Each week, City Hope makes its way down to 850 Bryant Street where San Francisco’s County Jail is located. Despite the great reviews on Yelp, a stint in County Jail is not exactly a vacation. Life is highly regulated and one is daily reminded of the mistakes one has made and the addictions that are so hard to shake.

City Hope leads a worship service in the men’s pod and the women’s pod. It’s not simply a time of confession (though we do spend time confessing) and it’s not simply a time of renewal (though there is certainly renewal in meeting with God). Rather, it’s a time of worshiping together as a community that transcends the literal concrete barriers that keep inmates separated from society.

County Jail is one of my favorite ministries because worship there is unlike worship I’ve experienced anywhere else. It seems to me that the inmates can’t escape what is true for us all: we are utterly dependent on the boundless mercy and love of our Creator. It’s easy for us civilians to forget this. Generally, we have lots of opportunities to make decisions; there is a sense that we are in control of how our day will go. Not so for the inmates. Daily, they are thrown into circumstances they cannot control and daily they must grapple with the things that control them.

All this to say, my heart is revealed when I worship with inmates. I see starkly the things that bind me. They are not illegal; they will not get me thrown in jail. But they nonetheless stand between me and true enjoyment of God. And worshiping together with inmates helps me be honest about these things and come before God in a new and refreshing way.