*************************************************************************************
New Destiny Community Church is featured in the current edition of the Lincoln Times News, a local newspaper! New Destiny is thankful for good news being reported. Below is the attachment to the link and I have copied the article as well.
We are expecting and looking forward to an amazing, anointed, full of God's presence service tomorrow night (at The Club at Westport)!
Blessings,
Mike Teeter
pastor
New Destiny Community Church
newdestinydenver.org
704-947-3829
cell 803-448-5699
*************************************************************************************
http://www.lincolntimesnews.com/?p=44335
Pastor Mike Teeter has been involved in prison ministry off-and-on for more than 20 years and now he’s in the process of encouraging the congregation of his newly-established Denver church to follow suit.
Although New Destiny Community Church was formed in April 2010 and is currently about 30 members strong, Mike is confident that the work that he and his fellow church-goers are doing for local inmates within the Prison to Society ministry is straight from the hand of God.
“God put everything together,” he said.
NDCC is part of a church plant that Mike and his wife Melissa founded last year with help from its “parent church” Lake Wylie Christian Assembly in South Carolina.
Through LWCA, where the couple formerly attended church, Mike served as a volunteer chaplain with the PTS ministry at South Carolina’s Kershaw County Detention Center, which houses more than 1,500 inmates.
Joann Cook, head chaplain at Kershaw, helped launch the PTS program.
Prior to getting involved with the prison’s ministry, Mike noted that he had ample missions experience.
He served on a year-long missions trip to Central America where he taught a variety of subjects at a bi-lingual school, he said. More specific to the PTS program, he had been visiting a number of jail facilities, including women’s prisons, for decades.
“I had a heart for it already,” he noted.
However, it wasn’t until 2004 that he started to get more heavily involved in the spiritual needs of inmates.
NDCC is one of many churches that volunteers with the PTS program. Other congregations include Calvary Baptist Church and Woodlawn United Methodist Church, both in Rock Hill, S.C., among others.
With only eight total churches helping with the program in 2005, more than 40 churches currently assist Prison to Society and aid inmates in becoming both “more responsible citizens” and more “complete in Christ,” according to a PTS brochure.
“It’s easier to get things done if you do it together,” Mike said of the churches’ joint effort.
The program offers nearly 70 chapel services a year as well as an annual holiday dinner each December for all Kershaw prisoners.
However, only those inmates who are within six to 18 months of being released can enter the program.
PTS offers inmates more than just faith-centered instruction. A large portion of the program centers on educational teaching and socialization skills, such as how to handle money, and other proficiencies necessary for appropriately transitioning into life beyond “bars.”
Mike noted that, upon release, prisoners can even become involved in a special program to help them find jobs.
“They’ve really grown in helping men become a success,” he said. “They also have a support system when they get out.”
Of the more than 100 men who have entered the PTS program over the last couple of years, a majority have graduated including five former inmates who celebrated their completion of the program on Aug. 26. Each of the men spoke about their experience with the program and even shared their testimonies at the graduation celebration.
Mike noted that one graduate in particular brought him to tears after the jailed individual read aloud an original poem, entitled “God’s Plan Through Prison Time” — an autobiographical rhyme about his journey of spiritual change.
His heart’s transformation and attitude change is evident when comparing the poem’s opening line:
“Lord, at first this prison seemed like sinking sand,” and closing lines, “You placed me in a cell to bring me forth as ‘gold!’”
Because Mike has no doubt that God changes lives for the better through the PTS program, he hopes that all Christians will take an initiative to reach others for the faith, even if that doesn’t entail entering a prison facility.
“Everyone that’s a Christian should go outside the ‘four walls,’ ” he said, “whether that be a prison, nursing home or orphanage. In some way, get beyond yourselves.”
Although Mike personally believes that the PTS program has a “high success rate,” he understands that it’s still too soon and the program’s still too young to accurately determine that outlook.
“It hasn’t been enough time to get a good sampling,” he said.
New Destiny Community Church currently holds services at Westport Country Club in Denver until the church can find a more permanent location. Their main service is 6 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information on NDCC or the PTS ministry, contact 704-947-3829 or check them out on Facebook or on their Website at www.newdestinydenver.org.
The next PTS chapel service at Kershaw is set for Nov. 12. The holiday dinner is scheduled for Dec. 2.
JENNA-LEY HARRISON, Staff Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment