Going to the least, the last, and the lost
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
Chuck Colson and Mark Earley were in St. Louis last Friday to share about the ministries of Prison Fellowship and to talk about the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) program that is being implemented in a few states around the country. Mark started out by explaining how the mission of Prison Fellowship was to: seek God’s will, spend time in communion with Him, and find every opportunity to share the gospel with those who have no hope. He mentioned how important it was to ‘unite together in prayer.’ The task before us is indeed daunting - one that cannot be handled by an organization, but rather by a movement of God’s people. Among some of the statistics he used to point out the severity of the problem are:
- There are 2.3 million prisoners currently in the U.S. - more than any time before.
- This is up from a number of 250 thousand just 30 years ago.
- 600 thousand will get out in the next year - with 67% of those returning to prison within 3 years.
- Children of inmates are 5-6 times more likely to go to jail.
Mark went on to talk about how God had specifically called out and chose men such as Moses - who murdered a man and buried him in the sand, and men such as Paul - who was a ‘religious terrorist of his day’…
God is not different today than then. He’s raising up church leaders from behind prison bars!
Then, of course, there is the modern day example of Chuck Colson. He was raised up by God in his point of brokenness…
Isn’t it just like God to take broken lives and turn them into vessels of silver and gold?
Some family members of inmates then shared their stories of how God is working through prison ministries such as IFI to reach those behind bars. One mom talked about how her son had told her how the volunteers were so meaningful to them.’ She noted that ‘the hearts are precious in there.‘ God is meeting the spiritual needs of those who for the first time become truly free - even though they don’t have their freedom. One man remarked that ‘mighty men of Christ are coming out of IFI. They come out better than some people you meet on the street.‘
Chuck Colson was the last speaker of the evening and he challenged the listeners to take the gospel to ‘the least, the last, and the lost’ and encouraged them to ‘defend the truth and overcome evil with good.‘
Related Links:
