Background
For decades, God’s people have been sowing the seeds of the Gospel among the incarcerated, and the fruit of their labor is cropping up all over, with thousands of mature believers discipling fellow prisoners. And while not every individual has been reached for Christ, there are now enough effective disciple-makers living inside prison that they are no longer dependent on the Outside-Church to do the work of evangelism and discipleship. For a long time, America’s prisons were an unreached mission field, but because of this development, we now have what is called an “indigenous church.”
The word “indigenous” refers to a group of people who live, work, and interact within a culture. Culture is the set of unspoken rules people must follow if they want a good life in that setting. Just as there are cultures in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, there is also a culture of prison. So when we say “indigenous church” we mean there are mature disciple-makers in prisons who are doing the work of the local church in their prison culture.
But this does not mean there is no longer a role for the Outside-Church to minister to the incarcerated. It simply means we can move beyond traditional evangelism and discipleship, “ministering TO prisoners” and move to a new next level of coaching, doing ministry WITH prisoners. Instead of being the Bible teacher or evangelist, those coming in from the outside can become a coach to make indigenous disciple-makers even more effective.
This empowerment also has important implications for world missions. First, prisoners are reaching people from Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, and other backgrounds who live in their prison communities. Second, returning citizens who make a healthy transition to free-world society are vibrant and bold servants of Christ who can inspire their local churches to reach the refugees, immigrants, and international students that God is sending to America, known as the diaspora. Third, some of these mature believers are being released to other countries through deportation. In each of these dimensions, the Outside-Church can come alongside prisoners in a supportive role.
these developments brought together a group of incarceration ministers to form the empowerment network in 2025. It is a single network comprised of three communities, modeled after the story of onesimus from the book of Philemon. Even though Onesimus was a fugitive, the apostle Paul urged Philemon to receive Onesimus as someone who had become useful to the Kingdom of God. It took all three (Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus) to empower Onesimus for effective service. In the same way, The Empowerment Network is comprised of three communities who recognize the value of empowering disciplemakers in prison and after re-entry.