Ministry Moments: Jail Ministry Part 1

What the Jail Ministry Means To Me - by Paul Muller

Jail ministry is a program for volunteers from local churches to visit inmates at the Ventura County jail on Sunday mornings.  This program is run by the Chaplain's office and there are some 200 volunteers that visit on a rotating schedule.  Craig Johnson, Richard Masters, Inge Christiansen and I are volunteers that are members at Trinity  There is also a group that comes from Ascension Lutheran in Thousand Oaks.  We meet in the jail lobby at 8:00 AM on scheduled Sundays where we are assigned cell blocks to visit.  We are processed into the jail and then meet with inmates in the interview rooms that are off of each cell block.

What is it like to visit inmates inside our county jail?  Maybe the best way to describe it is to answer some common questions that I get from people who know I am in the jail ministry.

Are there steel bars inside the jail? - Nope.  I've never seen a steel bar in our jail.  There are no door handles either, for that matter.  All movement inside the jail is by electrically-activated doors operated by deputies in the glass-enclosed control centers that are located on each floor and cell block.  Even the elevator is controlled from outside – there are no buttons to push for the various floor stops.  On Sunday morning there is a screening by a deputy with a metal detector – we are then processed into the downstairs control center and into the elevator.  When I arrive on my assigned floor I wait outside two sets of steel doors that are opened by remote control.  I check in with the deputy on duty in the cell block control room and he opens the electric locks on the interview room door – I go inside and wait for the inmates to arrive.

So what do you get out of all this? - The opportunity to see the Gospel at work among Christian inmates who can make a difference.  I tell the inmates that a good part of the New Testament was written from jail – and that whenever Christians were put in prison they tried to help their neighbors there.  A Christian may be confined, but he is at the same time truly free because Christian inmates in jail have the opportunity to work among those who really need to hear the Gospel. In so doing they turn outward in service and away from their own worries and fears.  The jail is full of people about to go on trial or to be sentenced – full of people who have families outside and not much news from them. There is a lot of tension - and living in service to others is the best way to be free from your natural fears.  You can see how much this message means to those inmates who hear it.

Meeting with Christians in jail gives you a new perspective on what it means to be a follower of Christ.  It isn't about what sort of hymns are sung during worship or what the coffee tastes like after.  It is about sin and redemption, about serious life challenges and how there is real strength in the Gospel for those who seek it.  And that is a powerful experience.

Part 2 - Are you Saving Souls for Jesus? and Are you Afraid?

Part 3 - What do you talk about