A Man With All the Answers
Pastor Keith Williams had been in ministry for twenty-two years when he accepted a role as chaplain at a maximum-security prison in Alabama. He thought he was going to bring God to broken men. He had a theology degree, decades of sermons, and a confidence that bordered on arrogance.
Week One: Humbled
The inmates did not want his sermons. They had heard every cliche. One man — serving life for murder — listened politely for ten minutes, then said: "Preacher, you ever lost anything? You ever been so low you forgot your own name? Because until you have, your words are just noise."
Keith went home that night and could not sleep. He realised he had spent his entire career talking about suffering without ever sitting in it.
Learning to Listen
Keith stopped preaching and started listening. He sat in cells. He heard confessions that made him sick. He held men who wept. He learned that grace is not a concept you explain — it is a presence you carry into rooms where hope has been extinguished.
The Bible Study That Changed Him
A group of twelve inmates began meeting weekly. They did not need Keith to teach them — many knew Scripture better than he did. What they needed was someone from the outside who would keep showing up. Over months, Keith watched men he had been trained to fear become the most honest community he had ever known. They prayed for each other with an urgency he had never witnessed in any church.
What He Found
Keith served in that prison for nine years. He says the inmates taught him more about God than seminary ever did. His theology shifted from performance to presence. He learned that the people society discards are often the ones closest to understanding grace, because they have nothing left to pretend with.
What This Means for You
It is easy to approach service from a position of superiority — I have something you need. Keith's story inverts that. The people he went to serve ended up serving him. If you are willing to enter spaces that frighten you and listen before you speak, you may find that the God you thought you were bringing was already there, waiting for you to notice.