The need for church involvement with prison ministries — during and after an inmate’s incarceration — will be the focus of Alabama’s first annual prison ministries conference, “The Cross Is the Key.”
The two-day event will be held Nov. 9-4 at the Metropolitan Church of God in Birmingham.
This nondenominational hands-on seminar has the governor’s and attorney general’s approval and is being spearheaded by Alabama’s commissioner of corrections, Mike Haley.
“Governor Siegelman supports this issue so strongly that he will be one of the conference’s featured speakers,” said Haley.
Prison evangelist
Keynote speaker for the event will be Paul Carlin, a nationally known prison evangelist from Crockett, Texas, who holds a doctorate in theology.
Carlin has been referred to as the “apostle Paul of prison ministry,” — a reflection of his 22 years of work in the field. He and his wife, Jeri, are founders of numerous prison-related ministries including the Prisoners Bible Institute and the faith-based therapeutic treatment model, Belief Therapy.
Carlin’s expertise in the field comes, in part, from personal experience. A portion of his testimony deals with his own incarceration in a Texas federal prison.
There are currently 25,600 inmates in Alabama’s state prisons at a yearly cost to taxpayers of $235 million. Many of these prisoners are repeat offenders.
“Our hope and desire is to get churches across the state to join forces and help develop some strong and effective after-care programs for inmates after they are released. All the state gives them (prisoners) when they are released is $10 and a one-way bust ticket to the county where they were sentenced,” said Haley, an ordained Baptist minister who is a member of First Baptist Church, Prattville.
“Church-based after-care programs could foster a much-needed ministry that could make an impact on keeping some of these prisoners from becoming repeat offenders,” Haley said. “Every inmate is looking for the key to turn their life around and we need to show them through ministry that Jesus is that key,” he added.
The conference begins Friday morning and concludes Saturday evening. In addition to guest speakers, there will be workshops on prison ministry-related topics such as criminal recovery and relapse prevention, the mentoring program and the role of the local church in prison ministry.
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