Sometimes we get to see the fruit of our labor. About 10 years ago Cathy and I started visiting prisons every month, sitting in TUMI church leadership classes and celebrating their graduations. We got to know hundreds of men and women from Alaska to Michigan, prisoners demonstrating their ability to lead the Church inside. One of the strongest examples came during a 2017 visit to Ark Valley Prison outside Pueblo, CO. Hearing from leaders like Theo and Woody (names changed) inspired us to empower them even more, and replicate what we observed for other prisons, leading us to launch Completion Global in 2018.
Since then, we have been working to change the paradigm of traditional prison ministry from sending outside people in to bring the gospel into prisons. We wanted prison ministries to see that there is now an effective group of church leaders inside who no longer need evangelism as much as they do coaching and leadership development.
On January 23, Cathy and I assembled a group of like-minded colleagues, who are living out this new paradigm of prison ministry, and I hosted a webinar to share success stories from three different states: Mark Walker (Colorado), Matt Thomas (Kansas), and Charles Anderson (Texas). Here is a link if you want to watch the full 60-minute video: https://www.cmcainternational.org/strengthening-the-indigenous-church-in-prison/
This event was a milestone for Completion Global. What started as an idea in 2018, grew to include colleagues embodying the idea, then resulting in a public declaration of this paradigm shift to the prison ministry world at large.
A few days later, we went back to where this all began, the church at Ark Valley Prison. Over the 7+ years since our last visit, their church has become a satellite campus of Woodmen Valley Chapel, where the prisoners are valued as equal pastoral partners.
We drove three hours through a snowstorm, but it was all worth it. “Theo’s” hair had turned gray since our last meeting, but warmly introduced us to five other prison church leaders. Our two-hour visit went by quickly as we shared the history of TUMI, thanked them for inspiring us to start Completion Global, and exchanged ideas about disciple-making expertise to help American churches inside and outside of prison.
Praise God for the opportunity of coming full circle from the webinar to Ark Valley, encouraging our Kingdom colleagues in the work of the Great Commission.
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