I am Second "Cell" Groups (get it?)

When I first sat down to write these discussion guides last spring, we got an email from an inmate in Wisconson. His plea was simple, "I am in jail. There are no ministies working here. Can I start an I am Second Group in my jail." This email became the impetus of my writing. I decided then that whatever we put together for these I am Second Groups had to be simple enough and transferrable enough that an inmate 1,000 miles away with no access to ministries, pastors, or other Christians, could download these discussion guides and start a healthy biblical spiritual community that we were calling an I am Second Group.

Last month we found a man who was working in the jails in downtown Dallas. The jails downtown are really just holding sells. The peole may be held there for a month or two but then they are typically transfered to longer term facilities for the remainder of their sentences. This man was going into the jails starting I am Second groups. Each inmate takes turns leading and facilitating these I am Second Group discussions.

The man's mission is to train each inmate at this jail to be missionaries to other jails. Remember these are holding cells. The inmates are regularly transferred to other jails. This man trains them here and then the government sends them out. They are fully equipped and trained to be I am Second missionaries within our own jail system!