Finding God on Texas Death Row
They’d run out of protective vests so our visit to death row was limited to one unit.
Usually the prisoners were locked up in the individual cells 23 hours a day. They aren’t allow to socialize. Each one would take one hour of exercise alone. All that had changed in response to what God was doing.
When we arrived there were eight men waiting for us in their day room. We stood a meter away behind a yellow line. They stood behind a barred wall.
“Can we sing to you?” They sang the Lord's Prayer.
♪ Father let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Father let your will be done ♪ ♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪ ♪ Right here in my heart ♪ - Is this happening?
♪ Father let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Father let your will be done ♪ ♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪ ♪ Right here in my heart ♪ ♪ Forgive us this day ♪ ♪ We pray forgive us, forgive us ♪ ♪ As we forgive the ones who sin against us ♪ ♪ Forgive them and lead us not into temptation ♪ ♪ The power, the glory are yours ♪ ♪ It's yours, it's yours ♪ ♪ All yours, all yours ♪ ♪ Forever and ever ♪ ♪ Father the kingdom is yours ♪
♪ Father let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Father let your will be done ♪ ♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪ ♪ Right here in my heart ♪ ♪ On earth as it is in heaven ♪ ♪ Right here in my heart ♪
They were full of the love and life of God — white, black, Hispanic, Asian. It was a taste of heaven right there on death row. God’s glory was shining out from these men’s lives. I wanted to cross that yellow line, put my hands through the bars and embrace these brothers.
They wanted to tell us what God was doing. “We don’t call this death row, we call it life row. This is where we found Jesus.”
Every one of these men waits for the day when they’ll be executed. It could be months or it could be decades away.
When the time comes and a brother is taken to face a lethal injection, the disciples sing him out with Amazing Grace.
Recently as one brother laid strapped down on the gurney, he asked, “Before you take me out, can I sing? I’m not delaying, I just want to worship God one more time.”
And he worshipped God as he lay there.
In three years, twenty-four men have been executed on death row, twenty of them were disciples.
There are 168 men on death row. Around eighty of them are now following Jesus. These men have planted churches in six of death row’s fourteen units.
In maximum security I met prisoners with sentences of twenty-five to forty years. Some will never be released. They are in for serious, violent crimes. Yet Christ has paid the price for their forgiveness. Through his violent death as a criminal, Jesus has made them new.
Throughout maximum security churches meet in day rooms. They also come together for worship in the prison chapel. The night we attended they had a band and a choir. The African Americans took the lead. One hundred and fifty men raised their voices to God. It felt like I was in heaven.
These men are free.
Traditionally prison ministry is done by outsiders who preach, teach, and make disciples. But this is a movement, spread by insiders. Outsiders have come in as trainers and catalysts to equip prisoners to make disciples and plant churches.
My job is to tell the story of what God is doing in the prisons. To encourage and provoke others to action. My next book will be full of stories and case studies from around the world. I’ve already visited the United States and India. Between now and Easter I’ll be in the Middle East, Ethiopia, Thailand and Indonesia. Collecting stories.
Podcast: 342–A Glimpse of Heaven on Death Row