Chuck Colson impacts lives

I just listened to Chuck Colson’s interview (opens in iTunes) done by the Fermi Project guys and it was amazing. I’m going to have a few pages of posts just from ideas that Chuck shared. Hearing him speak with such graceful authority blew my mind, I decided to do a little research on the guy. Wikipedia is your friend when looking stuff up, hope I can trust it well enough though.

From Wikipedia:
“Charles (Chuck) Colson…was the chief counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973 and was one of the Watergate Seven, jailed for Watergate-related charges.

Colson’s later life has been spent working with his non-profit organization devoted to prison ministry called Prison Fellowship. Colson is also a public speaker and author. He is founder and chairman of the Wilberforce Forum, which is the “Christian worldview thinking, teaching, and advocacy arm of” Prison Fellowship, and includes Colson’s daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint, now heard on a thousand outlets. The ministry conducts justice reform efforts through Justice Fellowship.

Colson has received fifteen honorary doctorates and in 1993 was awarded the Templeton Prize, the world’s largest cash gift (over $1 million), which is given each year to the one person in the world who has done the most to advance the cause of religion. He donated this prize, as he does all speaking fees and royalties, to further the work of Prison Fellowship.”

I’m a “fact and research” guy so it was interesting to me to see him move from prison to working with Prison Fellowship. The research is astounding and according to The New York Times “1 in 100 U.S. adults are behind bars.” I want to break this out for us to see:

1 in every 99.1 adults are behind bars
1 in every 36 Hispanic adults are incarcerated
1 in every 15 black adults locked up
1 in 9 black men between the ages of 20-34 are in jail

Is this as shocking to you as it is to me? What does this mean for the church?

I’d like for the readers of this blog to do some homework before I continue to post on this topic. Please listen to the Fermi audio with Chuck Colson (this will open your iTunes program and take you to the free download). When you’ve finished listening pray that God would open our eyes to see the people hurting and locked up around us. Pray for those in literal prison to come to know the Creator. Pray that God would send workers and then prepare us to be the ones who are sent!

After all that come back over the next few days to hear about my experience in a SUPERMAX PRISON! It’s a great story, you don’t want to miss it!

<via New York Times & Church Relevance>