Our Ministries
Christian involvement to those men and women behind bars generally falls into five areas of ministry:
- Evangelism,
- On-going discipleship (to include counseling),
- Follow-up to ex-prisoners,
- Providing full and part-time Chaplains and
- Ministry to the families.
Ministries such as Prison Fellowship (Chuck Colson), Bill Glass, Kairos, and Gospel Express provide some of or all of the above services. All offer some special emphasis, for instance,
- Bill Glass Ministries concentrates on spectacular weekend evangelism events with eight weeks of follow-up.
- Kairos Ministries offer intense discipleship and character building teaching and application.
- Gospel Express seeks to train and place Chaplains in the prison system and also provide dedicated volunteers.
- Prison Fellowship Ministries, the largest in terms of staff and funding, provides variations of the five areas of ministry and also lobbies for prison reform legislation and some legal assistance.
All prison ministries rely heavily upon the local church to provide volunteers to energize the outreaches they offer. The vast majority of these ministries exhort, equip and assist the volunteer in their ministry to the prisoner.
For us here at Harvest of Life, our emphasis is the weekly Bible study designed to build relationships, offer encouragement and discipleship in the Word of God. We have found that this is the area that results in the most successful on-going results. We currently hold 17 services every month in a variety of different prisons from Wakulla to Franklin to the women's prison at Gadsden.
Why We Serve ...
Did you know? That for every 10 prisoners released that have never or just sporadically attended a Bible Study, that within 3 years, 7 are back in prison. But for every 40 prisoners that have faithfully attended a weekly Bible Study, within 3 years only 2 are back in prison…70% versus 5%. Those are amazing statistics! Read the Nase's Prison Activity Report