ANAHEIM, Calif. (PD)--A new partnership with Prison Fellowship will play a key role in Purpose Driven’s new global mission to marginalized people announced April 17 by Rick Warren before more than 30,000 people at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church and the worldwide Purpose Driven movement, introduced Charles Colson, founder of the organization that ministers in prisons in 108 countries. The announcement was a key part of a celebration of Saddleback's 25th anniversary and the launch of the global P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

The partnership will open the door for putting Purpose Driven’s Celebrate Recovery program in more than 2,000 prisons worldwide and help expose more than 20,000 purpose driven churches around the world to Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree ministry to prisoners’ children.

“No one knows more about working with prisoners than Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship,” Warren said. “We aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel. We are saying, ‘Teach us, so we can teach the church.’”

Warren said he wants to mobilize the entire community of purpose driven churches “to care for prisoners as Jesus commanded.”

Prison Fellowship founder Charles W. Colson believes the two organizations are a natural fit and that the new partnership should help expand the ministry of both organizations.

“The whole notion of The Purpose Driven Life -- which is genius -- has a particular impact for guys in prison,” Colson said. “And our vision for using it is that we want to raise the next generation of leaders from the prisons -- from people who have been broken.”

Colson, who served as special counsel to President Richard Nixon, founded Prison Fellowship in 1976 after serving time in prison for his participation in Watergate-related crimes. In the past 30 years it has grown into one of the largest prison ministries in the world.

According to a joint document prepared by both ministries, the partnership exists to:

• To expand the introduction of Celebrate Recovery and The Purpose Driven Life into all prisons.
• To expand the number of purpose driven churches engaged in prison ministry.
• To encourage purpose driven churches using Celebrate Recovery and the 40 Days of Community campaign to participate in the Angel Tree program.
• To develop and distribute a biblical worldview curriculum for adult small groups.
• To determine the need, form, and timing of a biblical worldview curriculum for high school, middle school, and children and to distribute the material cooperatively.

Colson noted that two-thirds of the prison population around the country has substance abuse problems. He is particularly optimistic about the potential of Celebrate Recovery in prisons, calling it “the most effective tool out there for ministering to those with substance abuse problems.”

Celebrate Recovery began in 1991 when founder John Baker, a recovering alcoholic and Saddleback member, suggested to Rick Warren that the growing church needed some kind of recovery ministry. In the past 14 years, the program has been adopted by more than 3,500 churches and more than 200,000 people have been helped worldwide. It is currently being used in more than 50 prisons around the country.

In the New Mexico prison system, where the program has been tested on a state-wide basis, less than 10 percent of the people who have been through the voluntary Celebrate Recovery program were back in jail a year later. The average recidivism rate after a year for those not involved in Celebrate Recovery is between 65 and 75 percent.

Baker said that the partnership with Prison Fellowship will mean more opportunities for expanding the work of Celebrate Recovery and Purpose Driven Ministries in prisons.

“The unique advantage of partnering with Prison Fellowship is that it provides thousands of trained volunteers to help implement and run Celebrate Recovery in prisons across the country,” said Baker. “Through the partnership we will be able to increase the number of prisons offering the Celebrate Recovery program from about 50 to more than 2,000. It would have taken us years to reach that many prisons. That means more prisoners will be given the opportunity to overcome their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. This will help them stay out of prison and live meaningful productive Christ-centered lives.”

Another key component of the partnership is the opportunity for Warren and Colson to collaborate on materials to help communicate a biblical worldview to Christians around the world.  Colson’s passion on the subject stems from a similar passion to help prisoners, since he is convinced that a breakdown in biblical worldview leads to an increase in crime.
 
Colson believes with his organization’s background in studying biblical worldview and Warren’s unique teaching ability, the materials could have a broad impact on the culture.

Also as part of the collaboration, purpose driven and Celebrate Recovery churches around the country will be encouraged to participate in Angel Tree, a ministry that provides gifts for children of prisoners around the country. Since 1982 more than 6.3 million children have received gifts through the program.

The partnership with Purpose Driven Ministries will open up 20,000 churches that have been through 40 Days of Purpose and might soon join the next sequential campaign 40 Days of Community. Each of these churches -- along with churches with the Celebrate Recovery program -- will be encouraged to participate in Angel Tree.

“What has always impressed me the most with Rick Warren is his concern for the underdog, the marginalized people in society,” Colson said. “That’s been a hard sell in the evangelical community for awhile. Then Rick Warren comes along with this incredible burst into national fame from talking about prisoners and poor people. I think Rick has a great strategic vision for the church. So this partnership really appealed to me.”

-Purpose-Driven^®-

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