MAYBE YOUR COMMUNITY
ALREADY HAS A CONNECTION
TO SOMEONE IN PRISON?
“Compassion isn’t a relationship between the ‘healer’ and the ‘wounded.’ It’s a COVENANT between equals.”
START WITH YOUR OWN PEWS
Many congregations already have—hidden in the pews, mentioned only in whispers—a few existing relationships with incarcerated loved ones, neighbors, friends.
But there is stigma, shame, fear of judgment. Or nobody asks.
Our Lazarus Challenge HONORS those relationships. Taking inventory of our connections to people in the tombs still. Listening for the unspoken hurt that may exist in the church, from harm done by crime to harm done by mass punishment systems.
So, we are inviting you and your church to join us in this hopeful practice. The Lazarus Challenge is designed to be integrated into your church’s worship service with the 15 minute practice of approaching the tombs. This can be inserted into an appropriate place in worship (sermon, prayers, fellowship).
This challenge invites us to face the tombs we so often encounter alone, scared to talk about or share even with our beloved congregation. Our hope is for you and your church to join us as we practice resurrection together.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Click and download the PDF below. By reading this brief reflection during a worship service, and inviting folks to raise their hands to a series of questions, your congregation can identify both
how disconnected many are from the realities of incarceration and
how close to home these realities might already be for others right there in your midst.
We hope this might help your congregation find your own local Lazarus—someone in the prison tombs who might want a parish like yours to help them come home.