1. The Vision
This introductory video shares Epiphany's vision: coming alongside local churches to welcome home men and women returning from incarceration—embracing them as the mature disciple-makers they are, helping them find their footing, and celebrating the gifts they bring as they take their place and serve wholeheartedly in the body of Christ.
2. A Different Approach
This video invites churches to think differently about re-entry—moving beyond a purely therapeutic lens that sees returning citizens primarily through the wound of their past, toward The Empowerment Network's identity approach, which sees them for who they've become: transformed ambassadors for Christ. It's a call for churches to open their arms wide, welcoming these men and women fully into Christian community and inviting them into meaningful ministry where their story and their gifts can bear real fruit.
3. The Importance of Culture
This video helps churches see with new eyes—recognizing that the cultural distance between dominant culture and inner-city culture isn't a barrier to look past, but something worth understanding deeply. When churches take the time to learn and honor these cultural differences, they're far better equipped to truly welcome and empower disciplemakers whose lives have been touched by incarceration, seeing them fully and walking alongside them well.
4. Understanding Prison Culture Pt 1
This video opens up an honest, compassionate conversation about what both congregations and formerly incarcerated men and women carry with them—their hopes and their very real fears. By exploring how prison culture shapes behavior in lasting ways, it helps churches understand the real challenges of returning to civilian church life, so they can meet that journey with wisdom and grace rather than surprise.
5. Understanding Prison Culture Pt 2
Continuing the conversation, this video gently unpacks what daily life inside prison actually asks of a person—constant vigilance, ever-present danger, rigid social codes, and deep deprivation—and how these survival skills, once so necessary, can quietly shape the way someone relates, communicates, and makes decisions long after they've come home. Understanding this with compassion helps us see why reentry into free society, and into church life, is such a courageous and challenging road.
6. Implications of Prison Culture
This video helps us understand that the gap between prison culture and free-world culture doesn't close the moment someone walks out the gate—it can quietly show up in how comfortable they feel in crowds, how they relate to others, what they expect from relationships, and how they make everyday decisions. With that understanding, churches are equipped to walk alongside returning citizens through this tender transition, offering the steady presence and belonging that can make all the difference in keeping them from isolation and helping them stay on the path toward lasting freedom.
7. Transitioning from Prison Culture
This video offers churches practical wisdom for walking alongside someone coming home from prison—learning to recognize the survival habits and "criminogenic factors" shaped by that experience, while lovingly avoiding patterns that unintentionally enable rather than help. It's an invitation to patient, faithful discipleship: gradually helping returning citizens trade old survival-based habits for healthy relationships and Christ-centered responsibility, one step at a time.
8. Program vs. Systemic Thinking
This video makes the case that lasting change rarely comes from a program alone—it grows out of relationship. Rather than relying on structured social-service models, it points toward a more relational, systemic way forward: one where community, genuine connection, and empowerment become the soil in which real transformation takes root.
9. Keys to Success
This video lays out heartfelt, practical principles for helping returning citizens thrive after incarceration—centered on the belief that real empowerment grows when the church community invites them into genuine responsibility, trusting them to grow into the fullness of who God is calling them to be.
10. The Next Steps
This concluding video leaves churches with three heartfelt, practical next steps for building a re-entry ministry that lasts: creating a clear discipleship and leadership pathway, thoughtfully choosing where to begin, and taking the time to fully prepare the whole congregation's heart to welcome formerly incarcerated men and women into the full life and service of the church.