Called to serve – in the correctional system

by MELODIE DAVIS

Karen and Robby Burke share "sermon and mini-sermon" duties in worship services at Coffeewood Correctional Center. © MEDIA FOR LIVING

Robby Burke of Harrisonburg, by training a pastor, always recoiled whenever he was approached about doing prison chaplaincy work. Why?

When he was 34 he had gone to his hometown of Savannah, Ga., to officiate at the wedding of his sister, along with his brother. At night he and his brother surprised two youth in the process of a hold up. The kids mugged and shot them, and then escaped. Robby still has two bullets in his body. The trauma of being a survivor of such a violent assault went deep.

But two years ago while serving a church in Barboursville, Va., he felt called to look at where else God might be leading him next. Robby had the opportunity to travel with a group of clergy on an all-expense paid trip to Israel. While calling home to his wife, Karen, he learned he had received a call asking if he would be interested in taking a position as chaplain at Coffeewood Correctional Center near Culpepper.

Robby says, “I wanted to tell the Lord, ‘No.’”

Then one site his tour group visited was the home of the High Priest where Jesus was held in custody and questioned the night he was crucified. Prisoners such as Jesus would have been tossed into a hole in the basement while awaiting questioning—and Jesus likely was too. Standing in that hole, his invitation to serve as a prison chaplain was in the back of Robby’s mind. He was struck with a powerful thought, “This was Jesus’ prison.” Robby felt moved that God was indeed leading him in the direction of prison ministry. Pausing to regain composure, it is obvious that the thought still moves him.

Robby graduated from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington and got his ministry degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ken. He worked as an Army chaplain for three years and since then served numerous pastorates as a Baptist, Church of the Brethren, and United Church of Christ minister while raising their two daughters. His wife currently works three days a week as a nurse at Bridgewater Home, but together they travel to speak at Coffeewood Community Church worship services at least once a month, while he also serves four days a week as a staff chaplain there through Virginia’s Chaplain Service Prison Ministry.

Robby Burke addresses inmates in the gymnsium at Coffeewood, which serves as the worship center. © MEDIA FOR LIVING

Coffeewood is a medium security prison in the state correctional system surrounded by typical high fencing with razor wire, and four guardhouses posted on the corners of the compound housing 1200 men. The inmates live in six long buildings, each with two pods housing 98 men. Men walk outside to a mess hall and also to the gymnasium—a genuine multipurpose room serving multi-faiths.

Robby serves as coordinator of all religious services whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon, or Jehovah’s Witness. But as a Christian chaplain, he helps the Christians plan four interdenominational worship services a week on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and Catholic Mass.

Robby preaches once a month and the inmates asked Karen, whom they’ve come to call Mrs. Chaplain, Sister Burke or Momma Chaplain—to bring an exhortation (a briefer, 10 minute-ish sermon) once a month. A group of about 13 “servant leaders” take turns planning the services. There is a choir, the “Anointed Levite Singers” with lively energetic singing; prayers and scripture readings with all standing (except for some elderly in wheelchairs); guitars, keyboards and drums; and various “brothers” leading the invocation, scripture readings, greeting of guests or first-time attendees, and exhortation.

One inmate in particular kept urging Karen to bring the exhortation, but generally she doesn’t enjoy speaking in public. Finally she consented and she has been doing so ever since. “I never feel afraid; the men are so welcoming and appreciative, I have to remind myself I’m in a prison. I’ve been in a lot of churches over the last 30 years and I can honestly say I can feel the Holy Spirit there more than in any other church.”

Karen says she gets more than she gives. “They’re so encouraging, they keep telling me how wonderfully I am doing.”

A variety of area churches also supply speakers or preachers on a rotating basis. At the end of the service, there is an invitation to pray—usually with the servant leaders or chaplain. There are also various Bible studies led through the week by inmates.

Leaders of the other specific faith groups at Coffeewood also lead those services, with help from area clergy as available. There are three different types of Muslim services: Suni, Nation of Islam, and Moorish Science Temple Muslim; traditional Jewish and Messianic Jewish; Seventh Day Adventist; Mormon; and Jehovah’s Witness.

Out of 1200 inmates, approximately 10-20 percent are active in religious programs. They must be on a “pass list” to go to services in the gymnasium. Chairs and worship materials must be put away and set up for each service. Only 2-3 state institutions have their own chapel.

Donations and commissary profits from sales of things like toothpaste, shaving cream, candy and soda to inmates helps fund Chaplain Services; in Virginia, no state tax money is used to fund religion. There is also no budget for materials: literature and Bibles, Korans, or other scriptures must be donated. Two inmate aides help Robby in his office, “Without whom I would be lost,” adds Robby.

So is the faith of inmates for real—will it “hold” when outside the institution?

MELODIE DAVIS lives near Harrisonburg, Virginia.