Equip & Ignite (E&I): 

At the E&I, we educate our volunteers (Teammates) on what to expect at the facilities we’re visiting, train them to share their faith with our tract, and provide spiritual preparedness with praise and worship music.

Arrival at the facility:

As soon as you arrive at the facility, let your Site Coordinator know you are there. Listen as they go through the processing in instructions and any additional info they have to share.

Enter the facility:

Remain quiet as you enter the facility. Present your government-issued ID (often, the prison will collect them and keep them until you leave) as you go through security. You will be escorted to your meeting/program location.

Attend the program:

Our professionally staged events typically take place in common areas such as recreation yards and gyms, except in jails or facilities without common areas, programs are held inside housing areas. We feature athletes, entertainers, musicians, and ex-offenders sharing their talents and their stories of how they came to faith in Jesus Christ. Our performers draw the inmates and juvenile offenders out to the program that typically wouldn’t attend a church or chapel service. They do this by offering hope; which opens the door for our teammates to share their faith one-on-one or in small groups using our proven tract.

Visit with offenders:

Begin conversations with offenders; one-on-one or in a small group. Discuss the BGBTW tract as reviewed at E&I training. Use other materials in the Teammate Packet as needed. Give each offender who makes a decision for Christ a Study Guide and sign him/her up for Crossroads’ correspondence Bible study if asked. As time permits, share your testimony, pray for them and their families, and encourage them to continue in their knowledge and love of the Lord.

Leave the facility:

Your Site Coordinator will advise you when it’s time to wrap up and where to go after visiting with offenders. You’ll complete the required forms as shown at E&I and give them to the Site Coordinator. As a group, you’ll be given your ID’s back and will exit together.

Banquet (on Weekend of Champions (WOC) “2 day” events only): 

Immediately after leaving the correctional facilities on the Friday of a WOC, we provide dinner, share experiences from the day, and hold a short award ceremony for Teammates achieving event attendance milestones.

Site Coordinators will compile all forms and calculate the results for each facility. Later that same day, all registered Teammates will receive a phone call with the event’s total results. An event survey will be emailed to all registered Teammates and we encourage everyone to complete them with as much detail as possible to help us improve our events.

Provided at the training is the Action Steps Beyond the Walls infographic card with some things you can do following the event. Click here to view that card.