A silver chain holding a large cross reflected off the chest of the pastor as he moved about the gymnasium. The rows of chairs swelled with men and women, each wearing the same orange uniform.
“Lift up holy hands with me,” a singer belted from the front of the gym. The drummer struck his cymbals alongside in worship. Hands flew up above the congregants’ heads as they let out a shout: “Hallelujah!”
Inside the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on Thursday mornings, Chaplain Keith Lynch takes them to church.
For one woman, the services take her back to the pews she used to sit in beside her mother as a child. Another man said the praise and worship brings “sunshine” to an otherwise dark space. And yet another gets to play the drums during service, just as he had done as a little boy growing up in Landover.
“Everything that a church has, we have it,” said Lynch, the lead pastor. Including forgiveness for those who need it.
The church, named Moving Forward Ministries, hits its two-year anniversary in December under the leadership of Prince George’s County Department of Corrections Director Terence Clark. The ministry classifies itself as nondenominational Christian.
More than a typical jail service with a reading of scripture from the Bible and prayer, Moving Forward features deacons, worship leaders and visiting preachers. The drummer and choir are people incarcerated at the jail. Lynch got the drum set and keyboard donated from local churches.
“I’m grateful that this agency can provide a positive outlet like Moving Forward Ministries in a correctional facility, even though these environments are widely known for negativity,” Clark, the corrections director, said in a statement. “I am also thankful to have such a strong relationship with the religious community. This church would not be possible without their support or the assistance of staff.”
Before Lynch arrived at the Prince George’s correctional center, he was more than familiar with preaching the gospel to those incarcerated. He had done prison and jail ministry in the D.C. region for 31 years.
Lynch was hesitant to apply for the chaplain job in the county, he said, unsure whether that was the direction God was leading him. God spoke to him in a dream, he said, before he had even stepped foot in the building. God told him he’d do more than preaching to those in jail, he would be a pastor to a church, Lynch said.
Lynch landed the job and served as a chaplain on contract, before becoming the first full-time chaplain hired by the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections in late 2024.
Housed inside the gym weekly, Moving Forward has grown from about 13 people to averaging nearly 120 every service, said Theresa Dozier, the section chief for educational, vocational and religious services division at the corrections department. There are usually about 1,000 people incarcerated at the jail daily.
Acting Division Chief for Human Resources, Kevin Easton, serves as the assistant pastor to the church. In his more than three decades at the corrections department, Easton said he’s never seen anything like Moving Forward.
“That is no longer a gym, it’s a sanctuary,” Easton said.
Lynch worked out the security measures so that each person enters the gym by their unit and the women are seated toward the back, away from the men. The jail also hosts other religious services on various days of the week. Lynch serves as the chaplain to all faiths.
As pastor of Moving Forward, he hosts choir rehearsals after Thursday service, builds partnerships with community churches and pores over the prayer requests dropped into the box placed outside the gym.
Those who are interested in attending Moving Forward on Thursdays must sign up and some of them opt to eat a later lunch just to attend, Dozier said. Correctional officers and other corrections department personnel attend, too. A translator speaks in Spanish as the announcements are given out.
Dozier said the service has become “like a foundation” for those who participate. Attending helps reduce stress and has led some to go on to participate in programming, such as barber styling or GED, or have work detail positions, she said.
Those who are incarcerated at the county jail are either awaiting trial or sentencing, or are serving a sentence of 18 months or less. Lynch said he knows the stigmas attached to preaching to incarcerated individuals. He’d been called an “inmate lover,” he said, showing up for those who have allegedly committed some of the worst offenses.
But the Word of God kept him steady.
“Jesus went to jail … so you wouldn’t have to go to hell,” Lynch said. “Jesus said, ‘When I was in jail, you visited me.”
His efforts have made a lasting impact.
Marcell Billups, 42, has been at the correctional facility for 2½ years, now awaiting a decision, he said, on an appeal in a first-degree murder case after it was declared a mistrial. He’s been with Moving Forward as its drummer from the very beginning.
“God’s grace and mercy is definitely over this ministry,” Billups said. “And he’s changing lives.”
Billups said going to church every week feels like “a fresh breath of air” and has given him hope. He especially loves the praise and worship.
“It sets the atmosphere for the pastor to put the icing on the cake,” Billups said. “We baking the cake and he’s gon’ ice it.”
On a recent Thursday morning, a choir made up of women dressed in black robes, their orange uniforms visible underneath, took to the front to sing alongside one of the men.
“I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered,” they harmonized. “That’s why I trust him!”
Guest preacher, pastor Darryl Godlock, drove two hours from Pennsylvania to deliver a message out of John 5:1-9, titled “I’m in a rut and I need to get up.”
Lynch took the microphone at one point.
“How many of you are interested in being baptized?,” he asked.
More than a dozen raised their hands.
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