Criminal Justice and the Church

This curriculum was the result of a COVID-related pivot for an internship through The Evangelical Covenant Church with its mission priority, Love Mercy Do Justice (now under the Serve Locally objective). The original goal was to work directly with a pilot group of churches to strengthen their programs inside & alongside prisons, learn from them, and make suggestions for future churches. Due to the COVID pandemic shutting down prisons across the states, we (my advisor and I) shifted our strategy to something that we could accomplish remotely that actually increased the impact of this work across more churches. Over a year and a half, I worked to build a curriculum that walked curious congregations through the exploration of their calling to engage in prison ministry through these stages: Educate, Advocate, and Collaborate. But first, a walkthrough of the stages I took to get there:

Phase 1: Gather insight from churches to learn what is currently being done, and pair with insights from incarcerated persons to inform what can be done better.
Having direct contact through my Master's Program with incarcerated seminary students, we noticed that there were 3 gaps in church-related prison work.

1. Churches were quick to host services, bible studies, and faith-based correspondence, but didn't really fully know the history of the carceral system in the United States, nor the situational realities of many who are locked up. This led to the first step of the curriculum: Educate. This featured content from author of Rethinking Incarceration and LMDJ Team member Dominique Gilliard.

2. Another gap that was named was how often churches were uncomfortable in the "harder" work it took to really walk alongside of incarcerated persons often waiting to be released from prison, leading us to the next step of the curriculum: Advocate. This walks churches through the importance of understanding not just the historical and biblical significance of what prison means, but how we as community members can use our voices & votes to consider how, outside of the church, we are also doing what we can to continue to "be the body". It's the more uncomfortable work, and yet just as important!

3. The third gap that was acknowledged through interviews and insights was that churches often didn't take the time to look around at other organizations or congregations doing similar work - there were repeated programs in the same prison, or congregations thought they had to reinvent the wheel when there was already pathways set out for them from others. This led to the final step, which is: Collaborate. This section emphasizes the importance of churches knowing that not only are they not alone in this work, but more effective when they can learn from those around them who are already doing this work and see first how they can come alongside and support their work, verses immediately jumping into it themselves.

Phase 2: Build a curriculum that models the Educate, Advocate, and Collaborate approach by incorporating expert voices, scriptural reflections, discussion questions, and checkpoints into the curriculum.

One of the things I knew I needed to incorporate was expert voices not only on the outside, but from the inside of prisons as well. I wanted to model this Educate, Advocate, and Collaborate approach within the process of creating the curriculum. The result? A combination of voices across the US, including in prison systems, that are the leading voice walking churches through this curriculum. We have educational content from author of Rethinking Incarceration Dominique Gilliard, devotional reflections from Master Degree students in a prison education seminary program, Q&A's with police officers who see a very different side of this work, discussions with on-the-ground community members and family members of the incarcerated. It's quite robust, but essential to be able to fully understand the scope of what this work entails. That is also why there are moments for reflection and response scattered throughout, as we are often quick to consume content and move on verses actually process what we are learning.

Phase 3: Launch a pilot cohort of congregations/churches through the curriculum and make tweaks before public push.

Once we gathered the curriculum and format it on TalentLMS learning platform, I identified a group of 8-10 church congregants from across the US that were willing to walkthrough the content and give feedback. As this is a larger curriculum to walk through, my time ended before the total completion of the cohort. However, this curriculum has gone on to equip churches across the Evangelical Covenant Church network, is a featured resource of LMDJ's, and has sparked continued conversation (and action!) about the integration of Criminal Justice and the Church.

Interested in learning more? Check it out in the link below.