Tag: Keryx

The Prodigal’s Return

According to Merriam-Webster a prodigal is a son/daughter who leaves his or her parents to do things that they do not approve of but then feels sorry and returns home.  In Luke 15:11-32 Jesus tells the story of two sons and their life choices.  The point of the story was not about passing judgement on the irresponsible son but about repentance and forgiveness on one hand and unforgiveness on the other.  I’m not going to focus on the reaction of the older son but on the journey of the younger son and the father’s response as it applies to my own spiritual life journey.

From my teenage years I wanted to distance myself from my family.  I went off to college and then further away for graduate school seeking to gain my freedom.  I then got married and started my career to establish my independence.  I filled my time with what I wanted and only made grudging appearances for holidays.  My brother grew up and got married.  My parents grew their business and took up square dancing.  They had their lives and I had mine.  I didn’t live in a faraway land but halfway between my parents and my wife’s parents.  Close enough to make the trip but far enough to not have to make it frequently.  My focus was on my career, my interests, and my friends.  I didn’t have time for family obligations or responsibilities.  Even after my daughter was born, I continued to pursue my dreams without any concerns for how this affected anyone else.  This is the very essence of being a prodigal. 

I didn’t appreciate what my family had to offer me: a stable nuclear family, deeply held religious beliefs, education, strong work ethic and financial security.  Growing up my extended family including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins always got together for the holidays.  Family reunions happened every year exposing me to an even larger group of family members in which I didn’t take the time to learn who they were or what our family history was.  I dreamed of being anywhere but there.  With age comes wisdom and only now do I appreciate what I had.  My parents will be celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary this year.  My family wasn’t perfect, but I was given all the advantages.  My time in prison exposed me to people who came from not just dysfunctional but truly broken homes.  Growing up on the streets and in some cases literally killing to get what I had.

Growing up, Sundays were all about church.  My parents were active members in their church.  My brother and I attended church for as long as we lived in their house.  Not attending wasn’t an option.  Even when I was older, I attended church, but it was more social and cultural than spiritual. My entire life my has been lived in the shadow of the cross.  My parents brought me up in church, raised me with conservative Christian values, and sent me to a college founded by our denomination.  I knew the hymns, the books of the Bible, and the tenants of the faith, but even though I confessed my faith there were areas of my life that weren’t surrendered to God.  

I was a very average student in high school.  When I went to college, I became a much better student when I started dating a girl who spent her time in the library.  While we parted ways, I still graduated with honors and double majored in chemistry and biology.  I went to graduate school and found out how really smart I was by consistently outscoring some of the best and brightest students at one of the state’s most prestigious universities.  But academic knowledge isn’t the same as wisdom and the more I learned the more foolish I became.  According to Proverbs 10:1b “a foolish son brings grief to his mother.” And I certainly caused my mother a lot of grief.

My pride of life, gluttony, intellectual arrogance, and selfishness kept me from following Christ fully.  Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  It was in quiet desperation that I truly called on the God of my fathers when I found myself in jail.  Many who find faith in prison point back to someone in their family, like a mother or grandmother who modeled it to them.  Those without a model have a much harder time coming to believe.

As a tutor in prison, I was able to use my education to help those who did not have the opportunities that I had.  I would encourage my students to look forward to a brighter future that would only be possible by completing their GED.  Not because of what education had done for me but what they could do with it to help their families.  On more than one occasion I had students tell me that they were determined to get their GED to challenge or encourage their own children to complete their education.  Those inmates were the ones that really got it and tried to make the best of their prison experience.

My father earned money by delivering papers when he was young.  He served in the military and afterwards went to night school while working and starting a family.  While I was still in elementary school, he made a life altering decision and became an insurance salesman.  He was consistently one of the top salespeople in his company.  He had his own agency for 47 years and did all right.  His hard work set the example for me.  I worked occasionally for him while I was in high school but knew that I didn’t want to follow him into business.  I chose a different path as part of my rebellion.  I had different skills and abilities but much of the same drive and work ethic.  In prison I encountered those who worked hard at not working.  Those who plotted and schemed at making the big score.  Always more talk than action.  Uneducated and unethical, a far cry from my up bringing.

I had a moderately successful career in the sciences.  I worked hard.  I worked long hours.  I provided for my family.  I never really had to worry about money to pay the bills, put food on the table or buy a few toys.  A lot of my satisfaction and self-esteem came from my work.  I liked getting above average employee annual reviews.  I liked my steady advancement up the corporate ladder.  And it was gone in the blink of an eye like the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21.  The barns I had built for myself were gone and life as I knew it was over.

In prison I had plenty of time to reflect on my life choices and the decisions that lead to that low point in my life.  I was in a pig sty and my thoughts often drifted back to life at home and how much better it would be to live there.  My thoughts weren’t fantasies of some make-believe fairytale life, but of a home that wanted me there as a part of the family.  While I was in prison my parents were the only ones who did not abandon me to my fate.  I knew very few inmates who had more visits than I did.  Approximately every two weeks I got to spend time with my parents who made the trek to wherever I was incarcerated to see me.  I received mail and/or emails from them regularly keeping me up to date on the happenings in the family.  I talked to them weekly on the phone and was occasionally blessed to call into a family get together were I could talk to my brother.  Not once in what was literally thousands of communications, did I hear any condemnation but rather endless encouragement.  I got to know about my extended family and all that I had missed out on over the years.  I got to hear about what was going on at church, the office, and with their friends.  I received postcards from all over the country and even around the globe as my parents traveled.  There was no doubt that I would be welcomed home, it was only a question of when.

When I got home, I wept with overwhelming emotions.  I had a room of my own.  Access to good food anytime of the day or night.  I was given the keys to one of the family cars to go out on errands and work.  I was given a family credit card so I could start rebuilding my credit and make purchases for the family.  I cooked meals, cleaned house and laundry, shopped for groceries, made home repairs, painted around the house, and gardened like Martha Stewart.  I did it, not because I had to as if I was expected to pay my parents back for supporting me while I was in prison but rather to express my gratitude for all that they had done for me.  I wanted to be fully engaged in the very family life that I had previously shunned.  I focused on completing my parole without any violations just like I completed my sentence behind bars without any violations.  I wanted to do and be my best because like the Grinch my heart had grown three sizes.

My time on parole flew by.  It was quite anticlimactic when I was discharged from parole.  The parole officer that had managed my case wasn’t even in the office on the day that I signed my discharge papers, there was no need to say goodbye.   I was a free man but running away from home never crossed my mind.  My parents are aging and need my help now more than ever.  I don’t worry about what I might or might not inherit when they pass.  I am secure in my position as a beloved son.  I don’t live at home anymore, but I live nearby so that I can stop in and check on things.  I have a new job and recently got married so I have more responsibilities too.  But they are not a way of establishing my independence again but rather a celebration of the new life I was given.  I have confidence that “all things work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28).  I never imagined that my life would turn out this way, but the Bible and church history are full of convicts that God called to do His will and I guess that I’m just one more.

As far a prodigals go I would say that my experience is not typical. My parents did more than keep a vigil by looking down the road for my return. They walked with me through my period of incarceration confident that God would make a way for me to return to them. God used them to encourage and sometimes even feed me in a difficult situation. Their faithfulness is what got me involved in the church behind bars and with Keryx. It was there that I truly began to understand about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and repentance. And more importantly to truly appreciate these foundational principles of the Christian faith and how important they are to rehabilitation and restoration of those convicted as opposed to punishment and retributive justice that are the hallmarks of the current criminal justice system. There are far too many men and women behind bars that will never get to experience the celebration of homecoming because regardless of how bad things get in prison they either haven’t come to their senses or don’t have anyone waiting for them. One of the strongest indicators for successfully completing parole is placement back into the family. Prodigals need to be welcomed home whether it is their nuclear family or some other group that can act as a surrogate. I’m proud to be part of a group called Freedom Dreamers Chapel who’s mission is to provide that surrogate family for those coming out of prison who have come to their senses but don’t have a family of their own to return to. We provide small accountability groups, mentors, and worship experiences in a Christ-centered judgement free atmosphere to encourage success while on parole and beyond.

Thank You

The church behind bars in prisons and jails is alive and well.  In a place that most people wouldn’t expect to find humble, faithful servants, there are a surprising number.  These are men and women who have hit rock bottom and were saved when they looked up and found God.  But they can’t grow and live without community.  Lone ranger Christians don’t last long in the hostile environment of incarceration.

Outside ministries provide essential assistance in cultivating and growing disciples in the church behind bars, everything from preaching on Sunday mornings, leading addiction groups like Celebrate Recovery, teaching life skill or spiritual development classes, to Bible studies.  The church behind bars benefits from the diversity of religious perspectives brought by the various denominations and independent churches represented.  In fact, the demand for professionals and volunteers to go inside exceeds the available pool of individuals.

Responding to the call to minister to those in prison is part of the call that all Christians receive and for which we will be judged by God (Matthew 25:34-40).  For those that step forward in faith and enter prison ministry, not only will they have eternal rewards but also blessings from interacting with fellow Christians in the most unlikely places.

For myself I had the privilege of interacting with dozens of people who came to preach, teach, sing, pray, and encourage me and my brothers.  They treated me as a human, not a convict; as a fellow Christian, not an outcast; as worthy of redemption, not deserving of condemnation; as a child of God, not the spawn of Satan.  They uplifted, edified, encouraged, challenged, and educated me in my Christian walk.

In the overcrowded yet lonely confines of prison I looked forward with great anticipation for the weekly callouts to the Sunday Worship Service, Tuesday night Bible Study, Spiritual Development classes, and Keryx.  It wasn’t just something to do in a vast wasteland of monotony.  It was an opportunity to chew on spiritual meat, to sharpen iron, and to be renewed in my inner being.  All of this was only possible because of the dedication of faithful, Spirit-filled, gifted pastors and laymen; retirees and businessmen.  These were missionaries, clergy, and volunteers from all walks of life who have given up much to bring light into darkness, hope to the hopeless, wisdom to the foolish, and the love of God to the least of these.

Saying thank you somehow seems inadequate for these superheroes of the faith.  The English language doesn’t contain enough words of admiration to express what these men and women of God mean to me.  I can speak of the miracles that have occurred; the lives changed; the tears cried and dried; the power of prayers spoken, and the answers received; and the peace of God imparted, and only scratch the surface of the impact that they have had on my life.

But try to tell them and their humility immediately redirects any praise to God.  Certainly, gratitude warms their hearts and expressions of appreciation encourage them to come back again and again.  While it was strictly against the rules, I wanted to hug these saints.  God used these ministers to prepare me for my own ministry.  To place in me the desire to step out of my comfort zone and see the world through Jesus eyes.  To speak Truth without cast stones.  To be an encourager of the brethren.  To write what the Holy Spirit gives me and not one word more. 

My heartfelt gratitude, admiration, and loves goes out to these ministers of the Gospel.  While we may not cross paths again in this life, I look forward to seeing you again in heaven.

Restoration and Renewal Testimony

(My personal testimony presented to my Keryx Brothers shortly before I was paroled by the MDOC in 2016.)

My name is Tim and I attended Keryx 10 here at STF and I sat at the table of Timothy.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.”

John 3:16-17

God reached out to me, to each one of us, in an act of sacrifice beyond our comprehension, to save us from ourselves and our self-destructive acts of sin. A free gift with no strings attached, but He knew that if we accepted it our lives would never be the same.

I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager at an alter call at the end of a Christian music concert. Once I became a Christian God promised that “He would never leave me nor forsake me” (Deuteronomy 31:6), that He would be my Shepard if I would be His sheep (John 10). But I was young and immature, and I failed to develop and grow in my faith, so in the course of time I wandered away as sheep are prone to do (Isaiah 53:6).

Through a series of bad life choices I found myself in a dark place, cut off from everything and everyone I knew. But God was faithful and found me in my cell at the county jail. He reminded me how much He loved me and I renewed my vow and earnestly repented. For the first time in years tears flowed as I poured my heart out to God, surrendering every area of my life, confessing every sinful habit and committing for faithfully serve Him.

One of the first Bible verses God gave me to memorize was Psalms 51:10-12, and for the last 8 years I have meditated daily on this prayer of King David:

“Create in my a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast (right) spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.”

Psalms 51:10-12

This passage clearly identified for me that after my act of confession and repentance it was God who must act to bring restoration and renewal to our relationship. It wasn’t something that I could do, because only God has the power to make things new (Revelations 21:5).

According to Webster to restore something is to put it back in its former position. And to renew means to make new again, to start over. Only God could restore that feeling I had first experienced at the alter call so many years ago. Now I have that experience of Joy in my heart every day. God has given me a fresh start, a clean slate, a new spirit within me. He is growing my faith and continues to reveal Himself to me in His Word and miraculous works on my behalf.

I have been transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). And as a result God has given me new strength (Isaiah 42:31), a new attitude (Ephesians 4:23), and a new sense of purpose (Jeremiah 29:10).

Not only has He worked in me, but He has worked through me to share God’s love with others, to serve the church, and to encourage and disciple my younger Brothers in the faith. God has also been restoring my relationship with my family, and this prodigal son will be going home Tuesday. I can’t have back the life I had before and don’t want it if I could. Instead I am looking forward to my new life in Christ, and the plans He has for me.

In closing, my prayer for you my Keryx Brothers is:

“Do not lose heart. Even though your outward man is perishing, your inward man is being renewed day by day: for the light affliction you are dealing with will last but for a moment and is working for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Do not look at the things which are seen, rather at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Until

(An original poem I wrote in prison based on the promises of Scripture and inspired by reading “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren in April 2016)

Until I realized I couldn't do it on my own,
     God could do nothing for me.
Until I asked for direction,
     God couldn't show me the way.
Until I confessed my ignorance,
     God couldn't teach me.
Until I laid down my burden,
     God couldn't carry it for me.
Until I searched for Him,
     God couldn't reveal Himself to me.
Until I died to self,
     God couldn't bring me to life.
Until I emptied myself,
     God couldn't fill me.
Until I surrendered,
     God couldn't give me victory.
Until I submitted to His authority,
     God couldn't free me from my bondage to sin.
Until I hungered and thirsted for righteousness,
     God couldn't satisfy my appetite.
Until I obeyed like a child,
     God couldn't treat me like a son.
Until I admitted my weakness,
     God couldn't strengthen me.
Until I walked by faith,
     God couldn't prepare me to run the race.
Until I acknowledged my purpose,
     God couldn't use me.

Christian Community

(A talk presented to my Keryx Brothers in 2016)

Since my Keryx weekend in 2014, in addition to my faithful attendance at church and the weekly Keryx grouping I have read and studied about what it means to live in Christian community. So as my time draws near for me to go home I believe it was by divine appointment that I’ve been asked to present this talk summary and what it means to me.

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book “Life Together” had a lot to say about how we should live together in Christian community. I would like to bring out a few points from the book that are especially true for us here in prison and how it relates to Keryx.

First, “we should not take for granted the privilege we have of openly living among other Christians. Visible fellowship is a blessing that not all of our Brothers and Sisters around the world get to enjoy. The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.” When we come together on Sunday nights for Keryx how many times have you been uplifted by the worship music, a testimony, or simply the enthusiastic greeting of a Brother? I know I have.

Secondly, “we need to recognize that as Christians we need other Christians in our lives to speak God’s Word into us.” We need our Brothers when we become uncertain and discouraged to speak God’s Word into us to provide certainty and courage. In our Keryx small groupings as we share our Christian walk together we have the opportunity to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. To encourage others and be encouraged ourselves.

Third, we realize that “in a Christian community each individual is an indispensable link in the chain. Not only do the weak need the strong, but also the strong can not exist without the weak. As a body we are only as strong as our weakest members. Therefore we must do all that we can to strengthen all our members.” Keryx creates a unique opportunity for us to get to know one another for who we are in Christ and how we can best serve each other in brotherly love.

Fourth, Christian community requires forgiveness. “We must forgive each other on a daily basis and it occurs without words as we pray in intercession for one another.” C.S. Lewis once said that “to believe in the forgiveness of sin is not so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that very easily slips away if we don’t keep polishing up on it.” We close every Keryx meeting with the Lord’s Prayer, reciting the words “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Reminding us forgiveness is not a natural action but the key to working out our salvation.

Fifth, in the Christian community, “thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little recieves the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?”

“If we do not give thanks daily for Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measures and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.” Like many of you I’ve been tempted to quit Keryx, but I stuck it out, got involved and worked to make our community a better place. I thank God daily for what we’ve got, confident that the best is yet to come.

And finally, “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. We are summoned from the outset to combine as creatures with our Chreator, as mortals, with the Immortal, as redeemed sinners with the sinless Redeemer. His presence, the interaction between Him and us, must always be the overwhelming dominate factor in the life we are to live in the body.”

Romans 12:12-14 says, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts: and though all its part are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, and were given the one Spirit to drink.”

Keryx provides us with a unique opportunity to live life in Christian community. To be the hands and feet of Jesus, ministering to one another and witnessing to the lost and wounded souls on this compound. Individually our lights may not seem like much shinning into the darkness that surrounds us, however, when we come together we are like a city on a hill that can not and will not be hidden.

The Sherpa’s Perspective

I have previously described the Keryx weekend as a mountain top experience, and having worked as a member of the Inside team I now have a sherpa’s perspective. Sherpa is actually the name of an ethnic group of people who live in the mountains of Nepal, central Asia and work as porters for mountain climbing expeditions in the Himalayas.

The Outside team members are the mountaineering guides who have dedicated their lives to leading candidates up the mountain. They lead the expedition from the base camp to the summit, instructing the candidates and encouraging them every step of the way. Their vision, planning and experience make this adventure possible.

The Inside team members are the sherpa’s. We’ve been to the mountain top before and it changed our lives. Now we have made the choice to serve, to give back in appreciation to the mountaineering guides. Enthusiasm from our own mountain top experience has caused us to invite our friends, the candidates, to experience what we’ve experienced.

Our role is to assist at the direction of the guides, taking care of the routine tasks that make the adventure possible for others. Cooking, cleaning, running messages, entertaining; all the details of camp life that go on behind the scene. I’m not saying we’re indespensible, but the journey goes smoother since many hands make light work.

The Candidates can’t make this journey without their guides or their sherpas. They don’t have the experience, knowledge, or strength to climb the mountain safely or carry the necessary supplies to reach the summit, it requires a team effort. No one climbs Mt. Everest alone, but each person’s experience is unique.

The view from the top of the mountain reveals the beauty of God’s creation. Looking down from the top, everything becomes clear. The world takes on new grandure. Now that you have a new perspective you’ll never look at things the same.

It has been a privilege to share this view with those who are no longer candidates, but rather, Brothers. We share something in common. We accepted the invitation, we made the journey, we learned from our guides, and we have been changed.

We are grateful to our guides and will now join them and our new Brothers to meet weekly to share about what we’ve learned, to continue the journey along the lowland paths, encouraging one another, and looking forward to the next expedition.

In the prisons where Keryx is active, the 3-day spiritual formation weekends are held twice a year. After completing the weekend, the candidates are invited to join the 4th day meetings. Once a week Keryx members gather together with outside volunteers for a time of worship and small group meetings. Once a month there is an Ultreya, a special meeting with an extended praise and worship time and a program with prayers and testimonies, typically attended by more of the outside volunteers and their spouses.

The newest Keryx members are encouraged to participate on the Inside team for the next spiritual formation weekend. Keryx provides an ecumenical environment where men from different religious traditions meet to strengthen and encourage one another in the faith. Keryx is open to everyone regardless of religious affiliation, however it is distinctively Christian.

During the Keryx weekend the Inside team works at the direction of the Outside team to provide a number of services including: food servers and kitchen workers, musicians and sound technicians, porters, Palanca and Prayer team members. Members that are not actively working the weekend are invited to join a Prayer Vigil where people from around the world cover the event in prayer 24/3.

As an Inside volunteer I worked as a sound technician twice and in the Prayer room once. Running sound allowed me to relive my own weekend experience as the same words were repeated, giving me chills at times as the power of the Holy Spirit was active in the room. Watching men raising their hands in worship, bowing their heads in prayer, and crying as the emotion was expressed was humbling. Listening as words of encouragement, testimonies, and praise were spoken by those leading and those following was empowering.

My weekend in the Prayer room gave me a totally different perspective. In the Prayer room Inside and Outside volunteers prayed for whatever was going on in the hall. We prayed for the speakers, the listeners, and the workers. On each table in the hall were pieces of paper and the attendies were encouraged to submit prayer requests, which we then prayed over individually. Some were simple requests or words of thanksgiving and praise. Some were heartfelt pleas for healing on the behalf of family and friends. Some were heartbreaking cries for help to restore relationships or intervention in situations you couldn’t possibly imagine. Some were prayers of salvation or forgiveness of sin. All were genuine.

They say that prayer changes the one who prays, and I was certainly changed as I lifted up requests from people I did and sometimes did not know. I added my voice to the choir of “Amens” as others took turns lifting up these faith-filled, hopeful, and urgent requests before the Throne of Grace of the Almighty God.

I can tell you from hearing the testimonies of the Outside volunteers that they experienced the same life changing power that I did as an Inside volunteer. In fact many of the Outside volunteers have served in Keryx for 10, 20 or more years across multiple prisons around the state. They don’t keep coming back because of the food, the accomodations or the scenery; rather they come both humbly and boldly to share the Gospel with those who need it. The have responded to a call on their lives to participate in the work of the church serving the “least of these” both the lost and those who have found the light.

Mountain Top Experience

A mountain top experience is a time in your life when you experienced God in a deeply profound and meaningful way. A time when you felt closer to God than any other time in your life. It is the pinnical of both emotional and spiritual awareness. It is a life altering encounter with the Almighty. While the euphoria of the emotional component made fade over time, the power of the spiritual component should grow and increase.

The mountain top is not the culmination of the journey, but is in many ways the starting point of the next. You can’t live your life on the mountain top, as much as you would like to. Life is really lived out on the hills, valleys, and plains.

They say that lightning never strikes the same place, in the same way twice but mountain tops are a frequent target. We need to take the energy we absorbed on the mountain top and channel it into action. This may be to prune away the old dead parts of our lives and burn them up. It may be in stepping out in obedience to follow a call into ministry. Or it may be to return to our daily lives with renewed purpose and vigor.

Mountain top experiences are something that every Christian has at least once in their lives, when they are born again. But God wants us to continually seek him and when we do we will continue to have new mountain top experiences. Each one a unique and personal encounter with the living God, who loves us and wants our undivided attention, so that we can clearly hear the message He has especially prepared for us.

I wrote this meditation after I participated in a Keryx spiritual formation weekend while I was incarcerated in the MDOC.  This is a three-day short course in Christianity modeled after the Cursillos in Christianity.

Cursillos in Christianity (Spanish: Cursillos de Cristiandad, “Short courses of Christianity”) is an apostolic movement of the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in Majorca, Spain, by a group of laymen in 1944, while they were refining a technique to train pilgrimage Christian leaders.

Cursillo is the original three-day movement, and has since been licensed for use by several mainline Christian denominations, some of which have retained the trademarked “Cursillo” name, while others have modified its talks/methods and given it a different name. In the United States, Cursillo is a registered trademark of the National Cursillo Center in Jarrell, Texas.

The Cursillo focuses on showing Christian laypeople how to become effective Christian leaders over the course of a three-day weekend. The weekend includes fifteen talks, called rollos, which are given by priests and by laypeople. The major emphasis of the weekend is to ask participants to take what they have learned back into the world, on what is known as the “fourth day.” The method stresses personal spiritual development, as accelerated by weekly group reunions after the initial weekend.

Today, Cursillo is a worldwide movement with centers in nearly all South and Central American countries, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Austria, Australia, New Zealand Aotearoa, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and in several African countries. The movement is recognized by the Holy See as member of the International Catholic Organizations of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome.

This retreat is also used by Episcopalian/Anglican Cursillo, Presbyterian Cursillo/Pilgrimage, Lutheran Via de Cristo, Mennonite Way of Christ and various interdenominational communities as Tres Días.

Analogous retreats: The Cursillo method is used by ACTS, Encounter, Antioch, Search, Awakening (college students), Cum Christo, DeColores (adult ecumenical), the Great Banquet, Happening, The Journey (United Church of Christ), Kairos Prison Ministry, Kairos (for older teenagers), Emmaus in Connecticut (for high school age teens), Gennesaret (for those living with a serious illness), Koinonia, Lamplighter Ministries, Light of Love, LOGOS (Love Of God, Others, and Self) (Lutheran teen), Teens Encounter Christ (teen ecumenical), Residents Encounter Christ (REC) (a jail/prison ministry), Tres Dias, Unidos en Cristo, Via de Cristo (Lutheran Adult), Chrysalis Flight (Methodist Youth), Walk to Emmaus (Methodist Adult), The Walk with Christ (interdenominational), Anglican 4th Day (Anglican Adult), The Way of Christ (Canadian Lutheran adult), Tres Arroyos (Charismatic Episcopal Church). and Journey to Damascus (Catholic hosted Ecumenical with weekly reunion groups for alumni) in the Corpus Christi, Houston, and Austin, Texas, areas.

Wikipedia

April 2018 Letter

(Excerpt from a letter)

Greetings Brother,

Thanks for the notice on your parole board hearing. I’ve marked my calendar and will be praying for you. I know that you have done all that you can to prepare and will interview well.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your brothers as you prepare for the upcoming KERYX* weekend. What will happen will be life changing for everyone involved. The lost will find what they are looking for. The spiritually hungry will be fed. Servants will get better at serving. Spiritual mentors will meet new disciples. Leaders will have their leadership tested.

Funny how that works. That’s probably why the Apostle Paul cautions those who would aspire to be leaders in I Timothy 3. My observation is that leadership is often a thankless task that involves the arcane skill of herding cats. Christian leaders do it from their knees with their hands firmly clasped together and their heads bowed. While this sounds like a Zen thing it is really a Sinai thing. Moses is the archetype of a Christian leader. His leadership ability was recognized in the Old Testament in Psalms 106, the New Testament in Hebrews 11:23-28, and in the Apocrypha in Sirach 45:1-5. (Yes, I really did reference the Apocrypha.) The characteristics of Christian leadership that he modeled include:

  1. Standing in the gap for your flock.
  2. Speaking only the words given to you by God.
  3. Leading only where God’s Spirit guides.
  4. You will take heat for your leadership from the people, it’s about how you handle the heat.
  5. Leaders are called by God to serve.
  6. Believe in miracles.
  7. Fast and Pray!
  8. Not all leaders will make it to the promised land.
  9. A leaders responsibility is to prepare the next generation of leaders.

Use your final months wisely. Leave your mark on prison rather than letting prison leave it’s mark on you. Even while you are looking forward, don’t forget to keep you head on a swivel.

Your Brother in Christ

*Keryx is a lay-led, non-profit, interdenominational, Christian  ministry using the Cursillo method, designed to be conducted in any correctional institution without substantive change in format or procedure.

The purpose of Keryx Ministries is the Christianization of the correctional institution or community through the actions of small apostolic prayer support groups, trained and encouraged by Keryx volunteers, working within their environment. Through a systematic, structured program, the participants are given the opportunity to experience a religious renewal and to accept God’s call to a life of Christian witness and service to one another .

Keryx has been called the most effective program at changing basic attitudes of the incarcerated currently offered in prisons.  This statement has been said over and over again by prison administrators where the ministry has been active long enough for its impact on the institution to have been evaluated by correctional staff.

Keryx is a highly structured program that promotes solid Christian life-skills.  The program builds a positive and loving environment.  Keryx calls upon a spirituality that has long been dormant in many of the resident leaders within the institution.

keryx.org website