Former professional football player Bill Glass, speaking at the State Evangelism Conference in Columbia Feb. 23-24, encouraged listeners to take part in a large-scale prison visitation event in March.
Bill GlassGlass, who played with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns until 1969, will lead the “Weekend of Champions” prison ministry mobilization March 26-28. He hopes up to 500 volunteers from across the state will visit inmates at 11 prisons in the Columbia area.
Weekend of Champions visits inmates at prisons around the country with teams of Christian professional athletes and volunteers.
The American prison system is the “greatest mission field in the world,” said Glass. “Most adults make a commitment to Christ in crisis, and everyone in prison is in crisis.”
He cited a direct link between men and women in prison and the lack of a father figure in their lives. “The love and blessing of a mother doesn’t affect criminality and insecurity like the love of a father does,” he said.
He encouraged fathers and mothers to explicitly express their love to their children. “A bell isn’t a bell until you ring it, and love isn’t love until you show it.”
He told conference attendees that if they don’t have a father, they should find a “substitute” father to be encouraged and mentored by.
“Everyone needs the love and approval from their father, no matter how old you are.”