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Pastor Bill Clements Ministry: is serving as Community Chaplain for Prison after Care: a community reentry project to provide ministry to ex-offenders, enabling them to take a Christ led role in becoming responsible and God directed in their Christian life. The objective is to develop a statewide Christian community based re-entry program and network.

KING COUNTY Jail system: average daily population is 2400 in two primary facilities. I visit both facilities weekly.

STATE OF WASHINGTON Prison population: 15,000 men and women are housed in the 30 institutions of the State of Washington . The average age of the population is 36; 49% are in prison for under five years and 49% are in prison for less than ten years. Only 2.9% are in prison for life without release. There are almost 30,000 ex-offenders in supervision outside of prison. These are the people I will focus on! I currently communicate with prison inmates by mail and one on one visitation. The Community Chaplain Ministry permits me to devote one day a week to prisoners in the County Jails ; State Prisons, community facilities and those at home.

Pastor Bill’s Personal Testimony: I have long dreaded the thought of getting to the end of this earthly life and regretting that I allowed my own timidity or other people’s expectations to determine the course of my life. I had decided at a younger age that several of my beliefs should determine the course of my life.

I believe that what happens in the world and in my own life is not the result of mere chance. I believe that the same wonderful God, whom I have come to know in His Son Jesus Christ, has given me the freedom to make choices within the script of my life. But I also believe that the Creator has an epic script into which my minute presence has been written. In short, I believe that “God Opens Doors”.

The current chapter in that script includes my family and especially a wife Susan, whom I love greatly; my church; a chaplaincy to prisoners and their loved ones; and many and various friends. All of which is a gift to me. But it is not some sort of “and he lived happily ever after” chapter. That never happens. After each chapter, life just moves on and we all have to go on making choices and living with the consequences. I have not had many illusions that I could do anything significant to alter the future of any ministry; those prisoners I serve or any of the churches I have served over the years. In fact, most of the prisoners I have served in recent years might be primarily interested in the handouts they thought they could get from me. In prison, influence is given to the highest bidder.

I believe that any sacrifice I might make as a Christian would simply be to continue giving up control of my life to God’s leading. Frankly, life in the rat race of Seattle , with all its time-saving technologies and civilized comforts, is not easy. I just believe there is a reason I serve where I serve. Obedience to God is the only reason that makes sense to me.

Believe me I never expected to serve as a pastor for over 30 years OR be a domestic missionary (chaplain) in jails and prisons. None of this was part of the plan I had laid out for my life. But I believe it is part of a much bigger plan that will eventually prove to make my life significant. I yearn for a sense of significance, not just for myself, but also for my family, and my chaplaincy.

Let me offer a correction to my witness. There is a tendency in me and I suspect in many people, for generosity and the desire to be significant in the lives of other people, to mix with a bit of selfish desire. We like to find a little pond where we can be a big fish. This deadly form of altruism ruins the lives of the people we want to help and steals the future dignity from them.

And here is another correction. It's easy to get overwhelmed at the challenge of reaching so many people for Jesus who do not yet know Him. In one of his sermons, Dr. C.F.W. Walther proclaimed, "Ah, if this great, important, holy matter rested on the fervor of our love, on the abundance of our means, on the training of our missionaries; in short, if it rested on our will and on our faith and strength, then we would have a sad situation. For we are poor miserable sinners, whose love soon disappears; whose strength is only weakness; and whose knowledge is only patchwork. But we should not look at ourselves, but only at the fact that God has commanded this work of missions. He has promised to bless our humble work and to bless it abundantly"

So isn’t it something that the Lord Jesus would have used someone like me to do His work as a Pastor and a Chaplain. My witness is that I loved the Lord Jesus with all my heart and I am coming to trust him completely. And I guess I have learned to persevere in whatever God gave me to do. To many people my mission, especially in recent years to the jails and prisoners, seemed crazy, but I know it really is not. I have met so many business people who were giving their lives to make money they would never get around to spending, money that might end up ruining their children’s lives. At this point I could be accused of wasting some of my life attempting to be an ambassador to prisoners whom few people care about. But I have recently begun to realize that God doesn’t need me or any of us to do His work, or he would not be “all powerful”. He wants our love and a relationship with us. Life is about “being” not “doing”.

Personally, I have come to the place where I continuously pray for direction, correction, or re-direction for the direction of my life and ministry. One of my regular prayers is “Lord I give You permission to change my mind on anything You and I don’t agree on.” I would never want to find myself standing in a jail room with prisoners or at my church and hear the Lord ask, “What are you doing here?” I now know that the Lord proposes to bring each of us to a certain place on our journey where absolutes get settled, a place of total consecration and surrender, a place like John 15: 4 “Dwell in me, as I in you.” I certainly don’t know what all of what I’ve done in my 30 year ministry implies. For me, my ministry has meant moving beyond the unanswerable questions, and trusting love greater than I can comprehend….for Christ’s love compels us (2 Cor.5: 14).

An Invitation for your participation: When prisoners are released from jail or prison, they need a mentor, a spiritual family, and to be surrounded by people with genuine agape love. Many come out with job skills and just need someone to give them a chance. God works through his Church – we are his arms and hands and feet.

Following the example of the Good Samaritan in Luke's Gospel, Individuals, Churches and faith-based organizations are invited to join Chaplain Bill in promising to partner with him and provide specific services to inmates before and as they are released.

Churches in Chaplain Bill’s Network commit to help paroled prisoners re-enter society in many practical ways, providing:

This is your opportunity to stand up and do what Christ asked us to do. There are many Christians and churches and faith based organizations in Washington State and beyond and I seek your partnership. For information contact Chaplain Bill Clements at Pastor@Redeemerluthernchurch.us. Or phone Redeemer Church at 206-232-1711. 6001 Island Crest Way . Mercer Island Wash. 98040.