Summary

The church is engaging in ministry to prisoners as never before. It has become evident that prison ministry is having a profound impact upon the life of the church and that the principles of Restorative Justice are not only for offenders and victims, but for anyone to live all of life as worship.

Listen Online

Details

The church is engaging in ministry to prisoners as never before. Due to skyrocketing recidivism rates (75% of released inmates will return to crime within five years), it is blatantly obvious that our correctional centers do not correct and our reformatories do not reform. This societal crisis of enormous proportions has led to the emergence of the movement as a way to repair the criminal justice system and to facilitate restoration and healing in collapsing communities. Along the way, however, it has become evident that prison ministry is having a profound impact upon the life of the church and that the principles of Restorative Justice are not only for offenders and victims, but for anyone to live all of life as worship.

Presented at the 2007 Calvin Symposium on 91ÁÔÆæ.

Recent Media Resources

Public 91ÁÔÆæ, Wealth, and Poverty in Early Christianity 

Explore how Christians in the earliest centuries of Christianity engaged topics related to wealth and poverty in their preaching, public prayers, offerings, celebrations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the shaping of buildings and spaces for Christian worship. 

August 27, 2025 | 63 min video
A Snapshot of Illness, Pain, and Healing in Early Christianity

How did early Christians understand their illness and pain in their Greco-Roman context?

August 27, 2025 | 65 min video