000 people who will pass behind those bars in a given year, with all the arrests and so on. And by virtue of having a chaplain, particularly one like a good news chaplain in that facility, every one of those four or 5000 people at a dark point in their life will have an opportunity to hear the gospel, receive a Bible, have someone pray with them or talk about spiritual things if they care to take out the chaplain. We’re not funded by the government because there are no local jails that I know of. That currently staff There chaplaincy with a government person, doesn’t mean there isn’t one I don’t know of any good. We work inside of 100 of them. So there are probably some out there, but I don’t know of any personally. So they need to provide for religious programming. But most can’t do what we do. And that’s why we exist, we step into that space, and provide all of the programming needs and expectations for the facility for all of the religious programming in the form of a good news chaplain. So,
Zachary Leighton 20:35
okay. And we talked about this a little bit already, but how can chaplaincy programs and local jails and prisons help reduce recidivism rates among the incarcerated.
jonathan 20:49
So it provides a pro social, spiritual program for them. So even if they don’t embrace the gospel fully, they still are introduced to concepts, which will enlighten them, encourage them, redirect them cause them to think differently about how they are living their lives. I was in a fate we have a couple of faith pods, most jails can’t have them. But we have a few around the country that we operate, we call them life learning programs. Omaha, Nebraska, a guy stood up sharing his testimony. He says My plan is I’ve been in jail for last seven years, my plan was to come in, do my time go back out just like ignore and do what I normally do it in this program, where they’re studying life, from a biblical perspective, 40 hours a week, he says in this program, I’ve discovered there’s another way to live. Now you and I would think that to be nothing, of course, there’s another way to live. But if you come from a particular neighborhood, or particular family, or particular background or particular mindset, and that’s the way that you live and operate, there may be other alternatives, but they’re outside of your reach, they’ll try to side of your understanding. And so the gospel message can transform the heart. And that sets you on a path to something completely new, where God by His grace is going to work in through your life, but just by you being introduced to biblical concepts of responsibility, and accountability, and love and relationships, all of those things can be transformative in an individual’s life. Even if they don’t embrace you know, we’ll say God’s perspective of their life. So lots of different ways that the gospel message can influence life, the mind and ultimately the behavior of the individual.
Zachary Leighton 22:41
Okay. You mentioned earlier that that many of the people that are incarcerated are coming in and out of jails are coming in for 30 days or less or shorter sentences. But repeatedly, right for a lot of the same offenses. Do you find that those that are coming in on shorter stents 30 days or less but coming in regularly incarcerated regularly or, or, or, versus those that are in for longer periods of time, the success rate of somebody who has had a chance to maybe they’re maybe they’re in in prison for a two year three year stint, they’ve had a chance to go through your programs for that longer period of time, their recidivism is less likely because they’ve had a chance to go through that process for a longer period of time.
jonathan 23:39
I don’t think that there is a predictor that says hey, if you were here for three years, and you do everything that is asked of you, or engage wholly, then it’ll be different than if you came in six times over that same period of time. And were reintroduced to, to the gospel etc. I think it has more to do with when does a person truly place their faith and trust in Christ and not just raise their hand not just say, you know, I want to be different, not just, you know, try to get there Get Out of Jail Free card or whatever the motive may be to say something when it really hasn’t been a heart change. But even when the heart change comes to comes about, they’re still habits and for many behavior that violates the law and ends you up in jail is a habit. When I when I first went as a volunteer, the thing that struck me, one of the things that struck me was that for many my dad was in jail. My mom was in jail. My brother has been in jail. monka has been in jail going to jail. I used to say this was just like graduating from high school in my family. Like my family. We graduate from high school, we went to college, that’s what we did for them, while you just go to jail, it’s just a thing, it just happens to you. And so that was an interesting perspective that I personally could have thought of no worst thing to happen to my life than to end up in jail, right? I can’t think of anything. But for them, it was just kind of par for the course. So there isn’t an understanding of the implications of how that affects your life, and your prospects and so on and your mindset, because it’s kind of ingrained, it’s just, it’s not that big of a deal. So for some, they have to kind of work through all of that and realize, well, wait a second, every time I’m in here, relationships are fractured, opportunities are fractured, you know. And so it takes some a long time to kind of get there and get to that point. And for some, it takes decades, before they finally come to grips with that, you know, we say you finally get to the end of yourself, while the end of yourself sometimes is a long way off. For some of us, it comes very quickly. So there is no standard path. The folks who participate in our in our life learning program, Faith pods, are in a more intensive environment. And some of our chaplains have suggested that the recidivism rate among those graduates who have spent up to 90 days in really intensive instruction and guidance in Biblical understanding is far less than the average. Okay? But the length of stay is really not the key because you know, God just planting seeds for some of us. It took a long time anyways, we were doing we were we weren’t even behind bars, and it just took a long time for the gospel message to really penetrate our heart. So it’s no different when you’re in jail.
Zachary Leighton 26:48
Interesting. Well, this has been really enlightening for me, but let’s take a moment to hear from today’s sponsor. When we get back we’ll continue our discussion. On good news with today’s guest, John Evans. Are you looking to grow your ministry but don’t have the money and marketing knowledge to make that happen? There’s good news. Google offers an advertising grant to churches and ministries that is worth $10,000 per month. This means that if your ministry is a 501 C three nonprofit, you are eligible to receive $120,000 per year free advertising dollars. This allows you to place ads at the top of Google search results pages, and drive 1000s of visitors to your ministry website every month. Our sponsor, click nonprofit helps your ministry acquire this Google Ad grant and then manages your Google ads to ensure you get the most out of the Great. Schedule a free consultation and click on profit.com. To learn more about how this grant can help your specific ministry mentioned the ministry growth. So when you sign up to get 20% off your first three months. Welcome back to the Ministry of growth. So we’ve been talking with John Evans from the good news, jail and prison ministry about connecting ministry connecting and ministering to the incarcerated. John, how can churches and faith based organizations support the work of chaplains in local jails and prisons?
jonathan 28:18
Well, one of the unfortunate and neat things, positive thing that’s available is there’s a local jail and every county in America pretty much and so any church has access to a jail within their community. And so the best way to support any Chaplain is literally to call up the facility. Ask to speak to the chaplain. As a church, you want to get involved in those that God calls us to get involved with. I call them forgotten people groups, well, prisoners are one of them and say, How can we help you? What do you need? Do you need volunteers? Do you need finances? Do you need resources? Do you need Bibles and find out what they need? If there is no chaplain, then there typically is someone. Sometimes it’s called a volunteer coordinator, religious program coordinator that you can get a hold of same questions. How can we help? What can we do? During COVID? Most volunteers have been locked out of jails and prisons from since 2020. And most jails and prisons have not allowed them back in yet. So volunteer access has been extremely limited. And so in our case, our chaplains have been doing the work solo. Typically in a week, our chaplains would facilitate 30 to 40 hours of volunteer time, where volunteers would be coming in and leading Bible Studies and leading services and so on. During COVID It’s all been the chaplain doing it all by themselves. Okay, so as the doors reopen, there may be new opportunities. needs to get involved in some way, shape or form in your local facility. So that’s the first way. They happen to be in a place where good news has a presence. Those same questions apply may have opportunities, but as well, we’re nonprofit. So we always love people who want to give to support the work of Chaplains. As I said earlier, 1000s of people will pass through that facility this year. And if you’d like them to hear the gospel, receive a Bible, talk to someone about spiritual things have that person available, then, you know, you may be able to support that Chaplain financially, praying for them praying for the corrections officers. This is a group of people we actually are seeking to honor the first week of May, Ronald Reagan 1984, declared the first week of May to be corrections officers week. And he made a formal declaration that, hey, we want to honor these folks for the work that they do, the conditions under which they operate. And what’s interesting is 40 years later, as you read his declaration, it everything about that declaration still stands true. They’re long hours, difficult circumstances, stress, danger, impact upon their families, some have stated that they suffer from PTSD. And the implications are greater than people that have served in combat. So we want to honor corrections officers. So if you happen to know a corrections officer thank them for what they do. We call them the first responders that nobody knows about. We think of the police, we think of the firefighters, but we don’t think about corrections officers who are in more dangerous situations, and they don’t have weapons. So they are really in harm’s way and putting themselves in harm’s way to serve serve their community to keep everybody inside and outside of the facility safe. So that’s my little plug for corrections officers, but they do an amazing work. And we are honored to stand with them because they provide a great level of protection and service for us in order for us to go in and do what God’s called us to do.
Zachary Leighton 32:06
Yeah. Do you find that you have opportunity to minister to corrections officers, as your chaplains minister to prisoners and inmates and those that are incarcerated?
jonathan 32:18
We absolutely do. It’s and it’s one of the we’ll say unintended ministry opportunities. You know, anytime you step into a space, there’s always ministry opportunities that you didn’t imagine, corrections officers have been, has become, over time a great ministry opportunity for our chaplains. This is one of the values of us being a nonprofit, a third party, if the chaplain is a government employee, then the incarcerated population can look at them as part of them, right? There’s us and there’s them. Good news, we stand in the middle, we’re not part of either, we’re not government, and we’re not inmates, so we get to be the pastor, to everybody who is behind bars. Matter of fact, you read our mission statement, we often say to minister to spiritual need of all who are behind bars, inmates and staff. So great opportunity to speak into their lives, to share Christ with them to love on them to to pray with them, and really seek to be a friend to the officers as well as administration.
Zachary Leighton 33:32
Back to the discussion on church partnership, what is your guys support model? Are you guys building an audience of individual donors? Are you or do you look to local church partnership, or some other model that you’re pursuing?
jonathan 33:46
We accept it all. We need it all. So we have about 10,000 individual 9000 individuals who support us individuals, churches and businesses who support us on an annual basis. So all of our funding comes from the community. People who care about those who are behind bars. Most of them are people of faith, but we have people who just believe that in inmates deserve a second chance that men and women children who are behind bars deserve care. They deserve support, and believe that the work of Chaplains can have a positive impact. And so we have people who who have no faith that stand with us, but you know, we rely upon God’s people to support God’s work. And so we welcome sponsorships nationally, locally, a lot of folks invest in their local chaplain, but we have opportunities to support the organization, as well as to support countries overseas. We have a program we call 30 to 60. That’s the approximate cost of providing ministry in a fist in a correctional facility overseas. For your $3,260 ensures that virtually every person in that facility might have an opportunity to receive a Bible. Here the gospel talks about spiritual things. So a lot of different ways that people can participate financially, however, the Lord would move them wherever their passions may be.
Zachary Leighton 35:21
Okay? So a church could come in and go, Hey, we want to, we want to take ownership of investing in our local church supplying a chaplain, or sorry, our local jail or prison, we want to provide a chaplain for that space, we want to all the things that would be included in that a church could come alongside and say, we want to partner in that way with that with our local, regional, jail or prison.
jonathan 35:49
Absolutely, there’s already a chaplain there with good news, then they can join us on board. Again, there are other nonprofits or other ministries that they could come alongside of as well. And then if there is no chaplain, we’d love to explore that opportunity with them, and say, Hey, Sheriff, or Warden or whoever it happens to be in charge of the facility? How could we? How can we support religious programming? How can we support your population, with your community, and so we can come alongside in the community and love to explore those opportunities, explore a couple of them right now and a couple, a couple of new states. So always looking for a space where we can be helpful.
Zachary Leighton 36:33
But your chaplains aren’t going out and raising their own funds and salary in order to go reach their local jail or prison? Correct?
jonathan 36:42
Well, they actually do raise most of their funding locally. So the chaplains are involved, they have a team of volunteers that work with them, but individuals in churches in their communities, so most of our support in the US does come from the communities where we have a chaplain, we do fundraising events, they meet with individuals, so most of our funding domestically is kind of community based right around the areas that counties were chaplains are serving.
Zachary Leighton 37:11
Okay, and each chaplain has ownership over that correct process within their region. Interest. That’s correct. Okay. What are some of the ways that you guys are are working to keep in touch with the audience? How are you getting? How are you getting them engaged beyond financial investment and excited about partnership with your organization? For example, your story is one of sounds like not just financial investment in a ministry like this, but coming alongside leading Bible Studies, volunteering with an organization, how do you get people plugged in at that level of investment in partnership, and advocacy for for your ministry.
jonathan 37:53
So that, particularly in COVID, that’s been a challenge, because the normal ambassadors that would go in as volunteers and then return and share what what they’re doing, you know, has been restricted, you know, almost Yeah, almost eliminated. So, organizationally, we are really keen on telling stories, stories of change lives, because everybody just can’t walk down to the jail and walk in the doors. So if you are a rescue mission, and everybody can come down, and they might be able to serve food or get involved in some way, shape, or form, one of the things we really struggle with is that that young people, no facilities will allow anybody under the age of 18 to come in. So I get contacted Gregor, hey, our youth group would like to get involved. And we just don’t have a ready made space for them because they’re not permitted. In this past Christmas, though. We did something that was new for us. Several years ago, about a decade ago, Willow Creek in Chicago, launched a program called Hope packs and hope packs was providing a gift in the gospel at Christmas to every incarcerated person in Illinois Department of Corrections. So they grown their program up to 50 or 60,000 individuals this year, good news, joined in the movement. And so we launched hope packs here and around the world. In our first year, we delivered over 50,000 packages, with gifts, food items, other things that the facility would allow, and the gospel message in the US it was a 200 page book that Willow Creek had developed overseas, it looked a little bit different. But 50,000 People at Christmas received a hope pack. And this created an opportunity in the communities where our chaplains are for people to be involved in packing parties putting together these packages and recognizing that every person in that local facility was going to have an opportunity at Christmas to receive something when One of our chaplains, formerly incarcerated received one of those hope packs from Willow Creek years ago. And that kind of directed us, excuse me to the program. And he said one of the things about about holidays, it says holidays is a very rough time when you’re behind bars because you’re separated from family and so on. He said, particularly at Christmas, there’s the haves and the have nots, there are those who have family who write to them and send them cards, and at least think of them. And then there’s another half of the population that nobody cares. Nobody sends anything, nobody calls nobody, right, he says, and it really created a lot of tension. Because the have nots, were very upset about the fact that they were being left out. Hope PACs levels the playing field, everyone received something, everyone was able to receive gifts. So we distributed over 30,000 of these overseas, in one of the facilities because single prison in Malawi, Malawi, one of the poorest countries on Earth, you’re seeing it in the news right now, because they’ve got a typhoon that’s tearing the country apart. We brought hope packs to a single prison about 1000 inmates, the inmates in a single prison had not eaten in two days, because they had no firewood to make food. So these small treats that they received, made Christmas a whole lot different in this facility than it was otherwise. So just opportunities for the gospel to make a huge difference in the lives of people here and around the world. So that’s, that is a new way that we are able to get more people in the community involved. We do a lot of things in print, in media, just telling stories, emailing folks just letting them know about the things about God is doing. Because most of the people that you’re supporting, who are behind bars, you’re never ever going to meet them. So you’re giving so the chaplains can go, but the population they’re ministering to, you’re probably never going to encounter them on the street, and you’re never gonna even know who it is. So we’d like to tell you about these folks so that you can feel the encouragement of what God’s doing.
Zachary Leighton 42:07
Yeah. Storytelling is our passion. So when you when you said you guys are keen on storytelling, and stop telling stories, that that always is what gets me most excited. So what are the some of the things that? What are some of the ways that you are telling stories to your audience, specifically, like, what are some tangible things that you’re doing? That other ministry leaders can go? Oh, that’s a great idea. I’d like to incorporate that into our ministry.
jonathan 42:38
I don’t know we’ve been super creative. Our YouTube channel has just a whole library of stories and they vary in length. Some of them are our chaplains, just telling that story. So we got to kind of got into that, that mode of a few years ago, whereby we just share the stories of of people that we’ve encountered behind bars. We have some, you know, professionally made videos that document a person’s total journey from darkness into light. So that’s been neat. And then sometimes we just have a, an incarcerated individual or someone formerly incarcerated just sits down and just talks and just shares what what has happened in their life, you know, the basic elements of a testimony before Christ when I met Christ, what’s happened after Christ? Yeah, we have the we have the privilege with several of our folks to tell the story of someone who was formerly incarcerated, who’s now become a chaplain, and talked about what their motivation is, and they get to speak to it really from both sides of the bars. You know, I was behind bars, here’s what my experience was, here’s what God did. Here’s how he moved me. Here’s how he challenged me. So one of the things that we began to do several years ago, was just to train our chapters to do a better job of storytelling. How to tell a 92nd story, real powerful tool that just allows you to synthesize it. Because we’ve all probably sat through a few too many missionary presentations where you never really got to the point. I’m a former missionary kid, so I can criticize missionaries. But we all we all do it sometimes we assume that the audience is interested in the topic as we are, and we think everybody’s tracking and then 15 minutes later, nobody remembers what we said it’s be a little more concise, hit the point, let what God did shine and not get buried in the detail somewhere.
Zachary Leighton 44:40
Now, are you guys allowed to tell stories of the incarcerated in video form like sit somebody who is incarcerated down in front of a camera and have them tell their testimony is that allowed
jonathan 44:54
in in very few contexts, so most local jails are actually maximum security and the Reason of maximum security because they have all classifications most 75% or more are pretrial, meaning they’ve been arrested, but they haven’t been to trial. So you’ve got every type of crime committed in your community being held inside that facility. So it’s maximum security. So very few cameras are allowed in there. Occasionally we have encountered in a prison or someone who maybe has been sentenced, or the facility makes it possible for us to go in there for a short period of time. So not often do we have somebody behind bars able to tell a story that we’ve recorded, but we have a few of those. So there are some exceptions, and we get releases and things from the individual. So we’re within the constraints of the law.
Zachary Leighton 45:44
Okay. And then, obviously, once you want, somebody comes out and say they have had a transformational experience, and I’ve had that death to life, transformation take place through Christ, and they’re no longer incarcerated. Now, you’ve still got that relationship with that individual, right. So you can use those stories to testify of what God’s doing through your ministry in the hearts and minds of, of those that he’s rescuing and redeeming, it’s inside of the prison system, but they can still testify and get in front of a camera once they’ve come out.
jonathan 46:18
Correct. So we have some of those many of those. And we host about 50 fundraising banquets a year, all around the country, and every one of them has one or two individuals who will be sharing their story. And that’s the highlight. That’s the whole point, right? Everything that we do, is all focused on these representatives, and they represent everybody else who are still behind bars are scattered have moved on whatever, but they represent the work that God is doing. And so we’d love to have just people share what God’s done. Hmm.
Zachary Leighton 46:52
What does that look like internationally? Where you may? Do you have more access to inmates in in prisons that are based in other countries? Or is it very similar or worse or more difficult to get somebody to testify of what God’s doing in their heart? Maybe there’s still access,
jonathan 47:10
access oversee varies by countries, right. So depending on what country you’re in, and depends on what’s going on politically. So in one particular country that has communist roots, I’m not going to mention the company to the country specifically, once upon a time, we had free access. And then about six, seven years ago, access was cut off. So our guys had to become creative in terms of how they were able to get in and an access the population. So they developed a curricular reentry curriculum. So something that would prepare the population for when they returned to the community. That facility bought into it and said, Yay, verily love to have you come in and teach and train people and prepare them for reentry. So they go in, they build relationships, they connect them, they share with them about their church, even about their faith. So now when these citizens return, they now have a place that they can go and resources available. So some of our teams overseas have to get really creative, even in terms of how they get behind the bars. But in terms of stories, and so on. I don’t think we’ve ever videoed inside of a correctional facility. I was in Kenya, about three years ago and got special permission to take pictures. Okay, because we were bringing, we’ll say humanitarian aid, were bringing toilet paper and soap, which they didn’t have. And so they allowed me to take pictures of that material being delivered. That was permissible, nothing else. So if you know, so very restrictive, much like the US.
Zachary Leighton 48:59
Yeah. Interesting. Well, John, this has been really enlightening for me, and hopefully helpful for our audience. If if church leaders specifically want to get a hold of you, or people want to learn more about what you guys are doing, how can they? How can they get ahold of you? How can they get involved?
jonathan 49:17
Good news. jail.org is the website. So that’s the easiest way to find his good news jail.org. And so links to our leadership team links to our programs descriptions of what we do, as well. If you want to be a chaplain, love to talk to you about what that might be in your community or in another place where we have opportunities. We always have openings. We’re always looking for people that are feeling the Lord leading them to minister to this population. It is a most fruitful ministry. Many of our chaplains have pastoral ministry in their background and Most would tell you, I, I prefer this work because in the church, I spent half my time convincing people to have a problem. And here, I don’t have to convince them to have a problem. If you’re behind bars, clearly life hasn’t gone well. So they are receptive to the gospel. But that’s the best way to get a hold of us. Good news yo.org.
Zachary Leighton 50:19
Now, that spurs on another question, I can say I am a pastor of a local church. And like that’s my specific call, but I’ve got some spare time. Can I still retain my pastoral position at my local church? And do chaplaincy work with you guys?
jonathan 50:40
Most of our chaplains serve at least half time. Okay. So half time and full time is kind of where we are. But we do have some chaplains who are by vocational, they’ve got a church. And so we were all always open to exploring, you know how the Lord might might put some pieces together. So we’re not restrictive in that regard. But again, we’d love to talk to someone about what they’re thinking and even exploring how we might just come alongside of a community, even if it’s not a good news chaplain, where we are nothing special, right? It’s the gospel that changes changes lives. It’s not the work of a chaplain, the chaplain can be the spokesperson. But our desire is that every man and woman behind bars today would hear the good news of Jesus Christ and become a growing disciple. And so we’re, we were glad to come alongside of others. We’re glad to help others, equip others, whatever we can do, reach out, we’ll serve and support you as best we can.
Zachary Leighton 51:43
Awesome. Well, John, can I pray for you and good news? Absolutely. Great. Father, we just thank you so much for this time together, I pray that you would grow and bless this ministry of prayer that you would lead John and he’s as he leads his team, that you would just continue to open up opportunities provide staff and and chaplains for their ministry so that they can continue to reach those that are incarcerated those of the prisoners, those that are struggling for the difficult situations, Father, there’s an incredible opportunity, obviously, and in that space for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of your name, to introduce you to people who are in need. And let’s pray that You would just go before good news and blessing and guide and lead and provide wisdom and direction and clarity. Father, thank You for John and his willingness to step into this position and, and lead this team. Well, Father, I pray that You would bless him for that. And we just thank you so much that we get to be a part of what you’re doing that we get to come alongside you and your redemptive work, Lord. Thank you so much for that. And we pray all these things in your name. Amen. Amen. John, thanks so much for being on the show. And yeah, we’ll we’re excited to continue following what you guys are doing.
jonathan 53:11
Thank you, Zack, appreciate the opportunity to be here.
53:16
Thank you for listening to this episode of the ministry gross show. If you enjoyed it, we’d appreciate it if you rate and review us on the iTunes Store, and make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you have a story to share with other ministry directors and pastors, or know someone who would be an incredible guest on the ministry gross show, let us know. We’d love connecting with ministry executives and sharing their wisdom and insight with our audience. Just send us an email at info at reliant creative.org And lastly, if you need help telling your ministry story, we would love to share how we can help them out process check out for line creative at relying creative dot we’ll see you next time.
