Vision Casting For Prison Ministry Programs

Transcription

1 White Paper 2012 Revised 6/19/12 Vision Casting For Prison Ministry Programs By Greg Von Tobel Crusade in a Philippines Prison Where should a new prison ministry outreach focus its energy for the first 2-3 years? When is the proper time for a prison ministry to set up a transitional program? Just as anyone who builds a house must follow a construction plan beginning with laying the foundation and gradually moving up to the final task of putting on the roof, so anyone who would like to establish a successful and growing prison ministry should follow a proper sequential growth plan in the development of ministry programs. This paper explains the concept of the P.F.C. Life V.E.S.T. (an acronym for the 4 different areas of service in our ministry: Visitation, Equipping, Support and Transition) and uses it to suggest the best sequence to follow in building different outreach programs for inmates and their families. M I N I S T R I E S, C A L L ( ) OR V I S I T WWW. P F C O M. O R G 1

2 In the previous teaching paper, we talked about the practical steps involved in starting a prison ministry. In this segment, we will be discussing practical SEQUENTIAL tools for developing programs for the inmate population. Before we get started, it would be helpful to explain our mission statement. Impacting the global prison community for His glory. That is our missions statement! That is our marching orders! For the most part, this is a simple but practical mission statement. The word global needs some further explanation and investigation. This word has two meanings. The first and obvious one is to have an impact around the world, globally. The second meaning is significant in that it speaks to the Vertical population that this ministry serves. This would include inmates and their family members (spouses, children, parents) as well as the correctional staff. Now that we have explained this foundational principle, let us take a look at what we call the Prisoners for Christ Life V.E.S.T. This concept was developed many years ago when the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council of Prisoners for Christ came together to pencil out a simple way to explain what we do for our constituency! 2

3 In the student training manual, there is a picture of a circle divided into 4 different colored quadrants. The V in the blue quadrant stands for Visit. In church terminology, this is our Evangelism Department. It is in this area that 90% of our behind the prison walls activities exist. The vision statement of this Department is: Proclaiming the Gospel to the incarcerated The E of the V.E.S.T. is the green quadrant and stands for Equip. In church terminology, this is our Discipleship Department. This is where we attempt to Grow Christians to be more Christ-like. The activities in this department include our National Yard Out newspaper, our literature distribution program and our 2 Year Bible Study Correspondence School. The vision statement of this Department is: To prepare God s people for works of service The S of the V.E.S.T. is in the orange quadrant and stands for the Family Division. The activities in this department include working with wives, children and parents who are in need. This is done on a case by case basis. In addition to this, we have a Van Transportation Program and an Aid and Assistance Program to assist families with bill paying, rent and grocery purchases. The vision statement of this Department is: Offering hope by connecting families The T of the V.E.S.T. is the yellow quadrant and stands for the Transition Division. After years of ministry, we are finally coming to grips with the enormity of the issues included in this department. I will address this subject at a later date. The vision statement for this department is: Building bridges for a productive return to society 3

4 Everything in the northern hemisphere of this circle (the blue and green quadrants) is part of our Religious Services Division of the ministry. Everything in the southern hemisphere of the circle (the orange and yellow quadrants) is part of our Health and Human Services Division. It is not the purpose of this podcast to go into the details on each of our programs. However, it is the purpose of this training to assist the listener in what we believe to be the proper SEQUENTIAL growth pattern for a successful growing prison ministry. Suggested Sequential Growth Development Plan We have found that as the ministry grows around the world, many prison volunteers want to be all things to all people. Over the last 28 years of ministry, God has been gracious to expand our territories. As we teach our foreign affiliates how to do prison ministry, we attempt to set them on a course which can establish and sustain them so that they can be effective over the long term. Proverbs 11: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. This is one of our favorite ministry verses and we are wholeheartedly sold out on its truth. Therefore we suggest that all new people and new prison ministry outreaches start out in the Visit or blue quadrant and concentrate on conducting church services, crusades or Bible Studies in an attempt to win souls to Christ. We have found it best that new people spend 2-3 years solely in this one blue quadrant before moving into the green quadrant. Most people with 2-3 years of experience in the blue quadrant want to move immediately into either the orange or yellow quadrant. Please DO NOT DO this! These two quadrants (orange and yellow) are very time-intensive and require an enormous amounts of energy and resources. 4

5 Once a new prison ministry spends 2-3 years in learning the blue quadrant, we then suggest that they move directly into learning how to be Disciple Makers (the green quadrant). Again, it is suggested that an individual spend 2-3 years developing this end of the ministry. If you are being set apart for life long prison ministry, think of these 4-6 years as undergraduate and graduate training. Every professional career requires employees to learn the ropes. Without this skill set, jumping into the orange or yellow quadrants can be disastrous. The road of prison ministry is littered with discarded lives and families that have tried to outrun the learning curve. The only way to successfully outrun it is to become a fatality or a statistic. When this happens, volunteers are subjected to disgrace and community outrage. venturing into the orange or yellow quadrants. In view of all this, please be sure to spend 2-3 years in both the blue and green quadrants before even Building a prison ministry can be much like building a house. Do you put in the windows before the walls? Do you put up the roof rafters before putting in the floor joints? Do you install the refrigerator before the drywall? Obviously, the answer is no! Please do not put the cart before the horse. You must pour the foundation before you can put up even the smallest piece of lumber in the house. 5

6 The cement foundation of prison ministry can be seen as the blue and green quadrants of the life V.E.S.T. It is important to allow 4-6 years for the cement of a new prison ministry to cure before it is solid enough to support the work that will be encountered in the orange and yellow quadrants. However, on the flipside of the coin, the Bible is explicit in teaching that the different members of the Church have been given different giftedness. Maybe you want to start out and STAY in the orange quadrant, working with the families who are left behind. Then stay in this area and be the best you can be. Do not jump to a different quadrant! Maybe you want to start in the yellow area in transition. Be careful of this quadrant as it is wrought with minefields. Either you have experience in this area or you do not. However if you are being called to this area, go get trained and be all that you can be. But STAY in this quadrant. All of your energies will need to be focused here so that you can be the best that you can be. The plan is to grow as we have outlined by starting in the blue quadrant, moving to the green quadrant and then choosing to move to the orange or yellow quadrants. This is what we call the Sequential Growth Development Plan. The only other option would be to pick a particular quadrant in which to start and then stay there permanently. I know that when we have presented this plan to both our national and our foreign affiliates, the lights come on. Many of them have come up to us after our international conferences with great big smiles, saying, It all makes sense to me now! Some have even said that our teaching on the Prisoners for Christ Life V.E.S.T. was the most important segment of the conference. Most people have a desire to do prison ministry but just do not know how. We hope this teaching on Vision Casting for Prison Programs has helped you in understanding the importance of the Sequential Growth Development Plan. We know that if you will supplement what you have learned here along with the teaching modules of How to Start a Prison Ministry and How to Grow a Prison Ministry, you will have years of fruitful ministry ahead of you! 6

7 In Closing Let me take just a few more minutes of your time and tell you a little more about Prisoners for Christ. PFC is a ministry dedicated to taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the institutions of the World. As of the close of 2011, we currently have over 1,200 volunteers world wide and growing everyday. Last year our volunteers conducted an average of 267 church services per month, almost 9 per day. PFC had over 611,507 inmates attend our services last year with over 179,621 men, women and children accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Lord has seen fit to expand our territories by allowing us to go to the four corners of the world with field offices in 8 different foreign countries, including Russia, Kenya, Burundi, Congo, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, India with more countries soon to come on line in the next 18 months. Our major objective is to win souls to Christ. Our secondary objective is to equip the saints. Whether you are a single volunteer going into an institution, or whether you are a part of a group of a larger team, or even perhaps a volunteer in your church s prison outreach, we are interested in you! We are interested in your development as a minister of the Gospel. So please avail yourself of our training and printed resources! If the Lord should ever tug on your heart to be a part of the PFC Team worldwide, we have a number of opportunities of involvement for you. First, if the Lord should tug on your heart to jump on board with us as a financial partner, please do so. We would be very excited for you to share in the rewards of this ministry. Our faithful committed monthly partners are the lifeblood of this ministry. We do not charge for any of our training material. Our hearts desire is to equip the saints to do good works. All that we have, and ll that we are, are gifts from God to be used for His glory. Our resources are to be released back to the church body for His use through you. 7

8 If you were blessed by this course, you can donate either through mailing a check to our PFC offices or on line through our web page. The second way you can become involved is to become a volunteer: 1. You can be a PFC Volunteer anywhere in the world. You can join the PFC team whether you are here in the United States or elsewhere in the world. 2. You might consider becoming a PFC Area representative or church leader in your geographic metropolitan area. This is for those who have been in prison ministry for three or more years and have the hearts desire to take their leadership to the next level. 3. Or perhaps you have been doing prison ministry for some time and now the Lord is tugging on your heart to become a Full Time Prison Missionary. By all means, please get in contact with us as we have a training course for those who are interested in going into full time ministry. Regardless of whether you are here in the United States or a person in another part of the world, please consider joining the family of PFC. However, if you are a part of another prison ministry, stay where you are at and be the best prison ministry volunteer for that organization, in other words Bloom where you are planted! Feel free to connect with us in one of 4 ways: 1. Mailing address: Prisoners for Christ (PFC) PO Box 1530 Woodinville, Wa Web Page: 3. Phone: Fax: