The church has a door. But does it know how to open it?
For decades the conversation around prison ministry has focused on what happens inside the walls. This book is about what happens when the walls come down - when a man walks out of a cell and into a congregation that does not know what to do with him.
The Legacy Book is a pastoral training manual for churches, ministry leaders, and Kairos volunteers who are serious about becoming the bridge that carries broken people from a cell to a calling. Built from forty-five years of lived ministry and the Bridging the Chasm vision, it is not a theoretical framework. It is a field guide - written by a man who has stood on both sides of the door.
Inside these pages you will find the Shepherd's Formula - a practical pathway for pastors ready to lead their congregation into reentry ministry. The Congregation's Formula - equipping the church body to receive, walk alongside, and release returning citizens into their God-given purpose. And the Soldier's Formula - for the Kairos volunteer and frontline minister who carries the gospel into the darkest places and brings people home.
This book was written for the pastor who senses the call but doesn't know where to start. For the church that wants to do more than talk about justice. For the volunteer who has been going into prisons for years and is ready to see the work continue on the outside.
The empty cell is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the assignment.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you." - Ezekiel 36:26
The Angel Trilogy · Book 3 The Empty Cell Project · Crawfordsville, Indiana
A man walks out of prison. The cell is empty. The question is - will the church be ready when he knocks on the door?
The Legacy Book. The bridge between a cell and a calling.
Autorentext
Benjamin Spencer is the founder and director of The Empty Cell Project, a prison reentry ministry based in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He has been walking in freedom for 45 years since his release in 1981, and has spent those decades building bridges between prison walls and church doors.
He is a Kairos Prison Ministry volunteer, a husband to Tracey, and the author of four books ? the Angel Trilogy: Angel in Cell Block C, Walking Among the Thorns, and The Invisible Train: The Chain Breaker ? along with The Legacy Book, a training manual for churches and ministries engaging in prison reentry work.
Benjamin does not write from theory. He writes from scars. His life's mission, captured in his Bridging the Chasm vision, is to see the church become the bridge that carries broken people from a cell to a calling.
He can be reached at