Re-Entry

I am writing to let you know that we are really close to finishing up our latest re-entry directory. As always we will be planning a luncheon for you to attend and pick up a new directory. However, I know that often many of the San Diego Chaplains cannot always make the luncheons and I want to be sure I can get a new directory to you and every other San Diego Chaplain who is actively working within a correctional facility here in San Diego.

1. I need you to email me back the best mailing address for you to receive your directory.

2. I need you to let your fellow chaplains know that I need their address to get them a directory.

It is my goal to mail you a free directory if you are currently active in a correctional facility, however, I cannot do this unless you give me a good mailing address. FYI, I have found that using the correctional facilities’ address is not the best address if you really want the directory to get to you.

Also, for you who have not heard, I recently published a book called “Our Lives In Recovery” which is my basic mentoring approach for inmates and ex-offenders. You can take a look at it on my website at http://reentry.org/Books/BPT.html if interested.

Blessings! - 1st Thess. 5:23

Chaplain Art Lyons

Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry
PO Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619) 482-7258
www.reentry.org

There will be an organizational meeting to form teams to minister at Juvenile Hall in San Diego.
This meeting will be held Monday, March 29, 7 pm, in Room 10, at Shadow Mountain.
If you are interested in ministering at Juvenile Hall, we encourage you to attend this meeting.
If you are planning on attending, please let Tom know so that he can arrange for the number coming.
If you are interested, but cannot attend the meeting, please let Tom know so that he can make arrangements to get the necessary information to you.
If you have any additional questions about this ministry opportunity, please contact Tom Heyer for more information at tomheyer@me.com

Blessings! - 1st Thess. 5:23

Chaplain Art Lyons

Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry
PO Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619) 482-7258
www.reentry.org

To learn more about Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry, please check out the below links or our website at www.reentry.org

I wanted to share with you an opportunity to have some student missionaries come and volunteer for your ministry. Please read the invitation below and respond to Kellie Kellner directly.

I am coordinating a mission trip for our youth choir at First Baptist Church Hurst. We have approx. 82 students and will have 8 – 10 sponsors. We have performed at a variety of locations such as nursing homes, prisons, Salvation Army sights, etc. We also do any type of mission outreach service projects that helps the community. In the past we have fed the homeless, cleaned and did minor construction work at a variety of facilities, worshiped, fellowshipped, talked with, and played games with adults and children, and many other outreach events.
Our arrival date to be in San Diego is Tuesday, July 13 with mission work dates beginning on Wednesday, July 14 through Saturday, July 17. Please let me know if we can coordinate something with your facility.

We will be staying in dorms of one of the university and food is not required. Last year, we performed for several prisons and youth correctional facilities in Nashville and would love to perform in the same area again this year while in San Diego. We bring our own sound equipment, all we would need a place to perform and an audience to perform to. Please Respond to Kellie Kellner kelliekellner@charter.net

Blessings! - 1st Thess. 5:23

Chaplain Art Lyons

Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry
PO Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619) 482-7258
www.reentry.org

• We corresponded with over 150 inmates and worked directly with 39 inmates transitioning back into San Diego County.

• We worked directly with 44 inmates with the “Our Lives in Recovery” discipleship bible study and issued 11 certificates of completion.

• We were privileged to share bible studies at Chula Vista Police Department Jail every Saturday in 2009. During the 52 meetings, there were 504 men in attendance.

• We conducted two countywide Re-Entry Luncheons and distributed Re-Entry Services Directories to close to 100 participants representing 40 organizations in San Diego County who work with inmates or ex-offenders.

• I also managed to finish my book, “Our Lives in Recovery” and got it published at the end of December 2009. On that note, please let me know if you would like a signed copy. You can order one by clicking on this link http://reentry.org/Books/BPT.html

Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry
PO Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619) 482-7258
www.reentry.org

ccheader

"Leadership Conference & Training Workshops"
January 29-30, 2010

Please Be Our Guest ... No Registration Fee

Registration Deadline: January 20, 2010

REGISTER ONLINE HERE

Location

University Baptist Church
72700 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92260
760-346-3038

Our Focus

Building confidence in the sufficiency and power of God's Love and Word
for ministry to those in bondage to addictions, and their families.

Who should attend the Conference?

... Anyone caught up in any type of addiction.
... Anyone who is hopeless and believes there is no way out.
... Anyone close to someone with an addiction.
... Drug/alcohol counselors, doctors, social workers, and volunteers.

Workshops Schedule

Friday ~ January 29, 2010 ~ 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
1. "The Ministry's Beginnings and Present" ~ Pastor Glenn & Judy Wright
2. "Getting Started & Persevering" ~ Pastor John Townsend
3. "Leadership God's Way"~ Pastor Ed Day
4. "Equipping the Saints" ~ Pastor Jim Graczyk
5. "Four Stages of Sobriety" ~ Pastor Rick McClung
      ~ "Review: Small Group Interaction ~ Q&A" ~ Pastor John Pendleton

Saturday ~ January 30, 2010 ~ 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
6.   "God's Plan for Healing the Craving Brain" ~ Pastor Luman R. Wing, PhD.
7.   "Renewing the Mind: Mending Addicts & Their Loved Ones God's Way"
         ~ Pastor Glenn & Judy Wright
8.   "On Counseling God's Way" ~ Pastor Ed Day
      ~ "Review: Small Group Interaction ~ Q&A" ~ Pastor John Pendleton
9.   "The Most Excellent Way" Fellowship/Support Meeting In Action

Hotels and Motels

within close proximity to University Baptist Church

Fairfield Inn ~ 760-341-9100

(1 Mile) 72322 SR 111, Palm Desert 92260

$110.00* Single or Double

Country Inn ~ 760-340-5516

(1.5 Miles) 71730 SR 111, Rancho Mirage 92270
$110.00* Single or Double

Motel 6 (5 Miles) ~ 760-324-8475

(5 miles) 69570 SR 111 / E. Palm Canyon Dr., Rancho Mirage 92270

$54.00* Single | $60.00* Double

Best Western ~ 760-340-4441

(2.5 Miles) 74695 SR 111, Palm Desert 92270

$129.00* Single or Double

*plus tax

We look forward to seeing you at the Conference!
Please register soon!
Please call us at 800-548-8854 if you have any questions!

God Bless You,
Glenn & Judy Wright

Our New Website
Our New Online Resource

I wanted to let you know of three exciting events for me and RPJM. First, a book that I have been working on for a long time has been published. You can check it out by clicking on the link below. Secondly, this year marks 30 years of ministry for me. I have posted a couple of videos on You Tube you may want to check out especially if you have been involved with the ministry for awhile. You may even see a picture of yourself in the 30 Year Slide Show. Should you like anything you see or hear, let me know.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know were working hard on updating our 2010 Re-Entry Directory. Please be sure to keep me informed of address or email changes to be sure we get to pass on any needed changes to our re-entry network. I am hoping to plan a re-entry directory release meeting in March 2010.

Blessings!

Chaplain Art Lyons

Dear Friends:

Attached is the orientation schedule for 2010. The Spanish Ministry is in need of volunteers who would like to come and ministry at Donovan at least once a week or twice a month, faithfully.

Please let me know if you know any Spanish-speaking brother or sister who would like to get involved in this ministry. Please keep us in prayer.

Thank you.

Yard Pastor Elena Hernandez pastoraelena77@gmail.com
Spanish Ministry Program Coordinator
R.J. Donovan State Prison

Below is a copy of the approved schedule for Volunteer Orientations for 2010.

Sunday, January 10                       1300-1700
Monday, February 1                     1700-2100
Sunday, March 7                           1300-1700
Monday, April 5                            1700-2100
Sunday, May 2                              1300-1700
Monday, June 7                            1700-2100
Sunday, July 11                             1300-1700
Monday, August 2                         1700-2100
Sunday, September 12                  1300-1700
Monday, October 4                      1700-2100
Sunday, November 7                    1300-1700
Monday, December 6                   1700-2100

Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Chaplain

How can I get involved in Chaplaincy Work?
The best place to start is by contacting every correctional institution in your community and letting them know of your desire. Ask them who you need to talk to and take down every name and phone number you can. Usually you will find there are a few dead ends. Keep at it. Many Supervising Chaplains are volunteers. All are busy, so persevere. (That is always the key element to this ministry.) Make your phone calls and follow-up every lead. Once you get to some one in charge, let them know you are willing to take any training they have available. Ask them to put you on their mailing list or on a waiting list. Remember that there is only so much opportunity out there. Chaplains cannot make up time slots and find room available to do services any time they want. If you are persistent, you will get an opportunity, but it may take weeks or months, and sometimes years.

Are there education requirements to be a Chaplain? If so, what are they?
There are many different institutions with as many different requirements for each. A lot of the standards are up to the Supervising Chaplain. You will find more of a consistent standard in State and Federal run prisons chaplains who will be paid chaplains. Most paying positions will require a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree or Master's Degree and most will want you to have some clinical psychology. However, in State and Federal prisons, Volunteer Chaplain positions will tend to have a lot more variances, but most volunteer positions will require some Bible College.

There are not a lot of schools for training chaplains. Most education requirements are met by graduation from a Bible School or College. Anyone that has a B.A. in Pastoral Studies should meet the education requirements to be a chaplain. I encourage a minimum of one year (30 college credits) of Bible College or education in a related field to meet the entry-level requirements to obtain the title of "Chaplain". I will work with anyone who is willing to get involved in the process.

I work with a university called Vision International University. They offer a one-year, ten-course correspondent curriculum with a certificate in correctional ministry. There are a few other Christian organizations that offer similar instruction. VIU offers Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees through correspondence courses. They also will give you credit for previous Bible classes and life experiences.

Are there opportunities to get involved in full-time paid Chaplaincy work?
Yes, but there are few paid chaplains. Most of the paid positions are in Federal and State prisons that hire a Supervisory Chaplain to oversee all the religious programming. This is usually an administrative position making sure that all the religious programming is running smoothly. Volunteers usually conduct most of the teaching and preaching. Chaplains do most of the spiritual one-on-one counseling.

There usually is no back door to come in, such as a correctional counselor. Counselors are counselors, and deal with non-spiritual issues. Paid Chaplains are required to cover a multitude of spiritual needs including religious needs outside of one's own faith. The usual way a Protestant Supervisory Chaplain will do this is by keeping a list of other faith representatives to refer the inmate to.

Do I need to be licensed or ordained?
Yes. Non-religious professionals in a correctional setting don't know what goes into ordaining someone, but they all believe that chaplains should be ordained. It is as important as a degree in education in their understanding.

What are the requirements for being licensed or ordained?
Each church will set its own standards. If you believe you are called to the ministry of a chaplain, let your church leadership know this and ask them what you need to do to be licensed or ordained in your church. Let them know you are serious with your commitment and then go do what they say.

Most churches will require a combination of Bible education and practical ministry experience over a number of years. There should be an acknowledgment (bearing witness) from that church that you have a calling on your life for ministry.

If your particular fellowship's standards are unreachable for you, you may want to find another recognized organization in good standing in the general Christian community that offers licensing or ordination. Vision International University also offers ordination.

How did I (Art Lyons) become a Chaplain?
Please ask for a copy of my testimony.

How do you raise funds to be a Chaplain?
Meet everybody you can and build relationship with them. Keep your vision before them and pray to God for provision. When God guides, He provides. Prison ministry is one of the harder ministries to raise funds for because most people do not want to invest time or money into helping criminals.

What are the responsibilities of a Chaplain?
For the Lead chaplain: one-on-one counseling, death notices, teaching, preaching, religious literature distribution, other faith referral and lots of administration. For other chaplains: keeping track of religious service attendance, attending administration meetings, ministering to guards and other law enforcement security agents, ministering to professional staff i.e. clerks, counselors and wardens.

Welcome back.

This morning as planed we had our Saturday morning service at the Chula Vista Police Department for those incarcerated for 60 days of drug and alcohol rehabilitation. When the jailers announced we were bringing in doughnuts, there was no small stir. That is the King James Version way of saying it got a lot of inmates up and ready to meet us. We (or the doughnuts) were able to pull into our classroom, 14 of the 17 inmates in the program. This was an attendance increase of 300 % since last Saturday. We passed out 36 doughnuts, milk and orange juice which were devoured within 8 minutes (or less) and then sang the 12 Days of Christmas. After that we got more serious.

I shared with them the Christmas story in context of getting God’s presence not just presents for Christmas. I told them they could receive the peace that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds in the Christmas story. I shared a little of my own testimony of addiction, needing a miracle of deliverance, and finding the peace of God. We prayed for them and their families to experience that peace of God and I reminded them that we all get what we want from God. If we want to be close to Him, we get that, and if we want Him to stay away we get that too. We’ll see who comes back next week.

This is my attempt to blog. I decided to start here on my own website. I know if I can’t be consistent here, I may as well not attempt it anywhere else. By the way, if this is something that you would like to receive via email, please sign-up with FeedBlitz. You can find how to do that right here on the re-entry website. Just look up.

The opportunity I have here – is that no one has to feel imposed upon by receiving unwanted email. I am sure many of your can relate. Currently I am purging my email receptions. I have hundreds of email and spam that come weekly as one may expect hosting a website for the last decade or more. All that said, I hope that this news feed is not “all about me” but that is a real possibility. Read on if you dare…………………….

For the last 2 years besides running Re-Entry Prison and Jail Ministry, working full-time at my church, I have been taking classes at Vision International University. I am now approaching completing my Doctorate in Ministry. Should the Lord grant me life, I am planning to complete my doctorate by the middle of 2010. As it looks now, I will be compiling a chaplain’s manual for my doctorate project. I hope that it will be worthy of being published.

On that topic, I am excited to announce that my book “Our Lives in Recovery” will be available for purchase by January 2010. If you would like a copy, you can pre-order from me or purchase a copy from Vision Publishing or Amazon. I will be selling them for less, but if you are planning to send one to an inmate, you will most likely want to purchase it from Vision Publishing and have it sent directly to the inmate. That is the preferred method of most correctional institutions. They generally will not allow in inmate to receive publications from friends or family. If you want to purchase from me, just click on the book icon on the right of this web page.

I want to just mention daily or weekly events as I blog. For tomorrow, I will be ministering at the Chula Vista Police Department Jail where I go every Saturday to administrate an eight week course to parolees that volunteer to come to our classes. I have been ministering there for over a year now.

We generally have between 6 to12 participants. Out of a population of 25, that’s not too bad. We have an eight week course we rotate through until the inmates are released back into society. I will be posting here in the next few days a curriculum overview. During the week they also complete an intensive eight week curriculum on drug and alcohol rehabilitation issues. Then for those who want to hear about a Christian perspective on rehabilitation, they can attend our classes on Saturdays. It‘s pretty sweet for them. Once they complete their courses successfully, they get released into a 30 day halfway house and then into a 60 day sober living home.

Tomorrow we will bring in doughnuts, milk and orange juice for a special Christmas service. The jailers suggested that this might draw in those who do not regularly attend. Yes, we are bribing them to attend this Saturday; however they will know that we are going to talk about the reason for the season. If you want to know how this works out, check back here in about 24 hours.

Blessings to all who take time to read this. Let me know what you think – please.

The School for Correctional Ministries (SCM)

Announcing! New credential programs in Correctional Ministries through SCM at Wheaton College

Each credential program will consist of six courses, a capstone project or internship as well as a spiritual mentoring component. Courses will be offered as residential, online, or a blend; residential courses will be held on the campus of Wheaton College, near Chicago, IL.

There will be a meeting concerning the formation of teams to minister in the Juvenile Hall facilities in San Diego. The meeting is Monday, March 9, 7 pm, in Room 10, at Shadow Mountain Church located 2100 Greenfield Dr., El Cajon, CA 92019. It is open to all those interested in the Juvenile Hall ministry. Please pass the word about this meeting. For more info please contact Tom Heyer at tomheyer@mac.com

Pastor Art Lyons
P.O. Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619)482-7258
www.reentry.org

I wanted to inform you that I am planning a Re-Entry Luncheon on April 24th, 2009 that I am hoping you can attend. It will be at 12:00 Noon at College Avenue Baptist Church located at 4747 College Avenue, San Diego, CA, 92115. The cost will be $12.00 per person which will include a copy of our latest 2009 Re-Entry Directory.

I am still putting some of the details together and will be contacting you again thru email or snail mail with further information.

Please mark you calendars. These luncheons always are fruitful in networking with other leaders who are actively involved with every aspect of re-entry issues. And – you’ll get a good lunch too. Stayed tuned.

Pastor Art Lyons
P.O. Box 620
Chula Vista, CA 91912
(619)482-7258
www.reentry.org