The Gift of Prison Ministry

One of the first people I met while visiting Alabama prisons was Robert, a kind man with a wide, easy smile. We bonded over college football and quickly discovered my current home and his family’s home are about two miles apart on Birmingham’s east side. Robert became a Christian while in prison and now serves in the prison church, leading a discipleship group.

Robert said with joy that he’d tell his family to attend the church I’ve planted in our shared neighborhood. I thanked him and said I couldn’t wait for him to finish his prison sentence and join us himself. Robert’s smile returned as a shaky grimace. He told me, “I wish, but with two life sentences, I won’t be able to make it home. I am here until the Lord calls me home.”

Why We Should Care for the Imprisoned

Unless you or a loved one is convicted of a felony, it’s unlikely you’ll ever spend time inside a prison. They’re usually placed away from the public eye and behind high fences for security. Prisoners are removed from our sight and, too often, from our hearts and minds.

This isn’t a problem for the world. Society prefers distance from the imprisoned. But Jesus’s way is different. God’s Word gives us several reasons why caring for the imprisoned is a gift.

1. Care for imprisoned believers is care for Jesus.

Jesus tells Christians that when we care for prisoners, we’re caring for him. Believing prisoners are part of his one spiritual body. Christians will ask, “‘When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matt. 25:39–40).

Just as Paul’s persecution of the church was an attack on Jesus himself (Acts 9:4), our care for the imprisoned church is care for Jesus himself. Passages like Matthew 25 and Hebrews 13:3 where we’re commanded to “remember those in prison” describe the care of believers. The original recipients of this teaching in the early church would have heard these passages as a call to care for Christians unjustly imprisoned for their faith. But we shouldn’t let these facts limit our compassion. Rather, they should encourage it. How do we know which of those in prison are brothers and sisters if we don’t first visit and come to know of their faith?

2. Care for the imprisoned is part of God’s mission.

The prison system is a wide mission field. U.S. prison and jail systems are home to nearly 1 percent of all working-age Americans. Just imagine what that means: For every 20 families of five sitting down for dinner in your neighborhood, one family has an empty chair at the table. Care for the imprisoned can be an opportunity to evangelize lost prisoners, and it can be a way to share the gospel with imprisoned people’s loved ones in your community. God’s love and mission can advance through this web of meaningful relationships.

Our care for the imprisoned church is care for Jesus himself.

When we care for the imprisoned, we demonstrate no one is disqualified from God’s mercy. Mercy starts in the church then radiates out from it like the warmth of the sun. As Jesus said in Luke 6:35–36, “Love your enemies, and do good . . . and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

3. Care for the imprisoned reorients our faith toward eternity.

When you spend time visiting prisoners, you quickly realize they aren’t TV characters. Listening to their stories, you’ll discover many have become brothers and sisters in Christ while in prison. One day, when Christ returns, we’ll sit side by side with them at the banquet of the Lamb.

Concrete walls and barbed wire shouldn’t keep Christians from encouraging one another with this future reality. Our futures are bound up together: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call” (Eph. 4:4). We have one hope and a common future: meeting King Jesus together.

Most of the world speeds along unconcerned about imprisoned people. But the relative hopelessness of long imprisonments beckons Christians to encourage their brethren and to look with them toward our final and future redemption.

4. Care for the imprisoned is practice in quiet faithfulness.

Most prisons prohibit cameras, cell phones, and other technology. So prisoners can’t update their social media to tell the world about you or your good deeds. In most cases, they also won’t attend your church anytime soon. It’s likely no one will know you do prison ministry unless you tell them. But it’s just this kind of quiet faithfulness the Lord has called us to.

When we care for the imprisoned, we demonstrate no one is disqualified from God’s mercy.

Jesus urged his disciples not to be like the scribes and Pharisees who paraded their good works for the world to see (Luke 11:43–44; 20:46–47). Prison ministry is an opportunity to practice a healthy, secret life of service to the Lord. (Matt. 6:1–4) Visiting and caring for our society’s weak and lowly—widows, orphans, those in foster care, immigrants, the sick, and the poverty-stricken—is a vital part of Christian formation. Prison ministry allows you to become (and to help your church become) more like Christ and shun the ways of an on-camera world.

How to Care for Prisoners

So how do we care for the imprisoned?

1. Visit them.

Connect with a Prison Fellowship chapter or another local prison ministry. Sign up to join and shadow their team on their next visit. Visiting with an established ministry is ideal; this will ensure you meet the facility’s requirements (e.g., background checks or other qualifying procedures) before you arrive. Veteran visitors and chaplains can also be good resources to help you understand the prison’s rules and how to engage in helpful ways with both the prisoners and the staff.

2. Collect toiletries, snacks, socks, and books.

Our church serves a local prison by doing annual drives for socks, toiletries, and snacks (Oreos are a favorite locally). These are provided to prisoners involved in the prison ministry. Such items can be expensive for prisoners with limited purchasing power, and they’re a huge encouragement around Christmas. We’ve also done softcover book drives to fill the prison libraries with good books. I’ve seen fully grown men jump with joy over a mountain of used books sent to bless the entire prison.

3. Advocate for them.

Christians are called to advocate for the dignity of all people, whether they’re highly visible in society or relatively hidden. Consider researching and advocating against the many threats to a prisoner’s dignity—issues like overcrowding, unreasonable parole, and racial disparity in sentencing. In many states, felons cannot vote and have limited communication access while incarcerated. Their voices will go unheard unless they’re seen, heard, and advocated for on the basis of biblical justice.

Prisoners are usually out of sight, but they don’t have to be out of reach of the church’s care. Don’t let the barriers and inconvenience of prison ministry stop you from loving our brothers and sisters. When we care for prisoners, we bless both the imprisoned and our own souls as we act in obedience to Jesus. What if it was you, or your brother, or your mother? As the Lord has spoken, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matt. 7:12, NIV).

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