Fulfillment Through Prison Ministry

Two times every week, Aubrey Lewis, a Princeton Theological Seminary senior, leaves campus and heads north to New Jersey’s only state prison for women. Before leaving her car, she prays that God will use her for the greater good, then she walks through security and into minimum- and maximum-security units.

Lewis is fulfilling a longtime, deeply held goal to work in prison ministry. She’s performing her fieldwork this year as a chaplain at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women. “I feel called to be there, and I don’t take it lightly,” she says.

Indeed, this 26-year-old master’s in divinity student is constantly working on ways to build connection and trust with the women residents, some of whom are more than twice her age and have lived behind bars for decades.

Lewis recently began doing bible studies that shine a light on women in scripture. The passages she selects spark reflective conversations that give the women a chance to open up about their lives.

“We were just studying Mary, and how the bible says that Nazareth is a place from where nothing good comes,” Lewis said. “And then I asked the women how many times they have heard that about the place they are in right now."

"And they are like: ‘exactly!’

Lewis, who grew up in Memphis, carries her own searing memories of encounters with the criminal justice system. She had friends and family members who were incarcerated, and she witnessed firsthand all the indignities, embarrassments, and cruelty they endured, from simply trying to make a phone call to reentering society after release.

“The system for me was normalized by visiting and trying to help people who have been incarcerated,” she said. “Watching that happen over and over again to people in my life, I just wanted to be able to do something.”

She wasn’t certain exactly what that something would be as she headed off to Austin Peay State University, where she became a first-generation college student, earning her bachelor’s degree in social work.

It was during those years that, to her surprise, she connected with a church for the first time in her life. Some fellow students told her about a Nashville congregation that provides bus transportation to and from the university and serves meals to the visiting college students.

“I was like, ‘they feed us?’ Lewis quipped.

So off she went to check out the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, led by Bishop Joseph Warren Walker III, who earned his doctorate in ministry at Princeton Seminary. Lewis walked through the doors and felt welcomed and accepted.

“They had bussed in students from probably 11 different universities,” she said. “I saw all these college students, all of us struggling, and I was like, ‘Wow, this might be a good place for me.”

Equally important, she became a Mt. Zion College Ministry Leader throughout her four years in college.

"I started coming and never stopped,” she says of the church, “and it was my college ministry that kept me there.”

“I feel called to be there, and I don’t take it lightly”

A few years later she was doing graduate studies at the University of Tennessee when a colleague suggested Lewis consider seminary. When she spoke with a representative of Princeton Seminary, Lewis shared her story and noted she was interested in working with incarcerated populations.

“They said, ‘you know that people can do prison ministry?’” Lewis recalled. “And I had no idea.”

As a chaplain intern, Lewis works under the New Jersey Department of Corrections. In addition to holding her own bible studies, she meets one-on-one with women who request it, makes rounds, and attends interfaith events with other chaplains.

She was nervous at first about what she would say to the women. But she soon found her voice, always emphasizing her support and providing plenty of space for the women to share their experiences.

“I tell them right from the jump that I am not up here as a teacher,” she said. “I keep it open and have more of a roundtable approach where they can discuss what comes up for them.”

Lewis, who graduates in May, is considering her options, but would like to continue doing prison ministry, or work in social justice agencies seeking to reform the system.

Meanwhile, through her Seminary classes and her prison work, she is becoming an eloquent and empathic minister.

Last November, Lewis preached a sermon to a big gathering at the Shiloh Baptist Church, a Plainfield, N.J. congregation where she served as an intern under the Rev. Dr. Danielle L. Brown, who has become a mentor to Lewis. During the special service, Lewis and others received their minister’s license and were given an opportunity to show off their preaching chops.

Lewis focused her sermon on an Old Testament character, Gomer, who is portrayed as a promiscuous woman, or “harlot,” in the book of Hosea.

Lewis began by noting the scholarly consensus: Gomer’s infidelity is a metaphor for ancient Israel’s disobedience to God.

But, she added, there are some enduring human truths to consider beyond that metaphor. She urged the audience to summon compassion and empathy for Gomer, who has no voice in the text—an omission Lewis said smacks of patriarchy.

Lewis could have been speaking about any woman struggling against injustice or difficult life experiences, including those at Edna Mahan.

“I hate to break it you, but you and I are just like Gomer,” Lewis told the audience. “You might not be as promiscuous as she was . . . but I am sure you too have gone through a wilderness season and have allowed fear, regret, shame, and unhealed trauma to prevent you from chasing after your God-given destiny.”

With her mother, aunt, and grandmother in the audience, Lewis concluded with a reminder of God’s grace.

“Gomer shows that regardless of whether you are a prophet or promiscuous. . . or how far you may have gotten off track, God is always willing to come and redeem you and give you another chance.”