Berean Church Of Christ
                                              Jail and Prison Ministry
                                                     "I was in prison, and you came unto Me." Mt. 25:36
                                                          Setting The Captive Free
Prison 20
RSAT 1
I will be adding  several articles of interest that churches of Christ might find valuable  and useful in  applying to your local jail or prison ,  espec- ially if you have been denied acceptance in the past.  My wife and I were summarily expelled from four places because of our teaching concerning baptism.  We were  blessed to  have located  a legal  firm out  of Atlanta, Georgia  that took  our fight  to the circuit  court of Georgia and won our case. After ten years of being ousted, we are now allowed back in and al- ready have two candidates waiting to be baptized.
Steve Protest
Isaiah 61:1  "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,  because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He sent me to bind up the broken hearted,  to proclaim liberty  to the cap- tives, and freedom to prisoners."                                                                                                                                                          Isaiah 51:14  "The exile will soon be set free,   and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking."                                             
Many churches of Christ have made a conscious decision to NOT minister in  their local jail or prison,  fearing that the presence of felons at the church assemblies, upon their release, would be dis- turbing to  many in  the congregation.  This in  turn might trigger families, especially those with small children, to walk out and not return.                                                                                               My wife,  Marcia,  and I  have been  involved  in jail  and prison work for over twenty years now.  It is both extremely challenging and  extremely rewarding  at the same  time, and has helped us to shape our lives in accordance with what being a "Christian" is all about.  Jesus did not "hang out" with  the "creme de la creme" of society.  Those who are "well" are not in need of a  doctor. Those who are  bound in SIN are the people that  Jesus came for,  as ex- emplified at  the cross when  one of the two thieves turned to him in  faith,  seeking  and  finding, forgiveness.  I have  stated  many times  in the jail  setting that the only difference  between me and those incarcerated is that they got caught, and I didn't.                  There  are some  people  in prison that  need to  remain  in prison their entire lives,  but even they need  to hear the message of  "Re demption"  and "release," at least spiritually, if not physically. By sharing  a little of  what we  do it is my  hope that all churches of Christ will  make application in their local areas to regularly min- ister behind bars with impartiality,  compassion,  and love, realiz- ing that these are people for whom Jesus came,  suffered and died for.  Who are we  to judge them and deny them salvation because these  people do  not pass the "sniff test."  What you  will receive from  doing  so  will  be greater  than what  you  might expect. A  word of advise, "be yourself" and "be real."


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                 Our Legal Battle                 
Over fourteen years ago,  and after only five months  of teaching in the jail in Cedartown, Georgia, I was summarily kicked out of the ministry  and banned from  teaching because  of my  position regarding baptism.  It was  election time  and I  decided to wait a  few months  to see who  the next sheriff  would be before mount- ing a challenge. It took two years and dozens of phone calls, one to the Lieutenant Governors office,  to finally reverse my dismis- sal. Two years later I was expelled from ministering in the jail for the same  reason after  about 30  to 40 inmates had officially req- uested baptism.  I protested  publicly in  front of  the jail  for five months with posters,  getting the attention  of all the sheriff's em- ployees as well as the general public. In approximately two years I located a legal team who took my case,  pro bono.  They filed a lawsuit which took eight years of litigation which was finally set- tled in  our favor  by  the  fourteenth  circuit court of appeals  late 2025. This lawsuit  is already  being cited around  the country  as establishing  precedent  in other similar litigation.  Since my wife and I  have been  teaching once  again  we  now have  seven  req- uests filed by inmates requesting baptism.  This sheriff  has  once again taken a stand  banning baptism's on the grounds of security reasons.  It is  looking like  there  will be  another lawsuit  to help persuade  this sheriff  to uphold   the laws of  the land,  which  he swore  in  an oath  to  uphold  and defend  as a  condition  of  his  being  sworn in  to office.  To me  it seems  that  the  enemies  of  God are  getting more and more brazen  in trying to  suppress the truth  in any way possible.  God's people  can  not just sit  idly by and  watch this  happen without a fight. We are in  a spiritual bat- tle for the soles  of  humanity and sometimes this  battle has to be fought  down  here in  the physical  realm, using all  the tools that God has provided us.