EVANGELISTIC WORSHIP SERVICES
An important part of our ministry objectives
is to evangelize prisoners who in turn disciple other convicts to turn
from their evils ways and give their hearts to Jesus. Over 2,000 first
time decisions are made every year. This is the equivalent of one prison
per year surrendering to the Lord! We need your help for services, Bible
studies and one-on-one counseling and we need it now. If ever there was
a time to step out of the boat, it is now while the harevest is due and
the trumpet is about to sound. So, here's what an ideal team would be
composed of.
What you need to assemble is a team of five
volunteers:
1. One would open the service in prayer and
ask inmates to give their praise reports.
2. You need one volunteer to then lead in song
and praise. God inhabits His praises.
3. Next is the volunteer that will give a short
devotional with clear points that can be easily remembered.
4. Then comes your minister that blesses them
with a message fresh from the throne of the Lord.
5. Now it is time to draw in the net and have
a volunteer do an altar (alter) call.
6. And then comes more praise and worship music
and
7. The service ends in corporate and private
prayer.
After you have prayed
about this exciting adventure, take your plans to your pastor and get
his blessing to continue. Then you call us and arrange a volunteer
orientation class before you start joining Rick Mathes in services at
various prisons throughout Missouri and Illinois. In time, you will get
the feel of how this needs to be done to the point where you are ready
to spread your wings and fly on your own. At this time, Rick will schedule
you into a State prison for your own services. This is when your ministry
really takes hold. We encourage you to at least "test
the waters" and join Rick from time to time to see what it is like. But
be ever mindful that if you can't walk on water, you'd better stay in
the boat!
We lay
emphasis on confessing with your mouth Jesus AS Lord and believing
in your heart God raised Him from the dead. This involves both intellectual
assent and a heart-felt committment to His Lordship. We don't advocate "cheap
grace." All
they need at this point is the fundamentals that all evangelical Christians
believe in. We leave the denominational distinctives to the pastors of
the churches they will eventually join. Consequently, you will see Presbyterians,
Baptists, and Pentecostals all in unity of Spirit and all pointing their
swords in the same direction. They said it couldn't be done but I can
assure you that it is being done at the Mission Gate. Now we are ready
to do the follow-up that necessarily follows.
Most institutional
Chaplains will permit you and your team to bring in pre-approved Bible
study material and have classes on the fundamental basics that every
new Christian that has been "born again" needs to know at this point
of his Christian experience. You must have the Chaplain's approval
in advance of your providing this material to the residents. Your heart
will be blessed when you participate in a chapel study with inmates
hungering and thirsting for the Word of God. The fields are truly white
unto harvest and you will be amazed at the turnout when you stick to
the fundamentals that these new Christians so badly need to launch
them on the road to understanding. We know that they will perish for
lack of knowledge and thus have an obligation to be there for them
as they diligently study the Gospel according to Jesus in His Word
with your guidance.
There are many Bible
study courses that are available and you choose which is best for your
purposes as you lead the inmates in their study of the Word. We, however,
are closely affiliated with the Christian Bible College and Seminary
in Independence Missouri. These correspondence courses are available
to inmates for only the cost of the materials. Tuition costs are extremely
affordable and paid when the student can afford it, even many years
after the courses are completed. No billing or interest charges are
every made and when the tuition is paid, the degree is confered. This
might include an Associates, Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate degree.
It all depends on how far the student wants to persue his education.
You just buy the book and mail in the lessons. They will be corrected
and mailed back to you in a timely manner. When you have completed
the course, the degree will be confered when you are able to pay the
tuition in full. This gives maximum opportunity for prison inmates
to at least get the course requisites completed and then at a later
time, when the finances are right, pay the tuition. It can't be made
any easier and it is available upon application and at least a GED
completion.
Chaplains welcome volunteers to come in during
the week and provide counseling for the many residents that need to sit
down and talk out thier problems with a qualified counselor. You become
an unpaid staff member and are most welcomed by the Department of Corrections
because you are bringing peace to the camp and well-being to the residents.
This is a great opportunity to our senior citizens that prefer to witness
during the day to avoid night driving. These seasoned saints have so much
to offer and are looked up to by the students because of thier experience
and maturity in their walk with the Lord. A respected counselor is a very
valuable commodity in the whole plan of salvation. So we challenge you
to reach back to those reaching out to the Lord and be a counselor that
gets in thier gut, grabs their hearts and points to Jesus!
All Christian ministries have the same objective:
Restore families before the throne of grace. We are no exception and we
have found a way to assisted incarceratied parents in keeping in touch
with their children. What we do is send into a prison a qualified volunteer
with an assortment of childrens books and a tape recorder. The parent picks
out an appropriate book and reads it into the tape recorder with a verbal
letter at the end. We in turn mail the book and tape to the children so
that they might hear their mommy or daddy read a Christian book to them.
The letter at the end will draw tears to their eyes as they draw closer
to their parent that is so far away and unavailable to be with them. This
is the closest thing to the parent being right there with them and as you
can imagine it tightens the family bond and has been torn asunder by this
heart wretching event of imprisonment. I might add that the volunteers
are as blessed as the parent knowing that they are fulfilling the will
of our Lord by keeping the family intact in the only possible manner considering
these circumstances.
Mission Gate owns and manages
9 guest homes in the greater St. Louis area that have the capacity to house
upwards of 50 former convicts that have given their heart to Jesus. When
a saint is released from prison they have nothing to build thier lives
upon and no hope of improving their situation. Our one year program, by
application and approval, gives this former inmate a Christian environment
and structured Aftercare Program to disciple them through the crawl, walk
and run stages of sanctification. We provide them a clean and Christian
residence with close supervision so that they might learn to live under
Godly authority and make descisions that are pleasing to our Lord. This
takes a lot of help and encouragement that can only come from the Body
of Christ. This is your entry level if you have a heart for helping them
become the Christian citizens the Lord intended them to be. Some of the
volunteer opportunities include:
1. Become a mentor to a Christian in need.
Select the resident the Lord has led you to and be their friend and guide.
2. Teach a class at our weekly meetings at
the Central Christian School on Hanley Road in Clayton MO.
3. Teach a class at one or more of our Guest
Homes during the week. We usually combline serveral homes for this class.
4. Support the new residents
with the necessary "start
up" needs they might have such as toiletries and clothes.
5. Help them find employment through the various
contacts you might have in the business community.
6. Invite them to attend your church so that
your fellowship may provide them a community of believers to grow with.
7. Be a partner in ministry by supporting this
effort with your local missions giving either personally or through your
church.
The Guest House and Aftercare Program is available
for one or more years to qualified Christian ex-offenders and former alcoholics
and drug addicts. We are not equipped to service sex-offenders or arsonists.
We have a capacity of 100 reseidents in our St. Louis homes or Fort Good
Shepherd cabins. The purpose of which is to provide safe housing for those
that need a Christian environment to launch their new life-style. Each
is run by an in-house respected Christian leder who has been free of drugs
and alcohol for at least 5 years. A resident assistant is a graduate of
our program that wants to stay on and be a part of this exciting ministry.
They both report to our Aftercare Committee any infractions of our rules.
The Guest House Committee is a team of five members who oversee the day
to day activities of our Aftercare Residential Program.
The Program goals and objectives are individualized
to meet the resident's needs. Each person's strengths, weaknesses and identified
problems and needs are taken into consideration when designing a regimen
that will accomplish our goals. Networking with other services, agencies,
resources and peole are an important part of our ministrie's activities
in order to advance toward the achievement of defined goals and objectives.
Reporting to the Probation and Parole and/or Division of Family Services
is a routine part of our task in order to provide the best possible service
to our client, society in general and the community in which the resident
will return to.
The volunteer opportunities are vaious and
many as you can imagine and we have monthly training classes for those
who are interested and committed to the success of this Aftercare Program.
We enjoy the success of 8 out of 10 that complete our program never return
to prison. This is a reversal of the failure rate of the Department of
Corrections effort to correct.
The Christmas Angel Mission
is designed to bless the children of Christian inmates, ex-offenders and
other impoverished children with Christmas gifts, the Gospel and church
referral. This is accomplished by delivering gifts to the kids right in
their homes and having a Bible study that puts Christ back into Christmas.
Thousands cannot be reached in their homes because of the lack of volunteers
so we have Christmas parties that they are encouraged to attend.
1. The St. Louis City outreach usually blesses
several hundred children that do not have transportation to our parties.
2. The St.Louis County Christmas party always
draws 1,000 children and their guardians. You really need to see this!
3. The Meramec Theater in Steelville MO provides
a Christmas show that had 400 in attendance in 2004.
4. There are about 130 children at the Hope
House in St. Louis that are blessed each year plus.
5. An Native American community receives hundres
of gifts and the clear message that Jesus is Lord.
We guarantee that there
won't be a dry eye in the place as you see these precious little souls
lift their hands to the Lord and give Him their hearts! And then we
all sing "Happy Birthday
Jesus" at the top of our lungs. I am sure He is smiling back!
There are 140 participating churches in this
annual event and much planning and many volunteers are needed to bless
approximately 3,000 children with gifts, the Gospel and church referrals.
You need to be involved and I guarantee you that you will be blessed as
you never have before. We are not affiliated with Prison Fellowship nor
with the Salvation Army. We depend on you and your fellowship to insure
that local mission giving is received locally, in the community you live
in.
We exist to assist the Church in those areas
in which we specialize in. We are under the authority of the participating
churches knowing that we can accomplish much more together than independenly
of each other. We minister along-side of the Church and have been enthusiastically
received by all as a real asset to their fellowship and ministry purposes.
Our goal is to train our ex-offenders to be the ambassador to the church
of their choice so that when the occasion arises, their church may avail
themselves of our resourses. The Mission Gate is opened so wide, it is
almost falling off it's hindges!
Our paycheck is when
our Christian graduates attend the church of their choice and become
productive members of their community as example of Christ's life giving
Spirit. They then are a real gift from the Lord and example of what
is usually called the "Jesus Factor" in
the prison system. It works and we are anxious to prove it in your fellowship
as the Lord would lead and encourage you to participate. Those that have
been forgiven much, owe much so please lift up this effort to the Lord
for His guidance and then act accordingly for His honor and glory.
