All this is from God, who reconciled us to God’s self through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. — 2 Corinthians 5:18

On a September evening a group of men sit eating pizza and drinking soda as they laugh and talk. One is the group’s therapist (myself), another a former intern who has come back especially for this evening. The rest are men who have been involved in Justice and Healing Center for Trauma and Addiction Recovery’s sex offender treatment program. Four of the men are still in treatment; the rest have come back to share their post-treatment experiences, provide support to one another, and to ask for the group’s feedback on some situations of their own. Their offenses ranged for exhibitionism to rape. Some had gone from trial to probation, some had done hard time. What they have in common is a desire to live positive, offense-free lives moving forward.

As the pizza disappears the topics range from job stress to housing issues to family conflict to where can they go to worship—all common challenges for sexual offenders in recovery. The emerging theme of the evening is “how do I, having done the work of treatment, re-integrate into my neighborhood, my family, my church, my world?” For many offenders this is the biggest challenge. Understanding why they offended and developing a Relapse Prevention Plan to ensure offense-free living is critical—and the sole focus of most treatment programs. But once the commitment to recovery and offense free living is made, what then?

This program has not been problem free. During the five years we’ve been up and running two program clients were deported by ICE because they had committed sexual offenses; two others went back to jail for violating their probation by failing to pay child support; one for contacting his now-adult victim; and one for violating other conditions. Money is always tight, few of these men have avoided the need to be on sliding scale at least part of the time they were in treatment. But in the five years Justice and Healing has been in operation, none of its clients has committed another sexual offense.

What makes this program different? Programmatically, in addition to Relapse Prevention, Justice and Healing does four things:
    •    provides an intentional focus on creating community
    •    requires each man to develop and complete a Restitution Project
    •    requires each man to put together and have trained a Support Team committed to being there for him in his ongoing recovery
    •    encourages participation in therapy for their own trauma

For my part, I see this work as ministry. As a therapist, I have witnessed the power of healing in the lives of men who have offended others because of the wounds in their own lives. Because these healing men don't reoffend, this work is also done on behalf of those who will not be victimized. As a Christian, I believe that Justice and Healing is truly a “ministry of reconciliation.” As a member of the Alliance of Baptists, I see our commitments to “inclusiveness, each person valued as God’s beloved” and to the “calling of God to all peoples to repentance and faith, reconciliation and hope” as a call to the Alliance to be involved in aiding offenders and their families to be reconciled to God, to the community of faith, to their families, their victims, themselves. The Alliance has committed itself to serving those who have been alienated, forgotten, estranged—even when ministry to them is not popular or comfortable. I would call upon the Alliance to look at this as one of those times. It is a time for opening dialogue; for developing appropriate and healing responses; and for actively engaging in this ministry of reconciliation.

How might we do this? I would call for the creation of a Community of Reconciliation With Offenders through which we might begin an ongoing conversation that would utilize this Alliance tool as well as our Alliance outlets such as Connections or Voices where initial questions and concerns can be raised and responded to. Then, at Alliance meetings a series of workshops can assist congregations in learning about available models for responding to this issue as well as developing new ones. Finally, out of the above efforts, this emerging community of reconciliation can share what we’ve learned with the larger Alliance. I look forward to joining my sisters and brothers in Christ in the Alliance in this ministry of reconciliation.