The transition from preparing for prison ministry to actually doing it is like the transition from studying a map to walking the terrain. The map is useful—essential, even—but it cannot replicate the experience of stepping through those gates, hearing the steel door close behind you, and facing a room full of men whose lives have been defined by violence, addiction, loss, and institutional dehumanization. This chapter is the field guide for what to do once you are inside.

Logistics of Running a Bible Study in Prison

Everything in prison ministry is harder than it should be. Simple tasks that take minutes in a church building take hours in an institutional setting. Scheduling, materials, security, space—every element of a Bible study that is effortless in the free world becomes a logistical challenge behind bars.

Scheduling. You do not set the schedule. The institution does. Your Bible study will be assigned a time slot that may conflict with meals, recreation, medical appointments, or other commitments. The schedule might change without notice. Inmates who intend to attend will be called for hearings, transferred to medical facilities for appointments, or locked down for institutional reasons. Flexibility is not a virtue in prison ministry; it is a necessity.

Materials. Do not assume that inmates will have Bibles. Many do not. Some who do have Bibles in poor condition—water-damaged, incomplete, or in a language they cannot read well. Bring extra Bibles, especially more expensive study Bibles. Bring study guides, Bible atlases, confessions of faith, and other books if permitted. Bring pens and spiral -bound notebooks for note-taking. Check with the facility in advance about what materials are approved for entry—some facilities restrict certain publications, and others prohibit pens (which can be used as weapons). One of my visitors was denied entry to a Bible because a guard said it was insurrectionary material!

In my own experience as the teacher in módulo 118, I worked with almost no materials. I had my Spanish and English Bibles, a concordance, and my accumulated knowledge from decades of study. When I had a cell phone, I used it to look up information with study tools the night before preaching or teaching. I taught from memory and from the text of Scripture itself. This is not ideal—I would have given much for a systematic theology text or a good commentary—but it is sufficient because there is no place to keep a small library, and if one has to move to another cell block or prison, there will be no way to carry those extra books. The Word of God is its own commentary, and a man who knows the Bible well can teach it effectively with nothing else.

Space. You will not have a chapel. You may not even have a room. In 118, our worship gatherings took place out in the yard or in the dining area, the barber room, or a quiet corner of the patio—wherever was available and not occupied by card games, gambling, or wood carving. The space will be noisy. It will be uncomfortable. It will be occupied by men who are not participating in the study but who are listening to every word you say. Accept these conditions and work within them. The early church met in catacombs. You can manage a prison dining hall or a wretched yard.

Security. You must clear security protocols every time you enter the facility. Be patient. Be cooperative. Do not bring anything that is not approved. Do not argue with officers about rules you disagree with. Your access to the inmates depends on the institutional authorities’ willingness to let you in, and that willingness can be revoked for any reason or no reason. It is a good idea to bring goodies to the hungry guards, who are left for long shifts (sometimes a week or more) with the inmates and have to eat the rotten food just like them.

Teaching Methods That Work

The men in your Bible study are not seminary students. Many of them have limited literacy. Some have never read a book in their lives. Their attention spans have been eroded by years of television, drugs, and the understimulation of institutional life. Their ability to process abstract concepts varies widely. And yet they are hungry—genuinely hungry—for truth, for meaning, for something that makes sense of their shattered lives. Here is what works:

Teach from the text. Read the passage aloud. Read it slowly. Read it more than once. Do not assume that your audience knows the context, the characters, or the theological implications. Explain everything. Ask questions: “Who is speaking here? Who is he speaking to? What has just happened?” Give them the remedial geography and history that they need to understand the context. Let them know that the Word of God was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek and that translations were not widely available until the late Fifteenth Century, after the printing press was invented in 1452. Impress on them that the vast majority of Christians for over fourteen hundred years did not have a Bible in their hands as they do today—much less prisoners during those centuries. The privilege of having the word of God in our own language is immense! The Socratic method—teaching through questions rather than lectures—is remarkably effective with adult learners who have been conditioned to zone out during monologues.

Use stories. The narrative portions of Scripture—Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, parts of Jeremiah, Ezequiel, Daniel, plus the Gospels, and Acts—are far more accessible to low-literacy audiences than the epistles. Start with stories. Tell the story of Joseph’s imprisonment and vindication. Tell the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. Tell the story of Paul’s shipwreck, his imprisonment, and his trial before Caesar. These stories connect to the inmates’ experience in ways that abstract theological propositions cannot. Once the story has captured their attention, you can unpack the theology embedded in it. You can also add a few verses of theological truth each time you meet and talk about the Bible history sections.

Be concrete. “God is sovereign” is an abstract statement. “God put Joseph in prison because He was going to make him the second most powerful man in Egypt, and Joseph did not know that for thirteen years” is a concrete statement that communicates the same truth in a way that a man in a prison cell can grasp immediately.

Develop a structured curriculum. In my later years of prison ministry, I developed a discipleship program that required participants to memorize what the Gospel specifically entails, the doctrines of grace, relevant Scripture passages, and the “five solas” of the Reformation. I created printed lists of Scripture references for each participant. I reviewed the material repeatedly, following my wife Pamela’s wise advice to “repeat the motifs over and again for the slow-minded hearers”—not because the men were stupid, but because years of drug use, educational deprivation, and institutional monotony had dulled their capacity for rapid absorption. Outside supporters, like my co-Pastor Valentín, brought visual aids. The repetition bore fruit: men who could barely articulate a coherent sentence about God in their first month were explaining the doctrines of grace to other inmates within six months.

Confront false teaching directly but with pastoral care. When Alan, one of my rotating preachers, taught about the benefits of prayer to a largely unsaved audience, I privately corrected him afterward: “Why would God answer their prayers? The Bible teaches that God ‘is angry with the wicked every day’ (Psalm 7:11).” The goal was not to humiliate Alan but to ensure that the men hearing us were not given false assurances. A prayer service held for Roberto, a slain inmate, troubled me for the same reason—he was an unsaved man who had, sadly, died in his sins. False comfort for the living about the destiny of the dead is not ministry; it is cruelty disguised as kindness. Teach your volunteer preachers to handle the truth with precision.

Repeat the Gospel. Every session, regardless of the topic, should include a clear presentation of the Gospel. These men need to hear it again and again: God is holy. Man is utterly sinful. But Christ was born of a virgin and thus did not inherit the sinful nature of Adam and Eve. Christ died for sinners, a perfect sacrifice of infinite value after living a perfect life, was buried, and then rose again on the third day. We have hope of eternal life and resurrection because He is risen. And He is coming again to complete the second phase of His coming, a socio-political triumph over states and false religions, as outlined in Isaiah 61:1-4 and Revelation 17 through 20. Repent and believe. Those who have faith and trust in Christ, making Him their Lord and Savior, will be saved! The repetition is not redundant; it is essential. Some of these men will attend dozens of your Bible studies or preaching services before the truth penetrates. Others will hear it once and be converted. You do not know who is who. Preach the Gospel every time.

Be patient with disruptions. Inmates sometimes argue, but they can learn to be respectful and not divisive. If not, then you must ask them to leave. They will ask irrelevant questions. They will make theological claims that are wildly heretical. They will share personal stories that derail the lesson. They will arrive late, leave early, and fall asleep in the middle. Handle each disruption with grace and firmness. Redirect gently. Do not allow one person to dominate the group. And do not lose your temper—ever. The moment you lose your composure, you lose your credibility.

One-on-One Counseling

Group Bible studies are the public ministry. One-on-one counseling is a private ministry, and in many ways, it is more important. We are called to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), and that mainly happens in small settings—as Aquila and Priscilla did when they took Apollos aside in Ephesus and “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:26). The classic personal-discipleship verse is 2 Timothy 2:2, “the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”

The man who will not ask a question in a group setting will pour out his heart in a private conversation. The man who maintains a tough exterior on the patio will weep in a corner of the dining hall when no one else is watching. The man who laughs at the Bible study will approach you quietly afterward and say, “Can I talk to you about something?”

Establish boundaries. One-on-one counseling in prison is different from counseling in a church office. There is no confidentiality—guards may be listening, other inmates may be watching, and anything the inmate tells you could be used against him if reported. Make this clear at the outset. Do not promise confidentiality you cannot guarantee. But you still want them to know that you will do all you can to protect them from the guards who seek to abuse them, and will not normally talk to guards or others outside the ministry about the inmates’ personal situations.

Do not promise outcomes. The inmate who asks you to intervene in his legal case, speak to his wife, or contact his children is asking for things that may be beyond your ability to deliver. Be honest about what you can and cannot do. Do not raise hopes you cannot fulfill. But always do all that you can to fulfill his requests.

Listen more than you speak. Many inmates have never had a single person in their lives who simply listened to them without judgment, without agenda, and without an ulterior motive. Your willingness to sit, to listen, to be present without rushing to fix or advise is itself a powerful ministry. “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).