“The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” the prophet Isaiah said, “for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

We believe those ancient words of the Bible have special meaning for the modern America of today. There are some three million prisoners now in the United States—and that population is growing at a compounded rate of well over 2 percent a year. What will the future bring?

One answer is the recent creation of God Behind Bars in the very city God supposedly had forgotten—Las Vegas.

God’s prompting and the skyrocketing number of incarcerated men and women in the United States has led directly to the founding of this unusual new ministry, which intends to partner with Christian churches and faith-based organizations around the world to stream live, dynamic, high-quality worship services into prisons each weekend.

God Behind Bars intends to introduce prisoners to God’s life-changing principles, thereby helping them turn their broken road of failure—one they know all too well—into a pathway for personal and familial success.

God Behind Bars will use many of the best relational teachers and speakers in the United States. We intend to provide all necessary materials. Since studies have shown that 90 percent of inmates have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction at one level or another, we also will use the highly successful Christian-based “Celebrate Recovery” program, founded by Saddleback Church in California in the 1990’s.

Once inmates are empowered to let go of their addictions and move forward in their lives, they will be invited to join “Life Issues” groups in prison. Here they will learn what it means to be a Christian and an actual part of a growing, thriving church. The next stage, “Live Out,” will teach them to give back to others and to God before rewarding themselves. The inmates in fact will start by giving back to the very institution in which they are incarcerated.

Other stages will help the inmates to do the following: Share their new faith with their peers. Carefully prepare for the “free world” they will face upon their re-entry. And learn how to apply for and acquire necessary credentials such as driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.

Finally the ex-inmate will go through God Behind Bars’ faithful aftercare program. The ministry pledges to walk with and care for each former prisoner. Among things that will be provided initially by the ministry are temporary living quarters, groceries, gas, a cell phone, clothes, and interviews with potential employers.

The goals of God Behind Bars are transformational:

To restore prisoners to their families.
To help them build a strong faith foundation.
To fight addiction.
To lead prisoners to live for others and for Christ.
To prepare them with all the necessary credentials to live a godly and successful life both in their community and in their church.