One of World Impact’s initiatives is Incarceration to Incorporation (I2I), which utilizes Siafu leadership training homes to turn prisoners into pastors. This bold move has expanded our church planting efforts and opened new ministry opportunities across the board – from prison personnel to local urban pastors.
Over the years, World Impact has steadily worked to get The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) into prisons across the country. Beginning with Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Kansas, TUMI now has 66 other sites in prisons across America. Its presence in state corrections has reduced violence, restored the lives of inmates and built partnerships with prison faculty and outside ministries.
One such partnership is Prison Fellowship. They are a Christian organization that goes into the prisons and ministers to the men and women. With the TUMI program, they can now offer seminary-level education to inmates who are called to Christian leadership. This becomes a 2-3 year commitment, during which time relationships are built between the men incarcerated, prison staff, guards, state officials and outside volunteers who work for ministries like Prison Fellowship.
World Impact now must offer a path to “incorporation,” and this requires new partnerships to be made in our urban communities. Through our Siafu training homes, we are developing ways for ex-offenders to safely reintegrate into society. By deploying a Christian-based program and partnering with local urban pastors, we can feed these men both physically and spiritually – so they can continue on their path to becoming pastors and community leaders. While living in our Siafu training homes, these men are discipled by an urban pastor and finalize their seminary training. Successful partnerships with local urban pastors rely on World Impact finding pastors who also have had experience with incarceration. These are the pastors that can successfully train and disciple these men. And because they are pastors, the men can begin serving in the local churches and get hands-on experience.
We believe that I2I and new partnerships will one day lead to stronger churches in urban communities and ultimately more healthy church plants. This long road of cultivation and partnering is needed to see the recently released become Godly pastors and leaders.