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b'From a numbers perspective, for every American church, there are about two people returning home from incarceration annually. Yet, just 1 in 5 churches (22%) that average 250 or more attendees have formal ministries for people leaving correctional facilities according to a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 evangelical and mainline pastors conducted earlier this year. Many pastors just aren\\u2019t aware of how dramatically incarceration affects their congregation, says Dominique Gilliard, a pastor at Convergence Covenant Church in Oakland, California. \\u201cChurches have created a cone of silence around this issue. It becomes so stigmatized. I can\\u2019t tell you all the times I go and preach or teach at a church and the pastor is completely unaware that people are dealing with this,\\u201d said Gilliard, who is writing a book about restorative justice. \\u201cPeople are lined up after service to come to talk to me because this is the first time that they heard their church talk about this.\\u201d Once church leadership and attendees decide they do want to address the issue, they should start by educating themselves. \\u201cI always tell people that they have to examine their internal biases because we all have them,\\u201d said Miea Walker, the Second Chance Alliance outreach coordinator for the North Carolina Justice Center. \\u201cIt starts with understanding the landscape of mass incarceration. Often times people will want to just come in and help, Oh those poor souls, they need us. We really miss the big picture. We are not reading and learning how we got here.\\u201d Gilliard and Walker join Morgan and Katelyn to discuss the nitty gritty of supporting families of those incarcerated, why the church must work with criminal justice reform beyond prisons, and why not all Christians\\u2019 work on this issue will or should look the same. Further Reading for Subscribers http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/life-after-prison.html http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/does-your-church-talk-about-prison.html http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/criminal-justice-reform-prison-ministry.html http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/our-back-from-prison-family.html\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'