Many of you know of my past involvement with prison ministry. I've enjoyed sharing stories with you about my prison visits and am so thankful to have gotten to share the experience with those of you who have come along with me on these visits. I am excited to announce a new adventure in store, as God is leading me away from prison ministry for a short time (with the exception of continuing to be involved at the women's Waseca Prison) to pursue something new. Let me share what is in the works... At about the same time I found out that I may not be returning to the state prisons for awhile, the Christian organization called, "MN Adult and Teen Challenge" started to come on my radar. This is a Christ-centered program for teens and adults who struggle with life-controlling problems, such as addictions. Many of them have been in and out of jails and prisons. Upon learning this, I instantly felt a prompting to explore the organization further as to how I could get involved.
Jake and I have attended a couple events where some teens involved in this program have shared their faith testimonies. Many of them have come from broken homes and have been in trouble with the law, which is what has brought them to Teen Challenge. We've listened to many of them share about how they've tried several other rehab programs, but how Teen Challenge is the only one that has made a lasting impact and brought real change. This is because it's the only Christ-centered recovery program they've ever been in and it has made all the difference! Each person who has shared their testimony is so alive in their faith now- you can't help but leave inspired after hearing their stories! I have met with the staff and was accepted to become a regular volunteer at Adult & Teen Challenge, specifically to be involved in mentoring as well as working with people in the program who are musicians. I am excited about this opportunity, as it will be such an honor to be part of other people's journey of recovery in this way! Thank you for journeying with me through your prayers and support. They have been such an encouragement to me!! I am excited to keep you posted on the new adventures up ahead!
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I came across this blog post today, and it's inspired some thoughts and questions in me. Here is an excerpt: "If our worship leadership conveys that worship starts when we start it and ends when we end it...then we are creating worship dependents." -->Read the full article here (It is brief, a 2 min. read) This was a great reality check for me and something I think we should all consider as worship leaders. As a worship leader, I desire to empower others to engage in continuous worship throughout the week, not just for the hour we're gathered together on Sunday mornings. I desire for this to be true of my church as written in the blog post: "What occurs on Sunday is an overflow of what has already been occurring during the week with the added benefit of getting to share it with others. The weekly gathering is then the culmination of our daily occurrences." But if I were to be honest, I don't think I'm at this point as a leader yet. Would love to hear your ideas on how to become this kind of leader in terms of practical ways to lead toward this end during a service. Worship leaders: Through your leading, are you creating dependents or are you empowering others to engage with God throughout the week? It also begs the question of me: Is MY worship on Sunday an overflow of how I've engaged with God throughout my week? What about you? Reflecting and journaling about these questions today after listening to Pastor Chad's sermon at The Urban Refuge on Sunday. Good stuff to think about.
Most of my posts about what I get to do in my job of music ministry are happy, victorious, and exciting. But today was different. Today I experienced what could be referred to as the roller coaster of prison ministry. You just never know what can happen. I got invited to come lead worship as part of the IFI graduation ceremony for some of the women inside the Shakopee State Prison. What an honor to be part of this major milestone for the women who have worked so hard to graduate from this Christ-centered program. As I normally do when I'm invited to lead worship for various events inside prisons, I invited some others to come along to observe and be part of the experience. I always invite others to join, because I feel it is just as important for others to participate in how God is working in places outside of our everyday "normal" as it is to minister to the inmates inside. To visit with people who are locked up in a prison, but whose lives are being transformed by God, really is a life changing experience. To read some stories of others who share about how their visits to the prison have changed their perspectives, check out their "volunteer testimonies". Our group had all arrived at the facility to get checked in. Everything was going smoothly until we found out that two of the women from our group weren't going to be allowed in because their names weren't on the list of people who were cleared for this visit. Somehow, their names had been overlooked as part of the approval process. My heart sunk. This wasn't the first time a complication like this has happened at this prison. A couple months ago, the prison went on lock-down while we were there and our event got cancelled, forcing us all to go home. And the last time we were there, we were told no one from our group was cleared to go in, because all of the paperwork got lost. Upon hearing this, our group immediately started praying and the situation worked itself out that we were able to enter in, even without the paperwork. God had literally worked a miracle, because anyone who is familiar with the prison system knows that favors are given out to no one. The rules are black and white, no exceptions: No paperwork, no entrance. But by God's grace and favor, somehow we were allowed in that night on a "favor". Thank you God! But this time was different. We weren't able to get around the obstacle this time. I was so excited for these two ladies, in particular, to experience this because it would have been their first time getting to interact with the inmates. They had taken time off from work and their families, and I felt responsible since I had invited them. I experienced feelings of frustration with the prison system and heavy-heartedness that these two women had to return home without being able to experience the joy that comes from being part of a visit like this. I wish everyone could come along on a prison visit to be part of this eye-opening and life-changing experience! Ultimately, this is why my heart was so heavy-- these two women weren't going to get to see the hope and joy that God can bring in an environment like this. But, as they say, "The show must go on". I, along with the three others from our group who did make it through the approval process, still had to carry through with what we were there to do, despite frustrations. So I took a deep breath and allowed my attitude to switch gears. I was there for these women and to celebrate with them what they had worked so hard to accomplish. I felt so honored to be invited to be part of this! The program included an opening prayer by one of the graduates, some honorary speakers, two testimonies from a couple of the other inmate graduates, some praise & worship, and celebrating with cake and refreshments afterwards. The highlight for me was getting to lead us in singing "I am Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave. I have sung this song before in church, but the lyrics that talked about being a prisoner, bound up in shackles, but being set FREE touched me in an entirely new way as I sang this with the inmates. Check out the lyrics below and picture yourself in a room full of inmates in a prison who have been transformed by God's grace as you sing along. It will give you a whole new perspective to God's redeeming power! I have learned through my years in doing prison ministry that it brings many joys, but not without some trials. If I could ask you to pray for one thing, it would be to pray that people who come along for future visits would be able to be approved without any glitches. I hope you will consider coming with me on a future visit to celebrate the work God is doing in these womens' lives! Redeemed
Seems like all I could see was the struggle Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past Bound up in shackles of all my failures Wondering how long is this gonna last Then You look at this prisoner and say to me "son, stop fighting a fight it's already been won" I am redeemed, You set me free So I'll shake off these heavy chains Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be I am redeemed, I'm redeemed All my life I have been called unworthy Named by the voice of my shame and regret But when I hear You whisper, "Child lift up your head" I remember, oh God, You're not done with me yet I am redeemed, You set me free So I'll shake off these heavy chains Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be Because I don't have to be the old man inside of me 'Cause his day is long dead and gone Because I've got a new name, a new life, I'm not the same And a hope that will carry me home I am redeemed, You set me free So I'll shake off these heavy chains Wipe away every stain, 'cause I'm not who I used to be I am redeemed, You set me free So I'll shake off these heavy chains Wipe away every stain, yeah, I'm not who I used to be Oh, God, I'm not who I used to be Jesus, I'm not who I used to be 'Cause I am redeemed Thank God, redeemed How do you know when you worship something?
- Think about it - Talk about it - Seek attention from it - Imitate it - Invest time in it - Sacrifice for it -->Answers above are from the Urban Refuge youth group this week. A pastor once told me, "You become like what you worship". And, "If you want to know what you worship, just take a look through your checkbook. How you spend your money will show you what you worship". So what do you worship? Do you ever find yourself consumed by some of these things, worshiping things that you don't want to? "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." -Philippians 4:8 What do YOU think about, talk about, seek attention from, imitate, invest time in, or sacrifice for? "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:21 This past Tuesday, I had the awesome privilege and opportunity of getting to return to the Women's Shakopee Prison to lead worship for 100+ female inmates, partnering with the Innerchange Freedom Initiative (IFI) ministry inside the prison. This was a special night, as I also got to bring 7 others along with me, 6 of who were coming for the first time!
We had such a fun time singing and praising God and memorizing Scripture together. My friend Chantel, pictured below, shared her faith testimony and also helped to lead worship. It warmed my heart to see the women tuned in to every word Chantel spoke, choosing to engage as they paged through their Bibles to follow along with the Scripture she shared. I also asked a friend and pastor, Gary, to come and share a message. Gary spoke about coming to God's throne of grace. He talked about how God doesn't expect us to fix everything before we come to him, but rather invites us to come His room full of grace to allow Him to transform us there. The women really connected to Gary's personable way of relating with them. To hear about this experience from the perspective of our volunteers who came along, you can check out the "Volunteer Testimonies" link on the left to hear from Chantel, Katie, Alex, Jessica, and Sonia. This song started playing on Pandora this afternoon. In the busyness of catching up on emails and getting things done, I put myself on pause and just stopped to listen and soak in these words. I've sung this song many times before but today it spoke to my heart in a new way. Enjoy taking a listen and soaking in his Truth for you today :)
Last year, I met a college student named, Sonia. At the time I met Sonia, she was searching for answers to her questions about faith and God. One night, I invited her and a friend over for dinner and we talked about some of those questions. I also gave her the book, Letters From a Skeptic. Sonia and I have stayed in contact since then, and I have gotten the privilege of watching her grow in her faith over this past year. Yesterday, I received this email from her: Hey Jackie! So, it was probably about a year ago that you gave me the book Letters From a Skeptic. I always meant to read it, but never quite got the motivation to start. It sat on my book shelf for a while, and at one point I decided I wasn't really a skeptic anymore and I probably didn't need to read it. Well, this week I had a change of heart. I picked it up. And I couldn't even put it down, I read it all in a single day. Highlighted a bunch of parts to come back and continue to reflect on. I even told my boyfriend I was reading it, who then found a copy online and read along with me and finished the next day. We've been discussing parts of it, and it really opened up a discussion of faith between us. And then today at church, I was talking with the new guy who had just started coming. He's came out and told me he still had a lot of questions about Christianity. I decided to pass off the book to him. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, and let you know how you've impacted not just me, but a couple others. And it hasn't even been a week! I'm sure I'll continue passing this book on to several others. This was such an encouragement to me and was a great reminder that our lives affect one another, whether positively or negatively. Who has God placed in your sphere of influence to impact for Christ- friends, neighbors, coworkers? What is one bold step you could take to share the Good News with that person?
"I didn't know I had friends here until last weekend", said Carol (name changed), who was just released from suicide watch two days prior, to a room filled with her fellow inmates. Carol is one of four women who shared her testimony of coming to faith in Christ, due in large part to the ministry of Celebrate Recovery inside the Waseca Women's Prison. Carol explained how when she was released from her suicide watch, she was amazed at the number of women who cared for her, expressing their concern in asking how she was doing and telling her they were praying for her. It amazed her, she thought she was all alone.
For many years, Carol was living the good life. She served in the military, bought a home, and started her own law firm. But during this time, she got involved with using drugs and life began to crumble in her 30 years of drug use. Carol referenced 1 Cor. 10:12 in her testimony which says, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!". In a short matter of time, Carol lost her dad to a car accident, her partner cheated on her, and because of her drug addiction she lost her home and her law firm. Her plans had collapsed. At one of the drug treatment centers she admitted herself into, she was told that "The only way to stay sober is God and helping others". This stuck with her and it wasn't until being brought to the Waseca Prison and becoming involved in Celebrate Recovery (CR) that she started to really apply this to her own life. Carol signed up for the CR class, which is a 12-Step Christ-Centered recovery program, and that's when she says her relationship with God began to change. "God filled the empty holes in my life and I felt peace for the first time in my life." Carol closed her story by expressing this to her 25 other fellow Celebrate Recovery graduates: "I don't know why all these things have happened. All I know is there is a God and He loves us". What faith. Such a blessing for me to be part of this CR graduation ceremony and celebrate with the women as we sang Christmas carols together, encouraged one another, and prayed together. Can't wait to go back! I recently came across this article by a worship colleague of mine, Dan Adler. Dan is the leader of a multicultural worship band in the Twin Cities called, Heart of the City. Would love to hear your thoughts!
A Waste of Resources? by: Dan Adler A few years ago, I met with a pastor and was talking with him about the vision for Biblical unity that Heart of the City has been seeking to model and call the Church to for so many years. I spoke with him about how I feel that our segregated congregations don’t reflect Biblical values and that our churches should be multi-ethnic whenever the population around them is diverse. He looked at me and told me that he sees it in an economic paradigm. He knows that for a certain amount of resources, he can plant a mono-ethnic congregation targeted to a certain socio-economic and generational demographic in the suburbs and grow a church of several hundred in a short period of time. If he took those same resources and attempted to plant a multi-ethnic church, it would grow much slower and would be, in a sense, throwing his resources away. Whoa… That shook me a little bit. Did he just say that? I hear the logic of it and I also understand it in the sense that you want to see your time and money be used in the most effective way it can. But is this thinking a real “Kingdom of God” thinking or is it a “Madison Avenue” marketing kind of thinking? Numbers and growth, though so very exciting and encouraging, do not necessarily mean we’re on the right track or are creating the fruit of the Kingdom that we are called to. If the only way we can grow our churches is to separate people between ethnic groups and generations and socio-economic groups, are we really growing disciples of Jesus Christ or are we just producing religious clubs that are meant to keep us all comfortable? Is a “growth at all costs” perspective right? Shouldn’t the Church be the ultimate transforming force in society when it comes to breaking down prejudices, injustices and barriers between us? How can that possibly happen if we embrace a model of ethnically and generationally divided churches as the norm? I told this pastor that, because Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one as He and the Father are one, we pray and work toward even seeing denominations come to a place of doctrinal agreement. He looked at me and said, “As if that will ever happen…” Again, from a human perspective, I totally understand his response. But that is not the perspective we are called to live from. The Bible calls us to such a greater Kingdom and faith-filled perspective in which we are to live and operate. We cannot just look at what is, but at what the Bible says should be and could be! If this pastor, and so many others who would agree with him, is right, then the message to Heart of the City Ministries is “Go back to your own churches, with your own people, in your own denomination. Quit wasting people’s time and resources trying to bring them together. Quit writing and using music of different cultures in worship. Quit trying to broaden our view of the Church. Let each church focus on their “brand” and the people who like their “brand”. . Let Black churches stay isolated as Black churches and let White churches stay isolated as White churches. Let the Hispanic and Asian churches continue to stay in their corners – separate from other ethnicities. And let all of them stay separate from one another within their ethnicities as well. Let them continue to build subcultures so that people from other churches feel like aliens if they visit their services. Let them continue to keep an “us” and “them” approach to other Christians of different ethnicities. And let them continue to market separate services that divide the generations from one another so that they don’t have to put up with each other’s music. And let us continue to try to present the Biblical Jesus to the world in this tribal, segregated, generationally separated way. We’re doing just fine.” What do you think? Are they right? Is what Heart of the City is doing worth it? Is Biblical unity even a vision worth pursuing or just a big distraction? |
Jackie Dixon
I love Jesus. I love my husband & family. I like dark chocolate. And hats. Traveling. Slippers. Hand written notes. And thrifting. These are a few of my favorite things! Categories
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