During the Christmas Eve service at Trinity Reformed Church in Fulton, Illinois, everyone stood quietly, holding candles and singing "Silent Night."
"Then a visitor hollered out, 'One more time!'" says pastor Tom Merchant. He adds that if anyone was offended, they didn't show it. "I was proud that our folks really reached out to the guys who had joined us for that service and made them feel welcome," he says.
The "guys" Merchant refers to were ex-offenders, former prisoners that Trinity has embraced through a program called Mighty-X-Men. "Fulton has 3,900 people and three RCA churches, two Christian Reformed churches, and a Presbyterian church," says Merchant. "There are eight RCA churches within 12 miles. If we're going to grow it's going to be with people who look different from us."
Through X-Men, Merchant says Trinity members started realizing how difficult it is for ex-offenders to integrate into society. "They invited the men to be part of the men's group. Now 15 to 20 guys take part in addition to eight men from the church."
When the church sponsored men to attend a local men's conference at $45 each, 19 of the 29 who went were from the Mighty-X-Men group. The men also come to worship with Trinity folks when nothing is going on at the church they usually attend.
"Trinity already supported lots of missionaries, and it sponsors a mission trip to Jackson County Ministries in Appalachia every fall, but we didn't do much locally until Mighty-X-Men," says Merchant.
Mighty-X-Men grew out of an outreach ministry in nearby Clinton, Iowa, called Victory Center. "Victory Center was started by ex-pro baseball player Ray Jimenez 23 years ago as a storefront ministry. Lots of ex-offenders were coming through his ministry, and Pastor Jimenez realized a need for a program specifically for them."
A year and a half ago Jimenez approached Merchant, who had previously worked in an interdenominational prison ministry in Michigan, and asked him to help start the new program. They use a 28-unit discipleship series called Seven Areas of Life Training to teach God's plan in seven areas of life: spiritual, psychological, social, physical, financial, marital, and parental. "We teach that anger locks you in a prison; to get free you need to forgive," Merchant says.
Last year X-Men graduated eight men who had completed 50 hours of training. This year 12 participants are going through the program. "When they graduate it's with a full blown ceremony," says Merchant. "We invite an outside speaker, and each man gets a certificate plus a good quality, leather-bound study Bible. We have a big dinner with cake and punch and invite all their relatives. It's a big deal."
To learn more about Mighty-X-Men, contact Tom Merchant at tandtmerchant@hotmail.com or (815) 589-2725.
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