Along Side Ministries

Along Side Ministries To mobilize the Body of Christ to disciple and equip incarcerated men and women for victorious Christian living.

It is our true desire to bring glory to God by honoring his command to love one another. He doesn't say only love those who are not shunned by society - In fact - He sought those individuals out while He was here on earth. In line with the word of God - We believe our calling is to help the incarcerated Christian community learn how to walk with Jesus, as they transition from prison to society. Th

rough prayer, mentorship, and most importantly, love ~ Our ministry reaches out and walks alongside those incarcerated Christians that have the desire to follow Him with everything they are. Our mentorship program is intensive and specific. By the grace of a loving and merciful God, we have been able to be involved in His work.

May is almost over.And before the calendar turns we want to ask you something.What shifted in you this month?Not what yo...
05/28/2026

May is almost over.

And before the calendar turns we want to ask you something.

What shifted in you this month?

Not what you did. Not what you gave or signed up for or liked or shared. What shifted — quietly, internally, in the space between the noise of daily life and the moments when something you read or heard or felt actually landed somewhere real?

Because we believe something was planted this month.

In the people who started asking harder questions about who the vulnerable actually are. In the ones who felt something stir when they read about a man learning to read at forty or a woman overwhelmed by a grocery store after six years inside. In the person who has been thinking about writing a letter or showing up on a Wednesday evening but hasn't quite made the move yet.

Something was planted.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that everything has a season. May was a season of seeing — of opening eyes to specific people in specific pain and asking God what our hands were made for.

June is a different season.
It's a season of restoration. Of renewal. Of what happens after the hard work of serving — when God begins to heal not just the people you showed up for but something in you as well.

We have seen this truth play out more times than we can count. The person who came to serve and found themselves being restored in the process. The volunteer who thought they were giving something and discovered they were receiving something they didn't know they needed.

That is what June holds.

Don't walk away from this community before you see it.

💬 What is one thing from this month — a thought, a moment, a shift — that you don't want to lose going into June? Tell us. We want to carry it with you.

Today the country pauses to remember people who kept going when everything in them wanted to stop.That's worth sitting w...
05/25/2026

Today the country pauses to remember people who kept going when everything in them wanted to stop.

That's worth sitting with for a moment.

Not just the sacrifice of soldiers — but the specific kind of courage it takes to continue doing something hard when the outcome isn't guaranteed. When the cost is real. When the end isn't yet in sight.

Galatians 6:9 speaks directly into that.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

Notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say it will be easy. He doesn't say the weariness won't be real. He acknowledges it — let us not become weary — which means becoming weary was always a possibility worth naming.

Doing good is tiring. Showing up for people who are struggling is tiring. Caring about things that take years to change is tiring. Loving people through their worst when your own tank is running low is tiring.

And yet.

The harvest is coming.

Not might be coming. Not coming if you perform well enough. Coming. At the proper time. For those who don't give up.

We have seen this at Along Side. Men and women who looked like they were too far gone — and weren't. Families that looked like they couldn't survive one more fracture — and held. Stories that had every reason to end badly — and didn't.

The harvest doesn't always look like what you planted. But it comes.

This Memorial Day — honor the spirit of perseverance by refusing to quit on the good thing God has put in your hands. Whatever that is.

💬 What is something good and hard that you are still showing up for — even when it's tiring? You don't have to have a victory to share. Just tell us you're still in it.

Vulnerability rarely looks the way we expect it to.We tend to picture it as something obvious. Someone visibly falling a...
05/22/2026

Vulnerability rarely looks the way we expect it to.

We tend to picture it as something obvious. Someone visibly falling apart. A dramatic moment that clearly signals — this person needs help.

But in our experience sitting alongside people in some of the hardest seasons of their lives, vulnerability looks much quieter than that.

It looks like a man who hasn't told anyone he doesn't know how to read — and has been covering for it for forty years.

It looks like a woman who just got out after six years and is standing in a grocery store completely overwhelmed by how many choices there are for shampoo.

It looks like someone laughing loudly in a group because the alternative is admitting that nobody is waiting for them at home.

It looks like a phone call that doesn't get made because shame is louder than the need to hear a familiar voice.

Psalm 34:18 says the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. Not watching from a distance. Not waiting for them to clean themselves up. Close.

That's the posture Along Side tries to take. Not fixing from a distance. Not observing with sympathy. Getting close enough to actually see what's there.

Because you can't sit with someone's vulnerability until you understand what it actually looks like. And it almost never announces itself.

💬 What has taught you the most about what it means to truly see someone who is struggling? A moment, a person, an experience — we'd love to hear it.

The gospel saves you from something. But it also saves you for something. Not everyone hears that second part.A lot of u...
05/18/2026

The gospel saves you from something. But it also saves you for something. Not everyone hears that second part.

A lot of us met Jesus and stopped at grateful. Forgiven. Safe. And those things are real and they are gift. But somewhere along the way, the finish line and the starting gun got confused.
Ephesians 2:10 pulls it back into focus.

"We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
The Greek word behind handiwork is poiema — it's where we get the word poem. You are not an accident. You are not a mistake the world gets to define. You are something God authored with intention, before you were born, through everything you've been through.

We get to watch this truth come alive every single week. We walk alongside men and women the world wrote off long before anyone gave them a chance. And what we keep finding — every single time — is that God never did. You cannot argue with a poem He authored before they ever saw the inside of a cell.

The good works were never the price of entry. They were written into the original design. We see people step out of prison and discover for the first time what they were actually made for. That's the original design coming alive.

That same truth is yours this week.

Not to earn anything. Not to prove anything. Just to walk in what was already written.

💬 What feels most like the poem God wrote when you do it — not because you have to, but just because it fits? Share it below. This is a safe place to say it.

68% of people released from prison return within three years. Nearly 7 out of 10.Not because they don't want better. Not...
05/15/2026

68% of people released from prison return within three years. Nearly 7 out of 10.

Not because they don't want better. Not because they aren't capable of more. But because the system they walked out of wasn't built to actually reach them — to walk alongside them through the hardest stretch of their lives.

That's what Along Side Ministries exists to do.

We are an Arizona-based, faith-centered prison ministry focused on both incarceration outreach and post-release discipleship. And what makes us different is this: we don't just show up at one point in someone's journey. We stay for all of it.

Inside prison — Gospel outreach, Bible study, and mentoring for incarcerated men and women who want to go deeper in their faith and prepare for what comes next.

Through the transition — Structured discipleship and support as someone moves from incarceration toward release. This is where the commitment is made and the foundation is built.

After release — Reentry assistance, accountability, and community rebuilding for men and women stepping into Phase II of the program. Safe housing. Real relationships. A place to belong.

This is what we call a continuum of transformation. Programs that combine spiritual transformation and practical reentry support produce outcomes that outreach alone simply cannot. They address identity, stability, community connection, and the deep-rooted patterns that lead back to prison.
97% of Along Side graduates get out and stay out.

That number has a reason. Faith that holds when everything else lets go. Community that refuses to walk away. And people — volunteers, donors, prayer partners — who believed the 97% was worth fighting for.
Your support doesn't just reach someone in prison. It walks alongside them all the way to restoration.

👉 Two ways to be part of the 97%:
🤝 Volunteer your time — alongside-ministries.com/volunteer
💛 Donate to the mission — alongside-ministries.com/social-donations

💬 What made you first believe that restoration was possible for someone? We'd love to hear it in the comments.

Graduation at Along Side Ministries is more than a ceremony.It is a celebration of redemption, transformation, and the w...
05/13/2026

Graduation at Along Side Ministries is more than a ceremony.
It is a celebration of redemption, transformation, and the work God is doing in the lives of men and women seeking a new path forward.
At graduation, stories are shared, victories are celebrated, and graduates raise swords as symbols of the battles they’ve overcome and the strength they carry forward through Christ.
Read more about what makes these graduations so meaningful:
https://www.alongside-ministries.com/post/what-i-saw-at-a-prison-ministry-graduation

There is someone in your world right now who has no voice.Not because they have nothing to say. But because the systems ...
05/11/2026

There is someone in your world right now who has no voice.

Not because they have nothing to say. But because the systems around them, the shame inside them, or the distance between their reality and yours has made it feel impossible to be heard.

Proverbs 31:8-9 doesn't ask you to fix that. It asks you to do something smaller and harder at the same time.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice."

Open your mouth.

Not with a perfect argument. Not with a polished platform. Not after you've figured out all the right answers about poverty or incarceration or addiction or broken families.

Just open your mouth.

This is one of the most personal calls in Scripture because it requires you to get close enough to someone's reality that their silence bothers you. You can't speak up for someone you've never seen. You can't advocate for someone you've kept at a comfortable distance.

Which means the first step isn't speaking at all.

It's seeing.

This week ask God to show you someone you've been walking past. Not to fix them. Not to have the right words. Just to see them the way He does — as someone whose voice matters and whose story isn't finished.

💬 Who in your life has been a voice for you when you couldn't find your own? Tell us about them. Sometimes the best way to understand this verse is to remember when someone lived it for you.

"Carry each other's burdens." — Galatians 6:2We asked our ministry leaders one question: what is a need you want people ...
05/08/2026

"Carry each other's burdens." — Galatians 6:2

We asked our ministry leaders one question: what is a need you want people to know about? These are their answers. Real needs. Right now. From people inside this ministry who show up every single day.
If you love to feed people — Every Wednesday evening, men at our Men's Discipleship Training Center share a meal together before Bible study. Sometimes one person cooks. Sometimes a small group each brings a dish. Sometimes it's catered. Come in as an individual, as a pair, in a small group, or as a church. However it comes together — it feels like home. And it needs someone to make it happen.

If you love to teach the Word — Women at our Women's Discipleship Training Center are on fire for Christ. Their love for Jesus surpasses anything in their past. They need a consistent Bible study teacher — someone who can commit to every or every other Wednesday and simply show up for them.

If you love to write — Through our Barnabas Program, we're looking for men and women who want to write email letters to people who are incarcerated. You don't have to go inside prison. You can do this from your phone or computer. There's a brief training involved, and then you get to be the person who reminds someone that they are seen and they are not forgotten.

If you have something to give — Men and women live at our Discipleship Training Centers. Right now, across both centers, we have real and immediate needs for bike locks, plastic plates and utensils, comforters, sheets, twin mattresses, dressers, and professional-grade tools and appliances. Whether you're an individual or a small group looking for a tangible way to serve — these items make a sacred difference in the daily lives of the people we walk alongside.

If your group wants to serve together — When someone is accepted into our Phase II program and released from prison, they may arrive with very little — sometimes nothing at all. A Grace Bag meets them right there. Filled with essentials, toiletries, and personal care items, it's often the first signal that someone knew they were coming and cared enough to prepare. This is a beautiful project for small groups, Sunday school classes, and women's ministries. Reach out to learn how to build one.

If you know how to pray — Pray for the men and women living at our Discipleship Training Centers. Pray for those still inside, waiting for what comes next. Pray for our staff walking alongside them every single day. Anyone can carry this one.

None of these requires you to be extraordinary. Just willing.
👉 Start here: www.alongside-ministries.com/volunteer

💬 Which of these feels like your lane? Drop a comment or share this post — you might know someone who's been looking for exactly this.

05/06/2026

Your generosity helps Arizona men and women discover a new life in Christ. They are learning they are deeply loved – and that truth is changing everything, even in the hardest places. Hope is rising – joy is taking root – old patterns are falling away – purpose is rebuilt.

What if you've been overcomplicating it?Somewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up the idea that following God requi...
05/04/2026

What if you've been overcomplicating it?

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us picked up the idea that following God requires more sophistication than it actually does. More programs. More performance. More having it figured out before we show up.
Then Micah 6:8 cuts through all of it.

Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God.

Three things. Not a whole list.

We get to watch this verse walk around in real life every single week — in men and women stepping out of prison with no resources, no clean record, nothing the world calls impressive. And what we keep finding is that God was never waiting for impressive. He was waiting for willing.

That's what Along Side exists to do — walk alongside people in that moment. When willing is all they have.

And remind them that willing has always been enough.

That same invitation is yours this Monday.

Not to have it all together. Not to have the past cleaned up. Just to show up.

Which of the three feels most out of reach for you right now — acting justly, loving mercy, or walking humbly? Be honest. This is a safe place to say it.

Address

2830 W Northern Avenue
Phoenix, AZ
85051

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4pm
Tuesday 9am - 4pm
Wednesday 9am - 4pm
Thursday 9am - 4pm

Telephone

+16029959484

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Along Side Ministries posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category