By Johh Wade
This August marks the tenth anniversary of the Global Leadership Summit in prisons. Starting with just one prison in 2014, it now is experienced in more than 200 correctional facilities.
I first experienced the Summit in 2008 along with 50 other members of La Croix Church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Not so coincidently, that was the year our church also began organizing a prison ministry. I began to dream of how we could incorporate the Summit into our ministry plan.
In 2010, La Croix became a host site of the Summit, and I began to pray for my dream of bringing the Summit to prisons to become to become reality. In 2014 the Summit was experienced in a prison for the first time at Angola Prison in Louisianna — and my prayer strategy shifted into hyperdrive.
In 2015, our pastor asked me and our missions director if we had the capability to deliver the Summit at Southeast Correctional Center (SECC), and I almost hyperventilated. Almost five years of prayer had been answered. La Croix Church’s Prison Ministry Team had been serving SECC for the past seven years, and we were eager to extend programing through the Summit.
A lead team was formed with members from both La Croix and SECC. We drafted a proposal that needed approval through four levels of the Missouri Department of Corrections. Normally this is a two- to three-week process, but the approval was fully granted in two days. We were overjoyed by the support and rapid response.
Soon we turned from celebration to planning. We had so many things to consider like how to select participants and how to navigate the prison’s schedules.
We established four goals:
- To imitate the La Croix Church experience as much as possible
- To hold discussion groups throughout the two days
- To offer two follow-up leadership sessions during the year
- To assist and encourage other churches and prisons to deliver the Summit
We envisioned a time when the Summit would be offered in at least one prison in every state. Given our limited experience, it seemed like an audacious goal. But God had a much grander vision.
To the Ends of the Earth
Our goal to assist other prisons and ministry teams was modeled after Christ’s message in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We viewed prison as the Samaria Christ called his disciples to share the gospel with. Incarcerated offenders, much like the citizens of Samaria, were consistently marginalized and underserved. We anticipated some churches and correctional institutions might be reluctant to deliver a celebrated leadership program to convicted felons.
Growth was slow at first. We met with a team from the Indiana State Department of Corrections to help them get started, and today there are 10 Indiana institutions providing the Summit. We also met with Department of Corrections officials and wardens in Illinois. Now years later, the Summit is delivered to multiple facilities in Illinois. We were also able to help Wood Crest Church begin hosting the Summit in Algoa Correctional Center in Missouri. We have invited staff members and chaplains from other institutions to observe and participate at the Summit at SECC over the years. Now two additional institutions host the Summit because of their experiences.
Meanwhile at SECC, we opened the Summit to staff members, who unanimously volunteered to join offender discussion groups instead of having separate staff discussions. Both offenders and staff saw each other from different perspectives and, for the past two years, some of our discussion groups are led by staff members. Now each discussion group has an offender co-facilitate, and many take active roles in leading discussions during the Summit and our follow-up sessions. Former SECC offenders who have been transferred to another facility hosting the Summit have taken active roles in recruiting participants and delivering the Summit.
In 2023, I was asked to share some ideas with a team from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who were wanting to introduce the Summit to a prison there. I immediately recalled Acts 1:8: “to the ends of the earth.” Sao Paulo is not exactly the end of the earth, but it’s about 8,500 miles from South Barrington. God’s grander vision is not restricted by geography.
What I thought would be a handful of emails resulted in an ongoing relationship. The leaders of the Sao Paulo team hadn’t ever set foot in an institution before, so we started planning at the ground level. After much work, the Summit was delivered to offenders in Sao Paulo in November 2023, and the Summit is also being offered to a women’s institution in the city.
Ten Years of Blessings
I have often been asked about the benefits of having convicted offenders participate in the Summit. There is not enough space to describe all the benefits, but here are blessings that are extra special to me.
- The energy and excitement of the participants. Both staff and offenders start talking about the Summit in April and May and the two days in August are the crescendo.
- The growth in the participants. I’m able to see SECC offenders leading inmate groups, GLS discussions. I see those who have been released lead their families, businesses and serve in their churches.
- The people I’ve met and served with these past nine years; that includes GLN staff members, chaplains, executive staff from institutions and members of ministry teams considering delivering the Summit.
As I reflect, I’m moved both spiritually and emotionally. There has been so much growth in the past 10 years, and I was blessed to have a front row seat through it all.
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