Evangelical Missiological Society, "EMS Southwest Regional Meeting", April 4th 2024

Linda Barkman, Testimony Ministries

“Gallons of Love” Christmas for Prisoners Project: Impact of Expanded Ecclesiology in Missional Outreach to California Prisoners

This paper will explore how Gallons of Love – Christmas Gifts for Prisoners, has become a unifying mission project, bringing together incarceration-impacted persons from both sides of the walls, prison staff, volunteers, and the greater church by practicing an ecclesiology that is christocentric by definition.

Gallons of Love (GOL) is an outreach ministry that provides a one-gallon zip lock plastic bag of small gift items to persons incarcerated in several California prisons. GOL has recently shown exponential growth, tripling the number of prisoners reached over each of the last three years. The interplay between ecclesiology and mission is a core component in the success of GOL. Prisoners are suspect about all gifts, wanting to know “what are the strings attached?” since in the prison environment almost everything does, in fact, come with strings attached. However, when the strings are that “those do-gooder Christians are giving me a Christmas gift because they want me to feel loved,” those are strings acceptable to almost all, including those of other faiths or of no faith at all.

This study looks at: 1) how a christocentric ecclesiology extends the boundaries of what comprises the church, 2) the theological implications of how Christmas becomes a touchstone concept that enables ecumenical participation in both giving and receiving of gifts and, 3) hidden factors that result in the synergistic outcome of GOL.