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Jail ministry


irishman

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We recently had 5 saved at the County Jail, and 1 at the state prison--Praise the Lord! I often hear of one/some being saved in prison.

I know about "jailhouse religion" and that some think it will help their case, but the Lord knows who is truly saved, and who is not...for that matter, we do not no if the people we write to on this forum are saved, for sure. I only know that I am, and I take your word for it that you are.

Anyway, maybe a few inmates have begun a new life. I have quit the Jail ministry because of a stand on the KJB, but I still like to keep abreast of it. The "Rock of Ages" prison ministry has missionaries all over, one at our church, and they go to the state prisons, while several of the laymen go to the County Jail; it can be quite a blessing.

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Amen to those salvations! We have a jail ministry here, too. We've seen people saved over the years. There is one man that I know for sure came from the jail ministry, and has been a faithful member of our church for years. It's a very important ministry.

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  • 4 months later...
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Actually, we have seen many saved, but few come to church on a regular basis. We go to a couple of state prisons, as well as the local county jail, but I have to admit, I had to make a conviction based decision, and quit going! They put a sign on my pulpit saying that I cannot emphasize the KJB, because it is too controversial. They allow Catholic communion, tongues teaching, and the whole shebang, but they do not want the KJB. I have to say though, our guys are definitely KJB, but they do not "push" it like I did. I started out telling the inmates that "No two words mean exactly the same thing" and illustrated it. Someone complained to the Chaplin (southern Baptist), and he called me with an "ultimatum". I felt my hands were tied, and I could no longer participate under their conditions, but now I am not reaching any of them! I sometimes wonder if I should have compromised for the sake of getting the Gospel to them, but I believe the Lord would have me to stand on my God-given convictions too. Sometimes its hard to know what to do.

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Prison ministry can be difficult. The prison ministry program and the prison chaplain is typically as PC as they can be and the whole thing is very political in nature.

One prison chaplain pulled a lot of strings to get an excellent Baptist pastor banned from doing ministry in the prison because he felt that pastor was a threat to his job. The Baptist pastor had no intention, desire or calling to be a prison chaplain but that didn't matter.

Muslims, Catholics and Charismatics seem to get a pretty free hand while true followers of Christ who live, teach and preach the whole Word of God receive much scrutiny and are most likely to be restricted in one or more ways.

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Actually, we have seen many saved, but few come to church on a regular basis. We go to a couple of state prisons, as well as the local county jail, but I have to admit, I had to make a conviction based decision, and quit going! They put a sign on my pulpit saying that I cannot emphasize the KJB, because it is too controversial. They allow Catholic communion, tongues teaching, and the whole shebang, but they do not want the KJB. I have to say though, our guys are definitely KJB, but they do not "push" it like I did. I started out telling the inmates that "No two words mean exactly the same thing" and illustrated it. Someone complained to the Chaplin (southern Baptist), and he called me with an "ultimatum". I felt my hands were tied, and I could no longer participate under their conditions, but now I am not reaching any of them! I sometimes wonder if I should have compromised for the sake of getting the Gospel to them, but I believe the Lord would have me to stand on my God-given convictions too. Sometimes its hard to know what to do.


I guess I don't know why you have to "emphasize the KJB" while preaching and winning souls at the jail or prison. Can't you just emphasize the Word of God and if any of them ask for advise on which Bible to buy or have a visitor bring them, then you can tell them the KJB?

I've been a "chaplain" in the local county jail and for one of the big state prisons (I was the Prison Ministry leader for an IFB church) and there was never really time from the pulpit to even discuss such things. We were preaching from our KJB about their need to repent and be saved and then growing in the Lord. We preached that the Book we held in our hands was the Word of God. We never apologized for using the KJB, but we also didn't make it an issue, we just used it and memorized it and referred the inmates to it when asked.
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I guess I don't know why you have to "emphasize the KJB" while preaching and winning souls at the jail or prison. Can't you just emphasize the Word of God and if any of them ask for advise on which Bible to buy or have a visitor bring them, then you can tell them the KJB?

I've been a "chaplain" in the local county jail and for one of the big state prisons (I was the Prison Ministry leader for an IFB church) and there was never really time from the pulpit to even discuss such things. We were preaching from our KJB about their need to repent and be saved and then growing in the Lord. We preached that the Book we held in our hands was the Word of God. We never apologized for using the KJB, but we also didn't make it an issue, we just used it and memorized it and referred the inmates to it when asked.
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Something happened to my last post, so I re-posted again, it got mixed up with the quotes from trc.


I felt that I needed to emphasize it, what good does it do to give them the truth, then have them get all mixed up with inferior translations! Yes, I could have just preached, and did, but you can get a lot of "salvation" in there in a short time if need be. They had so many others there all teaching different doctrines that all they can really get is confusion, but if they learn that the KJB is the true Word of God, that will set them apart from the teachers of falsehoods. When there is so much adverse influence, I believe there is a greater need to stress the truth; they already wonder who to believe! I had many of them tell me that they got the "Holy Ghost" while in the shower, or on the rec time break, or whatever, and they need a realistic God, not one that does magic tricks. I believe I did right, but as I say, they aren't getting as much of the truth now, so it is sort of a "catch 22". Several of our guys still go there, so I know the Gospel is being preached; I do not want to belittle them in any way, because they are doing it, and I am not! I just feel that the KJB needs to be emphasized more, lest they wind up with a watered down Christianity, if they get it at all (the inmates, not our guys!)

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Something happened to my last post, so I re-posted again, it got mixed up with the quotes from trc.


I felt that I needed to emphasize it, what good does it do to give them the truth, then have them get all mixed up with inferior translations! Yes, I could have just preached, and did, but you can get a lot of "salvation" in there in a short time if need be. They had so many others there all teaching different doctrines that all they can really get is confusion, but if they learn that the KJB is the true Word of God, that will set them apart from the teachers of falsehoods. When there is so much adverse influence, I believe there is a greater need to stress the truth; they already wonder who to believe! I had many of them tell me that they got the "Holy Ghost" while in the shower, or on the rec time break, or whatever, and they need a realistic God, not one that does magic tricks. I believe I did right, but as I say, they aren't getting as much of the truth now, so it is sort of a "catch 22". Several of our guys still go there, so I know the Gospel is being preached; I do not want to belittle them in any way, because they are doing it, and I am not! I just feel that the KJB needs to be emphasized more, lest they wind up with a watered down Christianity, if they get it at all (the inmates, not our guys!)


Understood.
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I'm going to emphasize the KJB in my booklet in a section on it. The other bible versions on a direct attack on faith. The perserved Word of God is as much part of the gospel story as the garden of eden - and quite rightfully part of prophecy too.

If we were just teaching words of men, maybe it wouldn't matter - but that is the attack. Even the unsaved know that the wicked mess around with the words of the constitution. We are bad witnesses to the truth if we don't witness God's word, and not as our own and changeable.

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At our various jail ministries, we had (for the month of August) 391 in attendance, and 54 saved! Praise the Lord!

I know there is such a thing as "jailhouse religion" and that many inmates seem to think that it will impress the judge, and may affect their sentence, but if even one soul is truly saved, (and we think most, if not all these, were sincere) it is still worth the effort. Besides, why even go if we do not believe that we can make a difference? We could let the charismatics do it!

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At our various jail ministries, we had (for the month of August) 391 in attendance, and 54 saved! Praise the Lord!

I know there is such a thing as "jailhouse religion" and that many inmates seem to think that it will impress the judge, and may affect their sentence, but if even one soul is truly saved, (and we think most, if not all these, were sincere) it is still worth the effort. Besides, why even go if we do not believe that we can make a difference? We could let the charismatics do it!


This is excellent news! Does this mean that you are once again participating in the prison ministry?
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This is excellent news! Does this mean that you are once again participating in the prison ministry?



No, the local chaplain would not welcome me back after our little discussion. I still stand where I first stood on the issue of the KJB, and unless I fudge on it, I won't be going back, because I doubt that the chaplain will change. I do still keep up on it though, and pray for them.
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No, the local chaplain would not welcome me back after our little discussion. I still stand where I first stood on the issue of the KJB, and unless I fudge on it, I won't be going back, because I doubt that the chaplain will change. I do still keep up on it though, and pray for them.


That's cool. I pray many lives are changed by that ministry. You never know when that seed will settle in and take deep root.
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