Oklahoma Baptist University’s prison divinity program was recognized as the top academic institution of the year at the Fourth Annual National Moral Rehabilitation Conference in Memphis, Tennessee.
Ron Lindsey, Lexington Assessment and Reception Center chaplain, also received the chaplain of the year award during the event. The conference is sponsored by the Prison Seminaries Foundation.
OBU, Oklahoma Baptists and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections partnered together in this endeavor. OBU offers a bachelor of arts degree in Christian studies to inmates in an Oklahoma prison. Upon completion of their degrees, these men will be eligible to be commissioned as field ministers and deployed to other prisons across the state.
Equipping inmates to minister
Oklahoma has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation.
This program equips inmates to minister to fellow inmates, providing an avenue for moral rehabilitation and reform throughout the prison system.
The degree is a fully accredited, four-year Christian liberal arts degree, which includes an internship with the prison chaplain.
All courses are taught face-to-face at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center. Students are carefully selected based upon their application materials and interviews and progress through the degree program together.
The program’s objectives are to facilitate change in the culture of the prison system with greater respect for authority as well as their fellow man, facilitate greater safety within each unit where field ministers are deployed and allowed to serve and to provide a pathway to reduced recidivism of those who have been impacted by the service of the graduates.
There are 67 students currently enrolled in the program. The first cohort of students begins their junior year this fall. The second cohort has completed the orientation term and begins courses for credit this fall.
Contact Perkins, bruce.perkins@okbu.edu, or visit okbu.edu/pdp for more information about the Prison Divinity Program.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Bryan Painter and originally published by Baptist Messenger.
