Break It Down and Make It Plain: “Proclaiming Freedom to Prisoners”

By Richard W. Schramm and Roy W. Johnsen

It has been my pleasure to know Roy since he assumed his final pastorate prior to retirement, Westgate Baptist Church in Lancaster, Pa. As the shepherd of our small, older congregation, he brought the priceless lessons of biblical relevance and human relationships gained from his outreach in pulpits and prisons. Out of his work and that of his wife, Judy, Westgate became a multicultural congregation with a vision of mission that has engaged hearts and hands. And in all of his work, Roy has given uncompromising credit to God, and to the journey of ministry and understanding in which God has guided him.

In the pages that follow you will experience many chapters and moments from that journey. You will feel the painful anguish of broken lives, and the joyous renewal of wholeness through Gods love. You will indeed meet the least of these, and the faithful response of seeing Christ in them. You likely will see possibilities for your own ministry, your own spiritual growth. Almost certainly, you will be challenged, enlightened and inspired.

I invite you now to begin a story that reveals in so many ways Gods care and provision, a narrative of one mans life of trust in Gods leading and in what can be accomplished through that trust. ---Richard W. Schramm, former Deputy General Secretary for Communication, American Baptist Churches USA

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481712828

Book preview

BREAK IT DOWN

AND MAKE IT PLAIN

Proclaiming Freedom to Prisoners

ROY W. JOHNSEN

ah_log.jpg

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2013 by Roy W. Johnsen. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/13/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1281-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1282-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902612

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The Power Of The Gospel To Change Lives

Chapter One God Is God And You Are Not!

Chapter Two God Is Good, All The Time!

Chapter Three God Is Still In The Blessing Business!

Chapter Four You Tried The Rest, Now Go For The Best!

Chapter Five I Can’t. God Can. Help!

Chapter Six God Is In Control!

Chapter Seven If You’ve Got The Book, You Go By The Book!

Chapter Eight There Are Four Answers To Prayer: Yes, No, Not Yet, And You’ve Got To Be Kidding

Chapter Nine Keep Your Eyes On The Prize And Don’t Compromise!

Chapter Ten You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have!

Chapter Eleven My Boss Is The Ceo Of The Universe!

Chapter Twelve You Can’t Talk The Talk If You Don’t Walk The Walk!

Chapter Thirteen I Ain’t So Dumb As I Look And I Ain’t So Dumb As I Used To Be!

Chapter Fourteen When The Lord Begins To Bless, Then Satan Starts To Mess!

Chapter Fifteen No Matter How Good It Gets, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet!

Chapter Sixteen God Is Still In The Life-Changing Business!

Afterword

Foreword

Holy Scripture testifies from Genesis through Revelation to the fundamental necessity and power of relationships. Our God yearns for His children to seek Him, yet in doing so we are called as well to live out a life where relationships with others are cherished.

That message takes on dramatic clarity in the Gospels. God took on human form not merely to model relationships based on love, but to ordain ministry that reaches out to the needy and sinful where they are in order to establish those connections.

The Rev. Roy W. Johnsen’s faith journey exemplifies a Christ-centered commitment of glorifying God through interactions with others. In a ministry that spanned more than 40 years—half of which he served jointly in pastoral and prison ministry—he has shared Christ passionately with people from all walks of life.

As a pastor of churches in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania he honed the skills that fuel healthy congregational life: relevant and biblically sound preaching, focused teaching, effective church administration, and proactive problem solving and conflict management.

And yet it was necessary additionally to confront the challenges and opportunities 20 years of prison ministry afforded him in order to share the experiential wisdom contained in this book.

Indeed, God has provided for Roy Johnsen a special path, one in which he has served the haves and the have nots, the comfortable and the least of these. The same kind of people, of an earlier time, whom Christ reached out to.

It has been my pleasure to know Roy since he assumed his final pastorate prior to retirement, Westgate Baptist Church in Lancaster, Pa. As the shepherd of our small, older congregation, he brought the priceless lessons of biblical relevance and human relationships gained from his outreach in pulpits and prisons. Out of his work and that of his wife, Judy, Westgate became a multicultural congregation with a vision of mission that has engaged hearts and hands. And in all of his work, Roy has given uncompromising credit to God, and to the journey of ministry and understanding in which God has guided him.

In the pages that follow you will experience many chapters and moments from that journey. You will feel the painful anguish of broken lives, and the joyous renewal of wholeness through God’s love. You will indeed meet the least of these, and the faithful response of seeing Christ in them. You likely will see possibilities for your own ministry, your own spiritual growth. Almost certainly, you will be challenged, enlightened and inspired.

I invite you now to begin a story that reveals in so many ways God’s care and provision, a narrative of one man’s life of trust in God’s leading and in what can be accomplished through that trust.

—Richard W. Schramm, former Deputy General Secretary

for Communication, American Baptist Churches USA

Introduction

For over 28 years I had the privilege of a wonderfully fulfilling twofold ministry. Concurrent to serving as a pastor, I also was significantly involved in prison ministry in two county prisons in Pennsylvania and as Protestant Contract Chaplain at the State Correctional Institution in Muncy, Pennsylvania.

Without question, I received far more than I gave as I ministered to those who were incarcerated. I discovered many men and women who did not have extensive church backgrounds, and who were at a low point in their lives. They were open to the things of God, but needed to have spiritual concepts presented in simple and easy-to-understand terms.

Faced with this unique challenge, I grew to depend upon God’s grace and the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to enable me to get the point across. In ministry, one quickly learns that My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:2) In response to my need, God gave me some terse words and phrases to drive home basic truths about the Christian faith, and in language that anyone could understand and relate to.

These sayings form the chapter titles of this book.

My prison congregation was very responsive. They would talk back to the preacher. When I would make a point, they would respond with Amen! Preach it! Make it plain! Such spontaneous feedback served to energize me, to pump me up and make me preach much better.

A compliment I received from the women in the prison frames the title of this book. When God’s Spirit was moving and breaking through to the women during our services, some would say, Chaplain Johnsen, you break it down and make it plain. You were preaching right at me. How did you know?

My comeback was straightforward: God is good all the time. I always pray before I teach and preach, asking the Lord to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of God’s Word and impact those present. God always answers that prayer, and His Word transforms the hearers of the Word.

Jesus instructs us to ask and you will receive. I apply this principle to the ministry of the Word as I seek to get God’s points across, and, thus the Lord provided the communicative phrases which form the chapter headings.

I will share parts of my story as a prison chaplain, as well as from my years in pastoral ministry. My work has been and continues to be exciting and difficult, and God is gracious and has used me to touch the lives of many women and men. I am convinced that God is in the life-changing business, and He does a wonderful job.

For those who know and love the Lord, these chapters should provide a fresh expression of Christian theology. And for those who do not yet have a relationship with God, my hope and prayer is that this effort will provide a clear understanding of what this relationship is all about and how to know God personally and intimately.

God called me to prison ministry, and enabled me to do His work.

I served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1990. Franklin is the county seat of Venango County, and the home of the county prison. It is also a small walking town. Every time I would walk past the prison, I would sense the voice of the Lord saying, Here I am. Will you come in to see me? Jesus was tugging at my heart.

I learned that only two persons were involved in any prison ministry, J. and Frank Harris. The prison administration required them to have an official connection with a local church, and they had a friend in the church I pastored. After a short time, they asked if I would be in charge of the prison ministry. I gladly accepted the invitation.

First, I assumed oversight of the work. Next, a need arose. Frank faced knee replacement surgery, and could no longer navigate the steps into the basement of the 1860’s vintage prison where services were held. In response to this need, they asked me, What should we do?

I answered, Pray! God’s answer to our prayers was amazing:

I became more deeply involved in the ministry, which expanded significantly. What developed over the next six years was a miracle of God. I was hooked.

When I left Franklin in June 1990, the ministry had eight trained teams of between four and twenty members each who would conduct worship services on Sunday afternoons. Twenty area pastors, working on a rotating basis, would visit the inmates in their cell blocks every Wednesday afternoon. I conducted a weekly Bible study on Thursdays. We had GED (graduate equivalency diploma) training, literacy training, Bible and Christian literature distribution, and Christian counseling. I also worked with the warden to develop a prison ministry policy and handbook to perpetuate the good work which was begun.

This program was remarkable for a small county jail with a maximum population of about 60. I moved from Franklin to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where for the next 15 ½ years I was even more deeply involved in prison ministry.

Called to serve as associate chaplain at the Lycoming County Prison, I began to attend the Pennsylvania Prison Chaplains Conferences. I met Rev. Marjorie Holland, the facility chaplaincy program director of the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, and we were blessed to encourage one another in our respective prison ministries.

When the position of Protestant chaplain at Muncy was vacant, Marge asked me to apply. I was selected and for 11 ½ years enjoyed a twofold ministry—pastor of Central Baptist Church in Williamsport and Protestant chaplain at SCIM. The full and intense work made it necessary for me to learn to depend upon the Lord for His strength, provision and grace.

I completed my ministry at Muncy in March 2004.

The State Correctional Institution at Muncy is Pennsylvania’s maximum security female facility. All women sentenced to do state time in Pennsylvania come first to Muncy. The population at the prison is very needy. During the time that I served, the following description of the inmate community was accurate:

WHO ARE THE WOMEN WE FIND AT MUNCY?

12409.jpg    Approximately 950 women in a facility built for a maximum of 650.

12412.jpg    An average fifth grade literacy level.

12414.jpg    40% from Philadelphia; 25% from Pittsburgh; 35% from the rest of the state.

12416.jpg    55% Afro-American; 35% Caucasian; 8% Hispanic.

12419.jpg    90% drug and alcohol related crimes.

12421.jpg    About 150 lifers; 5 capital cases.

12423.jpg    95% abused in one form or another.

12425.jpg    300 Protestant; 150 Catholic; 50 Muslim; 10 Jehovah’s Witnesses; 10 Buddhist; 10 Jewish.

12427.jpg    Age: 18 to over 80.

12429.jpg    A large number of women infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses.

12431.jpg    Most of all, what I encountered were women who need Jesus as the only hope they have.

As the Gospel song by Andre Crouch makes clear,

"Jesus is the answer to the world today.

Above Him there’s no other.

Jesus is the Way!"

The stories of the women with whom I ministered are deeply moving. Consider these brief sketches (names are changed to protect anonymity):

Katie, sexually abused from age 8, mother at 16. As I recount her story, the Lord is healing her, and she glows with the joy and love of Jesus.

12434.jpg    Melissa, full blown AIDS, realizing that she needs to get right with the Lord.

12436.jpg    Verna, dying with Hep C, but learning to trust the Lord.

12438.jpg    Dorothy, discovering the comfort of the Holy Spirit as she copes with the death of her mother.

12440.jpg    Angie, stuck between the fact of forgiveness and the inability to feel forgiven. Learning to trust God to see her through the dark night of the soul.

12442.jpg    Theresa, trying to make contact with her mother for the first time in 18 years.

12444.jpg    Lorraine, wanting her dying grandmother to know she loves her.

12446.jpg    Sherrill, struggling with issues of forgiveness, and knowing she has to release the burden, to pray that the Lord will give her the want to and the how to, to forgive.

12448.jpg    And the list could go on and on.

I recognize five primary reasons for becoming committed to prison ministry:

As a Christian, I am left no choice by Jesus.

I recall the haunting litany in Matthew 25. I was in prison. Did you or did you not come to visit me? I’m a literalist. I take Jesus seriously.

Years ago I saw a notice on a bulletin board at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary announcing a debate on the Inspiration of Scripture. A student standing alongside of me expressed enthusiasm for the event. I responded that I would prefer a conference considering How to Take the Bible Seriously!

We need to evaluate our attitude. It’s easy to be holier-than-thou and become condescending. This misses the point: Jesus is waiting for us to come see Him in prison.

I remember the first time I took John Butler, a young pastor into the Lycoming County Prison Pre Release Center to minister with me. At the close of our evening, I asked John to pray. I still recall his words: We have sensed your presence here. Of course John did, and we will also sense God’s presence. He told us that He would be waiting for us to come and visit Him.

My life verse is Philippians 3:10, 11: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Prison ministry provides me with the means of getting to know Jesus better, because Jesus is there waiting to meet us and help us.

Some persons are afraid of visiting jails or prisons. I never was. The words of the Psalmist are real to me: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me (Psalm 23).

Every time I enter a prison, I get to reach out and touch Jesus!

On my first visit to the Venango County Prison cell blocks, I went right up to the bars and extended my hand to shake the hands of the inmates. One responded, You must think we’re OK. Others stay way back against the wall, and you come right up to the bars. Why not? When I touch Jesus, He’s touching me.

Jesus is the only hope for prisoners!

Correctional facilities do not correct; they are penal institutions, which punish. The rehabilitative arm of the system infrequently rehabilitates; the justice system is not consistently just.

Upon commitment to a correctional facility or a jail, inmates routinely go through an evaluative process which involves a proscriptive plan mandating necessary programs to be completed before release. Within the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, this process is administered in the Diagnostic Classification Center (DCC). Men receive this evaluation in the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill and women at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy.

Common programs for inmates include Anger Management, Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation, Stress Management, and other various life-skills training. All of these programs are excellent, carefully planned and taught.

However, the recidivism rate remains frightfully high. The reason is clear: Lives are not changed.

I firmly believe in the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Prison ministry forces you to depend upon the Lord.

I expect to see God perform miracles every day, and He does. The work is accomplished by God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Isaiah 42: 7, the Lord declares that He will make us to free captives from prison. I personally claim the promise within that verse as I seek to share the Gospel that brings true freedom to the captives. Many inmates testify that, in spite of their incarceration they have become free in Christ.

When I graduated from seminary more than 41 years ago I thought success in ministry would be the result of my skills and training. Now I realize it is the Lord. Scripture makes that plain: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Psalm 127:1); Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6); He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Because I’ve come to understand this, my daily prayer discipline is more and more a factor of necessity. I cannot live the Christian life in my own strength, nor can I effectively serve the Lord without His help.

Prison ministry may represent God’s catalyst for revival.

In Psalm 85:6 we read Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

We think of revival breaking forth from a church. But God desires revival everywhere, even if the people of God are so bound by traditionalism as to box out that possibility.

God will release His power behind bars. Those infamous reactionary words We’ve never done it like that before are unheard in prison.

The ingredients for revival are present in prison. Sin can be called sin. Repentance is still preached. The convictions that Jesus is the answer and Jesus, we’re depending on You are unshakable. We focus on the main points and don’t worry about the secondary matters. We’re forced to trust the Lord and pray fervently. We’ve got to take Jesus seriously and act obediently.

We need to presume that revival will come not only from the institutional church but also from within prison institutions.

As a preacher, I can’t resist a captive audience.

The reality is that every audience is the same. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And we, as God’s people, are instructed to Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them (Hebrews 13:3).

I pray that my story may also be reflected in your own personal experience.

Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God.—William Carey

God is still in the life-changing business.

This reality is the foundation of my life and ministry.

I have been blessed by the privilege of sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a pastor and a chaplain for over 41 years, and by seeing lives changed, as men and women reached out to God, as He was reaching out to them.

The life-changing power of Jesus Christ is the premise of this book.

Interspersed, between and among the chapters, are stories which present Jesus as the rebuilder of broken lives, and the restorer of broken relationships. The accounts demonstrate the power of the Gospel to transform lives—as the Apostle Paul states, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A contemporary praise chorus, Jesus, You are Changing Me by Marilyn Baker, testifies to God’s miraculous work in the lives of those who accept Christ as Savior and Lord

Jesus You are changing me.

By Your Spirit You’re making me like You,

Jesus You’re transforming me,

That Your loveliness may be seen in all I do,

You are the potter and I am the clay,

Help me to be willing to let You have Your way.

Jesus You are changing me,

As I let You reign supreme within my heart.

Gina Stocker is a former inmate with whom I ministered. Her story and her life ring true. She is an inspiration for every person struggling with seemingly insurmountable problems.

Gina Stocker’s Journey: Finding Faith, Forgiveness, Fulfillment

Gina M. Stocker, founder and director of God’s Treasure House, a transitional living center for women in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, emerged from a life of pain and failure to find redemption and fulfillment through Christ.

Denied familial love and sexually molested periodically by trusted adults as a child, she drifted into a marriage strained by physical and alcohol abuse. The overwhelming stress of a life seemingly denied hope came to a head one day when she checked into a hotel in Baltimore.

I had sleeping pills with me, but before I took them I found a Bible in the room left by the Gideons. On the front cover there was a phone number to call if prayer was needed. I flipped through the pages came to Galatians 3:13 where it says that Jesus became a curse for us when he bore our sins on the cross of Calvary. I called the number and spoke to a very sweet lady. I asked her about Galatians 3:13 and she insisted on coming over with her husband to talk to me. When they arrived she saw the pills immediately on the dresser and asked if I was planning to take them. I started to cry and she asked me if I knew who Jesus was. They talked to me about the plan of salvation, but I told them that I had to think about what they told me. I spent two days with them, and they made me promise that I would go back home to my family.

Her life on track, at least temporarily, Gina completed training and opened a successful travel agency. But even with all the money the travel agency was bringing in I wasn’t happy; something was missing in my life.

Again, God intervened. "I met a beautiful Christian woman while in Baltimore and she would never leave my presence without telling me something about Jesus. She reminded me of the woman I met from the Gideons in the hotel room. She invited me to visit a church that she and her husband