Dozens of inmates at a Florida jail are experiencing God’s transformational power and starting new lives in Christ after a sheriff’s office opened its doors to local churches.
First Apostolic Church of DeFuniak Springs recently partnered with New Life Church of Santa Rosa Beach to conduct mass baptisms while working with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
The jail ministry focuses on rehabilitating and discipling inmates to not only redirect, but also completely change their lives. A recent baptism event gave them the chance to take a step of faith, making their internal change visible to others.
“Our mantra, if you will, has always been recovery, not recidivism. And what I mean by that is trying to find a better life, trying to make men and women who are incarcerated in our jail better people, and introducing them to the Lord. And then being baptized is sort of a rebirth for them,” Corey Dobridnia, the Public Information Officer for Walton County Sheriff’s Office, said.
Rev. Jonathan King from First Apostolic Church serves as a voluntary chaplain at the Walton County jail, and he shares that goal.
“The beauty of jail ministry to me is that we’re able to minister to these people that are just truly at their bottom, and the Lord is doing incredible things in their lives,” he said. “And so we’ve had some of them that have gotten out and come to church, and the Lord’s changing their life, and they’re a part of our church today, and I’m excited about the fact that God is reaching into their lives and making a difference, and it’s not just recidivism. It’s not just keeping them from going back to jail. It’s actually changing their life and their families and impacting a whole generation by what God is doing with them in the jail.”
King said more than 70 inmates wanted to be baptized, but the jail was limited to only 70 authorized baptism uniforms. One inmate did not show at the recent ceremony, however, the 69 who did were baptized – 48 men and 21 women.
New Life Church of Santa Rosa Beach has also experienced some unprecedented numbers and witnessed lives transformed at other ceremonies.
“We baptized 58 women across two baptism events at the women’s jail, as well as 15 boys at the Juvenile Detention Center,” Amanda Merritt, Pastor Shawn Baker’s executive assistant at New Life Church, said.
New Life Church provides many programs to help men and women continue their recovery when released from jail.
“Our ministry provides immediate support for women upon their release, including transportation, temporary housing, and connections to life-giving programs,” Merritt added. “Many of the women go on to thrive in programs such as Path of Grace and Freedom Life Compass, attend our parenting classes, participate in Celebrate Recovery, and become part of the New Life Church family. We also have several encouraging success stories with men after their release, although follow-up can sometimes be more challenging due to restrictions.”
King proclaims that recovery ministry is not just for incarcerated men and women but for everyone.
“There’s all the myriads of trouble, all the criminal acts, like everything you can imagine. We baptized many of them with the worst of the worst, and to the eyes of the Lord, and really, honestly to me, to the eyes of those who are ministering to them, one is not worse than the other; we’re all sinners. We’ve all fallen short, but God gives us all an opportunity to be made new.”
King, who is the senior pastor of First Apostolic Church of DeFuniak Springs, shares this message of recovery with his church, preaching transformation through Christ.
“I pastor a church that is very recovery-driven,” King explained. “In fact, we’ve seen incredible revival, because we embraced people that didn’t have it all together and, and who were a little bit of a train wreck sometimes. But the culture of our church has accepted them the way they are.”
He continued, “I can introduce you to people who, if you would have seen them a year ago, if you would have seen them two years ago, you wouldn’t recognize them today because God has transformed their life. And that’s a beautiful thing, but that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It requires the church being the church.”