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By Becky Beane|Published Date: June 24, 2009
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Several Ministries, One Goal: To Reach Every Prisoner With the Hope of Christ
 His first 17 years in prison, "all I did was catch nothing but misconduct tickets," confesses Steven, an inmate in St. Louis, Missouri. On seven occasions, his misconduct was severe enough to send him to "the hole"--confined in total isolation. "But I'd been so angry all those years and didn't care one way or another."
Until Operation Starting Line poured into his prison one day--a cast of characters who sparked enough curiosity to lure him into the prison yard for a music concert, athletic displays, and testimonies of new life in Christ. "I listened to what they were saying about their own lives and what Jesus did for them," Steven remembers. And his armor of anger cracked under the weight of a longing for peace. "When they started to pray, I prayed with them and accepted Jesus into my heart." At the close of the event, he signed up to begin receiving a correspondence Bible study series to guide his spiritual growth.
"I've been misconduct ticket-free for 16 months now," he proclaimed recently. "I haven't been in any trouble [while] taking the Crossroad Bible studies!"
A host of other Christian organizations stand ready to support Steven. If he has children, Great Dads can help him reconnect broken bonds. Intercessors for America will cover him with prayer.
And when Steven closes in on his release date, staff at Crossroad Bible Institute will be ready to match him up with Christian ministries in his area that can help usher him back into the community.
Steven's got a team of Christians on his side now, pulling for him to succeed.
"I think Satan trembles when he sees ministries working together, when he sees the Church united," says Dr. David Schuringa, president of Crossroad Bible Institute (CBI). "He knows how powerful they can be."
In the Beginning
PF's Starting Line evangelistic campaign literally shot on the scene in 1992, blitzing through more than 90 North Carolina prisons in two weeks. Even then, it was a collaborative effort, as Prison Fellowship recruited well-known Christina musicians and professional athletes who could coax out the prison masses for a couple of hours with music, feats of strength, or tales of glory days on the gridiron--always followed by tales of a higher calling in Christ. Volunteers from local churches, recruited and trained by PF, mingled among the prisoner spectators to pray with them or answer questions. Volunteers who received more PF training helped with follow-up Bible studies or seminars.
But Prison Fellowship had a huge vision: to reach every prisoner in every prison with the Gospel message, discipling those who came to Christ for the first time or recommitted their lives to Him. And that would take more than one organization, the leadership determined. It would take a whole village of ministries working together.
So in the spring of 2000, a refurbished and expanded Operation Starting Line campaign debuted as a collaboration of 10 non-profit ministries, pooling stengths and resources to reach the escalating prison population. Today Operation Starting Line comprises 37 active collaborators.
"Through the collaboration we're able to provide more in-depth follow-up," notes PF Director of Ministry Partnerships Larry Tucker. "We're able to provide materials that weren't previously provided, and we're able to get into niches where we didn't have a strong presence before."
One of these niche collaborators is Youth Direct, a Dallas-based ministry to incarcerated and troubled youth. Led by Don Smarto--with more than 30 years of juvenile work under his belt--Youth Direct has trained hundreds of volunteers in the specialized needs of youthful offenders and conducted OSL-affiliated events in about 60 juvenile facilities so far.
"There are 350,000 incarcerated juveniles in America that are largely invisible, says Smarto. "If we can reach these kids with the Gospel and they can change their lives through a commitment to Christ, then they won't end up entering the adult prison system."
Some OSL collaborators contribute to the restoration of family ties that have been shredded by the prison experience. Child Evangelism Fellowship found that its Mailbox Club correspondence Bible studies for children also appealed to adult prisoners with limited reading skills. Now they promote a Bible study course that imprisoned parents and their children do simultaneously, so they can share their spiritual journey.
Collaborator Great Dads presents parenting seminars not only in adult prisons but also in youth facilities, because "people forget that a lot of teenagers are fathers, too," Smarto points out. "So it's a good time to start teaching them about responsibility. "
The list of partnering ministries goes on: Good News Jail and Prison Ministry, which is opening up access to more facilities; the Billy Graham Center, which developed the "five points of the Gospel" presented to prison audiences; Omega arts, founded by OSL musician Larry Howard, which supplies audio and video resources; Campus Crusade for Christ, which, in part, has provided a special verion of its masterful Jesus video for prisoners and on and on (for a complete list, click here).
Reaching the Prison Masses
In nine years, OSL has spread through 22 states, reaching hundreds of thousands of prisoners in hundreds of prisons with the Gospel. Of those, many handed in response cards saying they accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord. Only God knows the total number of seeds that have sprouted into redemptive relationships.
Over the years, well over 50,000 inmates have signed up to receive free correspondence courses from CBI, a charter collaborator of OSL--and one that helps prevent prisoners from "falling through the cracks" when in-prison programs are limited. Tier 1 of the mail-in course starts the students off with 12 lessons on "Great Truths of the Bible," followed by Tier 2 Bible studies on post-release issues. And for the hearty few ready "to reach out into the tall branches," says Dr. Schuringa, Tier 3 offers college- and seminary-level studies.
In the last few years, Crossroad has also provided inmates nearing release with information on reentry ministries in the areas to which they will return. It's a service they offer to all their incarcerated students, "and you'd be amazed at the response," says Schuringa.
CBI has been in existence since 1984, "but we could not be engaged at this level were it not for our network affiliates," Schuringa stesses. "It would be pretty tough to get 50,000 students by just knocking on prison doors. But when other ministries entrust their respondents to us, that networking in the body of Christ is a beautiful thing. And we hope we never do anything to damage that trust."
A few rules help preserve that trust: ministries involved with OSL can't go after one another's donors or try to entice away their staff. Representatives gather four times a year, via meetings or conference calls, to discuss ideas, evaluate progress, and enjoy fellowship.
Those meetings are led by Prison Fellowship President Mark Early and Paul Krueger of the Navigators, another charter partner of OSL. Krueger admits that "prison ministry wasn't even on our radar" ten years ago when his organization was invited to join the collaboration. World renowned for its outstandingh discipleship ministry, the Navigators joined with five other collaborators to create training and materials (in English and Spanish) for use with OSL.
"We pooled the best stuff we could find and dropped it down to a fourth- or fifth-grade reading level," says Krueger. "But it's not childish--we ask very adult application questions: How does this verse impact what you're going to do with your cellmate? How do you feel about the person who did something wrong to you?"
Following the "race" motif of Operation Starting Line, the team created The Race Begins, a 20-lesson follow-up Bible series for new believers in prison. Using the accompanying Player-Coaches Training Manual, Krueger and Campus Crusade staffer Dan Brygger team up to train chaplains, pastors, and volunteers to facilitate the discipleship studies and train others to do the same.
The collaborative provision of training and materials gives chaplains and prison staff a variety to choose from, depending on their own goals. More and more prisons are stepping up their focus on reentry programs, preparing prisoners to get out and stay out of prison.
Operation Starting Line is "striking at the very heart of crime," says Mark Earley. "We know there is only one real way to reform a prisoner, and that is to change hisheart. And only God can do that."
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