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Evangelism: First Step in the Journey of Discipleship |
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 Prison Fellowship's mission is "to seek the transformation of prisoners and their reconciliation to God, family, and community through the power and truth of Jesus Christ." Our goal is to see prisoners come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ and be transformed into His image as they follow Him. We call this "transformational discipleship." It is an intentional approach of equipping people to demonstrate Christ-likeness in all areas of their lives: transformed mind, character, relationships, service, and influence.
This is why we talk of change from the inside out. By this we mean that we want all men and women to become a new creation in Christ. This starts with an inner change when one commits his or her life to Christ. Over time, it results in an outer change in lifestyle that others can see. By inside out we also mean that we work with prisoners not only on the "inside," while they are confined to prison, but also after they have been released to the "outside," back into our communities.
With inside-out change, evangelism and transformational discipleship are fundamentally connected. Prisoners' reconciliation with God--made possible through forgiveness and salvation in Christ--is the first and necessary step in transformation--and a focal point of our mission. We believe Jesus answers the deepest need in every man and woman.
This is why Operation Starting Line has rallied thousands of volunteers over the years to take the Gospel into our nation's prisons. Led by Prison Fellowship, OSL is a collaboration of 37 ministries-both national and local-that provides high-energy evangelistic yard events as well as more intimate cell-to-cell visits to share the love and salvation of Christ.
During fiscal year 2007-2008, OSL reached into 36 prisons in Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, and New Mexico. An estimated 25,000 prisoners attended yard events or were visited in their cells.
One prisoner impacted through OSL is "Robert," serving time at the remote Chuckwalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, California. During a casual period of mingling in the prison yard, volunteer Owen Daniels started talking to Robert about Jesus and how He makes prisoners free.
"Free?" Robert replied, with obvious skepticism. "I'll never be free." He was serving a life sentence.
 "I told him he was wrong," says Owen. "Jesus could set his soul free, his mind free." Owen asked Robert if he had peace in that place of confinement. "No," said Robert. "Would you like the peace that only Jesus can give you?" Owen asked. "Yes," Robert answered. He longed for peace.
So Owen led Robert in a simple prayer to confess his sins and ask for the peace of Jesus' forgiveness. "By the time I finished, we both had tears in our eyes," says Owen.
Robert and so many thousands of prisoners like him take a huge step in committing their lives to Jesus. But that's just the first part of the journey of faith. After evangelism, discipleship must follow. So as Operation Starting Line continues its evangelistic efforts, it has now added a new emphasis on discipleship as well-to help facilitate deeper, more relational follow-up with prisoners.
To do this, OSL has become even more collaborative than ever before. Partnering ministries have divided into communities to plan and produce evangelism training and events, discipleship opportunities and materials, and reentry strategies-effecting real change from the inside out.
These various networking efforts make the best use of the collaborators' particular areas of expertise and resources. Freedom Riders, for example, who roar into the prison yard astride their Harleys, can coax out the most skeptical prisoner to listen to the Gospel message. Forgiven Ministry helps to reconcile incarcerated parents with their children through "One Day with God" camps as a follow-up to OSL.
In addition to OSL events, Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers across the country implement a variety of events and activities to expose prisoners to the salvation message of the Gospel. Weekend seminars, weekly Bible studies, concerts, worship services, sports events, and even Angel Tree registration-which allows for one-to-one sharing-are just some of the many venues for evangelism inside the prisons. As with OSL, Prison Fellowship field staff and volunteers often partner with other ministries specializing in evangelism, such as Bill Glass/Champions for Life and Evangelism Explosion. These partnerships will enable even more prisoners to hear and respond to the Gospel.
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