GRANITE—Located off State Highway 9, Oklahoma State Reformatory houses more than 1,000 inmates, “the worst of the worst” as said by KSWO 7News. As implied by the name, those incarcerated within Oklahoma State Reformatory are there to be reformed, changed and to become better people than when they first walked in. Mark Benedict, worship leader at Altus, Martha Road is helping inmates find a unique kind of life change that can only be found through the Gospel.
“Jesus is changing lives through this ministry,” Benedict said. “I had a student say, ‘I have never felt more free than I do right now.”
Every week, Benedict travels to the reformatory and leads various classes that help inmates conquer addictions. They read through books and lessons that point to Christ’s redeeming power to free themselves from the metaphorical prison that is their addictions. This program is in partnership with Celebrate Recovery (CR), a national organization that seeks to help those struggling with addictions.
The national program began in 1991 and thousands of churches across the world have started their own CR ministry since then. Altus, Martha Road began its Celebrate Recovery ministry in 2016. CR has various ministries tackling the same theme of defeating addiction, but the programs that focus on prison ministry are called CR Inside programs.
In late of 2017, Benedict was invited to visit Oklahoma State Reformatory. There, he met Scott Devore, who was sharing the Gospel with inmates in the prison. After that trip, Benedict felt called to begin a prison ministry at the reformatory. Plans for the ministry were halted due to COVID, but in 2021, Benedict began his church’s first CR Inside ministry, ‘Celebrate Recovery: The 12 Steps’, in the reformatory’s medium security wing. Since then, the program has been growing fast.
“In that first year we had six graduates from the program,” Benedict said. “Last year, we had 19 graduates, and we currently have 42 that are going through the program.”
Sharing the Gospel in a prison isn’t easy work. It takes time to gain the trust of the inmates. That doesn’t prohibit the love of Christ being spread in prisons, though. Sometimes, like with Oklahoma State Reformatory, Christ is already at work behind the wires.
“I went into the prison thinking I was carrying Jesus into the prison, but Jesus was already there,” Benedict said. “It’s amazing. I am thrilled to be able to share these tools with other men so they can find freedom. I can’t wait to see what Christ is going to do next.”
For more information about Celebrate Recovery ministries, visit celebraterecovery.com.
