Prison Ministry

                                                                                                   (Pictured: Minnesota Correctional Facility-St. Cloud) 

The generous gifts from the churches where I sing makes it possible for me to continue to take every opportunity to speak and sing about Jesus to men in prison.  This is an account of my recent visit to the Redgranite Correctional Institution, just outside of Redgranite, WI on Sunday evening, August 28th, 2011.

 

I work with a couple of Lutheran Prison ministry groups: the Jail Ministry Training Team in Minnesota, and Wisconsin Lutheran Institutional Ministries in Wisconsin.  I also work with individual pastors who have created their own jail ministry.  For this visit, I was sponsored by Pastor Dan Krause of WLIM.  As you might imagine, there is quite a bit of preparation needed to bring me into these institutions; background checks, lots of questions for me that sometimes don't seem pertinent at all.  It takes time and effort to make it happen.  I often reflect that I have the really easy part - to just show up and sing - and the majority of the work of getting me inside is done by others.  Pastor Dan lives in Oshkosh and has also brought me into the Winnebago Mental Health Institute there to sing for a large group of sexual offenders who are in treatment and also incarcerated.  Some of these guys have completed their treatment but are considered too dangerous to be released.  I believe that the state can choose to keep them indefinitely on that basis.  Pastor has also taken me to Redgranite earlier this year.

 

I met the Krauses at their home in Oshkosh at 4pm.  Pastor and his wife Laury have had me over to dinner now a couple of times.  They like to spend time with me and I know that part of the reason they do this is to help me get mentally ready for what we're about to do.  I believe that my visit to Redgranite on Sunday night was about my 12th performance in an institution in the last year or so.  In some ways I'm getting more comfortable with the process, but in other ways, it'll probably always be a jarring experience.  Just to walk in to a place where they keep human beings under such tight control is a shock, such a dramatic shift of culture and perception of my world.  I find myself feeling on guard, trying to force myself to relax.  

 

It's nice to be able to spend some time in the car with the pastor before we get there and just chat about what's planned.  He had asked me in advance which songs I'd sing and which parts I'd like the men to sing with me.  He printed up a simple half-page hand-out for the guys, including the Bible passages from Romans that he was going to preach on:

 

^"28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 ³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

   'For your sake we face death all day long;
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'

 ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ** 

 At our earlier visit, Pastor Krause wanted to take a photo of me for an article he was preparing with the Redgranite guard tower in the background and was immediately stopped by security.  They don't permit such photos.  So we took a picture of me with the sign out front.  



Going through the initial security is getting routine.  Now I know I need to leave my cell-phone and pocket knife in the car.  My guitar and case are carefully searched  and the cable examined.  I'd forgotten that there were a number of items also in the case such as extra strings, picks, fret board lubricant, batteries and a CD with software on it that had to be removed and kept while we were inside.  CDs can be broken and made into weapons.  Our wallets and keys and coins and any extra items are put into a small locker in the lobby.  After passing successfully through a metal detector, we were escorted through a series of doors and gates to the yard.  At this point we're being controlled by the guard tower in the sense that our escort didn't have keys to unlock the gates in the yard.  The guys in the tower were observing us and remotely unlocking and locking us in and out. I can’t see through the smoked glass but I always look up there and wave.  

We then entered a building but before we got to the door, I could hear men singing with a band.  Passing through another series of locked doors, we entered a large room, perhaps half the size of a small gymnasium where plastic chairs had been set up in theater-style seating.  Up front was a 4-piece band playing an up-tempo contemporary Christian song and a group of about 16 men singing with gusto and being directed by another inmate.  There was a sound board with a small crew moving speakers and microphones around.  There was a raised area in the back containing 3 guards sitting in chairs watching very carefully.  This platform was surrounded by half-walls and locked.  I'm told that the guards inside don’t have guns but have other weapons available.

All of these men were wearing what's known as "greens" consisting of simple pants and shirts colored a kind of forest green.  The band and choir were practicing in advance of the rest of the men arriving for the service.  The music was fairly loud and played well.  Some of the men were lifting their arms heavenward as they sang with eyes closed.  Others were clapping in time to the music.  Their enthusiasm was catching and moving to me.  I sat down and listened for a while and began singing and clapping along.  Then I noticed that the other inmates were arriving.  They were being greeted by a couple of other prisoners with handshakes and sometimes hugs in a kind of reception line including Pastor Krause.  I went over and joined the line and helped greet the arrivals.  I've been told that it's very important to look these men directly in the eyes because it's a way of showing respect for them and to do otherwise is hurtful and disrespectful.  Another thing I’ve been cautioned against is asking men what crimes they committed to end up in prison.  Many of them remembered me and I heard over and over again, "Thanks for coming back!  I remember you from last time."  

These guys were a mix of different ages and colors and sizes.  Some were very old.  Some looked like what you might expect, large, tattooed and scary-looking but all of them were at least friendly and some were joyful.  I’m guessing about 90 men came through and took their seats.  The band continued to play and when the song was over, Pastor Krause briefly mentioned that this would be a concert featuring “song-writer, recording artist and Christian performer Chris Driesbach who is here for his second visit” (applause) and then led us in prayer and then motioned for me to come to the mic.  The sound crew was ready with a cable to plug in my guitar.

I don’t exactly remember what I said to the men to begin with.  I know I told them that I tell all my audiences on the outside about them and their enthusiasm for God’s Word.  I told them that I loved their music and singing and that it was the closest thing to the kind of music at my home church in New Orleans that I’d heard in a long time.  I said that the band and choir was getting even better, that they “had it going on!”  (meaning that I felt they were playing the songs in a good way).  I told them that I had a wonderful feeling of brotherhood with them and thanked them for the opportunity to sing and talk about Jesus.  These guys did a lot of applauding and yelling “Amen” during my first remarks. 

They sang along with me on anything I asked them to sing and the band did a pretty good job of picking up the chords and beat of my songs which they’d never heard before.  The choir was sitting in the first few rows and they were belting it out, sometimes in made-up harmony.  On a couple of the songs I told the band that the chords were so complex that it would be better to lay out.  After I played 4 songs, Pastor Krause got up to preach.  It was easy to see that these guys were his congregation and he knew them and their needs and how to talk to them.  He laid out God’s plan of redemption which is for everyone, no matter what they’ve done or where they live and the prisoners loved his message.  When he read the Bible passages you could hear a lot of rustling because every man opened his Bible to read along.  The drummer noticed that I didn’t have a Bible and he walked over and gave his to me. 

When I got back up I told my story of atheism and abuse in my family, and alcoholism, recovery and conversion in 1995.  I talked about Christian freedom, the freedom from our sinful nature, the devil and the world, the sure hope of heaven, that we all have a book of our lives with a happy ending no matter how bad things look in some of the early chapters.  We sang “Free At Last” with many repeats of the chorus until we were out of time and then I said goodbye.  Pastor Krause closed with prayer.  Many men came up to talk to me and asked me to come back again.  I said that I would.  Some guys said they’d pray for me as I travel and others said they’d pray for my family.  (I’d mentioned that I was the only believer among my relatives)

One thing I should mention is that it’s pretty clear that not all of these guys were sincere in their participation in worship.  This is to be expected in prison.  Men will pretend certain beliefs hoping to create an advantage for themselves.  But I know that many more are sincere.  Many of them really get the concepts of guilt and sin and they know that something is wrong between the creator and the created and they receive the wonderful good news of forgiveness in the blood of Christ with great joy.  The choir director told me he wants to have a music ministry when he is released.  One of the sound crew told me that he was planning to join Pastor Krause's church when he was released.

As I often say, singing for these guys has quickly become my favorite place to perform.  The rubber really meets the road in prison.  Questions confront me there.  Did Jesus really die for everyone?  To forgive everyone’s sins?  Some of the hands I’m shaking in there have a lot of blood on them, have done unspeakable things.  Can I really call them my brothers?  Do I mean it in my heart?  Humanly speaking, I can’t answer these things with certainty.  Humanly, I can’t tell who is really a believer and who is cynically faking it.  But the Father knows hearts and answers the questions with, “Amen!  These things are most certainly true!”  As these guys like to yell, “God is in the house!” 

I can’t say enough about the men who work every day at this ministry.  I love being in their company, knowing that we are brothers in the faith.  It’s so good to be shoulder-to-shoulder with them as we go behind the walls and fences and barbed wire to share.  When we drove back to Oshkosh together, I felt moved to share some very personal private things with Pastor Krause.  I’ve confessed these things before about my alcoholic past but I wanted him to know that but for the grace of God, I’d be living in a place like the Redgranite Correctional Institution myself.  When we said farewell I had an even closer knowledge of forgiveness and feeling of brotherhood.  What a gift and blessing.  As Pastor Krause said to me last Sunday night, we are both cracked pots carrying priceless treasure, living water to those thirsting for God’s righteousness.  To our wonderful Father, who fills heaven with criminals, be all praise and glory!

** Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.