The mission of the Prison Ministry is to bring Christ’s love and forgiveness to all incarcerated and community supervised individuals in our local community, their families and those who work with them and assist in the transition to becoming a productive citizen. We believe that through biblically-based programs and a positive community, those who once broke the law can be transformed and mobilized to serve their neighbors, replacing the cycle of crime and
becoming disciples for Christ.

 

 

 

Click Here to learn about our new Fresh Start Prison Ministry Program changing lives in Franklin County.

 

 

Anticipated Outcomes: As result of the work of this ministry, offenders can be redeemed, families will be restored, victims will be made whole and the community will be safer.

 

 

GOALS:
1. Lead the congregation to understand mission and service opportunities for
Restorative Justice Ministries embracing Christ message, “I was in prison and
you visited me…” Matthew 25:36

2. Support jurisdictional/central conference and annual conference networking
as modeled by the Southeastern Jurisdiction’s and South Central
Jurisdiction’s Restorative Justice Network Group, or bring together clusters
of contiguous conferences or expedite processes of training and resource
sharing;
3. Encourage conferences to establish inter-agency restorative justice task
forces to coordinate Restorative Justice Ministries within their bounds, with
special emphasis on partnership with the Restorative Justice Ministries Interagency Task Force and the facilitation and resourcing of local church
ministries.
4. Encourage local congregations to provide adult and youth education
programs on restorative justice: theory, practice, issues, models, and use of
resources (utilizing curriculum resources, printed and audiovisual, provided
through the above-mentioned connectional sources);
5. Encourage congregations to provide safe space to enable people to share real
experiences of victimization, incarceration, or other direct encounters with
the criminal justice system and/or restorative justice processes;
6. Encourage congregations to schedule a “Restorative Justice Ministries
Sunday” to generate deeper awareness by the entire congregation regarding
the contrasting paradigms of retributive justice and restorative justice-and
their different out comes;
7. Encourage congregations to organize or form direct service and/or advocacy
efforts to support the work of restorative justice; and
8. Work with local ecumenical and/or interfaith agencies and other community
agencies to:
9. Convene consultations of representatives of the restorative justice
community to define policy/legislative needs and strategies;
10. Encourage/resource congregations to work on restorative justice through
regional judicatories and media;
11. Encourage/initiate dialogue with correctional/criminal justice system
officials;
12. Identify and nurture criminal justice system leaders (e.g., judges, attorneys,
wardens, police, etc.) regarding restorative justice;
13. Involve local congregations in ministries with juvenile detention centers and
domestic violence centers;
14. Build covenant discipleship groups at the local level for restorative justice
advocates, as well as for other persons involved in the criminal justice
system;
15. Provide victim-offender mediation and other restorative justice processes;
16. Identify and develop coalition partnerships with victim assistance groups,
advocacy groups, jail and prison ministry groups, ex-offender assistance
groups; and.
17. Plan and implement strategies for advocacy that encourage legislative
support for restorative justice programs.