In our blog series The Road to Innovation, Winebrenner Theological Seminary learners and leaders share in detail how we do not just travel the road to innovation but clear the ground and pave the way. As an MDiv student, I was the beneficiary of such forward thinking with the $300 per month tuition plan and scholarship dollars given through generous donors.
Innovators are leaders, they are calculated risk-takers, and they are pioneers who continually explore new avenues to traverse on their way to completing their mission. Our mission at Winebrenner is to equip leaders for service in God’s Kingdom. We use two primary vehicles to reach our goal: formal graduate and post-graduate study, and our less formal but equally rich Institute for Christian Studies (ICS).
My journey with WTS began as an MDiv student and now continues as an adjunct instructor for the ICS program. Although not the center point of this blog, I feel it important to point out that in pursuit of the fulfillment of our mission, Winebrenner is innovative in providing alumni with opportunities to use the skills, training, and education they received as students to grow God’s Kingdom through multiple opportunities.
In 2013, under the leadership of former WTS President, the late Dr. David E. Draper, in partnership with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Winebrenner began offering ICS-level courses to maximum security inmates at Marion Correctional Institution (MCI). One of my goals in achieving an MDiv was to serve as an instructor. I completed my degree in July 2023 and led my first course in September of the same year. Little did I know when I set that goal that my road would be a road of innovation bringing quality Christian education and training behind prison walls
“God help me to see them as men, not monsters.” I prayed those words over and over as I traveled north on U.S. 23. I have to admit I was a bit nervous walking in and not knowing what to expect. As we (WTS has an incredible team of dedicated prayer warriors that assist at MCI) made our way from the security checkpoint in the guard house, through the yard, and into the main prison, my anxiety grew. I was then given a panic button and told never to push it unless I or someone in my party was in physical danger and to secure it in a place that I could not accidentally bump it. One press of that button would bring the whole prison to a crashing halt and more officers than you can imagine. My anxiety went up a few more notches. Clang, clang, clang – large metal doors closed behind us before the one in front of us could be opened. We passed guard-led, single-file lines of inmates going here and there. Finally, we arrived in the chapel and there, I was surrounded by twenty-three of the most heinous felons Ohio had to offer.
“God help me to see them as men, not monsters,” I prayed again. I worked hard during the first few weeks of that semester trying to learn the culture of a place I had never been, delicately trying to address but tiptoe around their circumstances. Then one day, sensing my awkwardness a student said, “Professor Beckett, look, everyone in here is here for a reason. Am I sorry for what I did that landed me here? Absolutely. But you don’t understand how broken I was. I didn’t even understand. It took coming here to realize that and through discovering how broken I was, I found Jesus Christ. I will never trade that for anything!”
One by one, similar stories broke out in that chapel. Thank you, God; I see men, not monsters! Men society tells us are depraved, but men the Gospel tells me that without Christ, I am just as depraved and just as monstrous!
The course I led that semester was Church in Mission. It is an evangelism course designed to rethink the way we communicate and share the gospel. I can assure you those men shared the gospel with me as much as I hope I shared it with them.
Out of my four semesters as an adjunct instructor, three were spent inside MCI. I had the incredible honor of assisting in the graduation ceremonies of the second cohort in MCI to complete the ICS program, and I will assist in the third graduation this summer. I have also had the privilege of touring Mansfield Correctional Institution as we explore what an ICS program would look like there. At the time of this writing, we are currently exploring the possibility of paving the road to innovation, to equip leaders for service in God’s kingdom, in four different prisons in the state of Ohio.
Why train inmates as leaders for service in God’s Kingdom? The great Apostle Paul, along with many other New Testament writers, were imprisoned for what the Roman government described as crimes. God used them and still uses them, every time the Bible is opened, to reach people with the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. At Winebrenner, we believe in the redemptive nature of Jesus Christ.
Some of these men will be getting released. We want them to be prepared for life outside of the walls through change that happens inside their hearts. We believe God can take their brokenness, make something beautiful out of it, and turn their tribulation into a testimony so that others may experience the restorative power that only Jesus offers.
Some of these men will never step foot outside of a prison wall, and they know it. Their context for the Great Commission is inside a correctional institution. We want to equip and empower these men to be leaders within their community in the same way the Church equips and empowers leaders within its community. All are deserving of the Gospel.
At Winebrenner, one of our roads to innovation is the road inside the Ohio penal system because we do not see monsters, we see men who deserve the gospel – men who are eager to learn and men who need spiritual leaders from within their community.
- Darryl Beckett, Adjunct Instructor for the ICS Program