Walton County Jail in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, is being transformed from a place of confinement to a site of spiritual freedom.
Rev. Jonathan King, pastor of First Apostolic Church of DeFuniak Springs, serves as a volunteer chaplain for the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
He said the ministry takes a specific angle that’s bearing fruit.
“When we approach these men and women as people instead of just as inmates, we’re finding that God is doing the work in their lives,” King told CBN News.
The ministry at the jail is a coordinated effort between the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, First Apostolic and New Life Church of Santa Rosa and includes worship, prayer, and Bible study.
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But the impact is going far beyond a weekly meeting.
“We can only have 28 men in there at a time,” explained King. “And so, obviously that doesn’t scratch the surface. And so, we teach them, we want you to take this and go and teach it to the ones that didn’t get to come today. And so, they’re teaching Bible studies in their pods. They’re having prayer meetings in their pods. They’re encouraging one another in their pods.”
The results have been impressive with 70 inmates baptized in July. King also helped baptize another 45 inmates in August at the Okaloosa County Jail.
“It’s a beautiful thing to watch as men who started the day with absolutely no hope of anything for the future,” King said, “and over months we watch as the life returns to their eyes and they have some purpose.”
The jail ministry focuses on rehabilitating and discipling inmates so they can go beyond just redirecting them to completely change their lives.
Some take that transformation with them after they leave, including one man who now attends King’s church.
“He got out on a Thursday afternoon and on Sunday he was in our service on Sunday morning. We’ve been seeing him. We have multiple services on Sunday. He comes to both of them and he’s brought more people with him than most anybody I know,” said King.
There are other positive signs.
“I’ve watched as the Lord has literally changed the atmosphere in that jail,” King said in the interview. “Several weeks ago, they communicated to me that they pulled the reports of those 70 inmates that we baptized there at Walton a few months ago, and as of a couple weeks ago, they had zero disciplinary actions towards any of them.”
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The ministry is now expanding to help men prepare for life after incarceration.
“They’re going to allow us to teach a recovery part of that reentry program where we’ll be able to connect with those that are fixing to leave and to connect with them and tell them that they have somewhere to go when they get out,” explained King.
For King, changed lives are more than just jailhouse conversions.
“If the Lord can convert somebody in a jailhouse, then who are we to look down on that and say, ‘well, it’s just because they’re in jail.’ Well, the truth of the matter is we all were converted somewhere. And I believe that God can start a conversion process in some inmates in a jail that will move past the jail,” said King.
