Cyber faith: Internet brings church service into jail

“I’m trying to change my life,” Garrett Cleaver said Monday afternoon.
He thinks live-streamed services into Allen County Jail from Fellowship Regional Church, which began last weekend, will help.
“It was like being a part of the community,” he continued. “It means someone out there is thinking about us.”
Jared Ellis, who has a Bible study at the jail every other Thursday, was in the pulpit Saturday evening and Sunday morning, drawing from the Song of Solomon to talk about marriage and the commitment husbands and wives should make.
“I followed along in my Bible,” Cleaver said, along with many of the other 40-plus inmates.
Cleaver, 27, is in jail awaiting disposition of charges from a incident of nearly a year ago in Humboldt.
Cleaver’s troubles began Nov. 21 when a Humboldt officer stopped a car on Bridge Street after noticing its occupants weren’t wearing seat belts.
Cleaver bolted from the car with an assault rifle. The officer gave chase on foot and in a nearby alley was confronted by Cleaver, who then ran back to the car, jumped in and sped away. He escaped when he ran into timber and brush northeast of Humboldt, and was arrested Dec. 5 in Springfield.
“I’ve given my life to the Lord,” Cleaver said Monday afternoon. He thinks being a part of a congregation, albeit in the detached manner it is, will fortify his faith. He attended church as a child, but hadn’t for many years.
“Jared’s sermon was awesome,” he said, and that seeing “people come into the church and to hear the band helped. It made me feel good and like I was a part of the service.”

ELLIS said services wouldn’t be tailored for inmates.
The live-streaming service to the jail — they’re available to anyone who has access to the Internet — is just another facet of The Crux, Fellowship Regional’s 7 o’clock Saturday night services at it church, 214 W. Madison Ave. The live feed from services then and at 10:30 Sunday morning are available at myflock.com/church5032.
“The Crux is where everyone is accepted,” Ellis observed, including those who have given up on church in the traditional sense. “Our goal is to reach out and love people with grace and forgiveness. We want to reach people who need help spiritually.”
Ellis said the connection to the jail came when he was there for Bible study and asked Sheriff Tom Williams whether there would be any likelihood that it could be done.
“His answer surprised me,” Ellis said. “He said, ‘Absolutely, you get it done on your side and we’ll do it.’”
“We talked to the jail administrator (Joni Tucker) about what she thought, and she was all for it,” said Undersheriff Bryan Murphy. “We knew the technology was available, and just had to contact Advantage Computers (the department’s provider) to see what it would take.”
Cost of a monitor, set up in a commons area where inmates are permitted during certain times of the day, other hardware and labor was $525 and took about two months to arrange and install.
“We thought it was well worth the cost to give the inmates the advantage of having access to church services every weekend,” he added. “I think it will have more of an impact on the inmates than a Bible study every two weeks.
“They already feel more involved and eventually we hope to have an interactive part, where they can ask questions and make comments about what they hear,” Murphy said.
That would be done via the Internet.
“It may be a pathway for Garrett (Cleaver) and many of the others to feel better about themselves and a find a place in society,” when the occasion arises, he said.