Rev Kev's Korner

Over the past several months, these newsletter articles have encouraged us to reach out to different types of people.  As a result of these articles, you may have felt led to reach out to people you work with.  As a result of these articles you may have felt led to reach out to people living in poverty and homelessness.  As a result of these articles you may have felt led to reach out to people of other cultures and races.  As a result of these articles you may have felt led to reach out to someone younger than yourself.  As a result of these articles you may have felt led to reach out to neighbors, family, and friends.  And today, I want to encourage you to reach out to another community that lives within one mile of our church – that community is the prison community.           

If you leave our church, travel south on Route 11, and turn left onto Spitler Circle, you will find a correctional facility filled with people who need the love of Jesus Christ.  People in prison are just like us.  They have families.  They have feelings.  They have hopes and fears.  They’ve made mistakes.  And they’re loved by Jesus Christ.  And just as God expects a church to reach out to people in our neighborhood and people at work and people at school, God expects a church to reach out to people in prison, too.           

 But how can a church reach out to people in prison?  Many of the people in our local correctional facility were not Greenville residents before being incarcerated in Greenville.  We probably don’t know a single person who is incarcerated there.   Besides, they’re probably so hardened that they could care less about any gestures of love that we could offer.  They certainly wouldn’t want to talk with any of us.           

Believe it or not, many inmates knew Christ before they were incarcerated.  Some of them grew up in a church.  Some of them have had a previous relationship with God from which they’ve fallen away.  Some of them even desire to change their lives and repent from their previous mistakes.  And remember, if we believe in an omnipresent God, that means that God is already out in the prison waiting for us to join with Him in ministry to this particular community.           

But what kinds of ministry can our church offer to the inmates in our local correctional facility?  I was recently reading an article about the prison ministry of Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin, Tennessee.  This church has an active and transformative ministry with prisoners, and the ministries they offer are mentor relationships, Bible study classes, worship services, and a reentry program.           

Through their mentor relationship ministry, Christ United Methodist Church pairs volunteers from the church with inmates in their local prison who have signed up for a mentor.  When the church volunteer and the inmate get together, they talk about what’s going on in the inmate’s life, what’s happening with his family, and other similar things.  Then the church volunteer and inmate pray together, read Scripture together, and share in each other’s Christian walk.  Is anyone at Greenville United Methodist Church feeling led to start such a ministry between our church and local correctional facility.           

In the Bible study classes, volunteers from Christ United Methodist Church travel to the local prison to teach Bible study courses such as Disciple, Christian Believer, and Jesus in the Gospels.  Maybe someone in one of our church’s Sunday School classes is feeling led to go and teach what they learn in Sunday School to the inmates in our local correctional facility.  Maybe someone in our church’s Monday Evening Bible Study is feeling led to go and teach what they have learned at our local prison.  Is anyone feeling the call?           

Dates to Remember