Faith in Action

This past Resurrection Sunday, I joined about 4 other brothers in going inside the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center to lead a nontraditional worship experience for the young brothers who were incarcerated.  Spearheaded by Rev. Russell St. Bernard (who’s now serving as a Youth Pastor in FL), we had a wonderful time taking the gospel of Jesus Christ behind the bars of juvenile lockup.  Since that time, I’ve been itchin’ to get back behind bars to reconnect with young men in that situation.  I knew that though a one time visit was nice, if we were going to make a major impact we needed to establish a program that included weekly visits.

Thee one and only Ezekiel Jackson of Soul Cannon (SIDEBAR:This brother has a serious gift from God as an MC and musician.  Soul Cannon’s sound demands an international audience and I’m sure that a much larger platform is coming.  Support my Brother!) and I have been mulling over how we bring greater permanency to the idea of mentoring incarcerated youth since we both walked behind those bars on Easter Sunday 2007.  Then Anjelene Branch, Case Manager Supervisor from the Charles Hickey School called me looking for mentors.  Hickey is a state-owned facility operated by the Department of Juvenile Services providing alternative education options to detained youth ages 12-18.

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Resurrection Sunday 2007  yesterday (also known as Easter Sunday to some)  was amazingly relevant, real, and invigorating for me.  As my notorious “Easter? Oh that again...” post from 2005 reveals; I was in a very challenging place a couple of years back when it came to Easter Sunday and most other religious holidays.  In addition to having some questions about the theological foundation for the holiday, I was also extremely frustrated with the amount of pomp and circumstance minus the social and spiritual significance.

Yesterday, I experienced a drastic departure from the routine of Resurrection Sunday.

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