- Discipleship & spiritual formation
At nine years old, Justin Reddick’s family had a horrific car accident. Some people walked away, but others were physically and emotionally wounded.
From then on, although Reddick didn’t know the God who restores the hurting, he felt somehow marked to work among suffering people.
But what would free the boy from his pain and high levels of emotional responsibility, which continued into his teen years? The art of painting, it turned out.
“From the moment God trained me to hold a paintbrush, my story has always been about redeeming my brokenness and framing my narrative around a larger community,” Reddick said. “I discovered that art can be the main catalyst for healing.”
Isn’t that just like God to redeem people and connect them to others as they heal?
Reddick gave his life to Christ at age 30, a turnaround that would one day introduce others to the healing of art and the redemption of Christ. After Reddick’s salvation, Catalyst Church, a Converge Rocky Mountain church in Canon City, Colorado, became his church.
He started working for the Bureau of Prisons in 2012 and felt called to chaplaincy four years later. Catalyst pastor Ryan McBride mentored Reddick as he pursued becoming a prison chaplain.
Reddick now serves 300 people in the Administrative Maximum Penitentiary near Florence, Colorado. It is the nation’s most secure prison, where men may spend as much as 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.
“Prison ministry represents my effort to love a better way because he first loved us,” Reddick said.
That prison ministry includes spiritual counsel and preaching. But, in 2016, Reddick and artist Mat Taylor (pictured above) started the Creative Arts Platform. Since then, they’ve offered art education, therapeutic artwork and career training to 50-75 adults.
Henry (name changed) is an inmate who participated in Reddick’s ministry.
“The feelings of accomplishment that come with selling a painting is what most people feel when they go to work each day,” Henry said. “Most of us inmates have never felt that until now.”
Since 2018, inmates have sold their art, generating significant income for these artists so they can pay restitution fines and buy art supplies.
While the platform does help artists with these practical matters, Reddick noted how his redemption and healing help men practice acceptance and forgiveness, spiritual formation and creative community engagement.
“I try to honor Jesus’s presence in a world that needs to be reminded of the ever-growing need to redemptively engage with one’s neighbor despite our many differences,” Reddick said. “A prison is a great place to apply these needs.”
That’s all possible because of the God who saw a hurting boy, restored him and invited him to serve others.
What might God do in and through you?
Converge currently endorses 60 chaplains for federal chaplain ministry with the Army, Air Force, Navy, Veteran’s Administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Learn more about the procedures and requirements to be a Converge chaplain.
