Meet Me at the Gate®
Goal
There is an urgent need for churches to embrace and enfold Christian inmates (neighbors) being released from prison. The mid-range goal of this program is to have a participating church meet a released Christian neighbor at the prison gate somewhere in the US every day. The longer-range goal is to have thousands of churches across the nation participating, many with one Christian neighbor, but with a growing number opening family-home-based post-prison residential ministries using the Koinonia House® post-prison ministry model.
Meet Me at the Gate® is an initiative that will provide the ability for Koinonia House® National Ministries (KHNM) to rightly transfer to the Church the responsibility of embracing Christians coming out of prison by giving them the opportunity to become involved in post-prison ministry work at a level in which they are ready.
Vision
The vision for Meet Me at the Gate® is “one church meeting one ex-prisoner at the prison gate every day somewhere in the USA.” This is directly in line with the KHNM vision statement “to be God’s visible and passionate presence in the world for the purpose of spiritually transforming and redeeming the lives of Christians recently released from prison.”
Structure
The Meet Me at the Gate® program will have different levels of involvement. Please see the MMATG Church and MMATG House overviews for details. One level will be the option of starting a house based on the Koinonia House® model, applying all five "pillars" of the ministry. The second level will include adopting a released Christian neighbor and providing assistance with lodging as well as biblical discipleship, mentoring, and active involvement in a local church. The third level will include the same elements as the second, but without the lodging component. The length of the program for each Christian neighbor will normally be approximately 15 months.
A covenant will be signed by each participating church/organization and by Koinonia House® National Ministries defining expectations and committments of each. Financial arrangements need to be worked out for the whole program in terms of what KHNM provides and what the church/organization would be obliged to cover prior to association.
What KHNM will Provide
Informational Package
Assistance in the selection process of Christian inmates before they are released
Consulting as necessary
Initial training session for the church – "Strategies for Post-Prison Ministry" seminar
Provision of biblically based life-skills training for Christian neighbor
Training materials for mentors
All the information assembled to date in a Post-Prison Ministry manual
