Majority still shows no religious preference
Members of a newly launched Christian ministry to Warren County Jail inmates are, from left, Elizabeth Hicks, county jail supervisor Eddie Knowles, Coletta Hendrix, Joan Braswell, Boyd Spry, Central Church of Christ minister Tim Parish and Regenia Myers. Hicks, Hendrix and Braswell, all from Earlyville Church of Christ, lead a program that helps newly released inmates make a successful transition to home, work and social life.
While half the Warren County population shows no preference in religious affiliation, members of Central Church of Christ are fishing for men, and women, where the catch seems to be more promising.
An informal survey of 1,153 visitors at the 2006 Warren County A&L Fair revealed half that number had no particular affinity for a recognized church, capping 14 straight years of declining identification with mainline Christian institutions, according to Ken Smith, one of Central?s elders.
Since launching their inmate ministry at Warren County Jail in late June, volunteers from Central and other Church of Christ congregations have enrolled 232 men and women in specially designed Bible correspondence courses. The average day-to-day population of the local jail is about 200, officials say.
Thirty members of the inaugural class will soon be receiving certificates of completion as well as Bibles personalized with their engraved names on the covers, said Central?s Boyd Spry, whose work in prison ministries elsewhere in the country was a prime motivator for the local program.
Fourteen Warren County inmates have been baptized while participating in the Thursday evening Bible studies and in individual counseling with Central?s pulpit minister, Tim Parish.
?We call it the ?gospel hose,?? Spry said light-heartedly of the 30-foot garden hose used to fill the steel horse trough that serves as the jail baptistry.
?The response has been great,? Spry affirmed. ?There are so many great stories, like the one about the woman who started out very bitter at the world. She?s been baptized and now she?s totally different. She?ll be getting out soon.?
It?s precisely that ?getting out? that the jail ministry hopes to impact in a socially healthy and personally transformative way.
?The gospel of Jesus Christ is about redemption, reconciliation, acceptance,? Smith observed. ?But a central part of that process is a changed life, a decision that turns from the old ways and embraces the grace that God offers through His crucified Son, our risen Savior. Once the inmates return to their families and homes, we hope and pray they will be fully living for the Lord,? he continued. ?How could there be a more powerful example of a changed life, changed for the better.?
Parish described one inmate confined to an area reserved for the most serious security risks. ?This was a big, strong guy, kind of intimidating to look at, with tattoos all over his body,? the Central preacher recalled. ?Tears welled up in his eyes as he squeezed my hand through the bars and told me he wanted to be baptized.?
Another part of the ministry helps newly released inmates make a successful transition back to normal life. Volunteers from Earlyville Church of Christ offer ?welcome back? baskets packed with useful personal items to inmates and their families as they check out of the facility. The workers also provide transportation for the newly freed in cases where there is no family member or friend to receive them upon their discharge.
In a long-running public opinion survey, Central Church of Christ has tracked self-described religious preferences of Warren County fair-goers who volunteered to respond to a printed questionnaire. In the first few years of the series, a bare majority reported the Church of Christ as their religious preference, while second place went to ?no preference? and Baptist affiliations claimed third.
After steady gains in the late 1980s, ?no preference? slipped ahead of Church of Christ in 1992 and has held the top spot since then, being challenged only briefly in 1993 and 1999, according to Central?s Ken Campbell, who directs the congregation?s outreach booth at the fair and supervises the opinion poll.
?We make no claim to scientific polling controls or validity,? Smith cautioned. ?But given the very large number of respondents ? more than 1,100 in a typical year ? we think we may be approaching a rough approximation of the religious attitudes actually out there.?
Religious choice
Central Church of Christ reports the following responses from the September, 2006 religious preference poll at the fair:
No preference 49.3% Church of Christ 33.8%
Baptist 11.4%
Methodist 1.7%
Church of God 1.7%
Other under 1%