This blog post is part of a special series commemorating forty years of ministry. We invite you to join us in reflecting on our history and looking forward to the future of bringing the hope of the Gospel to men and women behind bars. Click here to view the full series.
Read part 1: Crossroads: Christ-Centered and Student-Focused from Day One
Read part 2: Shifting from Startup Energy to Stability
Rebranding Brings Focus Back to Heart of Ministry
The current era of Crossroads began in 2017 with an emphasis on the connections formed between students and mentors as they study God’s Word together.
The focus on relationships provided the catalyst for updates to every aspect of the ministry, including a new way of relating to students and several student-focused initiatives.
“We heard of students who weren’t coming to the ministry because we called it a ‘Bible institute,’” shared former CEO Lisa Blystra. “The perception was that they already needed to be believers, which was not true at all.”
The rebranding of the ministry, including a new name and logo, shifted the perception of the organization from an educational institution to a ministry open to all men and women behind bars.
It was a return to the roots of the ministry.
Increasing Course Accessibility
Crossroads’ rebranding marked a shift away from instruction and academia to a relationship-based ministry where people inside and outside prison walls are changed by the power of God’s Word.
Through the process of rebranding, Crossroads discovered the need for new course material that was more accessible to students of all reading levels. There was also a need to provide lessons that teach basic Bible study skills and introduce students to the overarching narrative of the Bible. Who Are You? was released in 2018 as the first course in a series added to the curriculum to address these issues.
Who Are You? introduces students to God through three lessons. The lessons are designed to help students discover who they are in God’s eyes and understand that God loves and cares for them. The questions ask students to reflect on their lives, giving mentors a glimpse at their students’ mindsets, worldviews, and faith journeys.
The lessons are written at a third-grade reading level, but the content is designed for adult learners of all capacities. The goal is to ease various levels of learners into the Crossroads program while also challenging students to share how they see God working in their lives. New Christians, longtime believers, and mentors can follow the study to learn and engage with the material and the Bible.
Removing the Postage Barrier
After a tour of Rikers Island, an overcrowded jail facility in New York City holding an average of nearly 10,000 people, Douglas Cupery was sobered by the reality that many of the men and women he met had absolutely nothing.
“They have no money to pay for commissary or phone calls. They have no money to buy stamps to send a letter home. This financial burden makes participation in the Crossroads program impossible,” he reflected after the visit.
Over the years, we have heard from countless students that they dropped out of the program because they could no longer afford stamps. In response, Crossroads began inviting donors to help make prepaid postage a reality for Crossroads students in January 2018. Thanks to our generous supporters, Crossroads continues paying for student postage, upward of half a million dollars annually, allowing men and women in prison to continue studying God’s Word and receiving encouragement from mentors on the outside.
The response from students was overwhelming. Hundreds of students have written letters of thanks to Crossroads.
New Database Opens Doors to Expansion
With more accessible course material and free postage, student enrollment and retention increased. In response, Crossroads launched a new database that improved the efficiency and effectiveness of its ministry.
In the early years, it would have been impossible to imagine how the ministry would look today. As Crossroads’ enrollment exceeded 3,000 students domestically and began accepting Canadian students in 1998, Google was just being introduced to the world.
In the early 2000s, as domestic enrollment surpassed 10,000 students, Crossroads launched its first database management system. As the ministry continued to grow throughout the 2000s, it became clear Crossroads needed a more robust database to help streamline lesson processing and position the ministry for future growth. The ministry added more than six hundred new mentors in 2018 alone.
In 2019, the adoption of a new database improved Crossroads’ ability to serve students more efficiently and effectively by providing improved insights into student experiences. The database coincided with the launch of an online mentor portal that allowed volunteer mentors to report student progress, request time off, and update their contact information. This operational efficiency got Bible study lessons and letters from mentors into the hands of students more quickly.
“This is a game changer for Crossroads,” said JR DeGroot, vice president of major initiatives who spearheaded the database project, in an article published in 2019. “I think we will look back at this moment years from now as a pivotal moment in the life of our ministry.”
A year later, Crossroads saw exactly how God used that database to allow the ministry to continue operating in the face of the unexpected: a global pandemic that closed prison doors to in-person ministry.
Read Part 4: Resilience and Innovation in the Face of Uncertainty
Read part 5: Mailing Restrictions and Alternative Delivery Methods