Okay, maybe the title is a bit overstated, but not by as much as you might think. First let me tell you how I got into prison in the first place.

The Lord provided this position, after a degree in criminology, to educate me in a fascinating subculture most of us know little about. I had the naive expectation that we were in the people-changing business. In fact, we even had a name for it, rehabilitation! The organization that designed the process (in Canada) was called the "Ministry of Corrections."

How is a church like a prison?
While that may not
be a question
foremost on your mind,
it is more edifying
than you may know.

That was the question I kept asking the Lord while working in a provincial prison for over seven years prior to seminary.  And here's what I learned.

Interestingly, an 85% recidivism rate was the reality this prison was challenged with. In other words, only 15% of our clients (formerly known as inmates) rejected our offer of continued hospitality and managed not to return. How embarrassing! If we were in the people-changing business, it didn’t seem to be working all that well.

So what do you think was our reaction? We consoled ourselves by rightly concluding "We don’t change people, people change themselves." This made a lot of sense because it was impossible to determine if what we were doing on a daily basis was having the effect we hoped. There simply wasn’t any way that we knew of to measure the process.

So we happily operated on the notion that if we created an environment conducive to rehabilitation and, if an inmate really wanted to change, it could happen. Well, this was silly on two fronts. First, the inmates really didn’t see themselves as needing to change and, secondly, the assumption we really knew what caused change was never tested.

In developing this "environment conducive to change" we included the following.

• Build good habits such as adequate sleep and regular times to get up and go to bed.

• Establish effective routines of three square meals per day.

• Require standard hygiene.

• Provide opportunities for programs, in fact we could pretty much fill up the week with programs. We had programs to educate, to expand their horizons, to fellowship, to entertain, we had them all - even programs of spiritual nurture.

The thinking was that if they experienced the full gamut of programs and routines, that the first thing they would do when were released from prison was to: a) get up at 7:30 a.m. and make their bed; b) eat a nutritious (yet bland) breakfast; c) do a proper clean up; and d) head straight out to . . .

Experience, however, revealed a different set of results. "Well," we concluded "we don’t change people, people change themselves," and after all we did establish "an environment conducive to change." But since we still needed a measure of success, we resorted to the one thing we could consistently measure: we counted people. In fact, we counted every single person several times a day. We counted every class, every meal, every shop or program they attended, why we even counted them in their sleep.

Sound familiar? It did to me. In the Church we understand very clearly that we ARE in the "people-changing business." The most dramatic change of all is when we experience the grace of God in the regeneration of a soul. Then, as if that weren’t enough, we experience boundless grace as we are sanctified. In promoting our churches, we talk about meeting needs and the transforming power of God and how we are on a pilgrimage, all of us growing together. But in reality we struggle with our own results.

There is more than humor in the quip,
"the church is like Noah’s Ark.
If it weren’t for the storm outside,
we might not be able
to stand the stink inside."

We say sanctification is the work of the Lord and it is the prerogative of the believer to grieve the spirit and quench the process (not, however, in an ultimate sense). This, of course, makes it very difficult to measure success because of all the dynamics and variables involved. So the conclusion is "we don’t change people, people change themselves." Therefore, our part we understand is simply to "establish an environment conducive to change," which we do very well. We have Sunday morning, Sunday evening, we have many varied and enjoyable programs, in fact we can keep most people busy all week long. Our disappointment is still that fact that we can’t gauge how much spiritual transformation is taking place, if any. Therefore, we resort to the one thing we can do consistently . . . count. We count people. In fact, we count every single man, woman and child several times a day. Every service, every program, why we count people who claim this is their church home, even if we never see them.

My friends, it ought not to be this way. In fact it doesn’t have to be this way. We are people in whom the fullness of the Godhead lives personally. The Lord has repeated expectations of growth and maturity and, to that end, He established His Church to be the primary vehicle for that purpose. His Church is a living, breathing, disciplemaking organism, not a sterile institution. In fact, the words of our Lord are that we are to "make" disciples, not simply to "create and environment conducive to disciplemaking." I tell my friends all the time that the T-NET organization is dedicated to de-institutionalizing the church - liberating it from the grips of impotence and futility.

You see, I came to realize that one of the reasons the Lord had me work in a closed prison subculture was to sensitize me. I now sense very quickly if the setting is institutionalized and if the people are behaving in ways which reveal their allegiance and concern is about where they stand in the organization rather than the cause the organization is formed around.

Does that mean I’m down on the church? Hardly! It is still my Savior’s chosen Bride. But I’m realistic enough to understand the Bride is not always all she can be and I am dedicated to seeing her return to her first love . . . faithful and obedient to all that Christ commanded.

One other thing I learned in prison. Institutions do not change easily. That's why I joined T-Net. We have a wealth of experience to help churches learn how to count more than bodies moving on to transformational indicators and structures that help bring people to commitment and committed Christians experience the fullness of what Christ promised us. God has granted Bob Gilliam, Bill Hull and the whole T-NET crew a passion for His Bride and an effective coaching process to help you de-institutionalize His church, for His glory and honor.

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