DCDC partner with Matthew’s Table for outdoor church service

July 1, 2019 | 3:18 am

Updated June 30, 2019 | 10:55 pm

File photo contributed by Jailer Art Maglinger

Roger Chilton believes church isn’t a building — it’s the people. That’s why he and Nick Martin partnered with Jailer Art Maglinger to have an outside church at the Daviess County Detention Center Sunday morning.

Chilton is the lead pastor at Matthew’s Table, a church whose mission is to love the unlovable. Many of them come from being formerly incarcerated or struggled with addiction.

“We’re out here doing church today,” Chilton said. “We have a heart for the incarcerated. So we’re out here having church with the inmates.”

This is the third outside church service they have done with DCDC. The church usually meets at the Senior Community Center, but on Sunday church members were on one side of a barbed-wire fence while the inmates were on the other.

Two services were held Sunday — one for males and one for females with approximately 50 total inmates taking part in the worship.

Photo contributed by Jailer Art Maglinger

“Oftentimes I think the spiritual component of mankind is overlooked,” Maglinger said. “I think it is very significant. As a believer myself in Christ, even if you take away the spiritual elements, just for the inmates to get outside means a lot to them. It’s important to me that the gospel is preached even to the inmates who are incarcerated.”

Maglinger said while they do have the prison ministry, this gives the inmates something extra.

While the service is for members of Matthew’s Table, Maglinger said some family members of the incarcerated attend.

“We try to reach the people that may be looked over like inmates,” Martin said. “That’s the people we desire to reach. We want to share the hope and freedom of Christ.”

Terri Collins, who attends church at Matthew’s Table was happy to be “on the other side of the fence” at this service. At the last service, Collins was an inmate at the DCDC.

Now, she said, it’s great to hear the message as a changed woman.

“They are bringing the message of hope and the power of God,” she said. “Being living witnesses and testimonies for the lost and broken. We have to have hope and love and know that we are supported. There is hope, don’t give up — it is possible to get out and change your life. We’re proof of that.”

Photo contributed by Jailer Art Maglinger

July 1, 2019 | 3:18 am

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